I’m not really one of the fans of the more recent depictions of the Black Panther. He comes off as too arrogant in most situations and it makes him a rather grating character for me to read. I recognize that his recent stories have allowed him to have a much greater presence in the Marvel Universe, and I do appreciate that, but I’m just not a huge fan of this interpretation. I also was not one of the supporters of his marriage to Storm as it just felt purely like a publicity stunt to bring exposure to the character and not like two characters that actually loved each other. Unfortunately, this has also carried over to the Doomwar miniseries that concludes with this issue.
This series didn’t feel nearly as relevant to me as it wanted to seem. I never once felt the sense of urgency all the characters seemed to display. They were constantly talking about how unstoppable Dr. Doom’s forces were, only to turn and start destroying them with little difficulty. When they did have problems with Doom’s soldiers, so deus ex machina, like shadow alchemy, was introduced so that they could immediately start winning again. That trend continues here, right up until the finale. Comics frequently use the concept of the heroes being in dire straits and suddenly turning it around, but it needs to be done in interesting way, and it just wasn’t interesting for me here. It may have opened story possibilities for all of Wakanda from here on out, but it just didn’t work for me. It didn’t even make the Panther look particularly smart or badass, he just got knocked around, pulled out his machina, and actually made himself look kind of stupid. I can’t help but feel that there better resolutions that could have been used here. Speaking of which, it wasn’t until the very end of this issue that I even remembered the X-men were a part of this series, which should not have been the case. It was almost as if they were forgotten entirely.
One area where writer Jonathan Maberry did suceed, was with the voice of his characters. He wrote each of the many characters very well, including the Black Panther who, as much as I don’t like it, sounded exactly as her modern depiction should. There were two characters I felt he wrote particularly well: Dr. Doom and, surprisingly, Deadpool. Maberry has crafted a truly regal and powerful Doom, even if his ultimate achievement in this issue seemed a little silly to me. However, Doom did seem to be clearly in control for all six issues right up until the ending and, even then, he won, in a way. His Deadpool actually reminded be of Joe Kelly’s version from his 90’s series, which is very high praise indeed. He wasn’t written as too, overly insane as he often is these days and actually came off as competent while still being goofy. The characterization was the best part of this series for me.
The other definite high point for all six issue was the artwork by Scot Eaton, He makes all of his characters distinctive in appearance and really made them feel powerful when they should. I especially liked his interpretation of The Thing, though I didn’t much care for his redesign for Doom’s new armor. Probably his most impressive characters were the women though; they all looked powerful without looking too muscular and they didn’t have the ridiculous proportions most artists seem to give female heroes. All in all, I was very impressed with Eaton’s pencils on Doomwar, though he did have one strange panel where Deadpool looked almost Hulk-sized. The colors seemed kind of muddy, but that isn’t Eaton’s fault, nor was it a huge distraction.
In terms of his recent appearances, I would say that Doomwar has been some of the Black Panther’s best. The story was a little disjointed and the ending was lackluster, but overall it was a very solid miniseries. There are certainly possibilities for future stories created here so long as it isn’t ignored by succeeding writers. It didn’t quite end on a bang, but it was a fun story with a decent conclusion.
Overall: 6.5/10
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