Reggie Hudlin’s run on Black Panther is certainly not without controversy. I enjoyed the early issues. Then it got a little tiresome. It was still cool to see T’Challa and Storm get hitched.
For these last few issues of the series, though, Hudlin is gone and instead we have Jason Aron (then a young upstart) with a Secret Invasion tie-in. And it’s one of the best of the (very numerous) lot of tie-ins.
The skrulls invade Wakanda in a story titled, “See Wakanda and Die.” Which they do. Black Panther leads his country to war.
The art is fantastic, and the plot has enough twists to make it more than simply a “big fight” story.
I mean, I admit–having the heroes neutralized and captured is a predictable middle-act twist, but throughout it’s so well written and so much fun that I just don’t care that the main story points are pretty predictable.
Jason Aaron gets what makes these characters interesting and also understands how their marriage is so great. In fact, he understands it better than Reggie Ludlin did. What’s great about Storm and Black Panther as a couple is that she is so much more powerful than he is, and yet she never tries to usurp his role as the leader.
And, of course, he wins in the end.
A fantastic end to this series, and the best of all the Secret Invasion tie-ins.