Black Panther: The Man Without Fear - The Complete Collection

Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #1-3

by David Liss (Writer), Simone Bianchi, Francesco Francavilla (Illustrator)

In the wake of Shadowland, Hell's Kitchen has a new protector - the Black Panther! He has no kingdom, no Vibranium and no high-tech safety net - just bloody knuckles and the will to prove himself in a foreign land. T'Challa will create a new life, a new identity, and become a new kind of hero. But with Daredevil gone, the bad guys are coming out to play, and a deadly nemesis - Vlad the Impaler - plots his bloody rise to power. Soon, the new Man Without Fear will face Fear Itself! And when a killer starts targeting people that T'Challa had previously saved, the Panther must go on the prowl to show exactly why he is the most dangerous man alive! COLLECTING: BLACK PANTHER: THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR 513-523; BLACK PANTHER: THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN ALIVE 523.1, 524-529

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Crime

416 pages, Paperback

Published December 26, 2017

About the author

I am the author of thirteen novels, most recently The Peculiarities, a historical fantasy out in September 2021. I've also written numerous novellas and short stories. My previous books include A Conspiracy of Paper which was named a New York Times Notable Book and won the 2001 Barry, MacAvity and Edgar awards for Best First novel. The Coffee Trader was also named a New York Times Notable Book and was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the year’s 25 Books to Remember. Several of these books are currently being developed for television or film. I have also worked on numerous comics projects, including Black Panther and Mystery Men for Marvel, The Spider and Green Hornet for Dynamite, and Angelica Tomorrow.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

So how the heck did we get to this title?

Math, England Dan and John Ford Coley, not love, is the answer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbfPJ...

Daredevil/Shadowland + The Hand + Demonic Possession = Black Panther/Dr. Doom – Panther powers – kingdom of Wakanda – Vibranium + Shuri

There you have it. Math is mathtastic.

Daredevil wants to skip out of town and see the sights and asks Black Panther, who’s down and out and in Hell’s Kitchen to watch over things for a bit. T’Challa, who has things to prove to himself, agrees.



*sigh* We get it, Mr. Talky Van Talkerson. Just leave town already. Go!!

Black Panther is a smarty pants kind of guy (#8 with a bullet)…



…so he brings super science gadget-y stuff to this super hero table.



First up for the Panther, is Romania’s answer to Captain America, Vlad the Impaler.



He has an electrifying personality and some Commie Cap rip off moves in this “welcome to Hell’s Kitchen, pal” warm-up tale.



Sure, buddy, sure it did.

Black Panther also mixes it up with a broody-because-he-was-dead Kraven and does the obligatory eight limbs thing in the Spider-Island crossover.



Ick.

And speaking of crossovers, let’s give a warm-hearted welcome to the Hate Monger from the Fear Itself crossover.



Maple-syrup-swiggin-Gordon-Lightfoot lovin’, beaver-pelt pushing Canadians…

“Hey Jeff, wasn’t the original Hate Monger in the old Fantastic Four book really Hitler?”

Yes, but now it's some alien spirit of hate or something that takes over the Canadian hatin' dude, so please go away random Goodreader, I’m getting a headache.



So, Mr. Hate Monger’s hateful plans at spreading the hatorade are foiled, which brings us to what every Hell’s Kitchen power struggle boils down to: going up against The Kingpin. The Kingpin has The Hand, a bunch of ninjas…



…and Typhoid Mary and Lady Bullseye.



Kingpin wants to take over the Bank of Wakanda.



Black Panther takes this personally and it’s on.



And…



Bottom Line: This was a fairly lengthy run, I strained myself carrying this book home from the library, it straddles two crossover events (again Spider Island, Fear Itself) and aside from some issues with the art, delivers fairly well on the premise.

[Blindzider · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read these through the Marvel app, having obtained all of the individual issues during a "free" sale on BP books.

I wasn't reading DD or BP during this time period. I knew DD was in the midst of Shadowland, but didn't know about the events that drove BP to this point. The concept is refreshing though: a depowered black panther, without his technology or a county with vibranium to back him up. I don't mind him being powered but I just don't care for all the technology he currently has, so seeing him get back to his roots was fun.

Anyway, DD asks BP to watch over Hell's Kitchen. His first task is to tackle a crime boss. Eventually he goes up against Kingpin to deal with the whole Shadowland situation.

It's not terrible by any means, but it's a jarring change from what people are probably used to when reading BP. I liked seeing T'Challa struggle a little bit, trying to gain his footing until he naturally figures it all out and applies the full capabilities of his strategic mind. Francavilla's art is pretty good and sets the tone. There are a couple fill-in artists later who are average. Even Oeming's art at the end isn't his best.

It's a nice change of pace.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have to say this run wasn’t as bad as some of the reviews on here made it out to be. It’s an interesting different take on T’Challa and the Black Panther. And the Francesco Francavilla art for the majority of the run really helped with the pulpy, street level take this book is going. It runs its course for the right amount of time though. Street level, NYC depowered T’Challa is not something that had longevity to last longer than this volume.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the wake of Shadowland, Matt Murdock is dead*, and Hell's Kitchen needs a new protector. Enter the newly country-less Black Panther, trying to escape his own problems after destroying most of Wakanda's vibranium during Doomwar. Without most of his powers or his vibranium tech, does T'Challa have what it takes to become the Man Without Fear?

We open with Urban Jungle, a six issue arc that pits T'Challa against a Romanian crime lord who can temporarily turn matter into energy and throw it at people. Seems straight forward enough, but when you add in a serial killer and T'Challa's new civilian identity, things get messy quickly.

Storm Hunter is the follow-up two-parter which wraps up the first main story as well as bringing in Storm and Kraven (hence the title). The interactions between T'Challa and Ororo work perfectly, and writer David Liss never loses either of their voices.

Next up is a Fear Itself tie-in which sees T'Challa face off against a new Hate Monger in amongst the hammer-wielding madness of that event. This was great, and never shied away from hammering home just how awful the villains were. The whole American Panther angle was neat, and I liked how T'Challa folded his new friend Sofija into the action quite neatly.

The Point One issue that follows is probably the weakest point of the trade, but it's fine for a one-and-done, bringing back the White Wolf character to get his butt kicked, before we get a Spider-Island tie-in which is the only issue of this series that I'd read in the past. It's mostly filler aside from the final page reveal, which leads direectly into the final arc of the series.

Kingpin Of Wakanda brings everything home, as T'Challa joins Luke Cage, Falcon, and Shuri in an assault on Shadowland itself. With Typhoid Mary and Lady Bullseye at his side you'd think that the Kingpin would have this in the bag, but T'Challa's masterful political moves and a double-cross at the last minute keeps this final arc engaging and fun right to the final page.

The art's more of a mix-up. Francesco Francavilla draws most of the book, and he's always superb, but the rest is all over the place. Jefte Palo is fairly reliable as a fill-in, though he lacks detail at times, and the final arc is a squash together of Shawn Martinborough who's...fine, and Michael Avon Oeming, whose weird cartoony style will never be one of my favourites. It's never bad enough to take you out too much, but there's definitely some highs and lows across the run.

I very much enjoyed this actually. I was worried that it'd feel truncated, but the run has a clear beginning, middle, and end, and it's effective throughout as T'Challa makes his way along his journey back to himself. He learns his limitations, he learns when to ask for help, and he learns that at the end of the day, no matter what else he loses, he'll always be the Black Panther.

*He's fine, don't worry, he appears in the first issue to pass the mantle and again at the end of the book.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 5 out of 5]

My rating of this is probably more a 4.5 rating, but this is largely because I have read so much Black Panther that I find parts of this storyline feeling somewhat inconsistent with the rest of the character's appearances in the most recent DoomWar story arc and the majority of the material that came before it. This stated, Liss has created a collection of Black Panther stories that places T'Challa in the diaspora as he lives as a diner owner in Hell's Kitchen while also filling in for Daredevil while Matt Murdock is out of the picture. The stories are compelling insomuch as they seem rooted around immigrant experiences- with T'Challa encountering such villains as the Romanian super-soldier Vlad the Impaler and Hate Monger serving as analogues for competing narratives surrounding immigrant life. (Without going into spoiler territory, although Vlad is a criminal, he is also a family man who has invested himself in a kind of American Dream- only for that dream to become threatened by T'Challa; Hate Monger, on the other hand, speaks more towards the xenophobia of culturally conservative America towards immigrants.) There is also a neat allusion to Chinua Achebé's Things Fall Apart in T'Challa's secret identity in this series, Mr. Okonkwo, that calls attention to the role culture plays in these narratives. Even if T'Challa as Mr. Okonkwo may seem radically different from the kind of T'Challa Doomwar seemed to build towards, the stories here have plenty to analyze and are generally entertaining as well.

[Frédéric Bonin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. First time I read a story about Black Panther. The basic premise of the story is cool and it ties-in smoothly with other stories without the reader needing to have read them. Francavilla is an amazing artist but this is not his best work in my opinion because 1) he draws black panther exactly like he does Batman (minus the cape) 2) the action scenes are weirdly staged and sometimes it’s difficult to work out what’s going as if the characters are fighting in the air. Overall a fun read but not one I would revisit.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty darn good. Black Panther takes over as the protector of Hell's Kitchen while Daredevil is... away... somewhere. He attempts to "find himself" through this change of pace, having lost his title and his superpowers. The majority of this book is basically a Daredevil or Batman "street vigilante" style title, and as such I connected with it pretty well. Most of the plot was nothing too special, but it kept me engaged and interested. The best storyline was definitely one where the "Hate-Monger" comes by and inspires a bunch of racism and immigrant-hate all across New York. They tread a fine line in showing that the Hate-Monger does have mind control powers that he uses to stoke the fear and hatred and start riots etc. but that all those feelings don't come from nowhere. It was a really powerful story that honestly is super-relevant right now in 2018 (this series was originally written in 2011ish).
By far the most compelling reason why this book was so good to me was the primary artist: Francisco Francavilla. I first saw his work in Batman: The Black Mirror, and he also did the Afterlife with Archie zombie series. His work is unmistakable, with his inky blacks washing over everything, with pops of color. Most of his pages are focused on one color, sometimes two for effect. Most often he works in an autumnal color scheme, with reds and oranges, and the occasional blue or purple to contrast. He's very unique and one of my favorite artists, and it was really nice to get such a large run of issues by him. Most of the other artists in the book were pretty good too, which was nice.

[Fez Vaccaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

This picks up after Black Panther: Doomwar, with Shuri in charge of Wakanda and the special properties of vibranium having been rendered inert. T'Challa replaces Matt Murdock as the guardian of Hell's Kitchen. It's a T'Challa more familiar from: the 60s/ 70s Avengers comics, where he had a secret identity in NY and also appeared in a few issues of DD, and; McGregor's run, where Panther took a pretty brutal beating, with less in common with the vibranium tech heavy version from Priest's Marvel Knights run.

The initial story is strong, the pairing of Liss and the moody art of Francavilla does a great job of establishing the status quo. It does get a bit side-tacked in the middle because of mandated crossovers, first with "Fear Itself", although Liss does a good job of integrating racial issues - before there is a 1 issue Spider-Island, which is essentially a throwaway issue, as a 6-armed T'Challa isn't properly explained but we just have to buy into that it's happening across the Spider-man line and all of NY. It ends with a Kingpin storyline, which is pretty decent. I normally like Oeming's art and he does a decent job but it's a bit jarring from the previous artists on the book. I would have just preferred consistency in this, whether having had Oeming done more throughout the run or to have one of the previous artists just close out the story.

[Adam Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story: T'Challa takes over for Matt Murdock while Daredevil is first in charge of The Hand/Shadowland, and then on a spiritual quest to find himself, isn't very good. Despite pulling in characters like Storm, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Sam Wilson, and Kraven The Hunter, this is kind of a lackluster filler-era. It's neither an acceptable substitute for Daredevil nor a great Black Panther story. it's just sort of...there.

However, Francesco Francavilla's art is The Star of this series. It's just so stark, and so perfect for a Hell's Kitchen story, that I'm a bit sad that it's not during regular Daredevil hours. But it earns two of the three stars in this collection. Even when the story was boring and predictable, I still wanted to see what it looked like on the next page.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The problem is that Luke Cage is right. T'challa is really just screwing around here and causing people to suffer.

It does not seem right. Even without his spiritual powers and the backing of the state, he's a Reed-Richards level supergenius. He would crush living in Hell's Kitchen and operating as Daredevil. This book would have made more sense as an alternate take on the Luke Charles years.

Once you get past that, it's pretty good.

[Matt Shaqfan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snagged a few of these issues when they came out, but it was fun to revisit this series as a complete run. Street-level superhero crime fighting action. It's basically Batman (or DD, who he's filling in for) only with T'Challa peeking over the rooftops. There's even a cop buddy who looks exactly like Commissioner Gordon, which seems a little too on the nose, but whatever. Pretty decent, overall.

[Nicholas Ahlhelm · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Liss is an under-rated comic writer that needs much more work in his field. Francesco Francavilla is one of the best artists on the planet today. Together they created the tale of a powerless Black Panther defending Hell's Kitchen and it works amazingly well. This collection is well worth checking out.

[Lonnie Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Liss found a way to take Black Panther out of his element and recreate him as an urban hero. No vibranium! That's ok. T'challa is more like Huey P. Newton and Malcolm X (filled with references) than the king of Wakanda. The only negative thing about this graphic novel is how lame it makes the MCU film look!

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun collection about T'challa helping keep crime under control in Hell's Kitchen. The artwork and story were generally good, but T'challa did seem somewhat two-dimensional at times. Even though his mission was clear, he didn't always seem to have very much of a personality.

[Anser Abbas · Rating 2 out of 5]

If Liss really wanted to present a de-powered T’Challa, I think he could have gone further with that and the challenges he would face. I found he was still overpowered, the supporting cast could have been better sculpted. There’s better Black Panther stories out there.

[Andrew Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Black Panther comics in general. This one didn't let me down. I enjoyed the art most of all. It had a noir feel to it that I thought fit the storyline quite nicely.

I also enjoyed the bad guys, especially the mafia run. I thought it was done quite well.

The Hate Monger was both really good because it reminded me that even the superhero stuff can be progressive... it was also hilariously on the nose.

Only thing that irked me was the "I must go it alone" theme while people are literally dying. But the made enough fun of it in the comic itself that I thought it was ok.

The whole run was enjoyable though.

[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I would love this because of all the political tropes but I felt it was repetitive, simplistic, and rather quite boring.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wakanda forever!

[John Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great twist on Black Panther that provides a unique challenge and perspective on who he is.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Fadzlee Abdul Rahman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not loving the art. The Vlad the Impaler story really boring

[Patrick Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

Getting him to NYC was a bit of stretch but I love what they did once he was there.

[Gary Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great Marvel Readthrough, pt 136

[Daniel Stepke · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a very strange analogy, T'challa's experience here is my own now.

[Vail Chester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because of shenanigans with previous stories involving Daredevil and Black Panther, Matty must leave his home to find himself, and T'Challa must leave his home to find himself.
But instead of a true foreign exchange soul-searching program, we have DD bugger out completely and the Black Panther losing his adjective to simply be the Panther (of Hell's Kitchen).

Instead of a mighty & beloved king, his kingdom is now a diner & his two employees.
Instead of tech beyond our mortal comprehension, he is now essentially Batman on a budget.
Instead of being on a roster of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, he is essentially alone (with occasional help from Spidey, Luke Cage, and his beautiful & powerful wife).
Instead of the classic rogues of the Hornhead, he has to face a Romanian weirdo with Gambit powers, the Van Pelt of Marvel (but Russian!), and literal White People Pride (tm?) masquerading as patriotism. But don't worry, the final arc is him tackling variations of the classic DD rogue's gallery (never assume a fat man doesn't have ninjas at his disposal).

It really shines in the last arc since Kingpin has a cunning scheme to try and take Wakanda's resources that ISN'T their super special meteorite metal, and despite being powerless & techless, the king kitty still has his sharp mind! Thus, a battle of wits & "just as planned" scenarios take place.
Great time, but glad the status quo returned to what it was before since a person with nobility & power such as NOT!Chadwick Boseman has his place, and it ain't slumming it as the feline terror of criminals in back alleys.