Black Panther, Vol. 3: All This and The World, Too

Black Panther (2021)

by John Ridley, German Peralta (Illustrations)

John Ridley's incredible Black Panther continues!

Political strife in Wakanda has left T'Challa banished from his homeland. Searching for purpose, the Black Panther returns to the Avengers -- just in time for a mysterious group of terrorists to seize control of global communications! And, when that organization proves to be eerily connected to Wakanda and T'Challa himself, his standing even among Earth's Mightiest Heroes comes into question...as does everything he has come to know and trust over the course of recent events. Writer John Ridley brings the Black Panther's story to a boiling point!

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

112 pages, Paperback

First published June 13, 2023

About the author

John Ridley IV (born October 1965)[2] is an American screenwriter, television director, novelist, and showrunner, known for 12 Years a Slave, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunner of the critically acclaimed anthology series American Crime. His most recent work is the documentary film Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.


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Reviews

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can’t say I liked this one. T’Challa is in my top ten favorite characters and I didn’t like seeing him get embarrassed, shamed, dethroned, exiled, beat up by almost everyone in the book and disrespected. Plus I didn’t like the Captain America was portrayed here. Book left me with a very bad taste.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Black Panther and the Avengers tackle a mysterious organization that's captured several internet hubs and demanded only peace in response. The plot is fairly engaging (Why is this organization so good at repulsing the Avengers? And who could their leader be?) and requires Black Panther to build a team of no-names, which is always fun. Unfortunately, this team includes Buffalo Soldier, who I really hoped would be left in the last volume.

Wakandan politics rears its head again as well. Folasade is working to build a democracy in Wakanda (good!), but she turns to Namor for military help (possibly bad!). Black Panther butting heads with Namor is fun - that'll hopefully play out more in future volumes, though he's still super exiled, even as he saved the world from a Wakandan threat. Alas!

[Megan Todd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

Both T’Challa and Steve are insufferable. This series started off okay-ish with the first volume (3.75) but then it’s just gone down from there. The only character that was portrayed well (in the whole series) was Shuri.

[James DeSantis · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was pretty rough.

Basically makes the first volume pointless as a return character ruins a death. That put a sour taste in my mouth, then it only gets more boring as it goes on. Another fight back my own country men storyline that ultimately leads up to, you guessed it, Black Panther leaving. It's boring, the fights with the avengers didn't do much for me at all, and it all felt kind of pointless.

This one failed to live up to the first volume or the series in general. A 1.5 out of 5.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had hoped that this run might pick up in the final arc, but it unfortunately doesn't. The Rag On T'Challa train continues running over him at full speed, with even more people jumping on it, while T'Challa's voice remains weird and oddly out of character, and the art's fairly bland overall.

I think I get what Ridley was trying to do, showing T'Challa's flaws and how thinking like a king got him into the wrong kind of trouble, but it just reads really depressingly. It's meant to be a character study, but T'Challa doesn't even seem to learn his lesson, still mistrusting people right up to the last minute and beyond.

Disappointing overall.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

[Alex Sarll]

Weird how a 12-issue run is the default for a chunky statement, but 15 can end up feeling truncated, interstitial. There's little here that's bad - maybe a slight tendency for an initially principled antagonist to devolve into flat villainy, but that one's endemic to the form. More often, though, it's just that we've seen it before, usually from T'challa himself and fairly recently at that (assembling a new black superteam), occasionally from another paranoid character Ridley has written (the contingency plans to take down his fellow heroes which then run out of his control). By the end, this can no longer be ignored, characters obliged to acknowledge that yes, this isn't the first time they've seen T'challa exiled, but it feels much more final this time, honest. Still, it's hardly the first superhero run to feel like a greatest hits rerecording, and there's fun stuff along the way, not least the Emancipated. Plus, the line would definitely have worked better from America's last/next president than Biden, but I still cracked up at "This is the United States of America. Nobody tells us to live freely and in peace. I want these people taken out."

[Larry Feldman]

Read it through, from the beginning.

Great epic about being a king in an era that no longer considers one man rule a viable option. Ridley's Black Panther run takes on the issue of a kingdom becoming a democracy, in a way that works in the Marvel Universe. My advice is to read all three volumes, which includes fifteen issues, from beginning to end. A great run for Black Panther fans, including all the different sides of T'Challa's life, including the Avengers, Storm of the X-Men (his ex wife), and, of course, Wakanda, as it takes the leap towards democracy. A well paced nuanced story, with an incredible hero at the center of it, who is portrayed as flawed but willing to change and grow, which is a cut above most superhero faire. And for fans of the movies and the supporting character, plenty of the great Princess Shuri as well.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the end of the series and the conclusion of Ridley's run on Black Panther.

T'Challa is really at the end of his rope. He's been ousted as king. His country (and his Avengers teammates) no longer trust him. What do you do when it looks like the world has had enough of you? If you're the Black Panther, you find one more way to take the fight back
-----------
This has been a great run of issues. Lots of intrigue. Plenty of action. It even has some intergalactic strange (I see you, Buffalo Soldier). I definitely recommend giving this run a chance.


Bonus: The enemy of my enemy is my friend? That can't end well.
Bonus Bonus: How many times can T'Challa screw over his teammates?

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, I know I pretty much gushed over his run on Batman, but Ridley didn't quite stick the landing for me here. He does leave T'Challa with a new status quo, but its one I have my doubts about staying around for long.

As in how many writers will.........















Keep him in exile from Wakanda and leave Namor smiling at him as if Namor won (he arguably does for now). Yes, a good writer has something to work with as Wakanda transitions from a monarchy to a democracy. That would leave the former king on the outs with a lot of people in power.

But exile? That'll last until the next movie, or the television show which is in pre-production.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

John Ridley just doesn't tell a good story. His run (and the series) end here and what started with promise devolved into bad storytelling, cliches, leaps in logic, out of character performances, and terrible character selections. What could have been a slow burn political drama and fun espionage tale turned into the most generic superhero book I've read in awhile. The art is the only thing that saved it from a lower rating. Overall, a low point in T'Challa's career.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. I know this series has its detractors, but Ridley stayed true to his vision to the end, which sees T'Challa exiled from Wakanda, possibly for good (I guess we'll find out from whoever takes over the character next). The art is strong throughout.

[Vivek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lot of interesting ideas in this run, and some genuine surprises, but it just didn’t come together well enough for me, and the politics annoyed me. Glad to be done with this story, which I only read to get to Eve Ewing’s run that follows!

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a landing. A finale that establishes Ridley’s brief run as character-defining. This was so good that it made things that came before it better.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The characters were definitely a little weird here in certain aspects, but it all comes back around to T'Challa putting others first, which is really the heart of the story.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Interesting Marvel diplomatic changes.

A story with some interesting moments.