Black Panther vol.4 #19 (2006)
by Reginald Hudlin & Scot Eaton
cover by Trevor Hairsine
Besides Penance, this is the only other flimsy connection between Doctor Doom and Civil War.
And it’s in the quite controversial Hudlin run on Black Panther.
Following up Doom’s cameo after the marriage between Black Panther and Storm, they decide to pay him a visit to Latveria.
Since this is a book about a head of state it’s only natural to get some political intrigue and some satire; basically every Black Panther does that to some extent.
Hudlin does it with his usual subtlety.
Yeah if you’re not familiar with Hudlin’s run… Black Panther is the only sensible person on the planet, MOST OF THE TIME. Everyone else is an absolute moron. That won’t come up for a while, but remember it.
There are some bits that I like here: that Wakanda has emergency plans in case it ever needs to fight Latveria, and that while it could probably win it would be WWIII on steroids.
So Storm and Black Panther arrive in Latveria, where T’Challa has some… weird opinions.
T’Challa, while I don’t doubt you’re the first black people after Luke Cage to visit Wakanda… maybe they’re staring at you because the only people in costume who visit the castle are those that end up causing massive damages?
So the newlyweds visit Doom, who has a more traditional wedding gift.
It’s nowhere near as the present he gave Alicia, which was both a gift and a threat, but of course Doom spins this into a speech about conquering the world.
Doom’s speech falls on deaf ears, however, because Black Panther has figured out he’s talking to a Doombot.
The real Doom then shows up, we get an extremely painful whiplash in how to write a good Doom.
First we have one of my favorite Doom reactions ever: when Black Panther points out he noticed he was dealing with a robot because he couldn’t smell sweat, Doom takes this as meaning his Doombot was “too perfect”.
Doctor Doom taking a criticism and spinning it into a confirmation of how awesome he is? That is one of the most Doctor Doom things ever.
However, in THE VERY NEXT PANEL, we have a blatant demonstration on how NOT to write Doctor Doom!!!
Yep. According to Hudlin, Doom is blatantly racist.
That is basically THE ONLY BAD THING YOU CAN’T WRITE ABOUT DOOM!!!!
Adding insult to injury: remember when I said that MOST OF THE TIME Black Panther is the only sensible person in this series?
Well, at other moments, he’s more Doctor Doom than Doctor Doom. Does THIS sound like something T’Challa would say!?
It’s completely unprovoked, by the way.
But I guess that shouldn’t be surprising, considering this is THE SAME SERIES where, back in issue #3, we learned that Wakanda has the cure for cancer but doesn’t share it!!!
I mean when DOCTOR DOOM is the reasonable one, maaaaaybe you’ve gone too far.
But Hudlin is not done writing a bad Doom! While admittedly Doom is a bit sexist at times, you can trust Hudlin to take this too far.
This turns into, of course, a big dumb battle.
Emphasis on “dumb”.
Really, really dumb. Hudlin was 45 years old when he wrote this, by the way.
You WOULD expect Doom to accept settling this with a duel…
…but this is way, WAY dumber. Because apparently Black Panther can shut down ALL OF DOOM’S TECHNOLOGY with an electromagnetic pulse!
SERIOUSLY!? I’m supposed to believe that’s all it takes to defeat all of Doom’s defenses!? COME ON!!!
To be fair, AT LEAST Hudlin has Doom’s armor being shielded against this move.
While I would enjoy watching Doctor Doom beat the crap out of Reginald Hudlin Black Panther, the fight is stopped when Storm tries to help her husband.
Yeah forget what I said about Black Jackass here being the sensible one. In this story he’s just. The. Worst.
I begrudgingly admit the ending scene is kind of funny.
Doom significance: 0/10
Surprisingly enough, when Doom and T’Challa eventually fight for real during the MUCH better written “Doomwar”, there isn’t a reference to this issue. Saved from a negative score ONLY by the strong possiblity of this being a racist Doombot.
Silver Age-ness: 3/10
I can imagine the early Silver Age to give such an absurd weakness to Latveria’s defenses.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
As much as I like that panel where Doom twists Black Panther’s words as a compliment to the perfection of his robots… and as solid as the artwork is.. this is just an ATROCIOUS use of both Doctor Doom and Black Panther.
It was a Doombot all along
HE BETTER BE!!!
Crazy tech
Honestly his technology kind of sucks in this issue.
Hudlin writing Black Panther illustrates a point I’ve made for years concerning the big 2 comics publishers.
The people in charge are actually embarrassed to be producing comics rather than some more “legitimate” form of entertainment.
Thus the search to bring in successful writers from other media to write comics. Hudlin is a particularly egregious example. He gets hired by Marvel to write Black Panther on the basis of exactly one successful screenplay (1990’s House Party). But he’s a Successful Writer from Outside of Comics, so he’s given free reign to write what is essentially black supremacy and exceptionalism.
For a DC example, see Jodi Picoult’s Wonder Woman. Picoult is a successful author of the kinds of books one buys in airports. Her Wonder Woman work was brief and unexceptional.