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In 2005 Reginald Hudlin (House Party, House Party 2, House Party 3) and John Romita Jr. (Uncanny X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man, Invincible Iron Man, Kick-Ass) brought back Marvel’s first black hero into volume 3 of The Black Panther ongoing series. This is a great comic whose initial 6-issue arc was strong and lent itself to an animated miniseries perfectly, but really that’s not unique among great comics, right? What’s notable here is the how and why this particular comic arc got made into a miniseries.

The cheap explanation is that it’s because I manifest a clearly melanin-challenged phenotype, but I didn’t know who Reggie Hudlin was outside of comics. As he himself describes in the special features, Reginald Hudlin was hired to write The Black Panther based on his reputation in motion picture entertainment, and a few issues in, he was made President of Entertainment of BET. Shortly after this, a friend of his brought him the first scene of the motion comic unsolicited, which bowled Hudlin over and he approached his boss at BET to ask to get it made into an animated series to air on BET. This request was approved, and Hudlin and crew proceeded to assemble a stellar voice cast.

Marvel’s Black Panther stars the majestically voiced Djimon Hounsou (Stargate, Constantine, Push) As T’Challa, aka The Black Panther, Alfre Woodard (Star Trek: First Contact, True Blood) as Dondi Reece and the Queen Mother of Wakanda, Stephen Stanton (Wolverine and the X-Men, Robot Chicken) as Klaw, Carl Lumbly (Justice League, Alias) as Uncle S’Yan, Phil Morris (Justice League, Smallville) as W’Kabi, Kevin Michael Richardson as Announcer #2 (name any cartoon character with a deep voice), and Stan Lee (Excelsior!) as General Wallace.

The Black Panther premise is as simple as it is exciting. Wakanda is a tiny African nation with a distinction from not only all other states on that continent, but probably anywhere on earth: They have never been conquered, nor have they ever attempted to conquer others. They have rich petroleum reserves, yet do not tap them, as they have a green energy source: a mysterious metal called vibranium that has the property of absorbing vibrations (how this equates to creating energy is none of your damn business, you can ask Stan Lee if you can’t suspend your disbelief). Wakanda is something of a juxtaposition of a sci-fi city whose technology is far beyond that of anywhere else on Marvel Earth and classic old African traditionalism including an animist religion based on a panther god. Wakanda’s government is something of a theocratic monarchy, where in an annual contest of fighting skill, their king must best all challengers in unarmed combat to retain his right to the throne. Bottom line: Wakandans are all badasses, and their king is the most bad ass of them all, and gets the title of The Black Panther.

The Black Panther plot of course is that over time, people always try to invade Wakanda, and now that the invaders are super-villains, this time they may just succeed. Ulysses Klaw has a long history with the Wakandan royal family, and T’Challa and the rest of Wakanda are in for quite a fight.

Audio and Video

While the animation in Black Panther is very well done for a motion comic, it still does take some getting used to. Maybe we’re spoiled by cartoons today, but this, like Wakanda itself, is another juxtaposition of some aspects that are aboriginal, and others that are cutting edge. I watched this on my Playstation 3, so visually it upconverted beautifully to seem as if it was on Blu-ray, even though it’s just a regular DVD. Audio-wise, the voices, music, and sound effects are truly what bring this story to life. If you’re not hooked by the time the theme song finishes on the first episode, you may want to see a doctor.

Special Features

This DVD release has the perfect amount of extras. It’s got video interviews with the title character, as well as the writer and artist of the source material. It’s all interesting to watch, even the extended version of the theme song as a music video.

• A Conversation With Star Djimon Hounsou
• Looking Back At Black Panther With Reginald Hudlin And John Romita, Jr.
• Exclusive Music Video
• Trailers

Overview

Marvel’s Black Panther is an exciting miniseries. The action is always hot and the voice acting (apart from Captain America–What were they thinking?) is top-notch. The story was changed to add a bit of a love story with Storm (which didn’t happen until later in the comics), and the story itself was only enriched by this addition. The one problem with some scenes that were not in the comic book source material, is that the art is glaringly (to a long-time fan) not John Romita Jr’s art. The added scenes are so different, they tend to jar you out of the story a bit. Some more money thrown toward getting JRJr to draw the additional scenes would have helped this mini-series immensely. Ultimately, this DVD is one of the best animated shows based on a Marvel property ever produced, and certainly the best motion comic we’ve seen.

ComicsOnline gives Marvel’s Black Panther on DVD 4 out of 5 Dora Milaje.

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