Black Panther #8 Review

Written by: Eve L. Ewing
Art by: Mack Chater, Chris Allen, Craig Yeung
Colors by: Jesus Aburtov
Letters by: VC’s Joe Sabino
Cover art by: Taurin Clarke
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: January 17, 2024

Black Panther #8 finally begins to unravel the mysterious disappearances plaguing Birnin T’Chaka. Meanwhile, the Ilonga family conspires to take advantage of Baba Nkisu’s death.

Is Black Panther #8 Good?

Eve Ewing’s take on Black Panther as the Batman of Wakanda slides into an even slower pace with a mutant cameo that offers little value and a mild development involving N’Yobi and the Ilonga’s desire to absorb Nkisu territory. If Black Panther #8 teaches us anything, it’s that an ongoing series is a poor excuse for not getting to the point.

When last we left T’Challa, Baba Nkisu was killed by Kivu’Ma in the presence of Black Panther. Baba’s daughter, Aliinya mistakenly concluded Black Panther was responsible for her father’s death and set out on a course of revenge. Now, Kivu’Ma takes advantage of Aliinya’s grief in an effort to turn her into its instrument in the physical world. Meanwhile, Black Panther follows a lead that takes him to the St. Croix home where he’s confronted by the mutant, Monet St. Croix. After a brief fight (that Monet should have easily won but didn’t), Monet divulges that her father was working with Baba NKisu to establish an off-planet facility for criminal accounts and illicit business dealings.

Did you get all that? If you didn’t, the only piece of actionable information is that Kivu’Ma is about to divulge that he/it is behind the disappearances and why (maybe). Money St. Croix’s divulgence about her father’s business dealings doesn’t appear to be relevant (yet), and N’Yobi’s kidnapping by the Ilona family appears incidental. In short, several things happen, and secrets are revealed, but not much appears to be directly relevant to the plot.

What’s great about Black Panther #8? At the very least, Eve Ewing appears to making some headway into the plot by steering Black Panther in the right direction. The puzzle pieces don’t look like they belong to the same puzzle, but something is better than nothing.

What’s not so great about Black Panther #8? Ewing is spending so much time building the world and characters into the Wakandan version of Gotham City that the pacing for the plot is crawling. Throw in a pointless mutant cameo, and you feel like you’re reading an ongoing that’s wasting a lot of time developing context and not enough time creating memorable moments.

How’s the art? The art is fine. The costumes and settings get loads of detail, and the brief bit of action is well done, but the lack of story progress is putting too much weight on the artists to carry a slow story and make it look interesting.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Bits and Pieces

Black Panther #8 continues the slow crawl toward an uncertain destination. A Monet St. Croix cameo adds little value to the mystery, things happen that don’t appear to relate to the plot, and Ewing wastes too much time on character and world-building through conversations and self-reflection. At some point, this story needs to get moving.