TRANS-SCRIBE: Black Panther #4

Tuesday, 12 September 2023

Black Panther #4 - Comic Review

If you're part of comic social media there's a good chance you'll have heard about the fourth issue of Black Panther. Not because of a story beat, not because of some action, but because of people's reaction to a character being revealed to be trans. Over the last few issues writer Eve L. Ewing has been slowly building the new setting for T'Challa's latest series, transporting him to another city in Wakanda. Part of this has been inhabiting it with new characters, one of whom is the new vigilante/thief Beisa.

This issue it was revealed that Beisa is a trans woman. This new is something that, of course, didn't phase our hero at all. Wakanda is an advanced, enlightened culture, and of T'Challa is a good and decent man. Not only did this news not throw the hero, but he showed that he seems to admire Beisa even more because of it. The internet, however, was less cool about it.

There are a lot of folks out there who see this as good news, who are celebrating the inclusion of a new trans hero, and praising Ewing for the positive representation that's been given to the trans community. There are some, however, who have been less kind about it. There is of course the standard accusations of it being 'woke', because everything these people don't like anymore is 'woke'. There's been misgendering, and awful insults thrown towards the character and trans readers. There have been people making claims that the potential romance between the leads won't happen now because they don't see Beisa as a woman and don't accept T'Challa as gay. And there are those who have a similar outlook, but are seeing this as the 'turning gay' of T'Challa. In general, shitty people being shitty.

It's a shame, as based on a lot of the good responses I've seen this news has been well received, and it's also inspired people who've not been reading the series to go and give it a try because of Beisa being trans. Whilst I'm sure that the usual suspects are going to be pissing and crying about this for a while now, when all is said and done it feels like this is going to be an issue that people talk of fondly.

But what happens outside of this one scene? Well, not a huge amount. The issue begins with the fight with Deathlok, which ends super quickly. The rest of the issue is sent with T'Challa talking to N'Yobi, talking to Beisa, or talking to himself, about the mystery that he's been looking into all series. We get given a name for a person who might be behind it, but it's not one we or T'Challa know, and no one seems to want to explain who they are to him. As such, despite the action packed beginning, the issue feels quite slow. Sadly, this has been a feeling I've had for the entire series so far.

The issue does end on a note of escalation, however, and it's possible that things are going to increase in pace with the fifth issue. But that does feel like a very long time to be setting things up and introducing everything. It also means that the eventual first volume graphic novel for the series is going to be a book all about set-up; which I can't help but wonder if it might harm the series overall.

I've been liking the series as it is, but there's not a huge amount to Black Panther that has me excited for each new issue, and whilst the Beisa reveal might keep me reading a bit longer, it's not enough to get me very excited for the series as a whole.