10 Essential Black Panther Comics

9. Black Panther: The Man Without Fear

Marvel Comics/Francesco Francavilla

Although Shadowland itself was a fairly unremarkable and, for most Daredevil fans, traumatic storyline, it did bring about an interesting change for Hell's Kitchen. With Matt Murdock hitting the road and the neighbourhood left defenceless, the lawyer turns to T'Challa to remain in New York in his stead - hence the book's title, Black Panther: The Man Without Fear.

And, for the most part, this is a story about T'Challa pushing out of his comfort zone. Gone are the sci-fi elements of the character's past comics - in their place came a Black Panther made for the Kitchen, replicating The Man Without Fear's signature crimefighting style with new villains, threats and side-characters to come along for the ride.

The comic, written by David Liss, has its moments. But undoubtedly the main draw lies in Francesco Francavilla's immaculate artwork. It truly feels like a noir comic, and while his pencils only featured sporadically, The Man Without Fear remained a fun, if not slightly inconsistent comic to enjoy.

T'Challa's seen better days, but as far as Black Panther comics go, this one must surely be commended for trying something different.

Advertisement
Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.