In truth, it’s not fair to say this is by Ta-Nehisi Coates, since so much more than the writing goes into a comic book: the colorist, the penciller, the inker, etc. But we should be honest: we are reading this because his name is attached.

I haven’t been reading much in the way of comics lately, but ever since I heard that The Atlantic essayist was going to be writing for the Black Panther, I wanted to read it. And when I saw some comics in my local library, I figured I put volume one on hold.

Now here we are.

Leaving aside difficulty one: I haven’t read the arcs and stories that came more or less immediately before, so I really don’t understand what’s going on. But you just have to suck it up, honestly. Comics were around before you started reading them. They’ll be around after you’ve stopped. Just dive in and hope for the best.

So far, it doesn’t quite work. But I really want it to. Questions of power. Implied questions regarding a monarchy existing simultaneously in a liberal society. Gender. The inability to act or know what’s right.

But not enough threads come together. The dialogue can be a little over baked and too arch by half. Too talky and not well paced. And outside of the writing, the action sequences rarely popped.

Maybe I should have just gone for one his (non comic) books instead?

Technically, I’m reading Planet Hulk: Secret Wars. I don’t really know much about Secret Wars, except that everything has changed – Dr. Doom is god of the world, there is a country of Hulks (or should that be lowercase – ‘hulks’) with, apparently, a red skinned leader who looks as much like Hellboy as he does Red Hulk, as well a paramilitary police force of multi-ethnic, multi-gendered Thors (or thors).

I got it for one reason, and that is that hero is a gladiator version of Captain America who has Devil Dinosaur as his sidekick.

Yes, that’s right: I will read anything with Devil Dinosaur.

Devil is drawn respectfully. He is a fearsome predator; powerful, but always trying to be on the side of good.

Unfortunately, he’s also kind of denatured. He’s not a unique creature with his own history, but just an old, semi-forgotten comic book character brought back from the waning days of the silver age to be the sidekick. Which is sad. And you can see how important Jack Kirby’s kinetic style was to Devil’s action sequences, because those long, progressive panels are absent, leaving Devil just a big, pet monster, albeit as fierce one.

Also, Captain America with long, blonde hair and a battle axe to go with his shield, while a cool idea (Captain America as the world’s greatest gladiator, using his super soldier serum strength and reflexes and tactical nous [and twenty foot tall man-eating dinosaur] to defeat all comers!), in practice, it looks like Captain America doing some kind of He-Man cosplay.

Yes, I’ve quit my regular buying of comic books, but I still make a few exceptions. In Toronto, there was a cool little comic book store/coffeehouse called the Black Canary (named after a DC Comics heroine; no superpowers, but just a tough woman).

I thought it might be a good time to look for some heretofore unpossessed (by me) Devil Dinosaur comics. I look first among the Godzilla comics (I know there was a crossover arc) and then the Devil Dinosaur box. Lo and behold, I found (for six Canadian dollars), a comic I had never read before. Super powerful aliens watch a scene from the original comics (when Devil defends Moon Boy’s people from some aggressive proto-humans) and, feeling sorry for the bad guys, give them an edge by beaming the Hulk into their midst. Hulk smashes Devil, but they think maybe they’ve made a mistake, so they give Devil extra strength and things go wrong from their, with two powerful monsters destroying the aliens’ stuff.

In the end, all goes back to the way it was.

Unlike a Devil/Spiderman crossover a few years back, this one didn’t treat Devil very respectfully. It made you realize how awesome Jack Kirby was – how in his original run, he used his artistic style to create very dynamic panels, where the action leaned forwards, towards the next page or panel, propelling things forward.

For something like two years now, I have been regularly buying several series of comic books from my local comic book store (Aquaman, Batman, Action Comics, Moon Knight, and Deathstroke).

I think I’m done. I’m not sure I can justify the money. Also, I recently fell behind and that feels… ok. I’m not distraught about not knowing how story arcs will end. I’m okay with things. But I have enjoyed this particular interlude – my return to a portion of my misspent youth – and don’t regret it. And I’m sure I’ll find something else to spend the money on.