Black Panther #18

Black Panther #18
I didn't actually read this issue yet, and I'm probably not going to for a while yet, but there have been a lot of snipes online about reviewers not liking this book/storyline because they are racist, so I feel that I should defend them.

Will everyone stop bashing these guys for being racist? Just because a story is ethnic doesn't mean it doesn't SUCK! Seriously, if someone writes an AWFUL book about ethnic characters, does that mean that you can't say it SUCKS even if it does? Reggie Hudlin's Panther is just AWFUL. I say bring back Christopher Priest (a black man who can write white and black characters equally well). And boy, the self-promotion in Black Panther #18 is really thick...I only flipped through it, but what's with all the BET stuff (Hudlin is one of the senior partners)? It SUCKS, and I'm completely unapologetic about it. Heck, Arana sucked too, does that make me anti-latino? So then why do I enjoy Blue Beetle? And if I'm so racist, then why do I enjoy Shiva or Gypsy in Birds of Prey? It's because those books are well-written! It has nothing to do with race. Heck, they could be all blotchy-skin-disorder-aliens or polka-dotty, and those would still be great books. A problem with modern society is that people have been made afraid to voice their negative opinions on things for fear that they will be branded Racist or some such nonsense. It's not as if anybody said "You know, black people really suck". No, we said the book sucks, the idea sucks, the execution sucks, (the writer sucks). If anything, the idea of this storyline is more intolerant than any criticism it has received. It's like when people complained about Peter Benton on ER finding a happy relationship with a white woman, to the point where a company mandate forced the writers to split them up and write in a black love interest for him. That shows complete intolerance for the culture of integration in which we (supposedly) live, and a complete lack of understanding as to racial dynamics in the real world. Sorry. Brian and Lester are right on the money, and neither of them is a racist. It's only those whose mindsets are too shallow to allow negative viewpoints who think so.

Links to other reviews of Black Panther #18:
Brian Hibbs and Jeff Lester; Douglas Wolk