Black Panther and Punisher War Journal

First, I want to say that everybody's crazy about Matt Fraction's Invincible Iron Man, which I frankly was somewhat unimpressed by. Why have I never heard anybody talk about his Punisher War Journal run? Perhaps because it started during Civil War, the event that got me into comics, I've always been curious about War Journal, but just recently got the chance to read the first 19 issues. This is Punisher for super-hero fans. I'm not a huge Punisher fan. I've read bits and pieces of Punisher Max and a few of his mini-series. It seams like every time I've read it, he's infiltrating some sort of gang with lots and lots of convoluted characters who I could care less about. War Journal brings him into the mainstream Marvel Universe, fighting super-villains and being a bad-ass. That is what The Punisher should be.

As for Civil War, it's an epic event that I've spent the past few days re-reading. At this point, I'm about two thirds of the way through the event, reading all the tie-ins that I bought way back when. I'm generally pretty happy with the event thus far.

The one exception is Black Panther's tie-ins, which read like something I'd expect from a Tyler Perry movie. I mean, Rhodey is a strong black character, probably one of the strongest in the Marvel Universe. He shows up and pretty much immediately accuses a white character of being racist. Given what the guy said to him, it wasn't entirely out of character, but that scene added little to the story and, like much of the rest of the comic, leaned far too heavily on the race of the character.

My real issue with Black Panther, aside from the fact that it seams like every one of his stories that I read is poorly written, is that he's so defined by his race that it gives the authors an excuse to not develop him as a character. The Falcon, Patriot, War Machine, and a handful of others are characters who happen to be black, but also have personalities and compelling back-stories. Even Luke Cage, who is certainly defined by his race, can be compelling because of his attitude and the situations he tends to get himself into.

I haven't read much Black Panther, because the first few stories I read were so bad. It is possible that I just read the bad stuff, and like all characters, I'm sure it depends greatly on the writer. If anybody reads this and is a fan of Black Panther, please let me know if there are any runs on the title that are worth checking out.