Black Panther: The Young Prince by Ronald L. SmithMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
It took a little longer than I hoped for me to get ahold of this book from the library after I found out it existed, but I'm thinking Black Panther: The Young Prince was pretty well worth the wait. It's not as big a story as the current smash-hit Marvel movie, but that's to be expected when it's a kid-sized adventure showcasing T'Challa as a barely-adolescent prince with his whole future of awesome ahead of him. T'Challa, and M'Baku too. Never would've guessed, based on the movie, that they were best friends growing up, but that's where this book comes in with the story of the damage their friendship takes as they travel to Chicago and find themselves growing apart a bit. Heck, as far as the movie goes, I'm not even sure it and this book are quite in the same universe. I mean, the tech in Chicago could be present-day instead of early-to-mid-90s, which is when I first assumed the book would take place based on T'Challa's and M'Baku's ages relative to their 2016 ages in the movie. But overall, this book eschews temporal specificity in favor of creating a more original adventure, an urban fantasy heavy on dark family conspiracies in a similar style to Shadowshaper, though more tailored to middle-grade readership.
I'm really hoping there's a sequel or two in the pipeline, especially given the book's one flaw - there are just a few too many characters who don't have much to do here, but could easily play bigger roles in future installments. I'm especially looking at Hunter, T'Challa's adopted white brother, whom I actually expected to be this book's villain - and I still think he'll likely be one later on, but Smith could easily subvert my expectations there too.
And also, I just want to see more of T'Challa and all his friends. Not only M'Baku, but Zeke and Sheila as well.
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