Marvel Masterworks: Black Panther Volume 1

Reprints Jungle Action #6-24

Written by Don McGregor.
Penciled by Rich Buckler, Billy Graham, Gil Kane, Keith Pollard.
Inked by Klaus Janson, P. Craig Russell, Pablo Marcos, Billy Graham, Bob McLeod, Jim Mooney, Keith Pollard.

Variant cover.

The Black Panther, AKA T'Challa, monarch of Wakanda, has returned to his kingdom in Africa after years of living in the U.S. where he worked as a school teacher and served as a member of the Avengers. He's surprised to learn he has fallen out of favor with many Wakandan citizens who feel that he abandoned his country.

This has allowed his rule to be threatened by Erik Killmonger, who is leading a revolt against T'Challa.  The Panther tracks down Killmonger and engages him in hand-to-hand combat. 

T'Challa is easily defeated, thrown into a waterfall and presumed dead. 

But Black Panther survives, swims to safety and returns to his village to recuperate.

He embarks on a quest to find and defeat Killmonger. But T'Challa will have to fight his way through several other villains if he wants to defeat his would-be usurper:

Venomm: a snake-charmer whose face has been scarred by acid. He uses his trained constricting snakes and his whip to choke the Panther within an inch of his life!

Baron Macabre, a mutated human who turns humans into zombies and uses them to attack T'Challa!

King Kadaver, who uses psychic powers to inflict pain on his opponents!

Black Panther encounters Baron Macabre(left) and King Kadaver.

Plus, T'Challa's search for Killmonger takes him through the dreaded Valley of Serpents, where dinosaurs still walk the Earth. 

At the same time, Black Panther's girlfriend, Monica Lynne, has been wrongly accused of murder. The native Wakandans in T'Challa's court have always been suspicious of Monica, because she is an American. The Panther tries to prove Monica is not guilty, but in the mean time, she is locked up in a cell.

Can the Black Panther defeat Killmonger and stay in power? Will he be able to free Monica and discover the identity of the murderer?

Plus, T'Challa and Monica visit Georgia, where they are attacked by the Ku Klux Klan!

 

Review:

"The Panther's Rage" is one of the greatest arcs of the Bronze Age. I hadn't read the story in its entirety (I always had trouble finding a few issues) until I picked up this collection.  

Story:

It's difficult to say too much here without spoiling the plot. Don McGregor writes a great story here. This is his crowning achievement. It feels a lot like an old time movie serial, with lots of cliffhangers and a different enemy showing up every 17 pages.  

McGregor gives us many pages with only narration, no dialogue. We get inside T'Challa's head and get an almost palpable sense of his anger and desperation. The captions on the scan below show a great example of this:

Killmonger is a great adversary. McGregor could've just brought back a preexisting Black Panther foe (like Klaw or the Man-Ape). But this is Killmonger's first appearance and giving him an axe to grind (even if it's not really justified) makes him more than just a would-be usurper. It makes perfect sense that Wakandans would feel abandoned by T'Challa and want to follow the charismatic Killmonger.

And the other villains are new as well. They're all entertaining, but my personal favorite is King Kadaver. He's very creepy and I love his name!  

The follow-up story focuses on T'Challa battling the KKK in Georgia. It's also good, even if it's a slight step down from the Killmonger tale. But it's also a credit to McGregor that he took the character in a very different direction, rather than staying in Wakanda. The one problem I have is that the book ends with the Klan story unfinished. Jungle Action was cancelled and this story wasn't completed until three years later in the Marvel Premiere series. I hope Marvel gets around to reprinting the conclusion someday. 

Art:

The book opens with some outstanding art by penciler Rich Buckler and inker Klaus Janson.  Just take a look at this double-spread title page, where action is taking place in the title itself:

Simply gorgeous.  

Buckler didn't stay with the book very long, leaving after three issues. Comic legend Gil Kane penciled one issue. After that, Billy Graham takes over and pencils the next 100+ pages. Graham does a great job and this is some of the best work of his career. 

Graham and Buckler are the best artists in this book, but he rest of the pencilers do a fine job as well.  Klaus Janson inked the bulk of the stories, so the art maintains a consistent look while pencilers come and go.  

On the whole, the art is excellent throughout, no matter who is penciling.  

Extras:

Don McGregor wrote a nice introductory essay for this volume. It's obviously a story he's very proud of even 40 years later. We get some original art, plus some nice photos of McGregor and Graham working on the issues. Here's a great photo of McGregor posing, showing how he wants the Black Panther to be drawn:

Marvel Masterworks: Black Panther Volume 1 is highly recommended to any fan of Bronze Age comics. It features a great story and fantastic art, and it could serve as a great introduction to readers who aren't familiar with T'Challa. I hope someday we'll get a book that reprints the rest of the "Black Panther vs. KKK" tale.  

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!

The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man

 Reprints Spectacular Spider-Man #27-28, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14-15, Marvel Team-Up #100, Marvel Team-Up Annual #4.
Written by Frank Miller, Bill Mantlo, Chris Claremont, Denny O'Neil, Mark Gruenwald, Roger Stern.
Penciled by Frank Miller and Herb Trimpe.
Inked by Frank Springer, Tom Palmer, Bob Wiacek, Klaus Janson and Mike Esposito.

Spider-Man has been blinded by the Masked Marauder's opti-blast! His fellow superhero Daredevil tries to help him cope with this condition. But the wallcrawler is (understandably) distraught.  Unbeknownst to Spider-Man, Daredevil is also blind and uniquely qualified to help him. The heroes team up to stop the Marauder and his Tri-man droid from blowing up New York City.

Sometime later, Lucius Dilby, a servant of Doctor Doom, has created a device that will allow him to visit the Dark Dimension. Upon arrival, Dilby is given mystical powers by its ruler, Dormammu.  Doom wants Dilby to bring about the Bend Sinister with his new abilities.

Doom sends Dilby to the Dark Dimension.

Dilby arrives in New York and hits the city with a variety of mystical attacks. He creates a super-strong robot and sends it to battle Doctor Strange, the master of mystic arts. Dilby believes Strange is the only one who can stop the Bend Sinister from occurring. During a brief battle, Strange is beaten by the robot. Dilby needs a human sacrifice to bring on the Bend Sinister and decides to kill Doctor Strange.

Strange mystically contacts Spider-Man and asks for help. It's up to the webhead to stop Dilby and prevent the Bend Sinister. 

Shortly after that adventure,Spider-Man is swinging through New York when he's mentally possessed by someone. We observe a teenage girl on a rooftop, she is amazed how it feels to climb walls. The possessed Spidey is forced to attack a charity party held in a luxury apartment, where he tries to take two young children away from their uncle. The Fantastic Four are attending the party and try to stop Spider-Man.

After Spider-Man is subdued, the FF learn that he was possessed and not responsible for his actions. In short time, they learn he was controlled by a teenager named Xi'an Coy Manh. She was using Spider-Man to rescue her younger siblings from her gangster uncle. The heroes discover that Xi'an has a brother named Tran who is also able to possess people. But Tran uses his powers for evil. Will the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man be able to stop Tran before he can possess all of them?


Some months after that, Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man, arrives in New York. He's involved in a car accident with two drug dealers who work for the Kingpin of crime. Killgrave has the power to bend the  wills of other people, so he forces the Kingpin's men to fight each other. Spider-Man notices this and tries to intervene. But Purple Man forces him to hang from a lamppost and sing a song! Killgrave escapes from the scene.

Purple Man forces Spidey to sing an Elvis Costello song!

The Kingpin learns that Killgrave interfered with one of his drug deals and decides to take him out. But the Purple Man has other ideas. Killgrave visits Kingpin and tries to command him to do his bidding.  But it has no effect. Purple Man becomes a pawn of Kingpin. We learn that the Kingpin used earplugs to resist Killgrave's control.

A major charity fundraiser is coming up. All of the New York's "street level" heroes hear rumors of a major crime happening at the event. Daredevil, Moon Knight, Power Man and Iron Fist all show up to investigate the matter.

When Killgrave is introduced, Daredevil (still dressed as Matt Murdock) gets nervous. Purple Man knows that Murdock and Daredevil are one and the same. DD creates a diversion by starting a fire. The other heroes jump into action to help the people escape the theater. But Killgrave has other ideas and orders all the people in sight to kill the superheroes.

A mob of hundreds chases the heroes around New York, threatening to kill them. 

Finally, Doctor Octopus calls New York's Mayor Ed Koch and tells him he will kill five million New Yorkers. Doc Ock wants $5 million worth of gems or he will carry out his plans for mass murder. The villain is very cryptic about how he will commit this crime, but Spider-Man has a theory that may save the city.  

 At the same time, the Punisher is back in town and goes gunning for Doc Ock and Spidey gets caught in the middle.

Can Spider-Man defeat Doctor Octopus and save New York?

Review:
The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man contains some very enjoyable stories from the late-70s and early 80s. These are a step below the quality of his stories and art that appeared in Daredevil, but they're lots of fun.

Story:
The first story, a two-parter from Spectacular Spider-Man starts in the middle of a story. This is because Miller didn't start penciling until that point in the saga. Miller didn't work on the next issue, so it ends in the middle of another story. I'm not a fan of reprint books that do this. I understand Miller didn't draw the rest of the story, I still think it's a weakness (the full story is available in another tpb). Having said that, Bill Mantlo writes a good story featuring Masked Marauder and Tri-Man. The Marauder was certainly a B-list villain, but Mantlo presents him as a serious threat here. He blinds Spider-Man and threatens to blow up New York with a nuclear bomb.

Denny O'Neil wrote the Bend Sinister/Dilby story. It's a good story, with one problem. We never learn what the Bend Sinister is. But it's still a fun ride. O'Neil sends Peter Parker to see a punk band called Shrapnel at CBGB, which is a nice nod to the New York music scene of the early 80s.

Peter Parker checks out a punk band at CBGB.

O'Neil also scripted the Doc Ock/Punisher story and it's been one of my favorite Spider-Man stories since I first read it in 1981. Doctor Octopus is portrayed perfectly here, willing to kill millions of people just to demonstrate that he is capable of doing so. And I love the interaction between Spidey and the Punisher in this tale. O'Neil gives us a nice sub-plot that shows the reader how the Daily Bugle selects its front page story. 

The Marvel Team-Up story featuring the Fantastic Four was written by Chris Claremont and it's pretty good too. It's also available in another reprint book I recently reviewed, here.

Miller wrote the Purple Man/King and it's a fairly lightweight story, but it's still a fun read. It was a nice way to have Daredevil's former "greatest foe" meet up with Kingpin, who became DD's arch villain under Miller's pen. Miller does a good job writing all the other guest heroes, none of them act out of character.

Luke Cage punches through the walls of the theater.  Nice art from Herb Trimpe!

Art:
Some folks who purchase this book may be surprised that some of the art doesn't look at all like classic Frank Miller art. The first two stories feature the first time Miller penciled Daredevil, the character that would make Miller famous. But Miller is heavily inked by Frank Springer and Miller's art only shows through in occasional panels.

The next story, from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14 is an improvement. Miller is inked by Tom Palmer and the art looks great. Lots of Ditko-esque mystical images on display here. Miller and Palmer give us several pages from the fictional Book Of The Vishanti sort of serve as "chapter headings" within the tale.

Splash page from ASM Annual #14 features The Book Of Vishanti

The artistic high point for me is the Doc Ock/Punisher story from ASM Annual #15. Miller is inked by Klaus Janson, who served as Miller's inker on Daredevil. Many of the pages feature front pages of The Daily Bugle in progress and the fight scenes are gorgeously rendered. Miller and Janson are one of the best penciler/inker teams of all time and this story is further proof.

The Kingpin/Purple Man tale, from Marvel Team-Up Annual #4 features pencils by Herb Trimpe and is inked by Mike Esposito. It's a bit of a step down from Miller's work in the book, but it's still pretty good.  I always enjoyed Trimpe's work, and he and Esposito make a good art team in this story.

Extras:
The back of this book features a nice gallery of covers penciled by Miller that feature Spider-Man. We get 22 covers from various Spidey series.

The stories from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14-15 make this book worth purchasing. The other stories are fun as well. But I can't look past the fact that the first story is joined in progress, so The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man falls just short of my highest rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

 .5

3 and a half Sals.