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!

Captain America and the Falcon: The Secret Empire

Reprints Captain America and The Falcon #169-176
Written by Steve Englehart.
Penciled by Sal Buscema.
Inked by Vince Colletta.

Captain America, known as Steve Rogers in his personal life, has always fought  for his country and pushed it to uphold its ideals.

Left: Falcon talks about his desire for super powers;
Right: Cap watches Harderman's campaign ad.

Cap is flabbergasted when he sees a campaign ad that attacks him. It's narrated by an advertising wizard named Quentin Harderman. It paints the superhero as an out of control vigilante who acts as a law unto himself.  The ad is sponsored by an organization called the Committee to Regain America's Principles. They believe Captain America is a serious threat to the American way of life. In reality, the Committee is a front for the criminal organization that calls itself the Secret Empire!

At the same time, Captain America's partner the Falcon (known as Sam Wilson when he's not fighting bad guys) is feeling like a fifth wheel. He doesn't believe he's pulling his weight in his crime-fighting partnership with Cap and is in search of more power. He takes off for the African nation of Wakanda.  The Black Panther, Wakanda's monarch, has promised to help Falcon become more powerful. 

After watching the ad, Captain America decides to confront Harderman face-to-face at his office.  Harderman says he'll back off his campaign if Cap will participate in a charity boxing match. But when Cap shows up for the bout, he recognizes his opponent as his old enemy, the Tumbler! Captain America chases the Tumbler, but the villain suddenly dies when Cap grabs him. Harderman (who is responsible for Tumbler's death) immediately blames Cap and labels him a murderer. The public quickly turns on Captain America, which deeply hurts the Avenger.

Cap is defeated by Moonstone, whom
Harderman then declares a hero.

Branded a criminal, Captain America is attacked by a man who calls himself Moonstone. He has super-strengh, eye-blasts and the ability to disappear and reappear at will. Cap is distracted, under stress, and is easily defeated by Moonstone in a short battle. Harderman is there to praise Moonstone and declares him a hero.

The next morning, Captain America wakes up in a jail cell. He is freed by a jailbreak, but it's part of the Secret Empire's plan to demonize Cap, who is now a fugitive.

Falcon gets wings, while Captain America is busted out of jail.

When the Falcon returns from Wakanda, he is wearing a winged harness (built by the Black Panther) that allows him to fly. He arrives in New York just in time to help Captain America prove his innocence. After another failed battle with Moonstone, the heroic duo escapes and is forced underground. Through some "detective" work, they theorize that Moonstone is from Nashville and hitchhike to the Music City.

When they arrive in Nashville, the heroic duo is attacked by the sonic scream of the Banshee! He thinks Cap and Falcon are mutant hunters. Their brief battle is broken up by Professor X, Marvel Girl, and Cyclops of the X-Men. They learn that in addition to framing Captain America, the Secret Empire has been hunting down and capturing mutants. Cap and Falc gain new allies, the X-Men will help them take down the Secret Empire.  Captain America is very grateful to have the X-Men stand with him against their common foe.

Before they can tackle the Empire, they're surrounded by Nick Fury, who's accompanied by (in Fury's words) "the pride o' S.H.I.E.L.D. and maybe half o' the Tennessee State Police!"  But the heroes are able to escape without harming Fury or any of the agents.

The heroes pull off a daring escape from Fury & S.H.I.E.L.D.

Using disguises, Falcon and Captain America eventually infiltrate the Secret Empire. They come face to face with the Empire's leader, who is known only as Number One.

Sam and Steve go undercover & wind up the Secret Empire's hideout.

Cap, Falcon and the X-Men team up and battle the Secret Empire. The final battle takes place on the White House lawn, where Captain America learns a shocking secret about Number One.

It turns out the Secret Empire has ties to the highest levels of power in the United States. This makes Steve Rogers very disillusioned about his country and he questions his desire to remain Captain America.
Could this be the end of his career as Captain America?

As if that's not enough, Falcon and Black Panther team up to stop the crimelord known as Stoneface. Plus, appearances by Captain America's Avengers teammates Iron Man, Thor and the Vision!
J.A. Morris says:

This is one of the definitive arcs of Captain America's 73-year history, and one of the best multi-part sagas of the Bronze Age.

Story:
Steve Englehart writes a great story here, filled with action and drama. It's one of Englehart's crowning achievements. We see the very symbol of America's ideals libeled as a murderer, stripped of his assets and forced to hitchhike to get around.  

The Secret Empire contains an almost perfect mix of action and drama. We get one great fight scene after another. In between, we see Steve slowly losing his faith in his country. The last issue reprinted here consists of nothing but Cap talking to his friends (and himself) about whether or not he will continue his crime-fighting career. But like the rest of the book, it makes for great reading.

Falcon and Black Panther take battle Stoneface.

The way the American public turns on Cap is believable. Harderman is shown to be an expert at telling "The Big Lie."  It's been said that the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it. This has been proven in real life more than once, and it works here for Harderman and the Secret Empire.

Falcon tries to talk Cap out of quitting.

Though Captain America is the main focus, his co-star the Falcon gets a good subplot with the trip to Wakanda. Giving Falcon the power of flight was a nice, long overdue improvement on the character.

One thing that makes this saga special is the villains. Most of them are B- and C-list criminals.  Harderman and Moonstone are one-shot villains. The Secret Empire appeared in a few more stories before and after this, but they've never been heavy hitters in the Marvel Universe. It's interesting that the villains that make Cap question his future as a hero have no ties to his arch foes (Red Skull, Zemo, etc). Behind the scenes, we're shown that the original Viper worked with Harderman to begin the campaign against Captain America. While Tumbler existed before this story, his only prior appearance was 8 years before this story. It's to Englehart's credit that I read this story more than once before I noticed its lack of major villains.

The original X-Men's appearance here is also worth noting. This story took place when the X-Men comic book series was nothing but a reprint title. The mutants made sporadic guest appearances in other series between 1970 and 1975. During that time, Englehart wrote solo stories that featured the Beast in Amazing Adventures. Englehart does a nice job tying those stories to the Secret Empire storyline as well. A year or so after this story, the X-Men series was revived and they went on to become the most popular superhero team of all time.

It may seem silly to say this about a 40-year-old story, but I won't "spoil" who is behind Number One's mask. Since I have a degree in History (minor in Poli-Sci!), I should point out that Harderman's name is a reference to H.R. Haldeman, Chief Of Staff in the Nixon White House, who was convicted for his role in the Watergate scandal. And Harderman's Committe to Restore America's Principals is an obvious reference to the Nixon campaign's Committee for the Re-Election of the President.

Number One's speech is interrupted by Captain America, and Moonstone gets run through a tree!

Art:
Penciler Sal Buscema and inker Vince Colletta make a great art team here. It's some of their best work. I've mentioned in other reviews that Colletta is far from my favorite inker, often over-inking and obscuring the pencilers. But he's great here, an asset to Buscema. And Sal draws many great battle and action scenes in The Secret Empire.

How does it look:

Great, as all pages scanned and posted above will demonstrate.  Here's one more:

Mutants good & evil are attached to a machine that siphons their brain energy!

Captain America and the Falcon:The Secret Empire is highly recommended to fans of Bronze Age stories and all Captain America fans. It's a product of (and a reaction to) Watergate-era America, but it's also a great story that's still highly entertaining four decades later.

J.A. Morris's rating:

4 Sals!


Coming tomorrow, Part 2 of this blog's first ever two-part review! Check back here for my review of the tpb that reprints the follow-up to the Secret Empire saga!