By Don McGregor, Gene Colan & Tom Palmer, with Glynis Oliver, Mike Rockwitz, Gregory Wright, Joe Rosen, Jade Moede & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0803-4 (TPB), 978-1-3025-0149-5 (Digital edition)
Lauded as the first black superhero in American comics and one of the first to carry his own series, The Black Panther‘s popularity and fortunes have waxed and waned since the 1960s when he first attacked the Fantastic Four (in #52; cover-dated July 1966) as part of an elaborate plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father.
There, T’Challa, son of T’Chaka was revealed as an African monarch whose hidden kingdom was the only source of an incredible vibration-absorbing alien metal upon which that country’s immense wealth was founded. Those mineral riches – derived from a fallen meteor which had struck the continent in primeval antiquity – had powered his country’s rapid transformation into a technological wonderland. Moreover, that tribal wealth had long been guarded by a hereditary feline-garbed champion deriving physical advantages from secret ceremonies and a mysterious “heart-shaped herb” that ensured the generational dominance of the nation’s warrior Panther Cult.
Lyrical intellectual Don McGregor had already immortalised T’Challa in a stunning 1970s periodical run which produced the revered Panther’s Rage saga and controversial follow-up Panther vs the Klan storyline. Then, after years away from the mainstream, and crafting groundbreaking original graphic novels (OGNs) like Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species and Detectives Inc., as well as series including Ragamuffins & Nathaniel Dusk, McGregor was lured back to his roots to spin a shocking saga of contemporary intolerance and the end-days of South African Apartheid. He was joined by a semi-regular collaborator whose credentials in crafting human-scaled tales of adventure, horror and empathetic emotional drama were second to none. He was also one of the industry’s earliest exponents of strong black characters…
Eugene Jules “Gene” Colan (September 1st 1926 – June 23rd 2011) was one of comics’ greatest talents: a quietly professional artist who valued accuracy and authenticity in his work, whether it was science fiction, horror, war, satirical humour or the vast number of superheroes he brought to life. A devotee of classic adventure strips in the newspapers, Colan studied at the Art Students League of New York, before beginning his own narrative illustration career in 1944 (on Wings Comics) before military service in the Philippines. The war had just ended and Colan had leisure time to draw for local paper The Manilla Times. By 1946 he was a civilian again, and working for Stan Lee’s Atlas on crime and supernatural stories. He illustrated the last Golden Age sighting of Captain America (Captain America’s Weird Tales #75; February 1950), an all-horror issue with no superhero material at all. It was like a sign…
As the industry radically transformed, Colan began freelancing at DC/National Comics whilst remaining a mainstay of Atlas. His assignments increasingly focused on new genres of War Stories and Romance. When Superhero stories returned, he moved exclusively to Marvel (barring some monochrome horror stories done for Archie Goodwin at Warren Magazines), where his dynamic realism offered a powerful alternative to the graphic styles of Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita & Don Heck. Colan became renowned for his long stint on Daredevil (where he created blind black detective Willie Lincoln); Captain America; Doctor Strange; Iron Man; The Avengers; Sub-Mariner & Howard the Duck. During this period he co-created the Guardians of the Galaxy, two Captain Marvels (Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers), drew all of Tomb of Dracula (thereby introducing Blade the Vampire Slayer to the world) and was responsible for another black comic book icon and the nation’s first African American costumed hero, The Falcon.
In the 1980s he moved to DC, working on Batman; Superman; Wonder Woman and The Spectre; co-creating Night Force, Silverblade, Jemm, Son of Saturn and period private eye Nathanial Dusk, before expanding into independent comics at the forefront of innovation marking the rise of the Direct Sales Market. His later career was blighted by health issues, but he continued drawing whenever he could, for various companies. On one of his periodic returns to Marvel he reunited with McGregor for this astounding tale, originally serialised over 25 chapters in fortnightly anthology Marvel Comics Presents (# 13-37, February-December 1989). In this collected tome the entire affair is preceded by ‘To Follow the track of The Great Cat with renewed wonder on his Panther’s Quest (From “Panther’s Rage” to “Panther’s Prey”)’ a typically effulgent yet informative Introduction by author McGregor…
One of the most thought-provoking mainstreaming comics tales ever released, Panther’s Quest added pressure to an ever-expanding Anti-Apartheid movement in comics and western media, by examining not only the condition of racial inequality but also turning a damning eye on sexual oppression and domestic abuse. Whether in his numerous solo series or as part of superteams including The Avengers, Fantastic Four or Ultimates, the Black Panther has always been one of Marvel’s most politically strident and socially-crusading characters. This is a book I’m certain Chadwick Boseman would have admired and supported…
Inked in its entirety by perfect work partner Tom Palmer, coloured by Glynis Oliver, Mike Rockwitz & Gregory Wright with lettering by Joe Rosen & Jade Moede, it begins on a dark night as the Panther infiltrates neighbouring totalitarian nation South Africa. Here a white minority oppresses the millions of blacks living there. T’Challa has heard ‘A Rumour of Life’ and come seeking his stepmother Ramonda. His father’s second spouse had raised the bereaved boy when T’Challa’s birth mother died, but one day when he was only three, she vanished and no one would speak of her. Now, he’s invaded the most dangerous land on Earth – for his kind – in search of answers from unscrupulous information peddler Patrick Slade…
‘Forgotten Corpses’ sees that clandestine meeting abruptly and brutally interrupted by white paramilitaries who seek to kill them – but without alerting the ever-vigilant police or security services…
McGregor has always a fascination with the real effects and consequences of violence, and this tale contains some pretty shocking moments that might make many readers wince. Suffice it to say, I’m staying vague throughout this review, but will confirm that vicious brute Elmer Gore graphically tortures the Panther with barbed wire in ‘Lost Blood in Copper Dust’, leading to our maimed hero staggering into the arms of ‘The Man Who Loved Sunrise’. Oppressed miner and narrative point-man Zanti Chikane is a miner/second class citizen crushed by his intolerable life, but he still overcomes his understandable caution to offer assistance to torn, bleeding T’Challa. That leads to Zanti’s own brush with death as white killers employ what they consider ‘Reasonable Force’ against the suspects, before being trounced by the still fighting cat-man…
The scene changes for ‘Naked Exposures’ as government Magistrate of Communications Anton Pretorius orders his battered, shamed and furious private security minions to capture an invading masked terrorist dubbed Black Panther. Apparently, this invader is a threat to national security but the mercenaries need no other reasons to kill the treacherous “kaffir”. Just to be sure though, Pretorius also uses his position to send out a nationwide TV alert…
‘Battered Artifacts’ sees T’Challa tracking Slade to an impoverished township, unaware that he’s under surveillance and about to step into the other side of deadly politics that wracked South Africa at this time. ‘Hatred under Tears’ sees the Magistrate’s mercenaries attack, uncaring of small children they are endangering. As “the Great Cat” stops to aid a tear-gassed toddler, ‘Justifiable Action’ sees him shot for his efforts and arrested in ‘Personal Risk’ prior to breaking free and escaping…
‘The Official Version’ gives T’Challa a stiff lesson in realpolitik from Slade’s wife even as the State intensifies its hunt for him, with Security Minister Doeke Riebeek officially branding the entire emergency a communist plot…
In the township, ‘Voices Heard, Voices Ignored’ has Zanti pondering the terrifying dangers to his family before returning to aid the Panther, whilst ‘A Right to Kill’ reveals Riebeek beginning to suspect Magistrate Pretorius might have ulterior motives for his actions. Elsewhere, enraged township men are moving against a suspected traitor, determined that ‘Somebody’s Going to Pay’. They’re carrying petrol and tyres needed for the appalling punishment they call “necklacing”. Do not google it or buy this book if you have a weak stomach…
When the Panther acts to save a life, he is horribly burned, even as events escalate to total tragedy when ‘Last Night I Wept for Freedom’ shows how the boy he helped returns the favour and pays the ultimate price, despite his own superhuman efforts and an initially-reluctant intervention by a white doctor in ‘Lost Promises’…
Traumatised and repentant, T’Challa returns to Slade whose ‘Dark Maneuvers’ lead them into a trap laid by Pretorius’ mercenaries in ‘So Many Nameless Enemies’. The battle is brief but results in a crucial clue in the true quest, as the trader reveals how, years ago, he learned of a black woman held in glittering bondage for decades at the home of a high-ranking government official…
‘Chances’ see Riebeek and his forces close in as T’Challa follows his clue to Johannesburg to confront one of the mercs in ‘The Great Cat in the City of Gold’. Now ferociously focused on finding Pretorius, the Panther & Zanti attempt to save his precious Wakandan stealth-ship from being captured by Riebeek in ‘Losing Control’… but at a terrible cost.
After ‘Saying Goodbye’, the Panther’s quest moves into its endgame as T’Challa invades Pretorius’ luxurious citadel, circumventing deadly ‘Barriers’ and crushing human and canine ‘Opponents’ (still more grimly authentic action in need of a strong stomach advisory), to ultimately rescue Ramonda from the luxurious cell she has inhabited ever since Pretorius abducted her decades ago.
The tyrannical hypocrite’s obsessive, abusive passion for her was also his downfall: a secret vice capable of destroying him in a nation and government that decreed interracial mixing immoral and illegal. Ultimately, it’s Ramonda who decrees his fate whilst enjoying a ‘Dawn Reunion’ with her long-lost child…
Available in trade paperback and digital editions and augmented by a full cover gallery and pinups from Marvel Fanfare #47 (by Bill Reinhold & Linda Lessman) and #45 (Steve Rude & Steve Oliff) this is the most important Black Panther tale you’ll ever read. So do.
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