Category: Black Panther

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The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Ultimate Collection


By Joe Casey, Scott Kolins, Will Rosado, Tom Palmer & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5937-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

Time for another 60th Anniversary shout out…

One of the most momentous events in Marvel Comics history occurred in 1963 when a disparate array of individual heroes banded together to stop apparently marauding monster The Incredible Hulk.

The Avengers combined most of the company’s fledgling superhero line in one bright, shiny and highly commercial package. Over decades the roster has continually changed until now almost every character in their universe has at some time numbered amongst the team’s colourful ranks…

For Marvel’s transformational rebirth in the early 1960’s, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby took their lead from a small but growing band of costumed characters debuting or reimagined and revived at the Distinguished Competition. Julie Schwartz’ retooling of DC’s Golden Age stars had paid big dividends for the industry leader, and as the decade turned Managing Editor Lee’s boss (uncle/publisher Martin Goodman) insisted his company should go where the money was.

Although National/DC achieved incredible success with revised and updated versions of the company’s old stable, the natural gambit of trying the same revivification process on characters who had dominated Timely/Atlas in those halcyon days didn’t go quite so well.

The Justice League of America-inspired Fantastic Four indeed featured a new Human Torch, but his subsequent solo series began to founder almost as soon as Kirby stopped drawing it. Sub-Mariner was soon returned too, but as a deadly vengeful villain, as yet incapable of carrying his own title…

So a procession of new costumed heroes was created, with Lee, Kirby and Steve Ditko focussing on all-original inventive and inspired “super-characters”…

Not all caught on: The Hulk folded after six issues and even Spider-Man would have failed if writer/editor Lee hadn’t really, really pushed Uncle Martin…

After nearly 18 months, during which the fledgling House of Ideas churned out a small stable of leading men (but only two sidekick women), Lee & Kirby finally had enough players to stock an all-star ensemble – the precise format which had made the JLA a commercial winner – and thus swiftly assembled a handful of them into a force for justice and higher sales…

Cover-dated September 1963, The Avengers #1 launched as part of an expansion package which also included Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and The X-Men, and, despite a few rocky patches, the series grew into one of the company’s perennial best sellers.

The early Avengers yarns became a cornerstone of the company’s crucially interlinked continuity. As decades passed they were frequently revisited and re-examined, and in 2005 Joe Casey and artist Scott Kolins (with colourists Morry Hollowell & Will Quintana) took the occasional exercises in creativity a little further: offering an 8-issue modernising miniseries adding devious – some would say cynically calculating – back-writing to the original stories. The epic was packed with post-modern in-filling for a more mature readership, exposing secrets and revealing how the team actually came to hold its prominent and predominant position in the Marvel Universe…

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #1-8 ran fortnightly from January to April 2005 and was successful enough to warrant a second season. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes II #1-8 repeated the gambit from January to May 2007, and with both epics gathered in this splendid, no-nonsense compilation.

Chronologically set between Avengers #1 and 2, the drama begins as industrialist Tony Stark reviews media coverage of the coalition of mystery men currently residing in his family’s townhouse. He ponders how best to keep such diverse and headstrong personalities as Ant Man, The Wasp, Thor and the Hulk together. Across town in a seedy bar, young troublemaker and pool-hustler Clint Barton can’t understand why folks are so nervous about the “masked freaks”…

Two weeks later, the team has fallen apart and the Avengers are actually hunting their gamma-fuelled former colleague. In the course of calamitous events they unexpectedly recover a legendary form from a coffin of ice floating in sea…

The gradually assimilation of partially amnesiac WWII legend Captain America into a terrifying and seemingly mad new era is not without problems, and the iconic, grimly experienced warrior is soon keenly aware of seething tensions besetting the team he has joined.

Iron Man still fervently pursues an exalted Federal status for the Avengers, but the Army are baulking: clearly set on putting the wilfully independent powerhouses under military jurisdiction. After a ferocious clash with Lava Men from Earth’s deep interior, word finally comes. The powers that be have created an all-encompassing “Avengers Priority Security Status” – but only for as long as the fickle public’s new darling and National Treasure Captain America stays with them…

Self-made scientific genius Hank Pym created the roles of Ant Man and the Wasp (AKA debutante girlfriend Janet Van Dyne) but his inherent and growing mental instability has caused him to push further and harder ever since he joined the ranks of a group that includes a patriotic living legend, an infallible metal juggernaut and an apparent god.

Now operating as Giant Man he is letting feelings of inadequacy drive a wedge between him and his lover, even as the Army ups the pressure to take over the team. Meanwhile, modern-day Rip Van Winkle Steve Rogers increasingly sinks into survivor’s guilt over the comrades he failed to save in the war. That internalised torment kicks into overdrive when Nazi war criminal and archfoe Baron Zemo comes out of hiding to attack the Avenger through his Masters of Evil…

When an invader out of time strikes, the Avengers finally and very publicly prove their worth to the nation and its government, and with Kang the Conqueror sent packing, the team at last secures favoured-but-fully-independent security clearance.

…And in the streets, a wanted vigilante dubbed Hawkeye saves Avengers butler Edwin Jarvis from muggers and they strike up a most irregular friendship…

Missions come thick and fast but the internal tensions never seem to dissipate. In far distant Balkan Transia fugitive mutants Wanda and Pietro desperately search for a place where they can feel safe, whilst in America Cap is increasingly fixated on tracking down Zemo.

After a battle with crime syndicate leader Count Nefaria leaves the Wasp near death, Giant Man also edges closer to a complete breakdown. With a surgeon battling to save her, Pym swears he’s going to quit and take her away from all the madness. Before that can happen, Zemo returns, abducting the Sentinel of Liberty’s teenaged friend Rick Jones…

In response, the team acrimoniously divides, with Cap trailing the monomaniac to Bolivia whilst the majority of Avengers remain for a final battle against the Masters of Evil. Meanwhile below stairs, Jarvis and Clint are concocting a sneaky scheme of their own…

As the death-duel in Bolivia concludes, in Germany two restless young mutants orchestrate their return to America and – with some collusion from Jarvis – Hawkeye “auditions” for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes…

As Cap and Rick wearily and so slowly make their way back to civilisation, Iron Man deals with Government fallout after learning that their Red, White and Blue poster boy is missing. Soon news leaks out that the rest of the team are quitting and that Stark has lined up a wanted vigilante and two outlaw mutants to replace them…

The initial secret history lesson concludes with astounded Captain America’s re-emergence and reluctant accession to leadership: riding herd on a team of obnoxious, arrogant young felons he is expected to mould into true champions…

The rest is history…

The second bite of the cherry (by Casey, Will Rosado, Tom Palmer & Quintana) focuses on a later time when the Avengers are in resurgent form. The Founders have all returned at a time when Pym (now calling himself Goliath), The Wasp and Hawkeye are joined by enigmatic African monarch The Black Panther. The action commences immediately following the expanded team’s being attacked by an android called The Vision – whom they promptly signed up (in Avengers #58, if you’re keeping count). Apparently the density-shifting “synthezoid” was created by robotic nemesis Ultron – a murderous AI created by Pym whilst suffering one of his frequent psychotic breaks – before switching allegiances…

We open as the highly-suspect new Avenger is impounded by S.H.I.E.L.D. for investigation and clearance. Their ostensible reason is that another autonomous murder mechanism – Super-Adaptoid – has escaped from custody and humanity can’t be too careful…

In the Philippines, the real cause of all the anti-technology tension and overweening suspicion are busy. Science terrorists Advanced Idea Mechanics have secretly stolen the Adaptoid and are seeing how they can improve an already ultimate killing machine…

At a clandestine S.H.I.E.L.D. base, interrogator Jasper Sitwell has met his match in The Vision, but perseveres in trying to dig out dirt on the android and its “master” Ultron. The Panther meanwhile has foregone his status as a VIP dignitary to teach at an inner city school under the alias Luke Charles. What he finds there is a true education…

Hawkeye too is under pressure as his lover The Black Widow reveals she’s going back into the spy-game. With Pym close to apoplexy at the government’s quasi-legal rendition of the Vision, nobody is in a particularly good mood when S.H.I.E.L.D.  supremo Nick Fury (the white one who fought in WWII) demands the team head to the Philippines to investigate A.I.M.’s latest enterprise.

With Fury’s carrot-&-stick pep talk ringing in their ears the heroes – rejoined by the just released Vision – jet away, unaware that in Manhattan an assassination plot against King T’Challa/Mr. Charles has brought one of Panther’s greatest enemies to America…

The heroes are challenged over the Pacific skies by a mass-produced army of Super-Adaptoids and are soon engaged in the fight of their lives…

Overwhelmed, they are in danger of being swamped before Goliath valiantly turns himself into as colossal human rampart to stem the tide and save the endangered island population whilst his comrades rush to destroy A.I.M.’s superbase…

Left all alone, Pym fights in maddened frenzy and becomes increasingly obsessed with how human the things he is incessantly slaughtering seem to be. By the time the triumphant team get Goliath home, he is a deeply traumatised shell of a man…

Luke Charles returns to school in time to be deeply embroiled in a bullying case that will inevitably end in gunplay and tragedy. And then the apparently recuperating Hank Pym goes missing…

Soon after, a new, excessively brutal hero named Yellowjacket is making news even as Agent Sitwell again targets the Vision for further debriefing: specifically, Pym’s “massacre” of mechanical lifeforms on A.I.M. Island. This time he’s brought in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s top psychologist Agent Carver to try and get under the subject’s artificial skin…

The spies are in heated argument with Hawkeye when Yellowjacket breaks in, claiming to have murdered the Man of Many Sizes and demanding to take Goliath’s place on the team…

Nobody is fooled. Everyone recognises the abrasive stranger as Pym gone far off the deep end, but Carver prevents them from saying anything. She advises that he is clearly inches from being utterly incurable and devises a treatment to cure him which basically comprises “play along and don’t do anything to upset the crazy man”…

That even includes allowing Yellowjacket to kidnap the Wasp and agreeing to let him marry his hostage…

The wedding is held at Avengers Mansion and includes a Who’s Who of heroes along for the ride (The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spider-Man, The Black Knight and Doctor Strange) but the scheme spirals out of control when The Circus of Crime – not privy to the details of the service – use the gathering as an opportunity to kill all America’s costumed champions in one go…

With Hawkeye and the blushing bride hostages and the first to be despatched, the deadly dilemma shocks Pym back to his rightest senses, but in the aftermath many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are butchered as Wakandan assassin Death Tiger gets ever closer to fulfilling his own mission of murder…

To cap off all the chaos, the still-at-large Super-Adaptoid also attacks, determined to expunge “race-traitor” The Vision who has perpetrated the ultimate betrayal by siding with inferior humanity and denying the innate superiority and inevitable ascension of mechanical and artificial lifeforms…

Politically savvy, wryly trenchant and compellingly action-packed, this extremely impressive Fights ‘n’ Tights chronicle is a superb addition/codicil to the annals of The Avengers and would serve as perfect comics vehicle for movie fans in search of a print-fix for their costumed crusader cravings…
© 2021 MARVEL.

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Invincible Iron Man Epic Collection volume 10: The Enemy Within 1982-1983


By Denny O’Neil, Roger McKenzie, Peter B. Gillis, Ralph Macchio, Carmine Infantino, Steve Ditko, Paul Smith, Luke McDonnell, Jerry Bingham, Mike Vosburg, Marie Severin & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-8787-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

Tony Stark is a super-rich supergenius inventor who moonlights as a superhero: wearing a formidable, ever-evolving suit of armour stuffed with his own ingenious creations. The supreme technologist hates to lose and constantly upgrades his gear, making Iron Man one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe.

However, in Iron Man #120-128 (March to November 1979), the unrelenting pressure of running a multinational corporation and saving the world on a daily basis resulted in the weary warrior succumbing to the constant temptations of his (originally sham) sybaritic lifestyle. Thus, he helplessly slipped into a glittering world drenched with excessive partying and drinking.

That dereliction was compounded by his armour being usurped by rival Justin Hammer: used to murder an innocent. The ensuing psychological crisis forced Stark to confront the hard fact that he was an alcoholic …and probably an adrenaline junkie too.

That crux landmark story ‘Demon in a Bottle’ saw the traumatised hero plumb the depths of grief and guilt, bury himself in pity, and alienate all his friends and allies before an unlikely intervention forced him to take a long, hard look at his life and actions…

A more cautious, level-headed and wiser man, Stark resumed his high-pressure lives, but he could not let up and the craving never went away. Then in 1982 author/editor Denny O’Neil made him do it again, with the result that Marvel gained another black superhero at long last…

It was the start of a period of legacy heroes inheriting the mantles, established roles and combat identities from white and mostly male champions, and was certainly a move in the right direction…

This grand and gleaming chronological compendium navigates that transitional period, re-presenting Iron Man #158-177 and Iron Man Annual #5: episodically spanning cover-dates May 1982 through December 1983, as the title experienced an uncomfortable number of creative personnel shuffles before settling on a steady team to tackle the biggest of changes…

It starts with Iron Man #158 as O’Neil, Carmine Infantino, Dan Green & Al Milgrom breeze through the motions as a deranged junior genius attacks modern technology from his literal man-cave by tapping the latent psychic power of his ‘Moms’…

Roger McKenzie, rising art star Paul Smith & inking collective “Diverse Hands” stepped in to relate what occurs ‘When Strikes Diablo’, as the Fantastic Four’s alchemical nemesis infiltrates Stark International to steal the techno-wizard’s resources and obsolete suits, only to unleash a mystic menace beyond all control…

With pressure mounting and threats everywhere, the craving for booze painfully manifests in ‘A Cry of Beasts’ – by O’Neil, Steve Ditko, Marie Severin & Green – as Stark’s party-persona collides with hot, willing babes …until an attack on his factory by the sinister Serpent Squad reminds him of his priorities.

Preceding Iron Man Annual #5, and by O’Neil, Luke McDonnell, Mike Esposito & Steve Mitchell, a brief encounter with newcomer hero Moon Knight sees Stark at odds with rival rich man Steven Grant (one of four people comprising the edgy new crusader) in ‘If the Moonman Should Fail!’

Frenemies at first sight, the Golden Avenger and Fist of Khonshu swallow their differences to save mutual friends held hostage by Advanced Idea Mechanics, after which the extra-length Annual extravaganza sees Iron Man in Wakanda where The Black Panther must defeat mysteriously resurrected nemesis and determined usurper Eric Killmonger…

Crafted by Peter B. Gillis, Ralph Macchio, Jerry & Bingham & Green, the action-packed ‘War and Remembrance!’ reveals an old foe methodically manoeuvring Stark and Iron Man into an inescapable trap, which closes tighter in Iron Man #162 as O’Neil, Mike Vosburg & Mitchell expose ‘The Menace Within!’ as a trusted employee sabotages S.I.…

There seems to be more than one campaign to crush Stark, and – as O’Neil, McDonnell & Mitchell become the regular creative team – ‘Knight’s Errand!’ opens an extended gambit with another hidden plotter turning ruthless capitalism, corporate raiding, advanced weaponry and an obsession with chess into a war for control of the company.

Up first is fast-flying tech terror The Knight who makes short work of Tony’s bodyguard, pilot, friend and confidante James Rhodey, but the real threat comes from a new acquaintance and future companion, covertly hollowing out Stark at close hand. Rising in the rankings after defeating the hovering horseman, Iron Man barely survives the ‘Deadly Blessing’ of The Bishop after his security team digs up leads to the plot in Scotland…

In IM #165, the trail leads to Jamie, Laird of Glen Travail and another deadly duel of devices, but the true purpose is to destabilise Stark by abducting Rhodey in an effort to coerce his capitulation. The resultant ‘Endgame’ seemingly goes Stark’s way, but the battle is fought on many levels by a distanced player secretly commanding the Laird: one with a cruel emotional counterpunch long-prepared to destroy the hero from within…

After a brief interlude offering original art pages from issues #161, 163 & 165, the stories resume and tensions mount on ‘One of Those Days…’ as old foe The Melter attacks Stark’s New York facility. Rhodey is recuperating in Scotland and Stark yet again faces enforced inactivity in the land of sublime alcoholic beverages, so he abruptly abandons his friend and jets home to stop the supervillain. He also learns his brilliant head of security Vic Martinelli has uncovered the identity of one of the hidden players attacking the company: chess grandmaster turned armaments entrepreneur Obadiah Stane…

With Rhodey missing again in Scotland, the newcomer wants all Stark’s creations and in the most hostile of takeovers, has used every trick in the book – from honey traps to guided missiles and abduction to intoxication – to seize the advantage…

‘The Empty Shell’ sees that nefarious planning bear evil fruit as Stark finally cracks under interminable pressure and one last betrayal, leading to a crushing fall “off the wagon” and into the gutter in ‘The Iron Scream’.

Permanently drunk and deprived of all judgement, Stark dons his armour to clash with Machine Man, even as far away, Rhodey makes his own life-threatening break for freedom and home…

As chaos ensues at the Stark plant, a major player debuts in the form of junior employee and minor boffin Morley Erwin, who’s on hand for Stark’s reunion with Rhodey and an aghast witness to one of the smartest men alive willingly crawling into a bottle and trying to drown away his pain…

That process begins in #169 as ‘Blackout!’ sees Stark simply give up when confronted by volcanic B-list villain Magma, and sleep through the moment Jim Rhodes steps up – and into – the role and armour of Iron Man…

The new era properly begins in #170’s ‘And Who Shall Clothe Himself in Iron?’ (cover-dated May 1983) as the former military airman promotes Erwin to the role of tech support adviser to help him pilot the most complex weapon he’s ever used to defeat Magma and save a far from grateful Tony Stark…

In the aftermath, the inventor just walks away: letting a new hero flounder even as, in the shadows, Stane gradually completes his takeover. Alone, isolated and under resourced, Rhodey and Erwin stumble into a heist in ‘Ball and Chain’, after seeking to arbitrate a domestic hostage situation triggered by Asgardian-powered supervillain Thunderball not knowing when no means no…

They are then duty-bound to intervene when Stark – completely off the rails – is arrested. However, his drunken debacle is only the start of their woes, as one the souse’s most murderous enemies tries to exact ‘Firebrand’s Revenge!’ and an entire hotel goes up in flames.

Thankfully Captain America is on hand to give the new guy in the suit a helping hand, but the distraction is just what Stane needs to seal his deal…

Homeless, broke and close to death on the streets, Stark is then accidentally saved by his conqueror, who lays the seeds of his own eventual downfall by dragging the lush to a grand takeover ceremony. Also attending is the new Iron Man who gets a lead to the woman who tempted and crushed Stark: an operative of freelance espionage ring The Sisters of Ishtar. This time both Stane and Rhodey learn that ‘Judas is a Woman’…

During this period every effort to turn Stark around fails: shot down by his self-sabotage. Now however, his friends must pause their personal interventions as the national and international repercussions of Stane’s triumph grows. Refusing to let a ruthless war profiteer benefit from Iron Man tech, Rhodey and Morley take drastic steps: stealing all the old kit and prototypes from Stane International. They are blithely unaware Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. share those opinions and are making their own clandestine arrangements in ‘Armor Chase’ (inked by Sam de LaRosa)…

A three-way clash escalates in O’Neil, McDonnell, & Mitchell’s Iron Man #175 as all ‘This Treasure of Red and Gold…’ ends up dumped deep in the ocean: purportedly beyond human reach. Nobody seemed to think that maybe water breathers like bellicose Atlantean renegade Warlord Krang might be in the market for a weapons upgrade dropped right in his lap…

Still operating under what can only be described as trial-by-fire period, Rhodey dives right in, triumphs again and even makes a new friend…

Stark’s own deep descent is marginally arrested after befriending an elderly “un-homed” guy on the streets in ‘Turf’, even as far away Iron Man meets the Sisters of Ishtar again and has his first encounter with something not of this Earth…

This tome pauses for now with a transitional tale loaded with portents of bad times to come. After meeting Erwin’s even smarter sister Clytemnestra, Rhodey looks – after a chat with Heroes for Hire Luke Cage & Iron Fist – into forming a rather unique start-up company in ‘Have Armor Will Travel’. The idea only truly gels after he’s hired to bodyguard an officious unflappable official in South America and encounters – and survives – deadly armoured mercenary Flying Tiger. However, in all the furore, our hero barely notices that he’s having headaches almost constantly these days…

To Be Continued…

With covers by Bob Layton, Smith, Jim Starlin, Ed Hannigan & Al Milgrom, Bingham & Brett Breeding, McDonnell, Brent Anderson & Mitchell, the bonus section includes ‘Original art and covers’, the cover for The Many Armors of Iron Man collection by McDonnell, Mitchell, & Frank D’Armata and contemporary House ad from Marvel Age #12.

As comics companies sought to course correct old attitudes and adapt their wares to a far wider and more diverse readership than they had previously acknowledged, some rash rushed decisions were made that did not suit all the fans. Thankfully, that never stopped the editors and publishers from trying and the wonderful results are here and everywhere in comics because of it. Go read and enjoy and see how it all began to change.
© 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Mighty Marvel Masterworks Black Panther volume 1: The Claws of the Panther


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Frank Giacoia, Barry Windsor-Smith & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-4709-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Golden Oldies for Kids of All Ages… 9/10

The Mighty Marvel Masterworks line was designed with economy in mind. Classic tales of Marvel’s key characters by the founding creators, re-presented in chronological order have been a staple since the 1990s, but always in lavish, expensive collectors editions. These books are far cheaper, but with some deletions like the occasional pin-up. They are printed on lower quality paper and – crucially – are physically smaller, about the dimensions of a paperback book. Your eyesight might be failing and your hands too big and shaky, but they’re perfect for kids and if you opt for the digital editions, that’s no issue at all…

This tome gathers in whole or in part early Black Panther adventures from Fantastic Four #52-54, 56; Tales of Suspense #97-99; Captain America #100; The Avengers #52, 62, 73-74 and Daredevil #52 spanning July 1966-March 1970: including his debut and career as a peripatetic guest star before finally securing a series of his own…

Acclaimed 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 he first appeared in the summer of 1966.

As created by Jack Kirby & Stan Lee and inker Joe Sinnott, T’Challa, son of T’Chaka, is an African monarch whose secretive kingdom is the only source of vibration-absorbing wonder mineral Vibranium. The miraculous alien metal – derived from a fallen meteor which struck the continent in lost antiquity – is the basis of Wakanda’s immense wealth, making it one of the wealthiest and most secretive nations on Earth. These riches allowed the young king to radically remake his country, creating a technological wonderland even after he left Africa to fight as one of America’s mighty Avengers.

For much of its history Wakanda was an isolated, utopian technological wonderland with tribal resources and people safeguarded and led since time immemorial by a human warrior-king deriving cat-like physical advantages from secret ceremonies and a mysterious heart-shaped herb. This has ensured the generational dominance of the nation’s Panther Cult and Royal Family…

The highly guarded “Vibranium mound” had guaranteed the nation’s status as a clandestine superpower for centuries, but modern times increasingly found Wakanda a target for subversion, incursion and even invasion as the world grew ever smaller.

It all began with Fantastic Four #52-53 (cover-dated July and August 1966) as the innovative and unforgettable character launched in ‘The Black Panther!’: an enigmatic African monarch whose secretive kingdom was the only source of a vibration-absorbing alien metal. These mineral riches had enabled him to turn his country into a futuristic marvel who introduced himself by luring the FF into his savage super-scientific kingdom. Although the team was oblivious to the danger, it was all part of T’Challa’s extended plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father.

After battling the team to a standstill, the King revealed his tragic origin in ‘The Way it Began..!’, revealing how his father was murdered by marauding sonic science researcher Ulysses Klaw. However, even as the monarch details how he took vengeance and liberated his people, word comes of incredible solidified-sound monsters attacking the region. Klaw has returned at last…

The cataclysmic clash that follows set the scene for the African Warrior-Chieftain to guest star with a number of Marvel superstars before breaking out into the wider world, but it would years before he finally won his own solo series…

In the aftermath, Human Torch Johnny Storm and his tag-along college roommate Wyatt Wingfoot embark on a quest to rescue the Torch’s Inhuman lover Crystal (imprisoned with her people behind an impenetrable energy barrier in the Himalayas). Their journey is greatly assisted by the Panther’s incredible technology but here that means FF #54’s ‘Whosoever Finds the Evil Eye…!’ ends on page 8, and you’ll need to find a different collection to finish that tale…

The monarch and his personal nemesis returned in #56 when ‘Klaw, the Murderous Master of Sound!’ – reborn as a being of sentient sound energy – ambushes the team in their own home. Happily, the Panther is able to assist them in the nick of time…

Marvel’s inexorable rise to dominance in the American comic book industry really took hold in 1968, when a number of their characters finally got their own titles. Prior to that and due to a highly restrictive distribution deal, the company was tied to a limit of 16 publications per month. To circumvent this, Marvel developed titles with two series per publication, such as Tales of Suspense where original star Iron Man shared honours with late addition Captain America. When the division came, Shellhead started afresh with a First Issue, and Cap retained the numbering of the original title; thereby premiering with #100.

The last few issues of the run – ToS #97-99 and the freshly re-titled Captain America #100 opens with the Sentinel of Liberty having just retired from superhero service and revealed his secret identity to the world, However, he hurtles straight back into the saddle for S.H.I.E.L.D. in ‘And So It Begins…!’: a 4-part saga featuring the Black Panther.

It tells of the apparent return of long-dead Nazi war criminal and Master of Evil Baron Zemo who is attacking the world with an orbital death ray controlled from somewhere in Africa. The epic was scripted by Lee and bombastically plotted and drawn by King Kirby with Sinnott & Syd Shores inking, and sees chaos escalate in ‘The Claws of the Panther!’ and ‘The Man Who Lived Twice!’ before climactically closing in explosive action and a very Big Reveal in ‘This Monster Unmasked!’…

As a result of his aid in ending the crisis, T’Challa was recommended by Cap and won his first regular slot in super team, beginning with The Avengers #52 (cover-dated May 1968). At that time, the active team had been reduced to Hawkeye, the Wasp and a recently re-powered Goliath. This changed when they belatedly welcomed new recruit Black Panther. That delay was because ‘Death Calls for the Arch-Heroes!’ was a fast-paced murder mystery by Roy Thomas, John Buscema & Vince Colletta which also introduced obsessive super-psycho The Grim Reaper, who had seemingly murdered the trio and let bewildered newcomer T’Challa take the rap…

After clearing his name and resurrecting the teammates, the Panther settled in as a high-profile international superhero but remained very much a mystery until Avengers #62 (March 1969, by Thomas. Buscema & George Klein), where in the aftermath of a mystic crisis in Africa, Hawkeye, The Vision and occasional ally Black Knight were invited to visit Wakanda…

‘The Monarch and the Man-Ape!’ was a revelatory if brief interlude in the hidden nation and a brutal exploration of the African Avenger’s history and rivals which resulted in a deadly coup attempt when a super-strong trusted regent turned usurper, declaring himself leader of a banned cult and living icon M’Baku the Man-Ape…

Returned to America, the African Avenger stepped in as another acrobatic superhero loner struggled with identity issues.

Daredevil #52 (May 1969, by Thomas, Barry Windsor-Smith & Johnny Craig) saw the Scarlet Swashbuckler at his lowest ebb: battling robotics genius, Mad-Scientist-for-Hire and certified lunatic Starr Saxon. The war of wills was wickedly engaging: frantically escalating into a psychedelic thriller wherein Saxon uncovers the hero’s greatest secret after the Man Without Fear succumbs to toxins in his bloodstream and goes berserk.

That saga climaxes here in stunning style on ‘The Night of the Panther!’ as the African Avenger joins the hunt for the out-of-control Daredevil before subsequently helping thwart, if not defeat, the dastardly Saxon. The radically unsettling ending blew away all conventions of traditional Fights ‘n’ Tights melodrama and still shocks today…

These initial forays finish with another 2-part tale, beginning with Avengers #73 and ‘The Sting of the Serpent’. Another Thomas triumph – illustrated by Frank Giacoia & Sam Grainger – it pits the Panther (at the height of the Civil Rights campaign) against his natural prey in the form of seditious racist hate-mongers determined to set New York ablaze, leading to a spectacular and shocking clash between whole team and The Sons of the Serpent in ‘Pursue the Panther!’ when the sinister supremacists capture the hero and set a doppelganger loose to destroy his reputation…

With covers by Kirby, Sinnott, Gene Colan, Giacoia, Buscema, Klein, Marie Severin & Palmer, this tidy tome is a wonderful, star-studded precursor to the Black Panther’s solo exploits and a perfect accessory for film-fans looking for more context.
© 2022 MARVEL

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Doctor Doom: The Book of Doom Omnibus


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Larry Lieber, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Denny O’Neil, Chris Claremont, David Michelinie, John Byrne, Jim Shooter, Roger Stern, Walter Simonson, Mark Waid, Dwayne McDuffie& Ed Brubaker, Bob Layton, Tom DeFalco, Christopher Priest, Wally Wood, Gene Colan, Mike Sekowsky, Keith Giffen, Bob Hall, Frank Miller, Dave Cockrum, John Romita Jr., Mike Zeck, Mike Mignola, Mike Wieringo, Casey Jones & Pablo Raimondi, Frank Giacoia, George Tuska, John Buscema, Arthur Adams & Paolo Rivera, & many & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-3420-0 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: One of Marvel’s Mightiest… 10/10

As a rule I’ve traditionally steered clear of reviewing the assorted Omnibus editions out there. For the longest time we felt that they were a bit elitist: phenomenally expensive and frequently only available in physical formats. The print version of this hardback book is 1336 pages and weighs 3.5 kilos – over 7½ pounds! – so if you’re old, infirm or have simply never developed any muscles because you’ve frittered away your life READING COMICS, that’s a big downside…

That’s all starting to change now, so here’s a review of the digital version – which is only as unwieldy as your preferred electronic reader of choice and cost me far less because of a discount sale…

Once upon a time, you hadn’t really made it as a Marvel superhero – or villain – until you’d clashed with Doctor Doom. Victor Von Doom is a troubled genius who escaped the oppression heaped on his Romani people via an ultimately catastrophic scholarship to America. Whilst there he succumbed to an intense rivalry with young Reed Richards, even then perhaps the most brilliant man alive.

The arrogant student performed unsanctioned experiments which went wrong and marred his perfect features, leading him down a path of super-science and sinister sorcery and fuelled his overwhelming hunger for ultimate power and total control. From the ashes of his failure, Von Doom rebuilt his life, returned to seize control of his Balkan homeland and become a danger to the world and the multiverse.

This truly king-sized and epically imperious compendium was released to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Lord of Latveria, who debuted in Fantastic Four #5 April 1962. It gathers many of his greatest battles and other landmark moments of triumph and tragedy, and opens with a contextualising Introduction from Ralph Macchio before reprising the contents of Fantastic Four #5, 6, 39-40, 246-247, 258-260, 350, 352, 500; Amazing Spider-Man #5 & Annual #20; Marvel Super-Heroes #20; Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1-2 & Super-Villain Team-Up #13-14: Champions #16; Uncanny X-Men #145-147; Iron Man #149-150; Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #10-12; Marvel Graphic Novel Emperor Doom; Marvel Graphic Novel Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment; Fantastic Four (volume 2) #67-70; Fantastic Four Special (2005) #1 and Books of Doom #1-6, as well as material from Fantastic Four #236, 358 & Annual 2; Astonishing Tales #1-3, 6-8 and Marvel Double-Shot #2 collectively spanning July 1962-June 2006.

The drama begins as it must with that debut in Fantastic Four #5. At that time, aliens and especially monsters played a major part in earlier Marvel’s output. However, after a tentative start, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s recreation of super-heroes embraced the unique basics of the idiom: taking a full bite out of the Fights ‘n’ Tights apple by introducing the first full-blown, unrepentant super-villain to their budding Marvel Universe.

Admittedly the Mole Man had appeared in #1, but that tragic little gargoyle, for all his plans of world conquest, wouldn’t truly acquire the persona of a costumed foe until his more refined second appearance in FF #22.

‘Prisoners of Doctor Doom’ (inked by the sublimely slick and perfectly polished Joe Sinnott) had it all. An attack by a mysterious enemy from Mr. Fantastic’s past; super-science, magic, lost treasure, time-travel, even pirates. Ha-Haar, me ‘earties!

The tale is sheer comics magic and the creators knew they were on to a winner, as the deadly Doctor returned in the very next issue, teaming with the recently revived and recalcitrantly reluctant Sub-Mariner to attack our heroes as ‘The Deadly Duo!’ in the first Super-Villain Team-Up of the Marvel Age…

Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner was the second super-star of the Timely Age of Comics – but only because he followed the cover-featured Human Torch in the running order of Marvel Mystery Comics #1 in 1939. He has had, however, the most impressive longevity of the company’s original “Big Three” – Torch, Subby and Captain America. The Marine Marvel was revived in 1962 in Fantastic Four #4; once again a conflicted noble villain, prominent in the company’s pantheon ever since.

Inked by Dick Ayers, FF #6 also introduced the concept of antiheroes as Namor was promptly betrayed by Doom and ended up saving the heroes from death in space: creating a truly complex dynamic with his fellow rogue monarch and the FF. The Master of Latveria’s inevitably betrayal colours the relationship of both kingly characters to this day…

Doom was frequent threat to the Fantastic Four, and was the first foe to break another unspoken rule by going after other heroes in the cohesive shared universe Lee & Kirby were building.

Cover dated October 1963, Amazing Spider-Man #5 found the webspinner ‘Marked for Destruction by Dr. Doom!’ – not so much winning as surviving his battle against the deadliest man on Earth. In this titanic comedy of errors the villain again sought super-powered pawns for his war against humanity, but seriously underestimated his juvenile opponent…

The one-dimensional evil genius was recast as a tragic figure forever shackled by his flaws thanks to the primary contents of Fantastic Four Annual #2 (September 1964) where Chic Stone inked ‘The Fantastic Origin of Doctor Doom!’

A short (12 page) scene-setter, it momentously detailed how brilliant “gypsy” youth Victor Von Doom remade himself into the most dangerous man in creation: ruthlessly overcoming obstacles such as ethnic oppression, crushing poverty and the shocking stigma of being the son of a sorceress. That past informed the present as the ultimate villain again attacks old friend Reed Richards and is left falsely believing he has achieved ‘The Final Victory of Dr. Doom!’ through guile, subterfuge and mind-control, but he has in fact suffered his most ignominious defeat. This clash also introduced a long-running plot thread connecting the Monstrous Monarch to time-travelling tyrant Rama Tut/Kang the Conqueror…

Jumping forward to the summer of 1965 FF #39 (cover-dated June, with Frank Giacoia – as Frank Ray – inking) saw the team stripped of their powers and targeted by an enraged Doctor Doom in ‘A Blind Man Shall Lead Them!’ wherein sightless vigilante Daredevil stepped up and provided their only hope of staying alive.

The tale concluded in #40’s ‘The Battle of the Baxter Building’ with Vince Colletta inking a bombastic battle revealing the undeniable power, overwhelming pathos and indomitable heroism of the brutish Thing as – cruelly restored to his monstrous mutated form – he hands Doom the most humiliating defeat of his life…

Experimental try-out title Marvel Super-Heroes #20 (May 1969) awarded the villain his first full-length solo shot in ‘This Man… This Demon!’ Written by Larry Lieber & Roy Thomas, and illustrated by Lieber, Giacoia & Colletta, it restated Doom’s origins and revealed a youthful dalliance with an innocent Romani maid named Valeria. In the now, that failed relationship was exploited by demon alchemist Diablo who claimed to need an ally and partner but truly sought a slave. Doom dealt with the charlatan in typically effective style…

The metal-shod maniac profited from Marvel’s first big expansion and won his own solo-series (Astonishing Tales #1-8). It began with ‘Unto You is Born… the Doomsman!’ (July-August 1970) wherein Thomas & Wally Wood depicted the master manipulator’s daily struggle to maintain iron control over the Ruritanian kingdom of Latveria: building a super-robot to crush an incipient rebellion led by ousted Crown Prince Rudolfo and his mysterious sponsor.

However, the use of Victor von Doom’s lost love had the desired effect and the rebels almost succeeded in driving the tyrant from Doom Castle. In the attendant chaos the Doomsman device wandered away…

AT #2 declared ‘Revolution!’, proving Doom was not the only master of mechanoids as Rudolfo and the enigmatic Faceless One used the lost Doomsman to wreak havoc throughout Latveria, before the final assault in ‘Doom Must Die!’ (scripted by Lieber) saw all the tyrant’s enemies vanquished and the Monarch of Menace once more firmly in control…

Astonishing Tales #6 (June 1971, by Lieber, George Tuska & Mike Esposito) saw the Lord of Latveria invade African nation Wakanda in ‘The Tentacles of the Tyrant!’, resolved to seize its Vibranium, only to fall to the furious tenacity of its king and defender T’Challa the Black Panther in ‘…And If I be Called Traitor!’ (Gerry Conway, Gene Colan & Frank Giacoia).

A major plot and character strand was added for his final solo story in AT #8 (October 1971). ‘…Though Some Call it Magic!’ is a minor landmark entitled wherein Conway, Colan & Tom Palmer revealed the Devil Doctor’s darkest secret. On one night every year the ultimate villain duelled the rulers of Hell in the vain hope of liberating his mother’s soul. She had been a sorceress, and now burned in the inferno for the unholy powers she used in life, powers which her son also possesses.

Victor battled to free her from eternal torment and always failed: a tragic trial which punished both the living and the dead…

With this tormented tale even more depth and drama were added to the greatest villain in the Marvel universe. His residency ended without warning; Doom resumed his status as the MU’s premier antagonist until Giant-Sized Super-Villain Team-Up #1 (cover-dated March 1975): again bathing the Iron Dictator in a starring spotlight beside aggrieved acquaintance The Sub-Mariner. The special and its sequel led to significant series Super-Villain Team-Up and major crossovers in The Avengers and The Champions.

Giant-Sized Super-Villain Team-Up #1 detailed how Doom and Namor grudgingly reunited, in a framing sequence by Thomas, John Buscema & Sinnott interlaced with reprints of previous meetings.

In the intervening years since FF #6, Sub-Mariner had won and lost his own series, despite some very radical and attention-grabbing stunts. At the close, surface dwellers dumped nerve-gas into the sea, accidently but catastrophically altering Namor’s hybrid body, forcing him to wear a hydrating-suit to breathe. The same toxin had plunged the entire nation of Atlantis into a perpetual coma…

Here, in ‘Encounter at Land’s End!’, Prince Namor – alone and pushed to the brink of desperation – rescues Doom from a deadly plunge to Earth after the Iron Dictator’s latest defeat (at the hands of the FF and Silver Surfer) in an impressive and effective framing sequence bracketing two classic reprint tales (the aforementioned ‘This Man… This Demon!’ and ‘In the Darkness Dwells Doom!’ from Sub-Mariner #20 – and not included in this already too-heavy tome).

Sub-Mariner is in dire need of scientific wizardry to cure his sleeping kin and prepared to offer an alliance against mankind to get it. Initially refused and rebuked by Doom, Namor refuses to back down…

Following Thomas’ editorial ‘The Road to Land’s End’, Giant-Sized Super-Villain Team-Up #2 sees Doom reconsider the partnership deal in ‘To Bestride the World!’ (June 1975, by Thomas, Mike Sekowsky & Sam Grainger) after his own vast robot army rebels. The crisis is caused by the tyrant’s long-lost Doomsman droid – in its new guise of Andro – who returns and co-opts the mechanoids for a war against all organic life. As a result of the blistering battle and extensive carnage-wreaking, Namor and Doom triumph together and part as uneasy allies, only to regroup in the pages of Super-Villain Team-Up #1 (beginning August 1975) in a chaotic ongoing series…

SVTU #13 (August 1977) ended the sleeping Atlantis storyline as Doom finally fulfilled his oath, and resurrected the comatose mer-people, but only after a blistering sub-sea battle between Namor, amphibian arch-nemesis Krang and a Brobdingnagian sea beast in ‘When Walks the Warlord!’ courtesy of Bill Mantlo, Keith Giffen & Don Perlin).

With Atlantis and Namor restored, a new era began in Super-Villain Team-Up #14 (October 1977). ‘A World for the Winning!’, by Mantlo, Bob Hall, Perlin & Duffy Vohland found mutant villain Magneto tricked into a duel with Doom who was at that moment de facto master of the world after since seeding the planet’s atmosphere with mind-control gas. Ever the sportsman, the Lord of Latveria released Magneto from mental control, allowing him to liberate one other thrall and challenging them both to save the world from his ultimate dominance…

It was SVTU’s last issue and the story concluded in The Champions #16 (November 1977) as the Master of Magnetism and The Beast overcame all odds to save the day in ‘A World Lost!’ (Mantlo, Hall & Mike Esposito).

Despite appearing seemingly everywhere we pick up Doom three years later as Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14 (1980) sees Frank Miller & Tom Palmer perfectly recapture the moody mastery of Steve Ditko’s peak periods. That year’s summer offering was a frantic magical mystery masterpiece scripted by Denny O’Neil wherein Doctor Doom and extra-dimensional dark god Dread Dormammu attempt to unmake Reality by invoking the Arcane Armageddon of “The Bend Sinister”.

‘The Book of the Vishanti’ reveals how an unsuspecting dupe captures Doctor Strange for the malevolent allies, almost unleashing cosmic hell with only the wondrous wallcrawler left to literally save the world: a thrilling confection of magic and mayhem that deeply references and reverences the glory days of Ditko, by channelling the legendary first team-up of webspinner and wizard from Spidey’s second annual.

Gathering Uncanny X-Men #145-147 – spanning May to July 1981 – Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum & Joe Rubinstein oversaw an extended clash of cultures with ‘Kidnapped!’ finding the mutant outcasts targeted by Doom. The assault was triggered through the machinations of deranged assassin Arcade, with half of the team – Storm, Colossus, Angel, Wolverine and Nightcrawler – invading the Diabolical Dictator’s castle whilst a substitute-squad consisting of Iceman, Polaris, Banshee and Havoc despatched to the latter maniac’s mechanised ‘Murderworld!’ to rescue innocent family and friends kidnapped as a preliminary to the plot…

Sadly, in the interim Doom triumphs over the invaders to his castle, but his act of entrapping claustrophobe Ororo backfires, triggering a ‘Rogue Storm!’ that threatens to erase the USA from the globe…

August and September 1981 heralded Iron Man #149-150, wherein David Michelinie, John Romita Jr. & Bob Layton crafted a time-travelling clash with Marvel’s deadliest villain. In ‘Doomquest!’ and ‘Knightmare’ the Armoured Avenger and Demon Doctor are trapped in the days of King Arthur and must unite to rebuild themselves and their tech as well as defeat evil Morgana Le Fey before they can return to their home time!

After achieving superstar status on The X-Men, writer/artist John Byrne moved on to carve out a one-man renaissance of the Fantastic Four, beginning with #232. He achieved his dream of relatively complete autonomy when assigned all the creative chores on Marvel’s flagship book and hit an early peak in #236’s ‘Terror in a Tiny Town’ (cover-dated November 1981).

His fifth issue was a 40-page epic crafted to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the team: reprising the classic origin and crafting a classic confrontation with both Doctor Doom and Puppet Master. It remains one of the very best non-Kirby tales of the entire canon.

The Lord of Latveria returned in a thematic sequel in Fantastic Four #246 & 247 (cover-dated September & October 1982) as ‘Too Many Dooms’ saw the Iron Tyrant escape incarceration to launch a retaliatory strike against all his enemies and reclaim his shattered but free kingdom in concluding chapter ‘This Land is Mine!’

Another extended Doom saga appeared in FF #258-260 (September – November 1983) beginning with ‘Interlude’ as the newly reinstalled ruler schools and programs his appointed heir Kristoff in statecraft and dominance whilst preparing his next strike against his American enemies. Recruiting cosmic marauder Terrax the Tamer, he launches that attack in ‘Choices’, only to apparently perish when the Silver Surfer joins the escalating battle ‘When Titans Clash!’

Regarded as dead and replaced by Kristoff as a legacy tyrant, Victor Von Doom became the star of Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars: kickstarting the seemingly insatiable modern passion for vast, braided mega-crossover publishing events, which came about because of an impending action figures licensing deal with toy monolith Mattel.

Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, a great advocate of tales accessible to new, younger readers as well as the dedicated fan-base, apparently concocted the rather simplistic but engaging saga starring the House of Ideas’ top characters: building his tale around a torrent of unsolicited, inspirational mail from readers, all begging for one huge dust-up between all the heroes and villains…

The 12-issue Limited Series launched with a May 1984 cover-date and closed (April 1985) with a double-sized blockbusting battle that left many characters changed forever – or at least as “Forever” as comics get…

The premise was that all-powerful force The Beyonder abducted many Earth heroes and villains – and Galactus – in a quest to understand the emotion of desire. The enigmatic, almighty entity dumped the abducted on a purpose-built Battleworld created from and populated with fragments of other planets as a vast arena in which to prove which was better: “self-gratification or sacrifice”…

As crafted by Shooter, Mike Zeck & John Beatty, it saw Avengers, X-Men, FF, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Doom, Molecule Man, Ultron, Dr. Octopus, the Lizard, Enchantress, Absorbing Man, Kang the Conqueror, Wrecking Crew and Galactus teleported into the deep unknown…

After Doom fails to convince his fellow villains of the underlying threat, he tries to join the heroes before in exasperation, taking charge for himself…

Represented here by Secret Wars #10-12 (February-April 1985), ‘Death to the Beyonder!’ sees Doom makes his move, using a hastily constructed device to absorb all the omnipotent instigator’s power, using the stolen energies to rebuild himself and declare the Secret War over with Doom the sole victor…

In ‘…And Dust to Dust!’, he exults in the joys of becoming omnipotent, but the troubled new god finds it hard to hang on to lust for conquest, or even personal ambition after achieving all-consuming divinity, and his benign acts and vapid indolence betray a certain lack of drive and ambition…

With heroes and villains nervously awaiting the new supreme one’s next move, events take a subtly disturbing turn as a strange energy wisp begins to possess a succession of heroes, making its way ever closer to the Doom Deity…

The other heroes remain deep in conference, debating their response to the self-proclaimed but apparently benevolent saviour of the universe. At the moment they finally decide to oppose him they are all vaporised by a bolt of energy…

Of course it doesn’t end there as the resurgent Beyonder battles through heroic and villainous proxies to reclaim his purloined power and put everything to rights – sort of – in blockbusting finale ‘…Nothing to Fear!…’

Returned to mortal life, he appears here next as Emperor Doom (1987): an all-original graphic novel conceived by Mark Gruenwald, Michelinie and Shooter, scripted by Michelinie and illustrated by Bob Hall with additional inking by Keith Williams.

The plot itself is delightfully sly and simple: for once eschewing rash attacks against assembled superheroes, deadly dictator Doom has devised a scheme to dominate humanity through subtler means. Inviting Sub-Mariner to act as his agent, the master villain uses the sub-sea anti-hero to neutralise mechanical heroes and rivals prior to using a pheromone-based bio-weapon to make all organic beings utterly compliant to his will. Naturally, Doom then betrays his aquatic ally…

Meanwhile, energy being Wonder Man is undergoing a month-long isolation experiment to determine the nature of his abilities. When he exits the chamber, he discovers the entire planet has willingly, joyously accepted Doom as their natural and beloved ruler. Alone and desperate, the last Avenger must devise a method of saving the world from its contented subjugation…

Of course there’s another side to this story. Doom, ultimately utterly successful, has turned the planet into an orderly, antiseptic paradise: no war, no want, no sickness and no conflict, just happy productive citizens doing what they’re told. In this totalitarian triumph, all trains run on time and nobody is discontented. All Doom has to do is accept heartfelt cheers and do the daily paperwork.

Sadly, with the entire world an idealised clone of Switzerland, the Iron Despot is bored out of his mind…

So it’s with mixed emotion that Doom realises Wonder Man and a select band of newly liberated Avengers are coming for him, determined to free the world or die…

Tense and compelling this intriguingly low-key tale abandoned traditional all-out action for a far more reasoned and sinisterly realistic solution – disappointing and baffling a large number of fans at the time – but the clever premise and solution, understated illustration and wickedly tongue-in-cheek attitude remove this yarn from the ordinary Fights ‘n’ Tights milieu and elevate it to one of the most chillingly mature Avengers epics ever produced.

It’s followed by another OGN: Triumph and Torment by Roger Stern, Michael Mignola & Mark Badger.

This occult odd couple concoction is one of the very best Marvel Universe yarns; a powerful tale contrasting the origins of the two doctors to produce effective motivations for and deeper insights into both characters.

Stephen Strange was America’s greatest surgeon, a vain and arrogant man who cared nothing for the sick, except as a means to wealth and glory. When a drunken car-crash ended his career, Strange hit the skids until an overheard barroom tall tale led him to Tibet, an ancient magician, and eventual enlightenment through daily redemption. He battles otherworldly evil as Sorcerer Supreme and Master of the Mystic arts.

When a magical call goes out to all the World’s adepts, offering a granted wish to the victor in a contest of sorcery, both Doom and Strange are among those gathered. After mystic combat reduces the assemblage to the two doctors, Doom’s granted wish is to rescue his mother’s soul from Hell…

A classic quest saga, Triumph & Torment saw the twinned mages storming the Underworld in a mission of vain hope and warped mercy, battling the hordes of Mephisto and their own natures in a mesmerizing epic of power and pathos.

Stern was at his absolute writing peak here and the unlikely art team of Mignola and Badger defy any superlatives I could use. The art is simply magical, especially the mesmerising colouring, also courtesy of Mr Badger. It’s augmented here by Macchio’s Afterword to the original release.

Writer/artist Walt Simonson and inker Allen Milgrom then end years of confusion in ‘The More Things Change…! (Or… It’s the Real Thing…’ (Fantastic Four #350, cover-dated March 1991) as Doom, Kristoff and countless rogue Doombots all battle to decide who’s the real deal: a conflict mirrored by two overlapping iterations of the FF also deciding – far less lethally – who will stay in the official line up. With treachery and betrayal everywhere, the tale concludes in Fantastic Four #352 (May 1991) as ‘No Time Like the Present! (Or… It Ain’t Funny How Time Slips Away!’ sees both clashes coincide as time itself is sundered and the bureaucratic myrmidons of the Time Variance Authority step in…

Some crucial clarity into all that chaos comes in Fantastic Four #358 (November 1991) as Tom DeFalco & Arthur Adams provide ‘The Official Story’ (A Tale of Doom!)’ to reset reality and usher in a less confused cosmos…

A beautifully painted vignette from Marvel Double Shot #2 (February 2003 by Christopher Priest & Paolo Rivera), ‘Masks’ is a character piece revealing how a psychological assassin almost ends the tyranny of Doom before Fantastic Four (volume 3) #67-70 & (volume 1) #500 – cumulatively spanning May-September 2003 – sees the villain reinvent himself and almost win his eternal war against Reed Richards. This saga concluded the FF’s third volume before the series reverted to its original numbering with #500: capping a spectacular run by writer Mark Waid and illustrator Mike Wieringo, gloriously celebrating their “back-to-basics” approach which utterly rejuvenated the venerable property in 2003.

Key to that revival was a reassessment and reappraisal of their greatest foe as seen in ‘Under her Skin’ (#67, inked by Karl Kesel) wherein Doom abandons his technological gifts and inclinations, rejecting them for overwhelming sorcerous might to humiliate and destroy his greatest rival. All he must do is sacrifice his greatest love and only hope of redemption…

This terrifying glimpse into Doom’s past and shocking character study in obsession was but prologue to 4-part epic ‘Unthinkable’ which opened one month later. Waid’s greatest gift is his ability to embed hilarious moments of comedy into tales of shattering terror and poignant drama, and it’s never better displayed than here when Marvel’s First Family suddenly find their daily antics and explorations ripped from them.

The method is straightforward enough: Doom attacks them through their children, using baby Valeria as a medium for eldritch exploitation and sending firstborn Franklin Richards to Hell as part payment to the demons to whom the debased doctor has sold the last dregs of his soul…

A supreme technologist, Richards had never truly accepted the concept of magic, but with Mystic Master Stephen Strange oddly unwilling to help, the reeling and powerless Mr. Fantastic nonetheless leads his team to Latveria for a showdown, still unable to grasp just how much his arch-foe has changed.

Invading the sovereign – if rogue – nation, the team fight the greatest battle of their lives and lose anyway. The normally quicksilver mind of Richards seems unable to deal with his new reality and the FF are locked away in prisons specifically and sadistically designed to torment them. As a sign of his utter disdain, Doom locks his broken rival in a colossal library of grimoires and mystic manuscripts, knowing the defeated, dogmatic scientist can never make use of what is there. Big mistake…

Before attacking the FF, Doom had ensorcelled Dr. Strange, but greatly underestimated the Sorcerer Supreme. Struggling to free himself, the mage established contact with Richards and began teaching the unbelieving ultra-rationalist the basics of magic…

By the time Doom discovers his danger, Reed has freed his comrades and daughter. In the catastrophic battle which ensues, the Iron Dictator replaces Franklin as the hostage of Hell, but not before, in one final act of malice, maiming Reed with searing mystic retaliation: melting half his face by means neither magic nor medicine can mend…

Although victorious, the Fantastic Four are far from winners. Doom’s assault upon the family has scarred them all, but none more so than Franklin, whose time in Hell left him deeply traumatised and near-catatonic.

Dwayne McDuffie, Casey Jones & Vince Russell then deliver a restrained psycho-drama in ‘My Dinner with Doom’ (Fantastic Four Special, February 2006). Here the rivals intellectually sparr: testing each other’s defences as the Latverian simultaneously seeks to wipe out all his lesser enemies.

The story portion of this book concludes as Ed Brubaker, Pablo Raimondi, Mark Farmer, Drew Hennessy & Robin Riggs revisit, in-fill, expand and apply mature modern nuance to Doom’s origins and life in Books of Doom #1-6 (January-June 2006) detailing again how a hounded boy became a wounded exile who overcame all obstacles – physical, emotional and ethical – to become supreme ruler of Latveria and menace to all mankind…

The comic classics are supplemented by a gallery of covers by Kirby – with Sinnott, Ayers, Wood & Giacoia; Ditko, Lieber, Colletta; Marie Severin, Bill Everett. John Buscema, John Verpoorten, Esposito, John Romita Sr., Herb Trimpe; Ron Wilson, Gil Kane, Giffen, Byrne, Terry Austin, Miller, Cockrum, John Romita Jr., Simonson, Zeck, Hall, Williams, Mignola, Paul Ryan, Joe Jusko, Wieringo, Kesel, Rivera and Leinil Francis Yu with even more to adore.

The graphic grimoire continues with a section of Doom pinups from Fantastic Four Annual #1 (1963, by Kirby), Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1(1964, by Ditko), Marvelmania Poster (1970, by Kirby) and Quotations from Chairman Doom 1984 (F.O.O.M. #4 Winter 1973, by Robert Cosgrove Kirby); Doom’s entry from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition (1985, by Gruenwald, Peter Sanderson, Byrne & Kirby), spoof ads from Marvel 1989: The Year in Review (by Mignola, Gregory Wright) plus a Marvel Masterwork Pin-up by Ron Frenz & Sinnott from Fantastic Four #358.

Dedicated art lovers can luxuriate in layouts, design sketches and unused art from Wieringo and the covers to The Villainy of Doctor Doom TPB (1999 by Kirby, Klaus Janson & Marie Javins) – plus Tom Brevoort’s Introduction to that tome – and earlier Doom depictions revisited in this big book.

These include covers to Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four vol. 4 (Kirby & Dean White) and Fantastic Four Annual #7 (1969, Kirby & Sinnott); Spider-Man Classics #6 (Frenz & Austin, September 1993); Spider-Man Collectible Series #11 (Frenz & Milgrom, October 2006); X-Men Classic #49 & 51 (Steve Lightle, July & September 1990); Iron Man vs. Doctor Doom (Julie Bell, 1994); Greatest Villains of the Fantastic Four TPB (Vince Evans 1995), variant covers to Emperor Doom and Triumph and Torment, Fantastic Four #500 Directors Cut (2003 by Wieringo, Kesel & Richard Isanove.

Sheer comic enchantment, this a book no lover of the fantastic fiction can afford to ignore -just as long as they eat plenty of Spinach…
© 2022 MARVEL

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Black Panther Adventures


By Jeff Parker, Marc Sumerak, Christopher Yost, Elliot Kalan, Roy Thomas, Manuel Garcia, Ig Guara, Scott Wegener, Christopher Jones, Chris Giarusso, John Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-1034-1 (Digest PB/Digital edition)

From its earliest days, Marvel always courted and accommodated young comic book consumers, often through separates titles and imprints. In 2003, the company instituted the Marvel Age line to reframe classic original tales by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others for a fresh-faced 21st century readership.

The experiment was tweaked in 2005, becoming Marvel Adventures. The tone of all the tales was very much that of the company’s burgeoning TV animation franchises, in execution if not name. Titles bearing the Marvel Adventures brand included Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and The Avengers and ran until 2010 when they were all cancelled and replaced by new volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

Most of those comic book yarns have since been collected in digest-sized compilations such as this one, gathering a quartet of all-ages Black Panther tales but also including a brace of early1960s episodes from his first stint in mainstream MU series The Avengers.

Acclaimed 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 he first debuted as a character in Fantastic Four #52.

In that 1966 landmark the cat king attacked Marvel’s First Family as part of his extended scheme to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father, before eventually teaming up with them to defeat malign master of sound Klaw.

This eclectic compilation – comprising Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #10, Marvel Adventures The Avengers #22, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #1, Marvel Universe Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #8, plus Silver Age epics from Avengers #52 and 62 – begins by broadly reimagining that initial FF encounter in ‘Law of the Jungle’ by Jeff Parker, Manuel Garcia & Scott Koblish (from Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #10; May 2006) wherein the quixotic quartet are suckered into buying smuggled Vibranium.

The miracle mineral is Wakanda’s only export and the illegal sale quickly brings the duped heroes into savage conflict with a mysterious cat-garbed super-warrior. Tracking the Black Panther back to his super-scientific jungle kingdom, the team  eventually convince the king of their innocence and good intentions before teaming up to tackle the true villains…

Two years later Marvel Adventures The Avengers #22 (May 2008 and by Marc Sumerak, Ig Guara & Jay Leisten) revealed the ‘Wakanda Wild Side’ as sightings of murderous mutant Sabretooth in Africa draws Wolverine, Storm, Captain America, Spider-Man, Giant-Girl and the Hulk into an uncharted kingdom. They needn’t have bothered: Wakanda’s Panther chieftain is more than equal to the task of taking down the savage invader…

Following a page of comedic Marvel Mini Classics by Chris Giarusso, a short vignette from Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #1 (November 2010) as Christopher Yost & Scott Wegener reveal how rival heroes T’Challa and Hawkeye work out their ‘Trust’ issues whilst battling crazed villain Whiplash.

Never the success the company hoped, the Marvel Adventures project was superseded in 2012 by specific comics tied to those Disney XD television shows designated as “Marvel Universe cartoons”, but these collected stories are still an amazingly entertaining and superbly accessible means of introducing characters and concepts to kids born sometimes three generations or more away from the originating events. They’re also pretty good fun for us old lags too…

Another short tale – this time from Marvel Universe Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #8 (November 2012) – unites the Panther with the Hulk. Crafted by Elliott Kalan, Christopher Jones & Pond Scum, ‘Mayhem of the Madbomb!’ finds Green Goliath and Cat King furiously fighting Hydra to prevent he detonation of an insanity-inducing WMD stashed in the Empire State Building…

Wrapping up the action are a brace of classic exploits from Roy Thomas & John Buscema.

On Captain America’s recommendation the Black Panther joined the Avengers in #52’s ‘Death Calls for the Arch-Heroes!’ (May 1968, inked by Vince Colletta): a fast-paced murder mystery which also saw the advent of obsessive super-psycho The Grim Reaper who tried to frame the freshly-arrived-in-America T’Challa for the murder of Goliath, The Wasp and Hawkeye.

Then ‘The Monarch and the Man-Ape!’ (Avengers #62, March 1969, and inked by George Klein) offered Marvel fans the first real view of hidden Wakanda – and a brutal exploration of T’Challa’s history and rivals – as his trusted regent seeks to usurp the kingdom and overturn the state religion after declaring himself to be ‘M’Baku the Man-Ape!’…

Augmented by a cover gallery from Carlo Pagulayan & Chris Sotomayor, Leonard Kirk & Val Staples, Scott Wegener & Jean- François Beaulieu, Khoi Pham & Edgar Delgado and John Buscema, these ferociously enthralling riotous mini-epics are extremely enjoyable and engaging, but parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the level of violence might not be what everybody considers “All-Ages Super Hero Action”…
© 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Daredevil Marvel Masterworks volume 13 


By Marv Wolfman, Bill Mantlo, Jim Shooter, Chris Claremont, Bob Brown, John Buscema, John Byrne, Sal Buscema, Gil Kane, George Tuska, Frank Robbins, Al Milgrom & various (MARVEL) 
ISBN: 978-1-3029-1634-3 (HB/Digital edition) 

Matt Murdock is a blind lawyer whose remaining senses hyper-compensate, making him an astonishing acrobat, formidable fighter and living lie-detector. A second-string hero for much of his early career, Daredevil was nonetheless a striking and popular one, due mostly to the captivatingly humanistic art of Gene Colan. DD fought gangsters, super-villains and even the occasional monster or alien invasion, quipping and wisecracking his way through life and life-threatening combat, utterly unlike the grim, moody, quasi-religious metaphor he became.  

After a disastrous on-again, off-again relationship with his secretary Karen Page, Murdock took up with Russian émigré Natasha Romanoff, infamous and notorious ex-spy Black Widow. She was framed for murder and prosecuted by Matt’s best friend and law partner Foggy Nelson before the blind lawman cleared her. Leaving New York with her for the West Coast, Matt joined a prestigious San Francisco law firm but adventure, disaster and intrigue sought out the Sightless Sentinel and ultimately drew him back to the festering Big Apple… 

Spanning May 1976 to May 1977, the 13th compilation re-presents Daredevil #133-143, Annual #4, a crossover from Ghost Rider #19-20, and a spin-off from Marvel Premiere #39-40, cover-dated December 1977 and January 1978.  

We kick off with an Introduction from Marv Wolfman, recalling the strange days of his tenure as writer/editor before arguably the best proof possible of that opinion follows… 

Marvel was always keenly aware that any real-world attention was beneficial. Daredevil #133 begins laying groundwork for an unfolding epic about fake news and disinformation in public office (and remember this set just after Watergate and long before Trumpism!) before digressing with a fanciful fluff piece co-starring real-world stage trickster and headline-seeker Uri Geller. Concocted by Wolfman, Bob Brown & Jim Mooney, ‘Introducing: Mind-Wave and his Fearsome Think Tank!’ is a happily forgettable yarn about a maniac in a super-tank attacking Manhattan. Thankfully, Mind-Wave‘s arch enemy (Geller, claiming to have psychic powers granted him by aliens) is there to aid the Scarlet Swashbuckler… 

More sinister secrets of the perception-shaping masterplan of The Jester are revealed in #134’s ‘There’s Trouble In New York City…’ as disgruntled former football star/insurance salesman Brock Jones returns. Previously, he had stumbled into a plot to control Earth and took possession of a rocket-powered super-suit coveted by enemy agents. DD had almost been killed by the suit’s original owner, leading to the usual superhero misunderstanding and a savage clash. Now, as TV news showed Daredevil killing cops and with the shapeshifting Chameleon robbing at will, Brock again dons the suit to help the common man as The Torpedo, innocently adding to the chaos and confusion before the Chameleon is caught … 

The Jester’s grand scheme is revealed in ‘What Is Happening?’ The Manic Mountebank has exploited a computer pioneer to create a wave of stories making the public mistrust the authorities by manipulating the media. (I’m not commenting, I’m not commenting…) 

Seeing newspaper reports, photos and even news tapes of John and Robert Kennedy alive, superheroes killing cops and “proof” that Viet Nam never happened, but secret wars in Chile and Saudi Arabia did, much of the public readily accepts the villain was framed, resulting in DD being arrested and subsequently handed over to an army of thugs and gangsters. 

John Buscema assumed pencilling with #136 as the Jester’s endgame is exposed. When President Gerald Ford announces that New York City’ s police and all its superheroes have gone insane, citizens are urged to defend themselves at all costs. The entire scheme has been devised to leave the city open to plunder by the Jester’s hastily-united army of mobsters… 

Unable to keep away, DD takes action but is quickly captured and subjected to ‘A Hanging for a Hero!’ As a lynch mob of panicked citizens and enraged criminals almost execute the Man without Fear he flamboyantly escapes but is forced back into action for concluding episode 137 ‘The Murder Maze Strikes Twice!’ as “President Ford’s” broadcasts demand citizens take up arms and “take back Wall Street” from the thugs that now control it… 

Deducing the Jester’s location, DD storms in, dismantles all the villain’s traps – and minions – and restores order and justice, only to discover personal crises boiling over… 

Throughout the media reality war, Daredevil has been seeking to prove the innocence of Heather Glenn‘s father. Matt Murdock’s current girlfriend knows her dad isn’t a ruthless, murdering slumlord but that someone must have framed him. All evidence says otherwise. 

Now, as Matt and Foggy return to the case, word comes (for readers, as two excerpted pages from Ghost Rider #19 – August 1976 by Tony Isabella, Frank Robbins & Vince Colletta) depicting Karen Page being kidnapped by friend and ally Stuntman… 

It leads directly into Daredevil #138 where Wolfman, John Byrne & Mooney ask ‘Where is Karen Page?’ as the Man Without Fear drops everything for his one true love: heading for Los Angeles where Page is a Hollywood star with a complex convoluted life. However her relationship with hell-tainted Johnny Blaze is not why she was targeted, but rather from her father’s inventions and career as super-maniac Death’s Head …and the impostor now using the name to further his own insane plans… 

The saga concludes in Ghost Rider #20 (Wolfman, Byrne & Don Perlin) as ‘Two Against Death!’ exposes who is truly pulling all the strings with Satan-spawn and Scarlet Swashbuckler pairing to save Karen. Meanwhile in Manhattan, Foggy continues investigating Glenn Industries and is shot… 

The plot thread expands in Daredevil Annual #4’s ‘The Name of the Game is Death!’ Plotted by Wolfman, scripted by Chris Claremont, drawn by George Tuska and inked by Frank Chiaramonte, it finds The Black Panther aiding an industrialist whose son is abducted. 

Thanks to friendship with King T’Challa and judicious use of Vibranium, Robert Mallory has built the world’s first Tidal Power Station. Someone thinks holding his son will win them the plans but hasn’t counted on T’Challa paying his friend a visit at this inopportune moment… 

Daredevil, meanwhile, fights for his life, having stumbled into a furiously rampaging Sub-Mariner. Prince Namor has returned to the vile surface world because of a man named Mallory and a power station that while providing cheap clean energy for mankind will overheat the seas and divert the tides…  

Concluding chapter ‘And Who Shall Save the Panther?’ begins with the Great Cat prowling Manhattan, having tracked the crime to ambitious mobster Ruffio Costa. Sadly, he is unable to defeat the gangsters alone and eventually DD steps in to deliver a ransom, accidentally brining Sub-Mariner along for the ride… 

When the superbeings converge and clash, Costa is caught in the carnage and a lab explosion transforms him into something far worse that gradual climate crisis and the factions must all temporarily unite to defeat the threat of Mind-Master…  

The editorial story behind Wolfman, Sal Buscema & Mooney’s ‘A Night in the Life’ (Daredevil #139) is a true insight to comics at their best, but for readers it’s simply a chance to enjoy enhanced drama, suspense and action as the search for a missing haemophiliac boy overlaps a police manhunt for a mad bomber demanding the return of his drug-addicted wife. Wolfman was unsurpassed at interleaving soap opera melodrama with costumed cavorting, and the fraught tone carried over to in #140 as Bill Mantlo, Sal B & Klaus Janson detailed ‘Death Times Two!’ when a runaway bus dumped Daredevil into a hunt for accidentally united old enemies The Gladiator and The Beetle who then aimed a runaway train at Grand Central Station and attempted to settle old scores with the hero amidst the dead and dying… 

An even bigger change in tone began in #141. ‘Target: Death!’ was plotted by Wolfman, and scripted by Jim Shooter, with pencils divided between Gil Kane and Bob Brown, and Jim Mooney inking. It is very much a forerunner of what Roger McKenzie and Frank Miller would conceive of in months to come, opening with another murder attempt on Foggy and fresh insights into the abduction of his fiancée Debbie. More secrets of Glenn Industries are teased out, a killer dies and DD’s ultimate arch-nemesis returns for another killing spree before abruptly changing his mind and tying defeated Daredevil to a giant arrow and firing him at the New Jersey Palisades… 

Pulling out all the stops for his final forays, Wolfman – with Brown & Mooney – resurrected more classic villains for #142. Escaping one doom, DD meets new hero Nova, even as Mr. Hyde and The Cobra reunite, targeting the Scarlet Swashbuckler as he passes the rooftop rainforest garden of a young millionaire – ‘The Concrete Jungle’…  

This transitional selection concludes for now with ‘“Hyde and Go Seek” Sayeth the Cobra!’ (Wolfman, Brown & Keith Pollard) wherein the villains leave our hero to the carnivores populating the skyscraper Eden while they plunder the penthouse below. The goal is not wealth but ancient books and formulas to enhances their powers, but as ever, they grievously underestimate the boldness and ingenuity of the Man Without Fear… 

Also included in my dynamic digital edition is the two-issue try-out tale starring hero/villain The Torpedo who first accidentally battled DD in Daredevil #126-127. After the brief reprise recounted above he was given his big shot at fame Marvel Premiere #39-40 (from December 1977-January 1978) before ultimately dying in Rom: Spaceknight and being replaced by a teenaged female.  

‘Ride a Wild Rocket!’ and ‘…Battle with the Big Man!’ was a rushed-seeming collaboration of Wolfman, Mantlo, Brown, Al Milgrom, Josef Rubinstein, Bob Wiacek and Alan Weiss showing Brock hunting the rocketeer gang who originally owned his turbo-suit, but all his efforts to reclaim the acclaim of his quarterbacking days seem pointless. Harassed at home and bored at work, his American Dream is dying.  

After almost triggering a nuclear meltdown he is considered a menace, even though he saved the state from atomic catastrophe, and a critical change comes after the hidden mastermind behind all his woes and superhero aspirations decides enough is enough.  

As seen Captain America, Machine Man, and The Incredible Hulk, long-time villain Senator Eugene “Kligger” Stivak is a leader of criminal capitalists The Corporation and decides he will take care of Brock personally, but he has seriously underestimated the over-the-hill hero’s stubbornness and desperate need to regain his self-esteem… 

Supplementing all the amazing comics adventures, the extras sections include Wolfman’s editorial from #133 detailing the circumstances of Geller/Marvel’s publicity stunt, followed by original art pages all inked by Jim Mooney, a cover and splash page from John Buscema plus a splash each for Byrne and Brown, and an extensive biography section.  

As the social upheaval of the 1970s receded, these fabulous fantasy tales strongly indicated that the true potential of Daredevil was finally in reach. Their narrative energy and exuberant excitement are dashing delights no action fan will care to miss. 

…And the next volume heads into darker shadows, the grimmest of territory and the breaking of many boundaries… 
© 2019 MARVEL  

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Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers


By Reginald Hudlin, Denys Cowan & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4401-4 (TPB/digital editions)

Everybody loves a solid sensibly sensational team-up and, if you’re a comicbook fan, “discovering” a slice of previously unrevealed secret history about your preferred fictive universe is an indescribable thrill. So, what better than if you can combine both guilty pleasures with enjoying a rollicking four-fisted action rollercoaster ride, well written and superbly rendered?

Just one such concatenation of good things in one basket is Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers by Reginald Hudlin & Denys Cowan. Comic continuity is especially fluid in this yarn, which was originally released as a 4-issue miniseries between June and September 2010. It depicts the secret and tumultuous first meeting between the patriotic symbols of two embattled nations and, thankfully, only nit-picking, uber fans-boys need quibble over which (of at least three) “first contacts” this riotous romp describes. The rest of us can simply hang on as a fabulous all-action clash unfolds before our very eyes…

The Black Panther rules over a fantastic African paradise which isolated itself from the rest of the world millennia ago. Blessed with unimaginable resources – both natural and not so much – the nation of Wakanda developed uninterrupted and unmolested by European imperialism into the most technologically advanced human nation on Earth.

The country has also never been conquered. The main reason for this is an unbroken line of divinely-sponsored warrior kings who safeguard the nation. The other is a certain miraculous super-mineral found nowhere else on Earth…

In contemporary times that chieftain is T’Challa: an unbeatable, feline-empowered, strategic genius who divides his time between ruling at home and serving abroad in superhero teams such as The Avengers, beside costumed champions such as Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Thor and Captain America…

However, long ago as World War II engulfed the world, another Black Panther – the grandfather of the one we know best – met a far younger and more impulsive Sentinel of Liberty…

With the first two chapters inked by Klaus Janson, the action kicks off in the middle of a furious as Gabe Jones – the only black guy in Sgt. Fury’s Howling Commandos – is just as startled as his white buddies to find a masked maniac dressed like an American flag pounding the crap out of the Nazis they’re being swamped by…

Although they initially think he’s a clown, the Howlers soon take to the naïve Star-Spangled Captain America. They have to, as the Top Brass think they complement each other and have ordered soldiers and superhero to work together from now on.

Meanwhile in Germany, Adolf Hitler orders his most elite warriors to invade a barely known African kingdom and secure supplies of a vibration-absorbing element crucial to the Wehrmacht’s development of V-weapons. Arch-supremacist Baron von Strucker and his cronies expect no trouble from the primitive, sub-human non-Aryans, but the malign Red Skull has reservations…

When the Allies get word of the expedition, they quickly send their top team to stop the Nazis, but they are too late. The fabled Wakandans have already despatched a German expeditionary force with the ruthless silent efficiency that has kept their homeland unconquered for thousands of years…

As a shocked Captain America surveys the bloody handiwork, he is challenged by a warrior in a sleek black outfit, looking like a human panther…

Soon his amazement increases exponentially. Although seemingly barbaric and uncivilised, the Wakandans are technologically more advanced than America, capable enough to capture Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos without a fight, and with a spy network that encompasses the world and has even gleaned his top secret civilian identity. Worst of all, the Black Panther kicks his butt when they inevitably clash…

Soon, however, the Americans are “guests” of the Wakandans, forced to watch as the next wave of Nazi conquerors attempt to overwhelm the nation. However, what nobody realises is that the Skull is in command now and the sacrifice of an entire tank division is part of his overall strategy to conquer the upstart Africans defying the might of the Third Reich…

Soon, the Howlers are on tricky ground: acting as unschooled diplomats and emissaries of their country and ideology. But Black Panther King Azzuri knows what they really want is a sample of precious, sacred Vibranium…

Until now Gabe has felt that he’s allied with the only non-racists in the US armed forces, but now Fury orders to get close to the Africans and secure some of the miracle metal at all costs. Stunned by the casual, unthinking racism of his superior and his white comrades, Gabe is torn by conflicting emotions. Especially as Azzuri has shown him great favour and a black-only promised land any “negro” living in America would die to live in…

The Nazis’ intent is also plain and the Skull’s true attack is not long in coming. As well as conventional troops and planes, the Nazis employ their own secret weapons – robotic war-suits and metahuman super-soldiers Master Man, Krieger Frau/Warrior Woman and merciless sadist Armless Tiger Man. They are assisted by a traitor from Wakanda’s own dissident region: the mercilessly savage, cruelly ambitious Man-Ape…

With issues #3 and 4 inked by Tom Palmer & Sandu Florea, the action roars into high gear as the offensive achieves its goal of penetrating Wakanda’s defences and even sees the king’s sons T’Chaka and S’Yan (both future Black Panthers) attacked in the palace by a murderous assassin before being saved by the deeply conflicted Gabe. From then on, it’s nothing but all-out war, picking up the pieces and adjusting to a new normal in a world that doesn’t know the meaning of the word…

Confronting head-on historical and contemporary issues of racism whilst telling a stunning tale of action and adventure is no mean feat, but Hudlin & Cowan pull it off with staggering success. Flags of Our Fathers brilliantly highlights two national symbols in conflict yet united in mutual benefit with style and wit, and still manages to tell a tale of breathtaking power and fun. Read it now and see for yourself.
© 2010, 2016 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Klaws of the Panther


By Jonathan Mayberry, Shawn Moll, Gianluca Gugliotta, Walden Wong & Pepe Larraz (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5118-0 (TPB/Digital editions)

Debuting in Fantastic Four #52 (cover-dated July 1966) and hailed as the first black super hero character 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 he boldly attacked the FF as part of an extended plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father.

Time passed and T’Challa, son of T’Chaka was revealed as an African monarch whose hidden kingdom was the only source of a vibration-absorbing alien metal upon which the country’s immense wealth was founded. Those mineral riches – derived from a fallen meteor which struck the continent in lost antiquity – had enabled him to turn his country into a technological wonderland. The tribal wealth had been guarded throughout history by a cat-like champion deriving physical advantages from secret ceremonies and a mysterious heart-shaped herb which ensured the generational dominance of the nation’s warrior Panther Cult.

In modern times the Vibranium mound made the country a target for increasing subversion and incursion and after an all-out attack by the forces of Doctor Doom, culminating in the Iron Dictator seizing control of Wakanda, T’Challa was forced to render all Vibranium on Earth inert, defeating the invader but leaving his own homeland broken and economically shattered.

During this cataclysmic clash T’Challa’s flighty, spoiled brat half-sister Shuri took on the mantle of the Black Panther and became the clan and country’s new champion whilst her predecessor struggled with the disaster he had deliberately caused…

This slim, unassuming but extremely engaging Costumed Drama collects pertinent portions of the portmanteau Age of Heroes #4 and the guest-star packed Klaws of the Panther 4-part fortnightly miniseries from 2010-2011 – following a very different princess from the filmic one you probably know – as she progress through the Marvel Universe, striving to outlive her wastrel reputation, serve her country and the world whilst – crucially – defeating the growing homicidal rage that increasingly burns within her…

The story starts with ‘Honor’ by Jonathan Mayberry, Shawn Moll & Walden Wong, wherein the latest Panther Champion brutally repels an invasion by soldiers of Advanced Idea Mechanics: simply the latest opportunist agency attempting to take over the decimated country of Wakanda.

With her brother and (X-Man and occasional goddess) Queen Storm absent, Shuri is also de facto ruler of the nation, but faces dissent from her own people, as embarrassing reports and photos of her days as a billionaire good-time girl are continually surfacing to stir popular antipathy to her and the Panther clan.

When opportunist G’Tuga of the outlawed White Gorilla sect challenges for the role of national champion, Shuri treats the ritual combat as a welcome relief from insurmountable, intangible problems; but has badly misjudged her opponent and the sentiment of the people…

The main event by Mayberry, Gianluca Gugliotta & Pepe Larraz opens with ‘Savage Tales’ as Shuri is lured to fantastic dinosaur preserve the Savage Land, hoping to purchase a supply of a metal-eating Vibranium isotope, but instead uncovers a deadly plot by AIM and sentient sound-wave Klaw.

The incredible fauna of the lost world has been enslaved by the Master of Sound – who years previously murdered Shuri and T’Challa’s father in an earlier attempt to seize ultimate power – and the villain has captured the region’s protector Ka-Zar whilst seeking to secure all Savage Land Vibranium for his nefarious schemes.

Klaw, however, only thought he had fully compensated for the interference of Shuri and Ka-Zar’s formidable spouse Shanna the She-Devil…

Driven by lust for vengeance, Shuri almost allows Klaw to destroy the entire Savage Land and only the timely intervention of mutant sister-in-law Storm prevents nuclear armageddon in ‘Sound and Fury’, after which the impulsive Panther seeks out Wolverine on the outlaw island Madripoor, looking for help with her out-of-control anger management issues. Once again, AIM attacks, attempting to steal the rogue state’s priceless stockpile of Savage Land Vibranium, but instead walks into a buzzsaw of angry retribution…

Shuri is about to extract information from a surviving AIM agent in time-honoured Wakandan manner when Klaw appears, hinting at a world-shattering plan called “The Scream” which will use mysterious device M.U.S.I.C. to totally remake the Earth…

After another furious fight, the new Panther gains the upper hand by using SLV dust, but squanders her hard-won advantage to save Wolverine from certain death…

Knowing the entire planet is at stake, Shuri accepts the necessity for major-league assistance in ‘Music of the Spheres’ but unfortunately the only one home at Avengers Tower is the relatively low-calibre Spider-Man. Reluctantly she takes the wisecracking half-wit on another raid on AIM and finally catches a break when one of Klaw’s AIM minions reveals the tragic secret of the horrific M.U.S.I.C device…

All this time, Black Panther has had a hidden ally in the form of tech specialist Flea, who has been providing intel from an orbiting spaceship. Now the full truth is revealed and the heroes find Klaw’s plans centre on an attack from space. The maniac intends to destroy humanity from an invulnerable station thousands of miles above the planet and nothing can broach the base’s incredible defences. Happily, Spider-Man and ex-Captain America Steve Rogers know the world’s greatest infiltration expert and soon ‘Enter the Black Widow’ finds Earth’s last hopes depending on an all-or-nothing assault by the icily calm Panther and the world’s deadliest spy.

Cue tragic sacrifice, deadly combat, spectacular denouement, reaffirmed dedication and a new start for the ferociously inspired and determined Black Panther…

Slight yet gloriously readable, this compelling thriller boasts an impressive cover gallery by Jae Lee, Michael Del Mundo and Stephanie Hans, plus an information-packed text feature on Shuri’s life-history, career and abilities to bring the completist reader up to full speed.

If you don’t despise reboots and re-treads on unswerving principle and are prepared to give something new(ish) a go, there’s tons of fun to be had in this infectious, fast-paced Fights ‘n’ Tights farrago, so go set your sights and hunt this down…
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Black Panther Marvel Masterworks volume 3


By Peter B. Gillis, Don McGregor, Gene Colan, Denys Cowan, Tom Palmer & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2869-8 (HB)

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 FF (in Fantastic Four #52; cover-dated July 1966) as part of an elaborate plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father. Happy 55thAnniversary, guys!

T’Challa, son of T’Chaka was revealed as an African monarch whose hidden kingdom was the only source of a vibration-absorbing alien metal upon which the country’s immense wealth was founded. Those mineral riches – derived from a fallen meteor which struck the continent in primeval antiquity – had powered his country’s transformation into a technological wonderland. 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.

Peter Gillis’ Introduction ‘Travels with T’Challa’ details the long journey to publication for the original deeply-politicised anti-apartheid yarn and is followed 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 and informative Introduction from venerable author McGregor detailing his own lengthy association with “The Great Cat” and the landmark saga re-presented here…

Collected in this sterling hardback and digital collection is a much-delayed miniseries conceived and mostly crafted in 1984 but only completed and released between July to October 1988, as well as the astounding serial from fortnightly anthology Marvel Comics Presents # 13-37 running (February to December 1989).

As the 1980s closed, the Panther made a dynamic comeback after years of absence and occasional cameos, courtesy of writer Peter B. Gillis and illustrators Denys Cowan & Sam DeLarosa…

The Black Panthers rule over a fantastic African paradise which isolated itself from the rest of the world millennia ago. Blessed with unimaginable resources – both natural and not so much – Wakanda developed uninterrupted into the most technologically advanced human nation on Earth, utterly unmolested by rapacious European imperialism. That did not mean, however, geographical neighbours were allies, …

In ‘Cry, the Accursed Country!’ technologically-advanced white nationalist bastion Azania has subjugated and tormented its own black majority population for centuries whilst plotting Wakanda’s downfall. As global condemnation of the apartheid regime mounts, T’Challa learns that the Panther God has withdrawn its blessing: consecrating and empowering as a new Black Panther a priest imprisoned in Azania. When this savage avatar begins inflicting bloody retribution on the ruling class, the Azanians blame Wakanda…

Deprived of his feline blessings and herding war-hungry dissidents in his own nation, T’Challa faces a crisis of confidence – and faith – in ‘For Duty, For Honor, For Country!’ which is no help when Azania targets Wakanda with its own super-agents: The Supremacists…

Soon T’Challa’s people face international condemnation and nuclear Armageddon after ‘The Moorbecx Communique!’adds layers of espionage to the escalating crisis, compelling the outcast king to risk his principles and challenge his god to regain his birthright in ‘A Cat Can Look at a King…’

Most tragically, the Panther must defeat his dark mirror image and knows that, win or lose, nothing will ever be the same again…

That notion was confirmed mere months later when new fortnightly anthology Marvel Comics Presents offered a long-clamoured-for thematic sequel to a legendary epic. Lyrical intellectual Don McGregor immortalised T’Challa in a stunning 1970s periodical run which generated the revered Panther’s Rage saga and controversial Panther vs the Klan storyline. After years away from mainstream comics, crafting groundbreaking graphic novels such as Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species and Detectives Inc. and series such as Ragamuffins and Nathaniel Dusk, he was lured back to his roots to spin a shocking tale of contemporary intolerance and the end-days of Apartheid…

He was joined by a deeply sympatico, 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 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 science fiction, horror, war, satirical humour or the vast number of superheroes he brought to life.

A devotee of classic adventure strips, Colan studied at the Art Students League of New York, before beginning his own career in 1944 (on Wings Comics) before military service in the Philippines. The war had just ended and Colan had time to draw for local paper The Manilla Times.

By 1946 he was a civilian again, and working under Stan Lee for Atlas on supernatural, crime and other genre stories. He illustrated the last Golden Age Captain America (Captain America’s Weird Tales #75; February 1950), an all-horror issue sans any superhero material at all. It was like a sign…

As the industry radically transformed, he began freelancing at DC/National Comics whilst remaining an Atlas mainstay. His assignments increasingly focused on new genres: War and Romance.

As Superhero stories returned, he moved exclusively to Marvel (except for a range of monochrome horror stories done for Archie Goodwin at Warren Magazines), where his dynamic realism offered a powerful alternative to the graphic stylisations of Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita and Don Heck.

Colan became renowned for Daredevil (where he created blind black detective Willie Lincoln), Captain America, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Avengers, Sub-Mariner and Howard the Duck. During this period, he co-created 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 returned 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 graduating into independent comics at the forefront of innovation that marked the rise of the Direct Sales Market.

His later career was blighted by health issues, but he continued drawing whenever he could, for many companies. On one of his periodic returns to Marvel he reunited with McGregor for this astounding tale: serialised in in 25 fortnightly chapters in MCP #13-37 (February to December1989).

One of the most thought-provoking mainstream comics tales ever created, Panther’s Quest added pressure to the ever-growing 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. Whether in his numerous solo series or as part of super-teams such as The Avengers, Fantastic Four or The Ultimates, Black Panther has always been one of Marvel’s most politically strident and socially-crusading characters.

Inked in its entirety by perfect partner Tom Palmer, it begins on a dark night as the Panther infiltrates neighbouring totalitarian South Africa where a white minority oppresses the millions of blacks who live there. T’Challa has heard ‘A Rumour of Life’ and come seeking his stepmother Ramonda. His father’s second wife 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’ observes that clandestine meeting savagely interrupted by white paramilitaries seeking to kill them – but without alerting 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 will make many readers wince. Suffice it to say I’m staying vague throughout this review, but will say that vicious brute Elmer Gore graphically tortures the Panther with barbed wire in ‘Lost Blood in Copper Dust’, leading to the maimed hero staggering into the arms of ‘The Man Who Loved Sunrise’.

Narrative voice of the ordinary man Zanti Chikane is a black miner and second-class citizen crushed by his intolerable life, but he stifles his understandable caution to offer assistance to torn, bleeding T’Challa. That leads to his 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 with ‘Naked Exposures’ as government Magistrate of Communications Anton Pretorius orders his well-pummelled, furious minions to capture invading masked terrorist Black Panther. The 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’ finds T’Challa tracking Slade to an impoverished township, unaware that he’s under surveillance and about to step into the other side of the deadly politics that wracked South Africa at this time. ‘Hatred under Tears’ sees the mercenaries attack, uncaring of the 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’ before breaking free and escaping…

‘The Official Version’ gives T’Challa a 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’ finds Zanti pondering the terrifying dangers to his family before returning to aid the Panther, whilst ‘A Right to Kill’ shows Riebeek beginning to suspect Pretorius’ motives. Meanwhile, the enraged township men move against a suspected traitor determined ‘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 but events escalate to total tragedy as ‘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 the initially-reluctant intervention of 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 provides 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 in the home of a high-ranking government official…

‘Chances’ see Riebeek’s forces closing in as T’Challa follows his fresh clue to Johannesburg, confronting one merc in ‘The Great Cat in the City of Gold’. Now focused on Pretorius, the Panther and Zanti attempt to save his precious stealth-ship from being taken by Riebeek in ‘Losing Control’… but at a terrible cost…

After ‘Saying Goodbye’, the quest moves into its endgame as T’Challa assaults Pretorius’ luxurious citadel, circumventing deadly ‘Barriers’; 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 capable of destroying him in a nation and government that decreed interracial mixing immoral, unnatural and illegal. Ultimately, it’s Ramonda who decrees his fate whilst enjoying a ‘Dawn Reunion’ with her long-lost child…

The edgily barbed political fantasy is augmented by a full cover gallery, pages and maps of Wakanda fromThe Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, featuring T’Challa, Central Wakanda, Klaw, Klaw’s Blaster and Kiber the Cruel. There are also text features from Marvel Age #20 and #63 covering the Gillis/Cowan revival, plus pinups from Steve Rude (Marvel Fanfare #45) and Bill Reinhold (Marvel Fanfare #41), and the cover of Panther’s Quest 2017 collection it was eventually adapted for …

An explosive rocket ride of thrills, spills, chills, delayed gratification, and potent commentary, these long-lost classics confirm the Black Panther as one of the most complex and versatile characters in comics and simply scream “Read me! Read me!” You should, and you must…
© 2021 MARVEL

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Shuri: Wakanda Forever


By Nnedi Okorafor, Vita Ayala, Leonardo Romero, Paul Davidson, Rachael Stott, Jordie Bellaire, Tríona Farrell, Carlos Lopez, VC’s Joe Sabino & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2369-3 (TPB)

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 FF (in Fantastic Four #52; cover-dated July 1966) as part of an extended plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father.

T’Challa, son of T’Chaka was revealed as an African monarch whose hidden kingdom was the only source of a vibration-absorbing alien metal upon which the country’s immense wealth was founded. Those mineral riches – derived from a fallen meteor which struck the continent in lost antiquity – had turned his country into a technological wonderland.

The tribal wealth had long been guarded by a hereditary feline 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.

In recent years, Vibranium made the country a target for increasing subversion and incursion. After one all-out attack by Doctor Doom – culminating in the Iron Dictator seizing control of Wakanda – T’Challa was forced to render all Vibranium on Earth inert, defeating the invader but leaving his own homeland broken and economically shattered.

During that cataclysmic clash T’Challa’s flighty, spoiled brat half-sister Shuri took on the mantle of Black Panther, becoming clan and country’s new champion whilst her predecessor struggled with the disaster he had deliberately caused and recuperated from near-fatal injuries.

Despite initially being rejected by the divine Panther Spirit, Shuri proved a dedicated and ingenious protector, serving with honour until she perished defending the nation from alien invader Thanos. When T’Challa resumed his position as warrior-king, one of his earliest tasks was resurrecting his sister. She had passed into the Djalia (Wakanda’s spiritual Plane of Memories) where she absorbed the entire history of the nation from ascended Elders. On her return to physicality, she gained mighty new powers as the Ascended Future…

Since then – thanks to the equally formidable magic of a bravura role in a blockbuster movie – a slightly reimagined Shuri starred in her own series, blending established comics mythology with the fresh characterisation of a spunky, savvy, youthful super-scientist.

Initially written by multi award-winning fantasy author Nnedimma Nkemdili “Nnedi” Okorafor (Binti, Who Fears Death, Broken Places & Outer Spaces, Black Panther: Long Live the King) and illustrated by Leonardo Romero (Hawkeye, Captain America, Doctor Strange), this collection – gathering #1-10 of Shuri (spanning December 2018-September 2019 and available as a trade paperback or digitally) – finds Wakanda in turmoil.

In the aftermath of the nation’s first (official) manned space mission, King T’Challa is ‘Gone’, leaving Shuri to initially revel in the sheer joy and freedom of technological creation. However, the pressures of her family position always bedevil her. If it’s not frequent overtures from a mystery hacker she’s befriended and dubbed Muti or the constant chidings of the Ancestral Spirits who connect her to the Djalia, it’s her unwelcome invitation to join a secret society of women who have covertly steered and safeguarded Wakanda for generations…

The Sisters of the Elephant’s Trunk have a cherished goal: despite the nation recently becoming a constitutional monarchy, they want Shuri to step up in T’Challa’s absence and be the country’s spiritual leader … a new Black Panther…

Her answer in ‘The Baobab Tree’ pleases no one, but she has no time for second thoughts as sister-in-law Storm comes to her with news that T’Challa is now lost in space. The crisis is further compounded after Queen Mother Ramonda also vanishes. When Shuri resorts to spiritual means of locating her missing family, the ritual accidentally catapults her astral personality across the universe and into the vegetable body of a Guardian of the Galaxy…

Trapped but never helpless, Shuri’s brains save the alien heroes from dire peril and a deadly energy, memory and sound-eating bug in ‘Groot Boom’, but her return to Earth brings more trouble as the energy-insectoid follows to cause chaos in ‘Timbuktu’ – thanks in large part to the machinations of opportunist supervillain Moses Magnum. More concerning is the fact that many of her Ascended powers have gone…

With catastrophe all around and the planet in deadly peril, Shuri calls in a favour and Iron Man responds to assist in preventing ‘The End of the Earth’, but ultimately Shuri knows that the call of the Panther cult must be answered no matter what she wants…

The crisis deepens in ‘A Friend in Need’ parts 1 and 2 (illustrated by Paul Davidson & Tríona Farrell) as the reluctant new Black Panther traces a living black hole generator to Brooklyn, USA and shares a perilous romp with second Spider-Man Miles Morales and modern Ms. Marvel Kamala Khan, redeeming genius kid Augustin Torres from a dangerous association with major mag guy Graviton…

Events spiral to a spectacular conclusion as Vita Ayala (Livewire, New Mutants) takes over scripting for #8-10 with Rachael Stott & Carlos Lopez tackling the picture-making. In ’24/7 Vibranium’, that pesky bug resurfaces to imperil Earth prompting a fact-find visit to the Djalia, a fraught confrontation at Wakanda’s Vibranium mines in ‘Godhead’ and an unexpected resolution in ‘Living Memory’ that answers most of Shuri’s questions, restores her powers and sets her up for the next great adventure…

Balancing the fantastic fun and affirmative inspiration, this delightfully angst-free action romp also offers an Afterwordfrom Okorafor; Variant cover gallery by Skottie Young, Jamal Campbell, Carlos Pacheco, Travis Charest, John Tyler Christopher, Afua Richardson (plus movie photo-cover) and Romero design pages.

Wakanda Forever is a fast-moving, funny and supremely inventive delight: a splendidly fresh take on female superheroes that is compulsive reading for any fan of tight continuity, breathtaking action and smart characterisation as well as everyone who fell in love with the super-smart young woman who stole every scene in the Black Panther movie. What are you waiting for?
© 2020 MARVEL.