Black Panther – Page 6 – Now Read This!

By Christopher Yost, Diogenes Neves & Ed Tadeo, Priest, Sal Velluto & Bob Almond, Chris Claremont & John Byrne & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3533-3

In 1963 The X-Men #1 introduced Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl and the Beast: very special students of Professor Charles Xavier, a wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the emergent off-shoot race of mutants: Homo Superior.

After years of eccentric and spectacular adventures the mutant misfits disappeared at the beginning of 1970 as mystery and all things supernatural once more gripped the world’s entertainment fields and provoked a sustained downturn in costumed hero comics.

Although their title was revived at the end of the year as a cheap reprint vehicle, the missing mutants were reduced to guest-stars and bit-players throughout the Marvel universe and the Beast was transformed into a monster to cash in on the horror boom, until Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas green-lighted a bold one-shot in 1975 as part of the company’s line of Giant-Sized specials.

Giant Size X-Men #1 detailed how the classic team had been lost in action, leaving Xavier to scour the Earth for a replacement team. Recruiting old foes-turned-friends Banshee and Sunfire and one-shot Hulk villain Wolverine, most of the savant’s time and attention was invested in newcomers Kurt Wagner, a demonic German teleporter who would be codenamed Nightcrawler, Russian farmboy Peter Rasputin, who could transform into a living steel Colossus, embittered, disillusioned Apache superman John Proudstar who was cajoled into joining the makeshift squad as Thunderbird and a young woman who comported herself as an African weather goddess.

Ororo Munroe AKA Storm was actually the lost daughter of African royalty and an American journalist, and after joining Xavier’s team spent years fighting the world’s most deadly threats as part – and often leader – of the outlaw unloved, distrusted mutant hero horde, but eventually left her second home to marry a boy she had met whilst trekking across the Dark Continent decades previously.

In Fantastic Four #52 (August 1966) an incredible individual calling himself the Black Panther tested himself against the Cosmic Quartet and disclosed in the next issue how, as a child, he had lost his father to a ruthless scientist’s mercenary army when they invaded his hidden African homeland Wakanda.

The young Prince T’Challa had single-handedly avenged the murder of his father T’Chaka and driven off the raiders, and inherited the role of king and spiritual leader of his people. Eventually The Black Panther became a member of the Mighty Avengers and introduced his country to the world, with technologically-advanced Wakanda swiftly advancing to the forefront of nations by trading its scientific secrets and greatest natural resource – the incredible alien mineral Vibranium.

Whilst a boy wandering the plains of Africa, he had met a beautiful young girl with incredible powers trekking from Egypt to West Africa and years later found her again as one the X-Men. Slowly rediscovering old feelings the pair married and Storm became the First Lady of Wakandaâ€¦

This compilation, collecting the 4-issue miniseries X-Men: Worlds Apart from 2008-2009 plus Black Panther volume 3, #26 (January 2001) and material from Marvel Team-Up #100 (December 1980), follows the African Queen through her darkest hours and affords a little space to examine key moments in her tempestuous relationship with the earthly agent of the very-real Panther God.

The romance commences with the eponymous ‘Worlds Apart’ crafted by Christopher Yost, Diogenes Neves, Ed Tadeo & Raul TreviÃ±o with the action opening in New York’s sewers where Storm and some-time comrade Scott â€œCyclopsâ€ Summers seek to convince hidden Morlock refugees to join the West Coast mutant enclave and safe-haven known as Utopia. When she suddenly called back toAfrica, Ororo’s erstwhile friend contentiously questions her loyaltiesâ€¦

Even as the august and elevated co-ruler of a fabulous kingdom, Ororo iq adi T’Challa is still painfully aware of humanity’s – and more specifically her own subjects’ – bigotry regarding the genetic offshoot politely dubbed Homo Superior, so when one of her protÃ©gÃ©s – young Wakandan mutant Nezhno Abidemi – is accused of murder she rushes to defend him.

â€¦But the evidence is overwhelming, incontrovertible and damningâ€¦

Nevertheless, she knows something is amiss and when she arbitrarily frees him the entire country turns against her: even her husband wants her bloodâ€¦

The cause soon smugly reveals himself as Amahl Farouk, a sinister, corrupting telepath she and Charles Xavier had killed years ago, when Ororo was only an orphan child-thief in Cairo. Sadly the monster evolved then into a malign body-stealing psychic force; an untouchable Shadow King feeding on hatred and polluting everything it touchesâ€¦

Biding its time the Shadow King has insinuated itself into Wakanda, stoking ill-feeling throughout. Now wearing her beloved T’Challa, it plans on extracting a much-postponed final vengeanceâ€¦

As the poisonous presence gloats Ororo realises it is not just her at risk: the Shadow King has simultaneously taken Cyclops in America and is using her fellow X-Man as a weapon to kill the only earthly threat to Farouk’s power – the supreme telepath Emma Frost who is also Scott Summers’ loverâ€¦

With an entire nation and the precious body of her beloved mercilessly hunting her and Nezhno, the wondrous weather-warrior must first direct her powers half-a-world away to stop Cyclops whatever the cost, before somehow destroying a foe no power on Earth can touch.

Happily the Spiritual co-ruler of Wakanda has her own direct line to the country’s cat god – or is that goddess?

Short, sharp, spectacularly action-packed and wickedly satisfying – especially the climactic battles with the assembled X-Men and friendly rival Cyclops – this bombastic Fights ‘n’ Tights adventure is bafflingly complemented with ‘Echoes’ (from Black Panther #26, created by Priest, Sal Velluto & Bob Almond and the first part of a longer epic entitled ‘StÃ¼rm und Drang – a Story of Love and War’).

Here T’Challa’s childhood friendship with Ororo is slowly and painfully re-cultivated during an incursion into Wakanda by alien-hunting US Federal Agents and a barely-civil embassy from the secret race known as Deviants, all seeking possession of an unearthly parent and child and eventually forcing a drastic reaction from the sympathetic African heroesâ€¦

As an orphaned part of an ongoing storyline this interlude, though smart and pretty, is pretty baffling and aggravating too, ending as it does on an unsatisfying cliffhanger, and unless you already know the greater tale, is far more annoying than elucidatingâ€¦

This intriguing safari into the unknown concludes with the far more pleasing story of Ororo and T’Challa’s first meeting as kids in the wilds of Africa. This tale first appeared as a back-up in Marvel Team-Up #100 in 1980 and cleverly revealed how the kids enjoyed an idyllic time on the veldt (reminiscent of Henry De Vere Stacpoole’s 1908 novel The Blue Lagoon) until a South African commando team tried to kidnap the Wakandan prince as a bargaining chip.

Now as adults in America they are hunted by the vicious Afrikaner Andreas de Ruyter who has returned, attempting to assassinate Ororo, before seeking to exact final revenge upon the Black Panther. Cue long-delayed lover’s reunion and team-raid on an automated House of Horrorsâ€¦

Always designed as an outreach project to draw in audience demographics perceived to be short-changed by mainstream Marvel, Storm and the Black Panther have proved to be a winning combination in terms of story if not sales, and Worlds Apart is the kind of tale that should please most fans of the genre and followers of the film franchise.
Â© 1980, 2001, 2008, 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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

Long lauded 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 the 1960s when he attacked the Fantastic Four as part of an extended plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father. He was also the first Negro superhero in American comics, debuting in Fantastic Four #52 (cover-dated July 1966).

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 long been guarded by a cat-like champion who derived 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 the Vibranium mound had 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 causedâ€¦

This slim, unassuming but extremely engaging Costumes Drama outing 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, and follows Shuri’s progress through the Marvel Universe as she strives to outlive her wastrel reputation, serve her country and the world and – most importantly – defeat the growing homicidal rage that increasingly burns within herâ€¦

The story starts with ‘Honor’ by Jonathan Mayberry, Shawn Moll & Walden Wong as the latest Panther Champion brutally repels an invasion by soldiers of AIM, merely the latest opportunist agency attempting to take over the decimated country of Wakanda. With her brother and 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 millionaire good-time girl are continually being unearthed to stir popular antipathy to her and the Panther clan. So when opportunist G’Tuga of the outlawed White Gorilla sect challenges her for the role of national champion, Shuri almost sees the ritual combat as a welcome relief from insurmountable, intangible problems; but has badly misjudged her opponent and the sentiment of the peopleâ€¦

The main event by Mayberry, Gianluca Gugliotta & Pepe LarrazÂ opens with ‘Savage Tales’ as Shuri is lured to the fantastic dinosaur kingdom dubbed the Savage Land, where she hopes to purchase a supply of the metal-eating Vibranium isotope, but instead uncovers a deadly plot by Advanced Idea Mechanics and sentient sound-wave Klaw.

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

Klaw however only thought he had fully compensated for the interference of Shuri and Ka-Zar’s wife Shanna the She-Devilâ€¦

Driven by a 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 of Madripoor, looking for help with her out-of-control anger management issues. Once again however AIM attacks, attempting to steal the bandit nation’s priceless stockpile of Savage Land Vibranium but instead walking into a buzz saw of angry retributionâ€¦

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 â€œThe Screamâ€ which will use the mysterious device dubbed M.U.S.I.C. to totally remake the Earthâ€¦

After a deadly battle, the new Panther gains the upper hand by using SLV dust but squanders her hard-won advantage to save Wolverine from certain deathâ€¦

With knowledge that the entire planet is at stake Shuri acknowledges the need 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 deviceâ€¦

All this time the 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 truth is revealed and the heroes find that Klaw’s plans are also centred on an attack from space. The maniac is intending to destroy humanity from an invulnerable station thousands of miles above the planet and nothing can broach the base’s incredible defences. However 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 planet’s deadliest spy.

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

Slight but gloriously readable, this compelling thriller also comes with an impressive cover gallery by Jae Lee, Michael Del Mundo and Stephanie Hans, and also includes 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 a lot of fun to be had in this infectious, fast-paced Fights ‘n’ Tights farrago, so why not set your sights and hunt this down?
Â© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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