The Black Panther was a hero who was primarily a Fantastic Four ally and very much one of the second wave of Avengers for me. I felt I had a thorough knowledge of his backstory although I can't recall now if I read the FF Colour Album ( reprinting "The Way It Began") before the debut of Clint Barton as Goliath ( my first issue with T'Challa as an Avenger. Scottish distribution, eh!).
Nevertheless, for me, the Black Panther has always been one of the B-list Avengers. Marvel's first black super-hero could have been the chairman of the team but his role as aloof man of mystery was usurped almost immediately with the inclusion of the Vision. The gaudily-garbed android seized the Panther's place as the unattainable outsider- the Spock, if you will, of the Sixties Assemblers.
The young Barry Smith and his Steranko riffs made little impact on me at first.
Apart from the odd guest appearance in Daredevil or Iron Man ( characters both intrinsically less interesting in themselves and completely lacking in the fantastic story engine that is the Panther's homeland) T'Challa was an Avenger with a spotty tenure who was rarely essential to the plot. There were about three stories in which he was really important and this is the earliest and the most significant for me:
From the newsagent that's now Flynn's Boatyard in Girvan circa 1969
However, his solo series in the woefully- titled Jungle Action was a prototype for the long-form storytelling for more mature readers that broke out with the graphic novels boom of the 80s. I reviewed it here:
http://somefantasticplace-dougie.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/walk-like-panther.html
Tron by H. Rider Haggard...
Some elements of Panther's Rage are incorporated in the vibrant and colourful Panther movie, which I saw at the Moray Playhouse last weekend. The technological wonderland envisaged by Kirby was established on screen but so were the more traditional "Dark Continent" tribal elements. Personally, I can't stand the Marvel Knights "Noble Savage" trappings like the tooth necklace. It spoils the Panther's silhouette. Nor do I care at all for the manipulative infiltrator persona, crafted by Christopher Priest. I like the more purely noble T'Challa and that character was in evidence in the film.
I particularly like the message that T'Challa's ultimate victory was secured with the help of his mother and sister but I felt this was largely a super-hero version of The Lion King. The "My Brother, My Enemy! trope (in this case, like Inhumans, "My Cousin") is extremely tired. It drove the Thor trilogy, Winter Soldier, Civil War and in the guise of " my father etc etc" , GOTG2.
I had expected to see a different kind of story, given the hype. Some of the kids I work with have , to my surprise, rated it their favourite all-time Marvel movie. But then, I'm not the intended audience. The South Korean sequences had a flavour of Daniel Craig Bond but my attention wandered during the film's longeurs. It did make me want to see TV's Defenders and Inhumans but I have enjoyed other Marvel movies more than BP.
What is exciting, however, is the new star status of Marvel's oldest hero of colour. Panther comics have often been critically acclaimed but they didn't feel targeted to mainstream audiences- perhaps necessarily. I hope to re-read the '77 Kirby series, which was more action-oriented but the tpbs are expensive and surpassingly tricky to find.
The sun rolling high through the sapphire sky...
A decade ago, The New Fantastic Four was the work of black writer, the late Dwayne McDuffie. The arc saw Storm, T'Challa's Queen, join him in the FF while Reed and Sue had a second honeymoon. This space epic pitted Ben, Johnny, Ororo and T'Challa against Englehart's iteration Frightful Four; cosmic entities Epoch and Galactus; restored the novice hero Gravity, a kind of Millennial version of the luckless Nova; and even featured a cameo of King Solomon's Frog. It's the kind of high-concept sci-fantasy that the Panther participated in more recently with Al Ewing's Ultimates.
Great and small on the endless round...
In this decade, last year in fact, Black Panther and the Crew by award-winning writer and academic Ta-Nehisi Coates was cancelled almost at birth. Revolving around the death of a Harlem activist due to police brutality, this felt more like the social commentary of Don McGregor than the Kozmic whimsy of Kirby.
Was it market saturation by the Panther that killed the Crew or the alleged negative effect of diversity on a conservative audience? Firstly, I think Mighty Avengers should have been relaunched to tell this particular story but I found the politics heavy-handed. Secondly, I couldn't really see the relevance of Australian mutant Manifold ( who seems a Millennial version of older characters Talisman or Gateway.) Surely Falcon, the Latino Power Man or more interestingly Blue Marvel would've been more appropriate? I applaud Marvel for having the courage to tell overtly political stories about race but they should also support them rather than aborting them before they find their audience.
Coming soon: Robots of Death; the Red Moon Mystery; the Lost Dimension
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