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Post by coke & comics on Mar 1, 2018 2:12:38 GMT -5
Black Panther #13-15 Marvel Premiere #51-53 by Ed Hannigan, Jerry Bingham and Gene Day Ed Hannigan had a rough job here. I don't know if it was imposed upon him or self-imposed. But for whatever reason, he had to do the following: 1) Finish Kirby's unfinished story 2) Finish McGregor's unfinished story 3) Reconcile them Along the way, he wrote off Black Panther's telepathic powers, wrote Monica Lynne out of the series and established that Wakanda was no longer a hidden kingdom. And, for good measure, Black Panther teams up with the Avengers to battle Klaw along the way. That's a lot for 6 issues. Issue 13 finishes off the story Kirby was in the middle of. Issue 14 begins with T'Challa having opened a consulate in New York, where he explains to US State Department representatives that he doesn't actually have telepathy, just heightened instincts. Even though 2 issues earlier he was clearly reading minds, communicating telepathically and clairvoyantly sensing what was happening far away. Hannigan also makes an odd choice of what to do with the KKK story. To my mind, there were two good options. (1) Ignore it, and just let us infer that it ended somehow. Or (2), tell us how it ended, by writing a story set before Kirby's run that wraps it up. Hannigan chose Option 3. Write an ending that takes place AFTER Kirby's run, and have to explain along the way why Black Panther went treasure hunting before solving the mystery of Monica Lynne's sister's death. That's what he went for. We learn Black Panther had amnesia induced by the Dragon Circle, so that he forgot all about Monica and everything going on in Georgia, so then left Georgia to go home. And that meanwhile Monica fell in love with a reporter who she's now going to marry. I don't really know who murdered Monica's sister or how the story ended because it made very little sense. But it all got wrapped up. Baffling choices, but there was no good way to accomplish what Hannigan seemed to set out to accomplish. Pretty artwork by Bingham and Day though: diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2014/01/making-splash-jerry-bingham-and-gene.html?m=1 |
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Post by coke & comics on Mar 1, 2018 2:23:20 GMT -5
Now that I've seen the movie (3 times; best superhero movie ever), which my reading was prep for, I decided to start skimming. I skipped several appearances from before Kirby's run, in Daredevil, Avengers and Marvel Two-In-One. He starts becoming a pretty irregular character. He didn't do much in the '80s. Showed up in Defenders and was often in the background of stories where lots of superheroes showed up. But almost nothing for 8 years until finally getting a miniseries in 1988. My intention is to read that miniseries, followed by the Panther's Quest and Panther's Prey stories and his solo story in Solo Avengers, and then call it quits on my Black Panther reading. Start reading some infinity stone-related comics to help prepare me for Infinity War instead.
I decided to read 3 stories from the '80s.
Marvel Team-Up #87
Roxxon had some cockamamie scheme to steal vibranium.
Marvel Team-Up #100
Black Panther's from Africa. Storm is from Africa. Did they ever meet and perhaps have a brief romance in their youth? Of course! It's a small continent.
Fantastic Four #311-312
Some chance that FF #312 was my first Black Panther story. Certainly the first that stands out and formed a lot of my impressions of both him and Dr. Doom. That they were both statesmen first, and that Black Panther saw his relationship with Doom not as superhero/supervillain, but as a fellow head of state.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2018 2:34:16 GMT -5
Don't forget the Vibranium Vendetta storyline running through the Spider-Man annuals in 1991 featuring Black Panther, SPidey and Iron Man...I think I have tired hard to forget them but cannot...
-M
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Post by coke & comics on Mar 5, 2018 3:08:04 GMT -5
Black Panther #1-4 by Peter Gillis, Denys Cowan and Sam De La Rosa Back to Wakanda with some internal political strife. New supporting characters. Mendinao the religious leader. Moise Bornvana, a very westernized advisor, Malaika a former lover. The latter two are both members of the Order of the Panther. We also learn of trouble in the apartheid regime of neighboring Azania. Which bears a resemblance to Rudyarda and to South Africa. We also see the Panther God T'Challa worships become manifest. Which was a bit odd to me. I saw it more as a religion in the modern sense, where gods are more abstract. I'm Catholic, but I don't expect to see Jesus beating up bad guys down the street. But in the Marvel Universe, Thor does walk down the street. And we'd already seen the Lion God, rival to the Panther God. So I guess it makes some sense that the Panther God might appear. Anyways, the Panther God strips its blessings from T'Challa, as seen when panthers attack him. Which is cause enough to have him removed from the throne. The Panther God is angry because T'Challa has not done enough to battle apartheid and takes on a new host and seeks bloody vengeance against Azanian politicians. Along the way, Black Panther must battle Azania's superhero team, the Supremacists!  
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 5, 2018 5:28:01 GMT -5
I don't really know who murdered Monica's sister or how the story ended because it made very little sense. But it all got wrapped up. Baffling choices, but there was no good way to accomplish what Hannigan seemed to set out to accomplish. Yep, I've read Hannigan's conclusion to the Klan story several times as a kid, and then twice again recently, and if you ask me who committed the murder and why, I wouldn't be able to tell you. It's such a confusing and unmemorable story - a real disservice to the great build-up done by McGregor. But I think you're right - Hannigan was confronted with what I think is an impossible task and, as I said in an earlier comment, he was probably working under editorial decree anyway. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 5, 2018 8:50:19 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #100Black Panther's from Africa. Storm is from Africa. Did they ever meet and perhaps have a brief romance in their youth? Of course! It's a small continent . I love that comment!  |
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 6, 2018 9:53:32 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #100Black Panther's from Africa. Storm is from Africa. Did they ever meet and perhaps have a brief romance in their youth? Of course! It's a small continent . I love that comment! It ranks second on my list of "Amazing Geographical Awareness by Comic Book Writers". Rank 1 is still Chris Claremont's X-Treme X-Men: Charles Xavier, with a broken back, manages to crawl from Tibet to Afghanistan (or Chris thinks both countries are the same country). |
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Post by Rob Allen on Mar 7, 2018 18:14:12 GMT -5
The next issue of Marvel Comics Digest (due on supermarket checkout stands in February) is called "Avengers featuring Black Panther". The next-issue ad in the last digest showed the Panther with Cap, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and Ant-Man. No sign of Hawkeye, Vision or Scarlet Witch. The usual pattern in these digests is: something from the 1960s (one or more issues), then something from the 1970s, then a lot of modern-looking stuff. I've been wondering what they're going to choose for this digest. Since it's supposed to be an Avengers book, will they start with an FF story or skip that and go with an Avengers issue? And for the 70s, will they put in McGregor, Kirby, both, or neither? Picked up the digest last week. The checker at the supermarket turned out to be a comics fan who hadn't known about the Marvel digests in his store. I told him about CCF; maybe he'll show up here. This issue is definitely an Avengers book; putting the Panther on the cover seems like it was designed to lure fans of the movie. There are no Panther solo stories, so no McGregor and no Kirby except for the early Avengers issues. The "classic" part of the contents: Avengers #3 & 4 - the first Avengers digest had #1 & 2, so they seem to be putting 2 early issues in every digest. No Panther in these. Avengers #57 & 58 - intro of the Vision, and intro & death of Ultron. The Panther is present. Avengers #126 - Avengers vs. Klaw & Solarr. The Panther is present here too. After that there are four more modern stories, with an Avengers lineup that includes Spider-Man, Wolverine and a character I'd never seen before - Giant-Girl. Look for this Marvel digest anywhere that Archie digests are sold. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 7, 2018 19:12:00 GMT -5
The next issue of Marvel Comics Digest (due on supermarket checkout stands in February) is called "Avengers featuring Black Panther". The next-issue ad in the last digest showed the Panther with Cap, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and Ant-Man. No sign of Hawkeye, Vision or Scarlet Witch. The usual pattern in these digests is: something from the 1960s (one or more issues), then something from the 1970s, then a lot of modern-looking stuff. I've been wondering what they're going to choose for this digest. Since it's supposed to be an Avengers book, will they start with an FF story or skip that and go with an Avengers issue? And for the 70s, will they put in McGregor, Kirby, both, or neither? Avengers #126 - Avengers vs. Klaw & Solarr. The Panther is present here too. That was one of the first issues of Avengers I ever read. I think I got it from one of my cousins when it was a year or two old. It definitely centers on Black Panther. But I remember it being kind of confusing if you don't have a lot of knowledge of the characters or what they were up too at the time. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2018 3:33:47 GMT -5
There's an interesting article in The NY Times today on Billy Graham (the artist not the preacher), who drew a large chunk of McGregor's run fueled by his granddaughter's efforts to gain him more recognition for his comic contributions since he was missing from the credits of both the Luke Cage Netflix series and the Panther film. I hadn't realized he spent most of his career working in theatre after he left Marvel and was an award winning set designer. I also wasn;t aware he was the art director for Warren before coming to Marvel. These were just some of the interesting tidbits in the article. -M |
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Post by coke & comics on Mar 13, 2018 1:45:34 GMT -5
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Post by profh0011 on Oct 19, 2019 22:01:41 GMT -5
I had to chime in here. My 1st exposure to Don McGregor was his 3rd BP episode, and, frankly, he's been one of my top favorite writers ever since.
For several years, I hung out at his FB page, and he's probably the MAIN reason I went to see the BP movie... TWICE!!!
What's really unfortunate and INFURIATING is that, while Don repeatedely said he doesn't know how FB works, he had someone else running his FB page for him... someone who was apparently more of "Marvel" fan-- and S*** L** fan-- than anything else. And at one point, a couple months after the movie came out, the S.O.B. blocked me from Don's page. So now I have no way to get in touch with one of my favorite writers who's still around.
And some people wonder why I have "problems" with Marvel fans.
Anyway... one of the fascinating things I learned a few years ago from Don, was the reason his writing stood out so much. He was the only non-artist writing for Marvel in the 70s who DID NOT work "Marvel Method". Don was more like "Harvey Kurtzman" method. FULL SCRIPT and dialogue-- PLUS, page layouts. So no matter which artist was assigned to his books-- and he insists he never had a choice in that-- you got DON's stories, not Don's loose ideas filtered thru some other writer drawing the pages.
This included the intricate splash pages, which Don designed, inspired by the likes of Will Eisner and Jim Steranko.
Another thing that really grabbed my attention was Don describing how he came to do BP. At the time, if you wanted to write for Marvel, you had to work in the office as an uncredited assistant editor. If you were lucky, the editor (at the time, Roy Thomas) would throw you a bone. That's what happened here. Don had once told the story of how he was called into Thomas' office, who asked him, "Hey Don! How'd you like to write BLACK PANTHER?" He said, "I'd love it!" "Great. The first chapter is DUE MONDAY." (It was Friday.)
According to what Don said, many years later, he decided to do research and read every single BP appearance that had been done up to that point, before writing his first. (Steve Englehart apparently did the same thing when he got on GREEN LANTERN many years later.) Don was intrigued-- but also VERY disturbed by something he found. You'll probaby see this coming.
T'Challa was the KING of a country. At the end of his first story (in FF #53), he decided he would use his resources to help the whole world. (I was genuinely surprised when I was reminded this scene, in his very first story, made it into the finale of the 1st BP movie!!) And so he became a globe-hopping adventurer, traveling around in between his duties as ruler of Wakanda.
This worked fine in FF ANNUAL #5 and his CAP team-up. Even when he first met THE AVENGERS.
But then you have this insurmountable problem. T'Challa decided to JOIN The Avengers. The king of an African country decided to MOVE to New York City and become a FULL-TIME MEMBER of a superhero team... because Thomas was a diehard fanboy in love with the JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA (which is what Thomas always tried to turn The Avengers into).
Not only that-- he even had T'Challa develop a FAKE secret identity, as "Luke Charles", so he could take up a full-time job on the side, as a school-teacher in Harlem. Just because Thomas was a fan of the movie "TO SIR WITH LOVE".
W--T--F!!!!!!!!!!
Don was inspired to take this INSANITY-- and use it as the central focus of his first BP story! T'Challa hears there's trouble back home-- takes a "leave of absence" from The Avengers-- goes home-- and figures, he should be able to clear this up in about 2 weeks.
Instead... he found things worse than he ever imagined. MUCH worse. And in the long run, it took him about TWO YEARS to straighten the mess out.
WHOA.
I've read those comics twice, way back then... and I seriously need to re-read them sometime soon. Because what Don described here put the ENTIRE thing in a context that I was somehow never aware of before. (Then again, it was only about 10 or 15 years ago I read Thomas' ENTIRE run thanks to ESSENTIAL AVENGERS.)
Something else Don brought up on his FB page, which he said came as a shock to HIM, decades after-the-fact. According to him... "editorial" held him and his work IN CONTEMPT. Perhaps this was because Don did not work "Marvel Method" (which, I have since figured out, was a huge SCAM being pulled on Marvel's readers. But more on that elsewhere.) Don said he was shocked to learn... that the only reason he was given BLACK PANTHER and KILLRAVEN to write... was because the series were seen as "hopeless", and that Don was expected to SINK without notice. After, they could say... "Oh well, TOO bad, we gave you a shot, and you blew it."
Instead... Don began getting MORE fan mail than all their other books put together. Which must have REALLY rubbed "editorial" the wrong way.
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Post by profh0011 on Oct 19, 2019 22:14:18 GMT -5
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Post by mikelmidnight on Oct 21, 2019 12:21:59 GMT -5
Having recently watched the Black Panther film, I have a question about the comics: I remember reading stories taking place in science labs, in throne rooms, or in the veldt (which I guess are like the suburbs). Do any of them give a sense of what life is like for ordinary Wakandans?
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Post by profh0011 on Oct 21, 2019 14:29:18 GMT -5
That's a good question. I think there was a bit of that in the "Panther's Rage" 13-part serial. It's been so long since I read that...
I do remember there was a young boy whose father was a farmer (I think) who got killed in the crossfire of the revolution attempt. When Killmonger was about to throw T'Challa off another cliff at the climax of chapter 12, his life was saved when this young boy knocked Killmonger off his feet and HE went over the cliff.
It was definitely a strange paradox, that in the early stories Jack Kirby wrote, you mostly saw the technological areas, while in Don McGregor's stories, you almost never saw any of that.
I do think the movie has some flaws (though I'll admit I had to see it twice and then really, really think about it hard before I realized what I saw as the problems), but, one of the most amazing things the movie somehow managed to do was work as a synthesis for 2 COMPLETELY-different, seemingly-incompatible writers (McGregor & Kirby). They mostly took the "character" of Don's stories, and the "look" of Kirby's stories (without actually using any genuine Kirby designs-- it really is criminal that nobody ever hired Kirby to be production designer on a sci-fi movie).
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