The Black Panther: Marvel’s first black superhero
The king of an African nation was the first black superhero published by a major comics publisher, and the regal ruler has remained a Marvel Comics mainstay for nearly five decades.
The latest comic book series featuring the Black Panther launched this week, by an allstar creative team, including noted writer Ta-Nahesi Coates and artist Brian Stelfreeze, both of whom are black.
The Black Panther will make his cinematic debut in Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” film on May 6, played by Chadwick Boseman. In the next two weeks, we’ll look at the Panther’s comic-book history in this column.
The Black Panther debuted in what was one of the great comic book runs of all-time, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s “Fantastic Four.”
The Black Panther is T’Challa, the king of the technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda. He wears the costume of the Black Panther as the head of the Panther Clan in his land.
Introduction
T’Challa’s first two-part story in issues No. 52 and No. 53 was just months after the creative zenith of the “Galactus Trilogy.” He also appeared in issues of “Tales of Suspense” and “Daredevil” in the late 1960s, and later became an Avenger, where he’s made many appearances since.
He has no connection to the 1960s political party, but the notoriety of that group did get the Panther to briefly change his name during a 1972 guest appearance in “Fantastic Four.” “Black Leopard” would be a temporary anomaly, though, as the ongoing “Jungle Action” became the first regular solo title to feature the Black Panther as the lead.
‘Panther’s Rage’
Don McGregor’s “Panther’s Rage” would expand the character in an extended storyline in 13 issues of “Jungle Action.” Pencillers on the “Jungle Action” tales included Rich Buckler and Gil Kane; inkers included Klaus Janson and Bob McLeod. Through it all, McGregor was the writer, crafting one of the early multi-issue arcs in comics.
Now standard procedure at the larger companies, McGregor was one of the first to write a story that worked in individual segments and as a larger whole. “Panther’s Rage,” running from “Jungle Action” Nos. 6-18, was created, and reads as, an extended novel.
The second arc, which ran in “Jungle Action” Nos. 19-22 and No. 24, was called “Panther vs. The Klan.”
The KKK story raised controversy, but not sales, and the series was canceled midstory.
Kirby returns
Jack Kirby, who had cocreated the Black Panther in the pages of “Fantastic Four,” returned to write and draw the character in a 1977 “Black Panther” series.
The series is quite different from what fans had grown to expect with Don McGregor’s “Jungle Action.” This “Black Panther” wasn’t about social relevance, it was about fastpaced action, with the Panther initially teaming up with a little person named Mr. Little who seeks strange artifacts. It’s Black Panther as a jovial Indiana Jones, as he seeks the artifact known as “King Solomon’s Frog,” which allows time travel.
The first seven or so issues work pretty well, though the dialogue is, of course, offbeat throughout. In issue Nos. 8-13, the Panther faces Kiber the Cruel, who has kidnapped a relative of T’Challa’s. Issue No. 12 ends with a cliffhanger, which writers Jim Shooter and Ed Hannigan wrap up in an issue No. 13 that completes the story, but barely feels like part of the preceding 12 issues. Jerry Bingham’s art is more realistic — and probably more typical for Marvel art of the time — but vastly different from Kirby’s science fictional plateaus.
Kirby’s “Black Panther” was later homaged and referenced in Christopher Priest’s “Black Panther” run. “Black Panther” issues 1-13 were collected in “Black Panther by Jack Kirby” vols. 1 and 2 in 2005 and 2006.
Into the 1980s
After the cancellation of “Black Panther,” the character didn’t get another solo series until 1988.
African-American artist Denys Cowan drew a four-issue miniseries written by Peter B. Gillis.
Then, McGregor had a chance to return to the character, first in a serial running in “Marvel Comics Presents,” then in the 19901991 miniseries “Black Panther: Panther’s Prey.”
Black Panther then went again into the background. He’d return in the late 1990s, as Marvel took a series of creative risks known as the “Marvel Knights” line. We’ll look at that series in next week’s column.