The strength of the army he's raised to defeat his foe isn't dependent upon the super-powered asylum rejects that serve as his lieutenants, but on the very real feelings of abandonment and impotent contempt with which the Wakandan citizens have towards a leader who has been spending the better part of his time playing boyfriend to an American while dicking around in a land far from his own. But here's the thing about Erik: he only exists because of the choices that Black Panther has made. His motives-to unseat T'Challa and take over as ruler of Wakanda-are standard stuff, as is the "we were close, once" relationship that McGregor includes.
#RELATIONSHIP RAGE COMICS DRIVER#
Somebody who-despite his infrequent appearances-will serve as the primary driver for the story that McGregor has to tell.Įrik Killmonger, the villain of "Panther's Rage" is one of the more complex villains that a super-hero comic can have, if you can forgive the outfit. On the way, we're introduced to yet another character, Taku, who will join W'Kabi and Monica in the spotlight for the rest of this 13-part story.īut there's somebody else that has to arrive. They have a brief conversation that defines the emotional place they're currently at (in so doing, it lays out the arc each of them will follow throughout the story), and then the Panther leaves, mistakingly thinking he can go and resolve the current situation overnight. The Panther returns to his throne room, carrying the body of the old man above, and we meet W'Kabi (one of his leading warriors) and Monica (his current American girlfriend). Almost every character (with one notable exception) is introduced by way of side conversations surrounding specific plot developments. While the first chapter of "Panther's Rage" has to introduce most of the major players that the story eventually has, it isn't a slog of character introductions. Whatever in-story reasons there were for that choice are never brought up in the comic-like the character, McGregor realized that no explanation would be acceptable. If he wants to dick around above the Upper West Side and teach poor kids, that's sweet, but what McGregor realized (immediately, and irritably), was that this effectively meant the character had abandoned Wakanda and all of his people along with it. T'Challa isn't an African-American looking for his place in the world, he's an African, all caps, and more importantly, he's the spiritual and political leader of an entire country. Making the Panther a volunteer schoolteacher in Harlem wasn't an evil thing for the previous writer to do, but it was, as McGregor so pointedly acknowledges, a pretty stupid thing to do.
He managed to kick some ass (more on whose ass it was later), but he didn't do so quickly enough to save this old man, this old man who he didn't remember, this old man who, unlike quite a few others, still had faith in him. By the fifth page, where the above panels come from, he's already failed. "Panther's Rage" opens in media res, and the story of how the Panther got to this moment is only dealt out in blips of exposition-he was away, his country began falling apart, he's back now. Depending on the way you define the second one, the first may be unnecessary. It's sort of about the selfishness of colonialism, and it's kind of about knowing (and honoring) one's heritage, but it is also about a guy who is really, really good at two things: being unwilling to die, and being a badass motherfucker. "Panther's Rage" is a revenge story, about a man who comes home to find another man trying to steal his life, and what he decides to do about it.
Don McGregor, from his introduction to the Marvel Masterworks " Why would an African chieftain decide to be a school teacher in Harlem?" Originally Appeared in Jungle Action # 6-8, 1973 In 2010, thirty-six years after its release, the story was collected and reprinted for the first time. "Panther's Rage" was a dark, dense American super-hero comic that featured African characters in every single one of its key roles, keeping with McGregor's plan that "all of the characters save one would be black." In 1973, Don McGregor and a scattershot team of artists began releasing a classic thirteen-part superhero story that predated the "adult" stylings of Watchmen & The Dark Knight Returns by over a decade. Tucker Stone & David Brothers | February 16, 2018
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