The Black Panther stars in his first solo feature in Jungle Action, which debuted in the summer of 1973. The initial two years of the series chronicle T’Challa’s battles against an insurrection in Wakanda led by the enigmatic Erik Killmonger under the title “Panther’s Rage,” which amounts to a 209-page graphic novel by writer Don McGregor and artist Billy Graham. (The first four issues are handled by artists Rich Buckler and Gil Kane before Graham takes over for the remaining nine.) Wakanda is explored in detail for the first time in this series, and we are introduced to a variety of Wakandan characters, though the country’s not depicted as the Afrofuturist utopia it would eventually evolve into. While McGregor’s often gruesome purple prose has been deservedly mocked (even by his contemporaries), his storytelling instincts are strong and he provides an emotionally engrossing and nuanced tale quite atypical for Marvel. It’s safe to say that “Panther’s Rage” was ahead of its time. The events are described below from the Black Panther’s point of view.
Note: The following timeline depicts the Original Marvel Universe (anchored to November 1961 as the first appearance of the Fantastic Four and proceeding forward from there. See previous posts for a detailed explanation of my rationale). Some information presented on the timeline is speculative and some is based on historical accounts. See the Notes section at the end for clarifications.
Now continuing… The True History of the Black Panther!
January 1967 – At his royal palace in Wakanda, King T’Challa spends the month attending to routine matters of state which he has neglected due to his 15-month sojourn in the United States of America as a member of the Avengers. Released from his duties as regent, N’Gassi decides to retire from public life, leading T’Challa to rely more heavily on Taku, Zatama, and younger advisors. W’Kabi, now the senior security advisor, warns T’Challa repeatedly about a shadowy malcontent called Erik Killmonger who’s been stirring up trouble. T’Challa is not overly concerned, though, since there have been rumors of unrest among the villages in the western hill country for years now and nothing has come of it. He’s more frustrated by the fact that his subjects have been less than welcoming to his American girlfriend, Monica Lynne. In an attempt to help Monica fit in better, T’Challa assigns to her one of the court handmaidens, Tanzika, who worked briefly with the Falcon’s headstrong girlfriend Leila Taylor several weeks ago. He also arranges for a tutor to start teaching Monica the Wakandan language. He hopes that after the inevitable period of culture shock passes, Monica will be accepted by his people as their future queen.
February 1967 – Needing a break, T’Challa suits up as the Black Panther and goes to spend some time alone in the jungle to the north of the palace. There, he discovers an old man being tortured by two younger men, Kazibe and Tayete, one of whom is brandishing an illegal submachine gun. Black Panther beats up the two thugs and drives them off. Unfortunately, the old man dies of his injuries, insisting that he never lost faith in his king during his long absence, no matter what anybody else said. After carrying the old man’s body back to the palace, T’Challa orders a contingent of soldiers into the northern hills to retrieve the submachine gun and find out how it was smuggled into the country. The next morning, W’Kabi reports that there was a terrible massacre during the night at a settlement on Black Warrior Creek. He, Taku, and a small contingent of soldiers accompany the Black Panther there to investigate, where they confirm that the raid on the village was led by Killmonger. Taku explains that Wakanda’s social fabric has been fraying as the population fragments into isolated enclaves, pointing out to T’Challa how long it’s been since he visited any of the small mountain villages. The resulting power vacuum has allowed Killmonger to challenge the king’s authority.
Receiving a report that Killmonger and his followers are advancing toward the palace, Black Panther races to Warrior Falls to intercept them. There, he comes across Kazibe and Tayete again, and while he’s interrogating them, he’s attacked by Killmonger. Wielding a heavy, spiked belt, Killmonger notes that they’ve met before, though T’Challa doesn’t recognize him. The rebel sics his white leopard, Preyy, on the king, and the massive cat knocks the Black Panther into the river at the top of the waterfall. As they struggle, Black Panther nearly breaks Preyy’s neck, forcing Killmonger to intervene. He beats on the Black Panther with his belt as the injured leopard slinks away. Then, filled with rage and bitterness, Killmonger lifts the Black Panther above his head and throws him over the falls. Black Panther does what he can to keep from getting his brains dashed out on the jutting rocks but loses consciousness when he hits the pool of water at the bottom and drifts down the River of Grace and Wisdom toward the palace. When he comes to, T’Challa finds himself in the hospital, seriously wounded, and learns he was found by Monica while she was bathing in the river.
A week later, T’Challa has recovered sufficiently for a meeting with Taku, W’Kabi, Zatama, Monica, and Tanzika, at which he tells them what he has learned about Killmonger since their fight. The rebel was originally called N’Jadaka and was among those young men kidnapped by Ulysses Klaw when he tried to seize control of the vibranium mound fourteen years ago. Klaw’s men took their captives to the United States, but once there, N’Jadaka escaped from them. However, with no Wakandan embassy to turn to, N’Jadaka had no means of returning home until the Black Panther joined the Avengers. Learning of N’Jadaka’s plight, T’Challa brought him back to Wakanda, and somehow, in just two and a half years, N’Jadaka has built up a formidable power base under the name Erik Killmonger. Zatama suggests they negotiate a peaceful resolution to the conflict, but W’Kabi scoffs at such an idea. Taku then receives a report of an army assembling at Warrior Falls, lead by a fearsome apparition—some kind of animated corpse with live snakes coiled around its body. Ignoring Monica’s objections, T’Challa immediately suits up as the Black Panther and heads out to confront the rebel force.
Black Panther soon comes upon Kazibe and Tayete and beats them up yet again while mocking how ineffectual they are. The hapless pair insists that T’Challa will be no match for Killmonger’s Death Regiment, but he is undeterred. He soon locates the Death Regiment and follows them into a cave behind the waterfall, where he discovers an illicit mining operation that’s stealing vibranium ore right out of the earth. Before he can react, Black Panther is attacked by the weird figure Taku described, though he turns out to be merely a disfigured American man calling himself Venomm. Though he nearly falls into a chasm while evading the vipers coiling around his foe’s limbs, Black Panther manages to beat Venomm into submission. Soldiers from the palace soon arrive, drive off the Death Regiment, and dismantle the mining operation. Venomm is taken into custody and locked in a holding cell in the palace.
Over the course of the following week, T’Challa sends a new model of aero-car to the Fantastic Four, requesting that they give it a thorough test run. Mister Fantastic recruits his teammates the Human Torch and Medusa to assist him and later submits a positive assessment, suggesting only a few minor tweaks. T’Challa is grateful for the feedback and glad to have a nice distraction from Wakanda’s internal strife.
Towards the end of the month, T’Challa takes the royal herbalist, Mendinao, into Torment Forest for the sacred ritual involving the heart-shaped herb that gives the Black Panther his superhuman abilities. Citing the threat posed by Killmonger, W’Kabi insists on accompanying them. Unfortunately, Monica disrupts the ceremony, mistakenly believing that W’Kabi is in league with Killmonger and is trying to assassinate T’Challa. W’Kabi and Monica get into a scuffle, but T’Challa intervenes. He rebukes W’Kabi for treating Monica so roughly, then escorts her back to the palace. When they arrive, they find that a woman calling herself Malice has broken Venomm out of his cell after overcoming Taku and Zatama. She throws a triple-bladed spear at them, which, to T’Challa’s surprise, slices through a marble column before lacerating his shoulder. A second later, Malice has crossed the room and is battering T’Challa with a bo staff. Taking into account his foe’s superhuman strength and speed, T’Challa flips Malice into Venomm, forcing him to release his grip on Taku’s throat. W’Kabi charges into the room, followed by Mendinao, and recaptures Venomm. W’Kabi nearly strangles the prisoner with the shaft of his spear, but T’Challa reminds him that that’s not how they do things. Malice dives through a window and escapes into the jungle.
March–May 1967 – As the weeks pass relatively quietly, T’Challa comes to believe that Killmonger’s plans have been scuttled by the dismantling of his vibranium-smuggling operation and his failure to liberate Venomm. Taku spends much of his free time chatting with Venomm, and they gradually develop a friendly rapport, though Venomm is careful not to reveal anything useful about Killmonger. The hotheaded W’Kabi continually advocates the use of torture to extract the information from the prisoner, much to the disgust of Zatama, whose pacifist philosophy has made him rather unpopular around the court. T’Challa has faith in Taku, though, and is willing to be patient. Monica, however, grows increasingly frustrated that the Wakandans persist in rejecting her. She is convinced that they see her as a symbol of encroaching modernity, though she believes it’s really just xenophobia. When she tries to share her concerns with T’Challa, he habitually lapses into high-minded pontificating.
June 1967 – Black Panther saves a nine-year-old boy named Kantu from an angry rhinoceros while out and about with Monica. The boy’s parents, M’Jumbak and Karota, are grateful, though they give Monica the cold shoulder. Over antelope shish kebobs at dinner that night, T’Challa tries to reassure Monica that his people will eventually accept her. Afterwards, a desperate Karota turns up and says that M’Jumbak disappeared while on his customary evening walk, which takes him past a burial ground said to haunted by an evil spirit. T’Challa agrees to look into the matter and once again suits up as the Black Panther. In the cemetery, he discovers that M’Jumbak has been strangled to death. Suddenly, several zombies burst out of the graves around him, led by a seven-foot-tall, emaciated figure who calls himself Baron Macabre and shoots death-rays out of his hands. Despite battling fiercely, Black Panther is badly outnumbered by his eerie foes and forced to retreat to the palace. There, he is shocked to find W’Kabi arresting Monica for the murder of Zatama. The murder weapon, a thin blade that pierced Zatama’s heart, has Monica’s fingerprints all over it. Under the circumstances, the best T’Challa can do is have Monica confined to her opulent quarters rather than a holding cell. Convinced of his lover’s innocence, T’Challa vows to clear her name.
The next day, T’Challa visits Monica and shows her the odd-looking murder weapon, which is nevertheless somehow familiar. He is intrigued by a greasy substance coating much of it and wonders how the killer got Monica’s fingerprints on it. She admits to being frightened, saying she’s seen too many movies where suspicious locals pin a crime on an innocent stranger. He does his best to reassure her. A little later, T’Challa takes his dinner in the throne room while discussing the previous night’s events with W’Kabi. Tanzika brings him more antelope shish kebobs, but T’Challa is annoyed to be served leftovers. Karota returns, hoping for an update on her husband’s disappearance, and T’Challa informs her of his death. Feeling guilty that he let himself be distracted by personal problems, T’Challa returns to the cemetery to continue his investigation into M’Jumbak’s murder. He is again attacked by Baron Macabre’s zombies but is able to confirm his suspicion that they are merely men in ghoulish disguises. Beating them into submission, Black Panther forces one of the men to reveal that the graves lead down to the hidden lair of Baron Macabre and his superior, King Cadaver. Undaunted, Black Panther stalks his foes through their network of tunnels until he finds them in a brightly lit hall of mirrors.
Black Panther is shocked by King Cadaver’s repulsive appearance: his macrocephalic head is covered with pustules, bristly hairs, and bulging veins. His bloodshot eyes are inhumanly large and seem to bore into T’Challa’s brain from the multiple reflections surrounding him, due to his low-level psychic assault. Smashing through the glass partition separating them, Black Panther knocks out Baron Macabre, revealing the villain’s skull-like visage to be merely a mask, but he is then horrified to discover that King Cadaver’s face is all too real. Taking advantage of T’Challa’s astonishment, King Cadaver slips past his mental defenses and intensifies the telepathic torture. In desperation, Black Panther seizes Baron Macabre’s fringed headdress and uses it to blindfold King Cadaver, breaking the psychic link. He then hurls the villain through the mirrored wall behind his throne, revealing another chamber beyond it. Curious, Black Panther steps through the broken mirror and finds himself in a remote section of his “technological jungle,” surrounded by weapons looted from Wakanda’s arsenals. Investigating further, he finds that Baron Macabre’s death-rays are adapted from a wrist-mounted laser device meant for industrial purposes, but there is no explanation for King Cadaver’s bizarre mutations. He calls in a contingent of soldiers to secure the technological jungle complex, but both Baron Macabre and King Cadaver manage to escape before they can be apprehended.
Returning to the palace, T’Challa checks in with Monica. When Tanzika brings the prisoner her dinner, T’Challa suddenly realizes that the blade that killed Zatama is just a shish kebob skewer—the very skewer that Monica ate her dinner off of the night of the murder. He announces confidently that he has solved the crime and will soon have the evidence to prove it. A few hours later, Black Panther is lurking in the treetops outside the palace when W’Kabi nearly blows his cover. He tells W’Kabi to keep quiet and sets off after a shadowy figure that emerges from the palace and heads toward the River of Grace and Wisdom. On the riverbank he finds that, as he suspected, Tanzika is attempting to dispose of some incriminating evidence—scandalous photographs of her and Zatama enjoying a romantic tryst. Tanzika admits that she killed Zatama in a jealous rage after he abruptly ended their affair. She grabs the skewer and throws it at the Black Panther, but he snatches it out of the air and shames her for trying to frame Monica. W’Kabi soon arrives and takes Tanzika into custody. Completely exonerated, Monica is immediately released from confinement and receives a formal apology. T’Challa is satisfied that justice has been served.
July 1967 – Venomm finally lets it slip that Killmonger’s Death Regiment is hiding out in the rebel’s home village in the western hill country, which he has renamed N’Jadaka in his own honor. Taku reports this information at once, though he feels guilty for betraying his new friend’s confidence. Black Panther then leads Taku, W’Kabi, and a large contingent of soldiers there to capture them. Finding Kazibe and Tayete on guard duty, Black Panther gives them a beating for old times’ sake. One of Killmonger’s lieutenants, whom he has named Lord Karnaj, produces a pair of sonic-blaster pistols and kills one of T’Challa’s men. Black Panther orders his forces to move in, and the battle begins. Malice and Baron Macabre join Lord Karnaj at the forefront of the fighting. At one point, Malice throws one of her triple-bladed spears at W’Kabi, but he manages to dodge it. The spear goes all the way through a thatched hut and lands in the dirt near Taku on the other side. Lord Karnaj then blasts the hut to smithereens with his sonic pistols, killing a child. Horrified, Taku charges at Lord Karnaj and beats him nearly to death before the Black Panther stops him, not wanting him to become as warlike as W’Kabi. As Taku carries the child’s body away for burial, Black Panther’s forces win the day. Malice, Baron Macabre, Lord Karnaj, Kazibe, Tayete, and the other rebels are taken into custody. T’Challa is confident they’ve dealt a severe blow to Killmonger’s insurrection.
T’Challa and his advisors are baffled by unseasonable weather throughout Wakanda as well as around the globe. The bizarre phenomenon soon passes, but the cause remains a mystery. Not long after, T’Challa receives word from the Avengers that the Scarlet Witch and the Vision have gotten married. He sends the happy couple a gift in care of Avengers Mansion. The team also informs him of the strange fate of the Swordsman and Mantis, who have also gotten married, in a manner of speaking, and left Earth to seek their destiny among the stars. Later, T’Challa becomes concerned when everyone in Manhattan is rendered unconscious for two days. Efforts to investigate the situation are hampered when it is found that anyone who goes to the island likewise passes out. After everyone finally revives, reports of odd occurrences start coming in from around the world, but then the Fantastic Four announce that it was all part of an alien invasion plot that they’ve foiled. T’Challa is relieved to know he’ll be able to continue focusing on domestic affairs.
August 1967 – Under interrogation, Tayete reveals that Killmonger has a hidden base he calls the Resurrection Altar in the largely unexplored domain of the white gorillas in the northwestern part of the country. To Monica’s dismay, T’Challa is determined to take Tayete and Kazibe into the mountainous wilderness alone, since W’Kabi has his hands full with all the captured insurrectionists. She and Taku accompany the Black Panther and the two prisoners to the Chasm of Chilling Mist, a deep gorge that separates the white gorillas’ domain from the rest of Wakanda. Black Panther then marches Kazibe and Tayete across the centuries-old wooden bridge that spans the chasm and follows them up a mountain, where the air temperature drops dramatically. After an arduous trek, they find the Resurrection Altar in a cavern near the mountain’s peak—a square chamber with polished metal walls, in the center of which is a circular pit containing a large meteorite that’s emitting mutagenic radiation. King Cadaver is strapped naked to a platform that’s being lowered into the pit as Killmonger watches alongside Sombre, a sort of high priest wearing a ceremonial mask. Black Panther realizes that this is the source of Killmonger’s lieutenants’ superhuman abilities and that they are probably attempting to increase King Cadaver’s telepathic powers. Leaping down from his vantage point, Black Panther tackles Killmonger, but the villain proves to have super-strength and tosses him into the pit. Black Panther saves himself with his gymnastic skill, only to be rendered unconscious by a single touch of Sombre’s hand. When he comes to, Black Panther finds himself lying alone in the snow somewhere on the mountainside with only a spear to protect himself from the ravenous wolves that stalk the night.
Despite being badly wounded while fighting off the wolves, Black Panther finds his way back to the Resurrection Altar, only to learn that Killmonger and King Cadaver have already left. However, he is able to track Sombre quite some distance and finds him whipping a group of white gorillas into a frenzy. A 12-foot-tall gorilla attacks the Black Panther while Sombre mocks him, reminding him that the creatures are considered gods by Wakanda’s second major religion, which has long been officially repressed. Although he takes a savage beating, Black Panther manages to overcome the monstrous gorilla by clawing at its eyes. Blinded, the creature tumbles off an icy overhang and is impaled on the rib bone of some great, long-dead beast. The rest of the white gorillas go into paroxysms of grief over their fallen leader, prompting Sombre to make a strategic retreat. Over the next three days, Black Panther follows him down through the mountains to the perpetually mist-shrouded Serpent Valley, which remains largely unexplored. On the edge of a marsh, the two men get into a fight, though as before, Sombre’s mere touch causes the Black Panther intense agony. Luckily, the villain is distracted by a strange voice from the tree canopy, enabling the Black Panther to kick him into a quagmire. Sombre makes no effort to save himself and quickly sinks into the muck and drowns.
Having made only a half-hearted attempt to rescue Sombre, Black Panther takes to the trees to investigate the source of the strange voice. He soon finds a jovial little man perched on a branch who peppers him with elliptical questions. Though he always answers T’Challa’s questions with another question, the pygmy does intimate that he is called Mokadi. Deciding that Mokadi seems harmless enough, Black Panther sets off in search of Killmonger. Mokadi follows him, and they soon come upon a river badly polluted with an oily sludge. Mokadi reveals that Killmonger is responsible, directing his men to dump barrels of sludge into the water to help them capture some dinosaurs wading there. T’Challa is shocked to see these Brachiosaurus-like creatures and wonders what Killmonger wants them for. He climbs down a sheer cliff to confront his foe, but Killmonger releases a captive Tyrannosaurus to cover his retreat. With Mokadi’s help, Black Panther kills the Tyrannosaurus by turning a palm tree into a makeshift catapult and hitting it between the eyes with a large rock. However, the pygmy then vanishes without a trace. Suddenly remembering that “mokadi” is a Bomitaba word for “spirit,” T’Challa wonders if his little companion was even real. He then limps off into the jungle in search of herbs to salve his wounds.
Sometime later, Black Panther stops at a small pool alongside a thorny forest of cactus and brambles to apply fresh poultices to his wounds. Unfortunately, he is ambushed by three of Killmonger’s henchmen. He dispatches the first two with little effort, but the third is armed with a bow and a quiver of exploding arrows. The arrogant archer introduces himself as Salamander K’Ruel, and T’Challa is repulsed by the large boils that cover his flesh. Nevertheless, he pounces on K’Ruel, only to discover that his body is also covered with thousands of needle-like quills. Recoiling in agony, T’Challa passes out, and when he comes to, he finds himself caught in a diabolical trap: he’s been securely bound between two large cactus plants, the slightest movement causing their spines to pierce his flesh. The excruciating pain prevents him from doing anything but snarl as K’Ruel stands before him triumphantly. Before leaving to fetch Killmonger, K’Ruel boasts of being one of the few to survive exposure to the Resurrection Altar’s radiation. T’Challa then sits limply as the afternoon passes, lost in delirious visions of carefree childhood days spent with his father. A curious newt brings him back to reality as dusk approaches. His torment is brought to an abrupt end when a hungry pterosaur swoops down on him, its talons splitting apart the cactus on T’Challa’s left. He struggles to untie himself as the creature wheels around for another pass. The pterosaur then smashes the cactus on T’Challa’s right, grabs his arms, and yanks him into the sky. Instinctively fighting to save himself, T’Challa manages to clamber onto the pterosaur’s back, out of reach of its jaws and talons. He then directs the flying reptile to the edge of Serpent Valley, where he dive-bombs Salamander K’Ruel. Startled, K’Ruel lets fly an explosive arrow that kills the pterosaur, but T’Challa leaps off in the nick of time and viciously beats K’Ruel unconscious with his own bow. Exhausted, T’Challa finally pulls all the little quills and cactus spines out of his skin, washes his wounds, and applies fresh poultices. He then drags K’Ruel back to his palace, an arduous two-day trek.
T'Challa is delirious when he finally collapses on the front steps of the palace. Monica comes running out, calling to W’Kabi to fetch Mendinao at once. With his head in her lap, T’Challa tries to say something to Monica but passes out instead. When he comes to later, T’Challa finds himself in the intensive care ward of the hospital, his treatment being overseen by his cousin Joshua Itobo, a skilled practitioner of western medicine. Monica assures him that Salamander K’Ruel has been imprisoned along with Killmonger’s other lieutenants. Over the next several weeks, T’Challa slowly recovers from his ordeal.
October 1967 – T’Challa and Monica enjoy a day at Twisted Visions Lake, frolicking in the waves and riding on giant sea turtles. She’s happy that he’s finally been released from the hospital, though she’s been enjoying getting to know Taku better. They discuss T’Challa’s new insights into the downsides of his modernization efforts, which he’s had a lot of time to think about during his convalescence. After some hot sex on the beach, they return to the palace to find that Venomm has escaped from his cell after knocking out Taku and seriously injuring W’Kabi. Certain that Venomm will return to the village of N’Jadaka where he kept his pet snakes, Black Panther sets off in an aero-car to recapture him. En route, he spots a young boy sitting alone on the edge of the lake and decides to check on him. It turns out to be Kantu, whose father was murdered by Killmonger’s henchmen back in June. Kantu says he blames Killmonger for his father’s death and hates him so much that he would kill him if he could. T’Challa tries to comfort the boy but worries about the future of Wakanda amidst such strife. After starting Kantu on his way home, Black Panther continues on to his confrontation with Venomm, arriving in the remote village shortly after nightfall.
At Venomm’s command, a large snake nearly strangles the Black Panther before he manages to beat it to death. He then sees dozens more snakes slithering towards him, but luckily Taku arrives and talks Venomm down. Unwilling to kill Taku, whom he considers a friend, Venomm calls off his snakes and retreats into the jungle. Black Panther is forced to let him go, knowing he’s no match for an army of deadly snakes. Returning home in defeat, T’Challa visits W’Kabi in the hospital and tries to cheer him up by talking about his deepening relationship with Monica, but his friend is clearly not in the mood. Feeling frustrated, T’Challa finally goes back to the palace to get some sleep.
Black Panther is up at dawn the next morning when Killmonger finally makes his move, attacking the palace with a formidable number of troops and the dinosaurs captured in Serpent Valley. A couple of Brachiosaurs crash through the front of the building with pairs of gunmen astride their backs, though the Black Panther takes them out with ease. He then sees his security forces moving in to engage with Killmonger’s troops. Spotting Monica, T’Challa races to her side to make sure she’s okay. Though frightened, she’s managed to keep a cool head. Several Tyrannosaurs are close behind the Brachiosaurs, and together they demolish the palace. Some aero-cars swoop down and fire on the dinosaurs with lasers, decapitating one Tyrannosaurus. Its head nearly lands on Monica, but the Black Panther is able to pull her to safety. He knows the laser guns have only recently been installed on the aero-cars and their pilots still need more training. Taku comes running up and informs the Black Panther that more dinosaurs are being directed toward the hospital. Black Panther orders that a squadron of aero-cars intercept the creatures. He then tries to fight his way across the battlefield to confront Killmonger, leaping over the cringing Kazibe and Tayete as he goes. Seeing him approaching, Killmonger calls out to the Black Panther, congratulating him on managing to survive his previous brushes with death. Killmonger says his impending victory would have felt anticlimactic if T’Challa were already dead. Then, challenging T’Challa to meet him in single combat atop Warrior Falls, Killmonger withdraws, leaving his forces to continue their assault without him.
Black Panther is ready to chase his enemy down but then sees that Malice, Baron Macabre, and Lord Karnaj have escaped from the demolished prison. He decides to go after them first and, when he catches up to them, vents his rage on them. Within minutes, both Baron Macabre and Lord Karnaj have been beaten into unconsciousness, though Malice has slipped off into the melee. Not wanting to delay his showdown with Killmonger any longer, Black Panther then heads out to Warrior Falls. There, he finds Killmonger on a cliff overlooking the falls and pounces on him. A savage battle ensues with each man taking a beating, until Killmonger finally laughs and hauls the Black Panther up over his head. T’Challa instantly realizes that he’s been fooled—Killmonger could have overpowered him at any time, thanks to his superhuman strength. The villain announces that this time, rather than relying on the waterfall to do the job for him, he’s just going to break T’Challa’s back and then watch him die. Unexpectedly, Kantu comes running up from behind Killmonger and crashes into his knees, knocking him off balance. Black Panther drops to the edge of the cliff and grabs onto the barren rock with his claws as Killmonger pitches over and plummets to his death in the river below.
As they hike down from the falls, Kantu tells the Black Panther that he was woken up shortly before dawn when the dinosaurs passed his farm. Seeing that Killmonger was leading them, Kantu followed and was horrified when the rebel army marched right over the graveyard where his father is buried, desecrating it. He ran towards the palace to raise the alarm, but by the time he got there, the battle was well underway. He heard Killmonger shout his challenge to the Black Panther and followed him to Warrior Falls. When it looked like the Black Panther had lost the fight, Kantu was overwhelmed with rage and attacked Killmonger without thinking. When the boy states that he’s glad Killmonger is dead, T’Challa is saddened to see such lost innocence. They soon arrive at the wrecked palace and find that the revolution has failed. Taku reports that King Cadaver had attacked him with his enhanced telepathy, but Venomm came to the rescue. Using a bullwhip, Venomm forced King Cadaver into the path of a Brachiosaurus, whereupon the evil telepath was trampled to death. Malice then tried to kill Venomm, but Monica bludgeoned her in the head, knocking her out. Even so, Venomm has been taken into custody. Salamander K’Ruel was killed by falling debris when the prison was breached. T’Challa is sad to hear that a Brachiosaurus crashed into the hospital, further injuring W’Kabi, and as a result, his left arm will need to be amputated. Deprived of their leaders, the rebels gave up the fight shortly before the Black Panther returned. Though he assures his followers that the threat of Killmonger is ended, T’Challa is somewhat vague about the manner of his demise, and Kantu goes along with it.
November 1967 – Malice, Baron Macabre, and Lord Karnaj are put on trial for treason, found guilty, and executed. Venomm, a.k.a. Horatio Walters, not being a citizen of Wakanda and having switched sides in the battle, is sentenced to be deported back to the United States. Kazibe and Tayete, along with many other rank-and-file rebel soldiers, are sentenced to several years of probation in hopes of reintegrating them into Wakandan society. T’Challa then has the cavern containing the Resurrection Altar blown up with dynamite, burying the radioactive meteorite beneath countless tons of rock and ice. The surviving dinosaurs are returned to their natural habitat in Serpent Valley.
December 1967 – For about 18 hours, Black Panther finds himself trapped within a force-field bubble. Try as he might, he is unable to escape. Finally, the force field vanishes as mysteriously as it appeared. He then learns that while he was trapped, Loki led an invasion force of Asgardian warriors against Washington, D.C., only to be repelled by Thor and the U.S. Army.
As preparations begin for the rebuilding of the royal palace, T’Challa takes delivery of a new grand piano, since his previous one was destroyed. Monica tries the instrument out, playing a romantic ballad. T’Challa is pleased, since Monica hasn’t really pursued her music since coming to Wakanda. He admits he’s partial to the piano, even though it’s not used in traditional Wakandan music. Monica worries that the traditionalists will say she’s corrupting him with foreign influences, but T’Challa hopes that music might provide Monica with a way into his people’s hearts and minds.
Two days later, Black Panther and W’Kabi head into the jungle to investigate a sighting of two dead men reported by a shepherd. Seeming unusually morose, W’Kabi finally admits that his wife, Chandra, has left him, taking their two sons with her. T’Challa is sympathetic as his friend talks about how his relationship with his wife slowly fell apart. To make matters worse, W’Kabi’s having a difficult time adjusting to his new prosthetic arm. When they come upon the two corpses, they’re shocked to see they’ve been strung up to a tree branch and left to rot in the sun. W’Kabi uses the laser gun incorporated into his robotic arm to drive off the hyenas that have been drawn to the site. While they’re looking for clues, they are ambushed by a very tall, muscular man and quickly rendered unconscious. They soon revive in a cave and find themselves the prisoners of Madam Slay, Killmonger’s lover. Surrounded by half a dozen leopards, she admits to killing the two men in the jungle, claiming they were poachers. Now, she wants revenge on the Black Panther for the death of her man. As such, T’Challa’s wrists have been lashed to the collars of two leopards, one of which is Killmonger’s beloved Preyy. Madam Slay then sends the two leopards charging out of the cave, dragging the Black Panther behind them across the hardscrabble terrain. Only his enhanced strength and agility enables him to stay alive until he can pounce onto the leopards’ backs and ride them back to the cave. Madam Slay is astonished that he’s survived her death-trap. Black Panther vaults off the leopards, slams into her muscular henchman, and pins him to the ground. Madam Slay manages to stab the Black Panther in the back with one of the metal spikes she wears on her forearms, but then W’Kabi frees himself and fires his laser gun at her. She tries to jump out of the way but lands on her head, knocking herself out and giving herself a concussion. The mute henchman immediately surrenders, whereupon T’Challa forces him to carry Madam Slay back to the palace to face justice. W’Kabi observes with great relief that the war against Killmonger is finally over, but T’Challa wonders if the threat of insurrection will ever really go away.
Notes:
February 1967 – The Black Panther’s solo series launches in Jungle Action #6 after reprinting an earlier adventure in the previous issue. He remains behind the scenes while the Fantastic Four are testing his new aero-car in Giant-Size Super-Stars #1.
July 1967 – The bizarre weather phenomena result from Dormammu imprisoning Gaea in Doctor Strange v.2 #8–9. The Avengers contact the Black Panther behind the scenes early in Avengers #137, following the double wedding in Giant-Size Avengers #4. The Fantastic Four fight off an invasion by the extraterrestrial Axi-Tun race in Giant-Size Fantastic Four #3.
August 1967 – The meteorite in the Resurrection Altar likely contains significant amounts of vibranium, which is known to have mutagenic properties. It may have broken off from the larger vibranium meteorite that landed in central Wakanda 10,000 years ago and went undiscovered due to its inaccessible location. The white gorillas are so large and aggressive because they’ve been mutated by exposure to the unrefined vibranium in the cavern.
October 1967 – In a surprise twist, T’Challa never manages to defeat Killmonger, with the rebel actually being killed semi-accidentally by a nine-year-old boy. However, the Wakandans assume that the Black Panther has scored a decisive victory, and T’Challa is content to let them believe that. As revealed in Iron Man Annual #5, Killmonger’s body is soon found by his lover, Madam Slay. She fishes it out of the River of Grace and Wisdom and takes it back to her hidden lair in the wilderness. There, she lays the body on a stone bier and uses some local herbs to preserve it from decay. Neither T’Challa nor W’Kabi see the body while they’re there, though.
December 1967 – Black Panther is among the superheroes seen trapped in Loki’s magic spheres in Thor #233. Madam Slay’s capture brings us up to Jungle Action #18, the conclusion of the “Panther’s Rage” storyline. With the exception of Venomm, all of Killmonger’s lieutenants are Wakandan and speak the Wakandan language. However, the code names given to them by Killmonger—King Cadaver, Baron Macabre, Lord Karnaj, Salamander K’Ruel, Malice, and Madam Slay—use the English words rather than the Wakandan equivalents. This is due to the decade Killmonger spent living in America. Given the events in Iron Man Annual #5, it would appear that Madam Slay receives a relatively light sentence at the conclusion of her trial, likely due to her peripheral involvement in the revolution.
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