Jungle Action #6 (September 1973)

The Black Panther. The King of Wakanda. One of the Marvel Universe's most brilliant minds and richest men, he emerged from the minds of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966). Since then, T'Challa has been an Avenger, had a mini-series, and a couple ongoings.

One of the greatest Black Panther stories was the long-running storyline called Panther's Rage. Running from Jungle Action #6-18, for nearly two years, writer Don McGregor and the late artists Rich Buckler and Billy Graham crafted a storyline that, at the time, provided an unprecedented exploration of the country of Wakanda, portraying it as a land where modern technology and ancient ways managed to coexist side-by-side, and showing that Wakanda is a land that had a variety of locations...and dinosaurs. Yeah, Wakanda had actual dinosaurs.

Anyway, every epic story has to begin somewhere, no matter what the medium is used to tell it. As such, let's take a look at Jungle Action #6, in which we first saw the Panther rage.

 The cover is pretty darn cool. You got Erik Killmonger catching T'Challa' arm with a spiked belt (And based on his "costume", he's both got a thing for spikes and is very proud of his abs), proclaiming that he will be the new King of Wakanda. And T'Challa is facing off against a leopard. It was at that point that Panther should really have considered investing a utility belt. Works for Batman, and considering this is Wakanda, they probably developed a special catnip to calm down angry leopards.

"Panther's Rage"
Writer: Don McGregor
Penciller: Rich Buckler
Inker: Klaus Janson
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Editor: Roy Thomas

The story begins with the Black Panther getting ready to whup some dudes who are torturing an old man in a cage.

T'Challa, to make a long story short, beats the dudes down, and frees the caged man. The man weakly expresses gratitude as Panther frees him, but reveals that he is dying from his wounds. The man reveals that there has been trouble brewing in Wakanda. While T'Challa was having adventures as an Avenger, there were some in Wakanda who felt that T'Challa may have abandoned the kingdom, and it's caused some problems in the country. With his last breath, the man says he never believed the Black Panther abandoned his kingdom.

T'Challa returns the man to his village, processing the man's words. He then meets up with some people in his...Panther-cave? I dunno. After casually lying the dead guy's corpse near a panther statue (Yeah, let's leave the body right there in an open place so it can decompose and stink up everything), he learns from a man named W'Kabi there are whispers of a man named Erik Killmonger causing trouble. W'Kabi remarks T'Challa may have known this had he bothered to spend any real time in Wakanda lately.

We then meet up with T'Challa's then-girlfriend Monica Lynne, who was a lounge singer and social worker. She gives him some comfort over the dying man's words.

The next day, T'Challa alongside W'Kabi and Taku (a communications director) go and see a village that had been destroyed, its inhabitants massacred. W'Kabi is still angry at T'Challa, saying that he has neglected his people, and this would not be happening if he was in Wakanda. The group do manage to find survivors, and Taku had medical teams summoned to help them. T'Challa learns who was responsible for the death and destruction.

Taku alerts T'Challa that a man was spotted in a place called Warrior Falls, a large man with a white leopard. Thinking that may be the mysterious Mr. Killmonger, T'Challa heads there alone to check it out. He finds the same two mooks who got beat up by Panther yesterday. In a funny moment, one claims they will beat him when they face him again.

They do not. The Black Panther demands they tell him where their leader is, and Erik Killmonger is very happy to introduce himself.

Good Lord, Erik Killmonger is a man who has eaten a lot of beef. Killmonger explains he attacked the village to get the Panther's attention and to get some payback on T'Challa. This is his first appearance, but a later comic explains he was exiled by T'Challa because his father helped Ulysses Klaw attack Wakanda. Yeah, Panther was a jerk, and it's coming back to bite him. T'Challa fights back with a kick to the face, but Killmonger no-sells it. He then sics his leopard, Preyy, on him.

Yes, the leopard is named Preyy. Erik Killmonger is not very creative when it comes to naming pets. I'm surprised he didn't just call it Leoparrd or something like that. We can't use the 90s as an excuse for this, unfortunately, as this comic was from 1973. Preyy leaps at T'Challa, trying to slice him up. Killmonger gleefully runs his mouth while T'Challa tries to fight off the angry big cat. T'Challa is able to get a grip on the leopard, and tries to snap Preyy's neck. This infuriates Killmonger, who orders the big cat to back off. Well, one thing to his credit, Killmonger loves his cat.

The exiled Wakandan grabs the injured T'Challa, and tosses him off the edge of the waterfall.

This comic was rather enjoyable. Erik Killmonger is an awesome villain, we got an exciting cliffhanger, and it is neat seeing T'Challa dealing with the consequences of his palling around with the Avengers in the US. Rich Buckler's art is really nice to look at. Next time, we go back to Earth-712, and check on the latest exploits of the Squadron Supreme...