PANTHER’S RAGE FOUR: BUT NOW THE SPEARS ARE BROKEN

FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE 

JUNGLE ACTION Volume 2, Number 9 (May 1974)

IV. BUT NOW THE SPEARS ARE BROKEN 

Synopsis: Like a pre-credits sequence in an action movie blockbuster, this chapter of Panther’s Rage opens up with the Black Panther fighting a rampaging rhinoceros to save some Wakandan children from being stampeded by it. Ultimately T’Challa breaks the rhino’s neck, killing it.

The Wakandan parents are very grateful and when the Black Panther rejoins his Royal Consort Monica Lynne the two talk about the incident. They reflect on how a nice p.r. moment like that doesn’t hurt but T’Challa still has a long way to go to regain his people’s complete trust.

That night a Wakandan man named M’Jumbak is killed as the latest victim of Killmonger’s subordinate whom Erik has given the revolutionary name Baron Macabre. Preying on the superstitions of the Wakandan poor and working class the Baron theatrically rises from graveyards accompanied by seemingly animated corpses.

He’s been thus terrorizing Wakanda City and several outlying villages.  

M’Jumbak’s young son Kantu is devastated and this young man – clearly going through the same thing that the young T’Challa went through when Ulysses Klaw killed HIS father – will feature prominently in future installments of the story.

The next night the Black Panther and his advisors – W’Kabi, Taku and Zatama – continue bickering over what approach should be taken to win back the hearts and minds of those villages which have gone over to Killmonger’s side. 

We learn en passant that T’Challa DID finally complete the Ritual of the Panther Herbs which was interrupted last issue. W’Kabi points out that the Black Panther’s choice in an Outworlder for a Royal Consort has alienated many Wakandans.

This brainstorming session/ elaborate feast is interrupted by word of sightings of Baron Macabre and his army of seeming zombies. T’Challa dons his “sacred” costume and heads out to investigate.

In one of Wakanda City’s cemeteries the Black Panther battles Baron Macabre, a wiry, agile man in a frightening medicine man’s mask. The Baron’s wristlets are equipped with lasers and between these laser blasts and the army of seeming corpses, Macabre forces T’Challa to retreat.

When he arrives back at the Palace, T’Challa is informed that Zatama has been found stabbed to death and Monica Lynne’s finger-prints are on the murder weapon.     

CHECK BACK TOMORROW FOR PART FIVE. SAME PANTHER-TIME, SAME PANTHER-CHANNEL. 

FOR MY ARTICLE ON THE MAIN LIST OF CENTAUR COMICS SUPERHEROES CLICK HERE

FOR MY ARTICLE ON THE MAIN LIST OF THE RURAL HOME/ CROYDON SUPERHEROES CLICK HERE

FOR MY ARTICLE ON THE MEMBERS OF INFINITE HORIZON CLICK HERE

FOR THE AUSTRALIAN SUPERHERO PANTHEON CLICK  HERE

FOR MORE SUPERHEROES CLICK HERE:  Superheroes 

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