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JUNGLE ACTION Volume 2, Number 8 (January 1974)

III. MALICE BY CRIMSON MOONLIGHT

Synopsis: In an opening layout of brilliantly drawn panels that even Will Eisner could have envied, in the first few pages of this issue we readers are shown multiple events going on in one night:

*** The Black Panther is undergoing various physical ordeals as part of the periodic rituals he must endure to prove he is still deserving of the Panther Herbs that give him his superhuman abilities.

*** Malice, a beautiful, super-strong and super-fast woman who wields a vibranium spear, makes her stealthy way out of the surrounding jungle, through the nighttime streets of Wakanda’s capital city and penetrates the Panther Palace itself. 

Presently we join one lone event – Malice’s further infiltration of the Panther Palace. She overcomes Zatama, one of T’Challa’s (The Black Panther’s) Tribal Advisors, and threatens him until he reveals the location of the cell where her fellow villain Venomm is held prisoner. (Last issue the Black Panther captured Venomm and shut down the secret operations of Killmonger’s Death Regiments in the mines behind Warrior Falls. )

Once she has the info she needs, Malice knocks out Zatama and conceals his body. Then she resumes her ninja-like advance to the Palace’s prison cells.

Back outside the palace walls, the Panther Herb ritual has advanced to the point where T’Challa is lying face-up on the ground while the High Priest Mendinao and his subordinates have begun to coat the Black Panther’s body with liquid versions of the herbs.

American singing star Monica Lynne, T’Challa’s Royal Consort, happens to stumble upon the scene and mistakenly believes that the prone Black Panther is in danger. She interrupts the ongoing ritual, hurling accusations at W’Kabi and Mendinao that they’ve been bribed by Killmonger to assassinate T’Challa. Continue reading →