This weekend’s superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at Marvel’s clash between their Black Panther character, the actual Ku Klux Klan and fictional Dragon’s Circle.
JUNGLE ACTION Vol 2 #19 (Jan 1976)
Title: Blood and Sacrifices
Villains: The Ku Klux Klan and the Dragon’s Circle
Synopsis: With the 12-part Killmonger storyline Panther’s Rage and its epilogue chapter behind him, the Black Panther accompanies his romantic partner – singer Monica Lynne – back to the U.S. They go to the grave of Monica’s older sister Angela who was murdered recently.
This lands T’Challa and Monica in the middle of a mysterious war between the Ku Klux Klan hate group and a separate group of multiracial conspirators called the Dragon’s Circle. Angela’s murder was somehow linked to whatever was going on between the two groups.
Just as the Dragon’s Circle tried to kill Monica and the Panther at Angela’s grave, the KKK attacks Monica’s mother & father plus T’Challa, Monica and white anti-Klan reporter Kevin Trublood at the Lynne household that night. Our hero drives off the attacking Klansmen.
JUNGLE ACTION Vol 2 #20 (Mar 1976)
Title: They Told Me a Myth I Wanted to Believe
Villains: The Ku Klux Klan and Dragon’s Circle
Synopsis: Dragon’s Circle members try to kill Monica and the Black Panther the next day at the grocery store. T’Challa drives them off, but they clue him into a Klan meeting that night at the Devouring Swamp.
Kevin Trublood and our heroes try to solve the ties between the KKK, Dragon’s Circle & Georgia political figures and a real estate conspiracy they were all involved in.
That night, the Black Panther attacks the Klan meeting in the Devouring Swamp. He kicks a lot of butt but there are several dozen Klansmen in attendance and eventually they overwhelm him. They tie him to a life-sized cross, raise it and set it on fire in the cliffhanger ending.
JUNGLE ACTION Vol 2 #21 (May 1976)
Title: A Cross Burning Darkly, Blackening the Night
Villains: The KKK and Dragon’s Circle
Synopsis: The Black Panther manages to escape the burning death trap and fight the assembled Klansmen again. He forces them to flee but the pain from the burns catches up with him and he needs to be rushed to the hospital.
A normal person would have been burned to death or taken months to recover but thanks to his healing powers from the Panther Herbs in Wakanda T’Challa heals well enough to be released in 2 weeks. Monica, Kevin and some honest cops keep watch over the Panther while he is hospitalized.
With the 2 weeks up, T’Challa, Monica, Kevin and Monica’s parents attend the public Klan march that night and openly defy it. More violence breaks out, but the Black Panther is able to defeat all the KKK members present and protect Kevin, Monica and her parents from them.
JUNGLE ACTION Vol 2 #22 (Jul 1976)
Title: Death-Riders on the Horizon
Villains: The KKK and the Soul Strangler
Synopsis: This story picks up a few days later. T’Challa’s diplomatic immunity has kept him out of legal trouble over his clashes with the Klan and the Dragon’s Circle. The Panther had Wakandan consular personnel deliver a high-tech aircraft for him, Monica and Kevin to fly around in and the trio arrive back at the Lynne household after a recreational flight in the skies of Georgia.
Monica’s mother serves up home-made pie for all of them and relates to T’Challa an oral family tradition about a Lynne ancestor, Caleb, a freed black man. In 1876 Georgia he, his wife and children were harassed, and he was ultimately killed by Klansmen led by a horse-mounted cloak-wearing figure calling himself the Soul Strangler.
As Mama Lynne recounts the sad story that Monica has heard dozens of times over the years, she prevents herself from crying again by fantasizing that T’Challa was on hand in 1876 to defeat the Klan and keep Caleb alive.
It’s very poignantly handled as the tragic reality contrasts with Monica’s escapist version.
JUNGLE ACTION Vol 2 #23 (Sep 1976)
NOTE: Due to this issue not being completed on time, a reprinted story was rerun from Daredevil #69 (Oct 1970) featuring the Black Panther and Daredevil fighting a street gang called the Thunderbolts.
JUNGLE ACTION Vol 2 #24 (Nov 1976)
Title: Wind Eagle in Flight
Villains: Wind Eagle, the Dragon’s Circle and the KKK
Synopsis: The Black Panther, Monica and Kevin continue investigating Angela’s murder. They speak with the man she was dating at the time and he, too, thinks she was killed over whatever she stumbled upon regarding the KKK, Dragon’s Circle and politicians tied into a real estate scandal.
Later, at a country club where our trio are questioning a mover and shaker in Georgia politics about what he knows regarding the real estate scandal, a costumed Dragon’s Circle operative called Wind Eagle attacks the Panther.
Their battle separates them from the others and is eventually interrupted by the arrival of a carload of Dragon’s Circle members who plow into T’Challa with their vehicle. He is so strong that he is merely knocked out.
Per orders from a mysterious “Reverend” always mentioned by Dragon’s Circle villains, they use a water-wheel death trap to try finishing off the Panther. He ultimately survives it and stands ready to face Wind Eagle in a fight to the finish this time.
*** NOTE: This was the last issue of Jungle Action. The deep dive into politics and social issues drove down sales since the kids that comic books were aimed at lost interest and the series was canceled. It was not until 1979 that this story was returned to in the pages of Marvel Premiere.
A different writer was in charge by then and since the Black Panther had had plenty of stories alongside the Avengers and solo, part of the retcon explained that the whole KKK and Dragon’s Circle storyline had been stalled by the Circle using the Reverend’s tech to remove memories of Monica, the Dragon’s Circle and the KKK from T’Challa’s mind.
Naturally that left PLENTY of plot holes and threw away T’Challa and Monica’s potent romance since she and Kevin had become a couple in the meantime. Poor handling all around.
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