MARVEL’S BLACK PANTHER FILM HAS PROMPTED PLENTY OF READERS TO ASK ME TO REVIEW THIS QUINTESSENTIAL BLACK PANTHER STORY FROM THE 1970s. FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE
JUNGLE ACTION Volume 2, Number 7 (November 1973)
DEATH REGIMENTS BENEATH WAKANDA
Synopsis: This issue picks up right where our cliffhanger ending left off last time around. N’Jadaka/ Erik Killmonger defeated T’Challa/ The Black Panther in battle and threw him to his supposed death over Warrior Falls.
Typically for fictional villains, Killmonger assumes the Black Panther could not have survived and leads two of his subordinate officers – Tayette and Kazibe – away from majestic Warrior Falls and toward their carefully concealed and camouflaged home village. That village is called N’Jadaka. Killmonger named it after himself by bestowing upon it his pre-revolutionary name.
Reflecting Erik’s contempt for T’Challa he is very blasé over what he thinks was the Black Panther’s death. He shrugs off Tayette and Kazibe’s obsequious praise and directs them to take in the masterful performance being given by the snake-dancer Venomm (see cover above).
Venomm is Killmonger’s only non-Wakandan follower and the two met in America before Erik’s return to Wakanda a few years ago. Venomm is a white man, has an acid-scarred face and has absolute control over Vipers and other poisonous snakes. He even wears a few Vipers on his person in battle and uses them to as much deadly effect as his lariat and whip. Continue reading
Marvel’s Black Panther movie has prompted a lot of Balladeer’s Blog’s readers to ask for more and more items on the figure. My favorite was one from just today which said “I don’t like actually reading comic books but I like the way you describe them and review the stuff so could you do Panther’s Rage?” 
JUNGLE ACTION Volume 2 Number 6 (September 1973) 
AVENGERS Volume 1, Number 126 (August 1974) All the Sights and Sounds of Death
Meanwhile, the Vision’s romantic partner the Scarlet Witch, is still torn with her own fears that the Vision may leave her for Mantis. (Two women fighting over him? The Vision really IS fully functional.) Wanda ponders her recent arguments with the Vision and how he always makes the arguments out to be HER fault. 
DEFENDERS Vol 1: Number 85 (July 1980) – Like A Proud Black Panther) 
With Marvel’s Black Panther in theaters right now Balladeer’s Blog will take a look at an angle of Prince T’Challa’s run that is a bit overlooked. Panther’s Rage has been covered extensively as have other aspects of this Avenger’s career. 
WOW! Reaction to my Top Five Harry Flashman Novels blog post continues to amaze me! I’m always glad to share my odd enthusiasms with others so it’s been great to bring The Flashman Papers to the attention of new readers. Here in one convenient post are the links to my individual reviews of the Top Five and to my brief look at Flashman’s encounter with young Abraham Lincoln in Flash for Freedom. 
5. FLASHMAN ON THE MARCH (2005) – Setting: Abyssinian Military Expedition of 1867-1868 CLICK 
AND 1. FLASHMAN AT THE CHARGE (1973) – Setting: The Crimean War, 1853-1856 CLICK 
Balladeer’s Blog’s recent look at my Top Five Harry Flashman Novels was a hit. Combine that with the upcoming Presidents Day Holiday on Monday and let’s take a look at one of the other Flashman novels for future president Abe Lincoln’s interactions with George MacDonald Fraser’s infamous antihero Harry Flashman. 
The pair first meet in the fall of 1848 in Washington, DC, when Harry – a Cavalry Captain in Queen Victoria’s army – is trying, Bret Maverick-style, to pass himself off as a Royal Navy Lieutenant named Beauchamp Comber. (Don’t ask.) Abe senses something off about the scurvy Brit and uses seeming politeness mixed with alarming insinuations to set Flashman on edge, terrified that he’ll be exposed. 
The next day a bedridden Harry is recovering from wounds received during this adventure. He’s staying at the home of an acquaintance of Lincoln, and Abe has been visiting the ailing Englishman, sitting in a bedside chair. They’ve had a lengthy conversation during which Lincoln has made it clear that he now knows who Harry really is and Flashman asks why Abe continues to cover for him. 
THE DOOM OF LONDON (1892) – Written by Robert Barr. In the “far future” of the mid-Twentieth Century the narrator of this tale looks back at the catastrophe that hit London in the 1890s. 
5. FLASHMAN ON THE MARCH (2005) 
That expedition is being launched to free British captives being held and tortured by the (historically) unhinged Emperor Theodore II of Abyssinia (Called Ethiopia today). 
Flashman’s guide, translator and fellow warrior will be the beautiful Ethiopian woman Uliba-Wark, half-sister to the country’s Queen. Uliba-Wark has a small domain of her own and is up to her neck in Abyssinia’s countless political and sexual intrigues & rivalries. 
