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. 
Halloween Month continues here at Balladeer’s Blog with a look at the 1970s Ghost Rider. I will say again, from my research the very late 1960s and most of the 1970s were the best period for Marvel Comics. They were to that period what Pulps were to earlier decades. 
At any rate, the Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze) made his first appearance in August of 1972 and it’s a shame that the movie version in 2007 didn’t stick closer to the action and horror combo of the comic books. 
Balladeer’s Blog spent part of this past summer on a light-hearted, escapist bit of fun by examining the very first Mantis storylines at Marvel Comics. Mantis was brought into the Marvel Cinematic Universe this year in the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie but I reviewed her ORIGINAL appearance and the 1973-1975 Celestial Madonna epic she starred in. 
II. MANTIS 2: NIGHT OF THE SWORDSMAN – Mantis and her romantic partner the Swordsman show up at Avengers Mansion and wind up helping the superteam against one of their old foes. CLICK 
Balladeer’s Blog’s summer-long exploration of Marvel Comics’ Celestial Madonna Saga of 1973-1975 wrapped up last Saturday. For a light-hearted “dessert” after that 31-part examination here’s a look at a ONE-ISSUE tie-in from 1977 that Steve Englehart, the writer of much of the Celestial Madonna Saga, wrote for the Justice League of America (as it was then called) at his NEW employers: rival comic book company DC. 
In a coincidental bit of prescience regarding future depictions of Mantis when Marvel Comics finally brought her back (left), Willow has GREEN skin. She also has what appear to be antennae peeping out from under her pile of hair as a nod to Mantis’ pronounced antennae (again, at left).
GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS Volume 1, Number 4 (May, 1975) … Let All Men Bring Together 
We join the Vision where we left him: in the center of the Earth in a mystical cave created as an artificial “womb” for the re-birthing Dormammu. As Uatu the Watcher told the Avengers and Defenders when Dormammu was seemingly destroyed by the Evil Eye of Avalon, Dormammu is a god. 
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