#miyo moshigo

[yetanothercomicbook]

Panther’s Quest

Black Panther [Marvel Comics Presents #13-37]

Enjoyable, socially conscious, but too long.

Pages 1-8: We follow Black Panther as he sneaks around South Africa in the night, and meets with a contact named Slade who supposedly has information on his long-missing mother. Good start, pulls you in, and sets the tone really well. We get to see BP doing lots of cool physical stuff. If you've never met him before, he will impress. 8/10

Pages 9-16: BP's secret meeting continues, and then the two men are attacked. The pace slows considerably here. Almost nothing happens. T'Challa thinks about his mother while they talk. Only at the very end does the attack happen. 6/10

Pages 17-24: Tangled in barbed wire, Black Panther is at the mercy of Elmer Gore and his mercenary team until, at the end, he breaks free. Again, the pace is slow and ponderous. But BP's escape is spectacular and thrilling. 6/10

Pages 25-32: A broken and bloodies T'Challa is found in the early morning sunlight by Zanti Chikane, who is walking to work in the gold mines. The pace continues to be slow. Not much actually happens here, but we learn a lot about Zanti and the type of life he leads in South Africa. 6/10

Pages 33-40: An action-packed chapter which moves the story forward, as Zanti and T'Challa overpower two soldiers and escape in their patrol van. 8/10

Pages 41-48: The first half shows Corporal Boraine meeting with Magistrate of Communications Anton Pretorius to talk about his fight with Black Panther, while the second half has Zanti and T'Challa back at the Sonar Glider as T'Challa's wounds are tended to. The story is moving forward quite slowly, as the scripts focus on fleshing out the characters and detailing the political situation in South Africa. We are 48 pages in, and not much has happened other than a couple of short fights. 6/10

Pages 49-56: Black Panther returns to Slade's store, but Elmer Gore has one of his mercenaries watching the place for BP's return. When he reports and leaves, Zanti follows him. Most of this is a character portrait of Patrick Slade's wife. Each chapter puts a lot of detail into one person, while slowly moving the story forward. 6/10

Pages 57-64: BP saves a boy from getting run over by a tear-gas truck. And, par for the course, we go into excessive detail on who this child is. 5/10

Pages 65-72: Black Panther fights the driver of the tear-gas truck, while Zanti tends to the frightened child. There is a brief mention of T'Challa's mother, which is how this story started. Now it's just a succession of random fights. This fight is cool, however. 6/10

Page 73-80: There's a standoff with a group of soldiers, but BP gets the upper hand and escapes. Nice character moment for Zanti, as he emerges from a safe hiding place to aid T'Challa. 6/10

Page 81-88: For once, plenty happens. BP gets away from the soldiers, gives Slade's wife a message and returns to his Sonar Glider to heal and watch Anton Pretorius, on television, giving the official version on his exploits. It holds the interest better than most chapters, and still paints a vivid picture of this country. 7/10

Pages 89-96: Best chapter so far. The pages of Zanti at home with his wife, discussing what to do, are very good. Zanti seeks out T'Challa at the flier and there's some amusing banter between them. Nothing really happened in this installment but the characters were very well-written and likeable. 8/10

Pages 97-104: Most of this chapter is a meeting between Minister of Security Riebeeck and Pretorius. We don't really learn much that is new. We, maybe, understand each man a bit better. Maybe. We then jump to see Black Panther and Zanti spying on the guy that Zanti followed (earlier in the story). 6/10

Pages 105-112: BP spends this chapter trying to save Miyo Moshigo (one of the mercenaries) from an angry mob. It all seems terribly random and meaningless. Where is all of this going? 4/10

Pages 113-120: Yikes, this is intense. The angry mob has set Black Panther on fire. The child he saved earlier comes to his rescue, succeeds, but ends up catching on fire himself in the process! 8/10

Pages 121-128: Grim stuff, indeed, as T'Challa uses the Sonar Glider to rush the little boy to a whites-only hospital. Other pages are devoted to detailing/describing two separate groups of vigilantes who are fighting. It's not as interesting/compelling as the story of the little boy. 7/10

Pages 129-136: A story which is already too long and too slow doesn't really need 4 pages where Black Panther sits and broods. But we get just that, as the opener here. Eventually Zanti convinces him to go see Patrick Slade. But Gore and his team break in. 5/10

Pages 137-144: Enjoyable chapter, which begins with a showdown between Black Panther and Gore, has plenty of impressive action and finally (in flashback) tells us how this all started. 7/10

Pages 145-152: More developments in the story. Slade is now dead, and one of the villains gets a letter to T'Challa which was supposedly written by his mother. These are things that could/should have happened within the first 20 pages. 8/10

Pages 153-160: Suddenly, after 140 pages where nothing happened, the story is moving forward in leaps and bounds. We shift to Johannesburg and an action-packed chase, where Black Panther catches and confronts one of Gore's mercs and confirms something of major importance. This would have been more enjoyable had it happened a long, long time again. So many of these chapters could have skipped without consequence. This one is important. 8/10

Pages 161-170: Now, we are no longer in Johannesburg. We are back at the Sonar Glider. (How did BP travel without the glider?). Soldiers have found it, and are trying to gain entry. Nearby, T'Challa explains to Zanti exactly how he figured out who was behind everything. It would be more impressive if we didn't have to wait over 160 pages for it. We end with Zanti getting shot by doing something really, really stupid. 5/10

Pages 171-178: Zanti, though wounded, finds his courage and saves T'Challa from the soldiers. The two characters escape and share a well-written goodbye scene. After this, we never see Zanti again. Two of the recurring villains - Riebeeck and van der Merwe - are also written out of the series here. 6/10

Pages 179-186: Black Panther approaches Anton Pretorius's secluded estate atop Devil's Peak. Another villain dies while trying to kill our hero. It's a bit too wordy, still, but at least the story is actually progressing. 6/10

Pages 187-202: This is intense. Possible the best action sequence and fight sequence in the entire story. And, unlike the vast majority of them, this has direct bearing on the story, for it takes place inside the grounds of the estate where T'Challa's mother is (apparently?) a prisoner. 8/10

Pages 203-218: The fight with Gore continues. And it's good. Gripping stuff. After that, we get to see T'Challa's reunion with his mother. It's wordy and it's far-fetched to have them talking about the political situation in South Africa minutes after meeting but it serves to end the story in a way that maintains the established tone. 8/10

Overall: This is a solid, if basic, story. At 218 pages it is way too long. There simply isn't enough here for a story that long. So we get get a a lot of padding. Since McGregor is a good writer he makes most of the padding interesting and entertaining. We meet vivid characters and get a comprehensive view of the world they live in. But, ultimately, none of it matters. Approximately 140 of these pages could be cut and you'd still have the exact same story. And, possibly, a better version of it.

6.6/10