770. Black Panther vol 1 #14

Next year's Big Marvel movie is the Black Panther and to keep abreast of things, we go back to the first ongoing run of BP albeit a short one. But first, please do note that after his initial introductions in other comics, the Panther was finally launched and launched very strongly by Kirby who gave the Panther's adventure a real sense of adventure and sci-fi

However, that run lasted less than a year

By the time this issue came out, Kirby had moved on and sad to say, it seems like the energy he infused has as well because inspite of the cover, we see from the interiors a kinda average going nowhere story of the Panther still in USA being greeted by his fellow Avengers and what-not while in the Bronx somewhere, a chap who hates violence but is an electronics genius is being forced by a gang called Thunderbolts (yes the same name but this was before the famed super group) to jumpstart a weapon they found

So just as the guy got it going inspite of his objections, in came Panther and naturally the hoods activated the machine. However, within a few pages we see the sound had matured of its own and it is obvious that the user is somehow being controlled by Klaw, a baddie of the Panther who used his hand claw to generate sound of different intensity and who ended up being a person composed of solidified sound whatever that means

Here the image takes on an elephant and as the fight ensues, the elephant keeps mutating to keep up with the Panther until it surpasses that of the Panther. Everything would have been curtains if not for the timely intervention of Captain America (alone) who decided to go with his own gut instincts and tracked Panther down instead of leaving Panther to hunt his prey in solitary style.

And that's it - time for next issue to see the next part of the right. See? It's a long-ish kind of read but really not that exciting, sad to say

Ratings: 3/10