Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: May 10, 1966
Cover: August 1966
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Art: Jack Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Lettering: Artie Simek
Native Dances: The Ballet Forbush Terpsichorean Troupe
20 pages
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From this moment forth– I live with but one thought– one aim– one goal!! This deed must be avenged! Klaw shall pay– in full measure! I shall be as strong– and as fearless– as the sacred Black Panther!! This do I swear to T’Chaka– my father who is no more!
I’m sure my highly literate readers don’t need me to tell that that terpsichorean means “referring to dancing”. It’s obviously not a new word to me either, as I’ve read this comic plenty of times before. But this was the first time I bothered to look it up.
Thing is perplexed by the contrast between the advanced scientific gizmos and the primitive customs. Perhaps he should reflect on what it means to be primitive. Maybe he is the primitive one?
This comic was almost 60 years ago, so the modern world has caught up to some aspects of 1960s Wakanda. The elaborate stereo music system that includes a tape recorder impresses Reed, but people will have tape recorders hooked up to radios elsewhere soon enough.
Black Panther has always been referred to as the Chieftain, but he describes his father T’Chaka as a warrior king. We see T’Chaka’s spear and shield.
Meanwhile, gigantic red animals are attacking a patrol elsewhere in Africa.
We see a pretty classic image used in many a monster comic, often by Kirby. Where the audience sees the danger, but the victims are facing the wrong direction.
In the strangest scene, Thing’s behavior is even ruder than normal. Black Panther starts to tell his story, and Thing lets out a loud yawn, and tells him his story is a stereotype found in many a Western jungle adventure story. He goes on and on, though, comparing Black Panther’s story to Tarzan movies. It’s ridiculously offensive, especially in-story.
First of all who does that under any circumstance? Interrupts a person’s life story to tell them what movie it reminds them of.
“Well my parents met in college and…”
“Boring… seen that in lots of romantic comedies!”
“My dad was killed in a mugging…”
“Boring… read that in Batman…”
Now, mostly this is metacommentary from Stan and Jack, acknowledging that their story partly falls into some pop culture stereotypes, but also wanting to emphasize where it’s unique. But… C’mon, Ben.
Black Panther’s table is worth 20 million dollars. Because it is made of vibranium, a rare metal that can absorb vibrations. The Wakandans have a Sacred Mound with an inexhaustible supply of vibranium.
In recent Daredevil stories, we’d come across a vibrating ore, which seems similar. Though that created vibrations, so it seems like it has opposite properties.
Klaw is the villain of Black Panther’s story, the Master of Sound. He had a weapon which could turn sound into matter, but he needed vibranium to power it.
When T’Chaka refused to surrender the vibranium, Klaw had him gunned down.
Over his father’s body, and after witnessing his people helplessly massacred before a machine gun, the young Black Panther swears to his father that he will become as strong and fearless as the Black Panther and dedicate himself to avenging his father’s death.
The boy gains Klaw’s sound blaster and uses it to turn the tables on the gang that is destroying his village. He shatters Klaw’s hand before Klaw’s men retreat.
Black Panther’s fortune comes from selling just a tiny amount of vibranium to scientific foundations. He was educated in the finest universities of both hemispheres. The mechanical jungle was built as a lark, as a test of skill.
His Panther powers are a secret handed Chieftain to Chieftain, involving forbidden herbs and rituals.
Black Panther’s childhood vow suggests that he is the first Chieftain to garb himself as the Black Panther; that the Black Panther is an ancient and important religious symbol in Wakanda, but the child chooses to adopt it when his father is murdered. It’s not conclusive that there were no previous Black Panthers, but it’s what is suggested.
On the other hand, we see the powers are not unique to him. Previous Chieftains knew of these herbs and rituals, so have likely had similar abilities to the Black Panther when needed.
There is no suggestion T’Chaka had ever been the Black Panther. He did not wear such garb when he tried to repel Klaw’s invasion. If he was using special herbs, they were not enough to save him from a machine gun.
When the crimson gorilla reaches Wakanda, they know Klaw has returned and rush to battle.
I’d like to consider the writing technique here, the dichotomy between Thing’s words and thoughts. We’ve seen Stan use a similar technique when scripting Sgt. Fury, to show the tough guy exterior with a caring heart. His words are banter and bravado, while his thoughts are genuine concern for Johnny.
“Flame shmame! Now we’ll see if he can ignore a fistful o’ knuckles!”
Contrasted with:
“I gotta move fast! No tellin’ what he might do to the kid!”
While we’re overexamining dialogue, I’ll note some poor writing for Reed. Reed figures out the nature of what they’re fighting, but repeatedly refuses to tell them, despite how useful that would be. It’s because Stan wants to keep suspense and save the reveal. But to that end, Reed goes on for pages, saying everything but the useful thing. While Sue keeps pressing him to say the useful thing with seemingly infinite patience.
“It’s something far more dangerous!”
“What, Darling? What is it??”
“They don’t know what they’re fighting!”
“What is it, Darling? Some sort of giant robot?”
“No! It’s more uncanny than that! It’s something that cannot exist!”
“But, Reed– What is it? What was that horrible red creature? You sounded before as if you knew!”
“I do know! — Though I almost wish I didn’t!”
Finally, he explains. The creatures are made of sound. Black Panther seemed to deduce this also, as well as where the machinery that created them must be hidden.
“How can you hurt– a sound?”
Black Panther confronts his father’s killer after ten years. While Klaw recognizes the boy who shattered his hand. He now has a force glove powered by sound.
In the Marvel Universe, it was fair to deduce with a name like Klaw that something interesting was going to happen to his hand at some point in his life.
Klaw’s glove is powered by sound. Creating monsters out of sound is a science fiction concept, but creating energy out of sound isn’t. And wouldn’t have been, even in 1966. We can and do store sound energy when we record sounds; we use that energy for playback.
But we could just as easily charge a battery with the sound we record instead. The problem is that sound just isn’t powerful enough to be a useful source of energy. Klaw is right that it’s sufficiently ubiquitous. But even the ambient noise all around us isn’t enough to provide much power. But powering things from something abundant and all around is a good idea. Now, daylight is all around us, and comes from something extremely powerful…
Klaw’s next sound creature is a black panther. Since it’s actually red, I wonder if we would even call it a black panther.
There is a bit of wonky pacing in the scene changes. I expect better of Kirby, so assume it’s Stan’s fault somehow. Though they are doing something uncommon and trying to navigate cutting between two battles.
On page 14, they spent a lot of dialogue building up the drama of something big heading their way. Then changed scenes to see what is happening with the Black Panther for the next couple pages. That is standard pacing. Cliffhanger then cut.
But when they cut back on page 16, they should remind us of the mystery and ominous build-up. Instead we cut to Thing in battle with the giant red elephant. And are forced to remind ourselves that two pages back, there was anticipation of something large approaching, but we weren’t sure what. Turns out, it was an elephant. That panel at the bottom of the page really should have been one more panel of somebody looking shocked at what’s approaching, saving the reveal for the next page.
Also we’d seen the crimson elephant earlier in the comic, so it’s weird they treated it as a mystery at all. It was the only other creature we’d seen.
Black Panther overloads Klaw’s machinery and collapses his lab. He escapes, unsure if Klaw survived. He then thinks his time as Black Panther is done, having accomplished the goal that made him don the costume in the first place. Again, this suggests becoming the Black Panther was not something he had planned on, and that it’s not something most Chieftains of Wakanda do.
The Fantastic Four convince him to stay the Black Panther, because the world needs superheroes. Black Panther pledges to serve all mankind. Hopefully he remembers that he has a kingdom to serve, which must be his first priority.
Klaw did survive the lab’s destruction, and hurls himself into the sound machine. Maybe it will kill him. Maybe it will transform him into something powerful enough to kill his enemies. We’ll find out.
A couple notes on Wakanda.
We still don’t know where in Africa it is. Northern Africa is mostly desert climates, and other parts of Africa are grasslands. Wakanda appears to be in the more forested parts of Africa. That still leaves a lot of possibilities. Any of these greenish/reddish areas would suffice.
The Sacred Mound or Eternal Peak is the source of Wakanda’s vibranium, an almost inexhaustible supply. Small chunks of vibranium are worth millions of dollars. Vibranium may have some connection to the Plunder-Stone we saw in Daredevil comics, but it seems to be a different substance, as they really have opposite properties: producing vibrations versus absorbing them.
Black Panther’s wealth comes from selling vibranium himself. He built the mechanical jungle himself and got himself educated around the world. It seems clear he personally transformed Wakanda from a more normal nation into the marvel of sci/fi technology we have witnessed. That’s why they’d been unable to fend of Klaw’s attack ten years earlier: they didn’t have the technology. A machine gun overwhelmed their defenses. It was Klaw’s attack that motivated the Chieftain to build out Wakanda’s technological defenses and prowess.
We learn the Chieftain’s father was named T’Chaka, but we don’t learn his name. He is only ever referred to as the Black Panther.
Rating: ★★★½, 62/100
Significance: ★★★★★
Between the origin of the Black Panther, introducing Klaw, and all that stuff about vibranium… I think this earns the 5 star significance.
I read this story in Fantastic Four Epic Collection vol. 4: The Mystery of the Black Panther.
Characters:
- Black Panther
- Thing
- Human Torch
- Invisible Girl
- Mr. Fantastic
- Wyatt Wingfoot
- Klaw
Story notes:
- Wakandas perform the Dance of Friendship.
- Hugh Hefner reference.
- Last issue: “perhaps the richest man in the world”: now, “one of the richest men in the world”; the Chieftain can indulge every whim.
- Black Panther’s father is T’Chaka, the warrior king.
- Territorial patrol finds a giant red gorilla. Then a giant red elephant.
- Table made of vibranium and worth 20 million dollars.
- Vibranium absorbs (swallows) vibrations.
- Mr. Fantastic notes rockets made of vibranium would never go off course due to vibrations.
- Virtually inexhaustible supply of vibranium comes from Sacred Mound, also called the Eternal Peak.
- Wakandan Chieftains pledged to protect vibranium with life.
- Thing compares Black Panther’s story to Tarzan and Bomba, the Jungle Boy.
- Klaw the Master of Sound, had a weapon which could turn sound into mass.
- Vibranium will power Klaw’s Sound Transformer.
- Black Panther was a child when T’Chaka was murdered by Klaw. It was the first time he had heard the sound of gunfire.
- Black Panther became Chieftain of all the Wakandas after his father’s death.
- Stan compares the black panther in Wakanda to a cow in India.
- The young Black Panther finds village in flames; he drives villains away with sound blaster, injuring Klaw’s hand and perhaps eye. The hand shattered.
- The battle was ten years ago to the day.
- Black Panther sold a small amount of vibranium to amass his fortune, sold to scientific foundations.
- Mechanized jungle made for a lark.
- Black Panther attended fine universities of both hemispheres.
- His panther power, including seeing in the dark, involves secret herbs and rituals that were handed down from Chieftain to Chieftain.
- The FF were the supreme test to see if he was ready for Klaw.
- Sensa-scope detects Klaw’s return.
- Crimson gorilla invades Wakanda.
- Klaw had been predicted to return that very day.
- Force gun fails against gorilla; as force bolt strikes him, he gathers energy and hurls it back.
- Black Panther seeks machines Klaw must be using to create sound monsters.
- Klaw has mastered conversion system to change sound into living matter.
- Klaw had heard the legend of the Black Panther, but thought him a myth.
- Klaw’s hand has been replaced with metal force glove, powered by sound.
- Crimson elephant disappears.
- Black Panther uses scientific skill to overload electronic circuits.
- Klaw’s cave is destroyed and Black Panther is uncertain if Klaw survived.
- With Klaw defeated, the Chieftain thinks Black Panther is done.
- The FF convince him the world needs superheroes, so Black Panther dedicates his fortune and powers to serve all mankind.
- Klaw survived and his converter possesses a glimmer of energy. So Klaw jumps into it. He thinks altering his own basic structure via the sound transformer may give him awesome powers to defeat Black Panther.
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|---|---|---|
| Fantastic Four #52 | Reading order | Amazing Spider-Man #39 |
| Fantastic Four #52 | Fantastic Four | Fantastic Four #54 |
