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Black Panther (1977-1979) #8-13
Black Panther, Vol. 2
Heroism seems to run in the Black Panther's family... but which way are the new heroes running? The King's favorite king returns in some of his earliest solo sagas Mutated monsters menace the wondrous reign of Wakanda Captivating Kirby classics not seen in nearly 30 years Collects Black Panther #8-13.
111 pages, Paperback
First published July 19, 2006
78 people want to read
About the author
Jack Kirby
2,808 books478 followersJack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg) was one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in American comic books, and the co-creator of such enduring characters and popular culture icons as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America, and hundreds of others stretching back to the earliest days of the medium. He was also a comic book writer and editor. His most common nickname is "The King."
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 20, 2018
Jack Kirby's Black Panther followed the cancellation of Jungle Action and the premature end to Don McGregor and Billy Graham's run on Black Panther in that Marvel comic book. Readers who followed the character from one book to the next must have suffered from whiplash.
Kirby's Black Panther is a super-scientific adventurer whose first multi-issue adventure involves a team-up with a diminuitive collector of weird antiquities named Mr. Little on a quest to find the second of two objects known as King Solomon's Frogs. They've discovered one. It periodically pulls someone or something in from another time. Together, the two assume, the two frogs should form a controllable time machine. OK!
This is Jack Kirby in full-on lunacy mode. It's great lunacy, mile-a-second action, wild double-page spreads, and some of the oddest of Kirby's 1970's narratives. I mean, a time machine shaped like a frog (why?) is weird enough. But the time machine will eventually pull in a dangerous, hyper-evolved human from millions of years in the future. There will also be a hidden kingdom founded by seven samurai. There will be a half-brother of T'Challa (that is, the Black Panther) who will seize control of the kingdom of Wakanda. There will be a Council of relatives of the Black Panther who will come together from across the world to battle that half-brother while T'Challa is stuck in the samurai kingdom.
Oh, and a lost Black Panther will stumble across a science-fiction movie filming in the North African desert. It isn't Star Wars, but it's clearly a nod to Star Wars. Kirby's work on a film adaptation of Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light would be used to help some of the American hostages out of Iran. remember Argo? They actually shot but didn't use a scene with Jack Kirby. It's true!
Whiplash, though, oh boy! This is rollicking science fantasy laced with absurdity. If you like more serious versions of Black Panther that address social and racial concerns, this is probably not your Black Panther. I love it. I love McGregor's version too. I am entertained by multitudes!
Kirby's Black Panther is a super-scientific adventurer whose first multi-issue adventure involves a team-up with a diminuitive collector of weird antiquities named Mr. Little on a quest to find the second of two objects known as King Solomon's Frogs. They've discovered one. It periodically pulls someone or something in from another time. Together, the two assume, the two frogs should form a controllable time machine. OK!
This is Jack Kirby in full-on lunacy mode. It's great lunacy, mile-a-second action, wild double-page spreads, and some of the oddest of Kirby's 1970's narratives. I mean, a time machine shaped like a frog (why?) is weird enough. But the time machine will eventually pull in a dangerous, hyper-evolved human from millions of years in the future. There will also be a hidden kingdom founded by seven samurai. There will be a half-brother of T'Challa (that is, the Black Panther) who will seize control of the kingdom of Wakanda. There will be a Council of relatives of the Black Panther who will come together from across the world to battle that half-brother while T'Challa is stuck in the samurai kingdom.
Oh, and a lost Black Panther will stumble across a science-fiction movie filming in the North African desert. It isn't Star Wars, but it's clearly a nod to Star Wars. Kirby's work on a film adaptation of Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light would be used to help some of the American hostages out of Iran. remember Argo? They actually shot but didn't use a scene with Jack Kirby. It's true!
Whiplash, though, oh boy! This is rollicking science fantasy laced with absurdity. If you like more serious versions of Black Panther that address social and racial concerns, this is probably not your Black Panther. I love it. I love McGregor's version too. I am entertained by multitudes!
March 17, 2024
This wraps up Jack Kirby’s return to his creation of the Black Panther. Sadly, it was a bit controversial and probably under appreciated. Controversial? Because it caused the abrupt and premature end to the Panther vs. the Klan storyline in Jungle Action (which was itself controversial, but it deserved an ending). Under appreciated? Because it ran only 12 issues before Kirby left mid-story and other had to step in and wrap up the final chapter. Nonetheless, what we have is pure Kirby in typical frenetic and chaotic fashion. The first half deals with T’Challa returning to Wakanda from his time with the Collectors and the threat of someone trying to usurp his reign while he was away, while the second deals with a new menace, Kiber the Cruel, that kills people by converting them into life-force energy. Yeah, that parts definitely creepy. The last chapter of the second story arc is from the hands of Jim Shooter, Ed Hannigan, Jerry Bingham and Gene Day who are filling in for Kirby.
June 28, 2021
Immediately after assisting Mr. Little and Princess Zanda (see volume 1), T’Challa is summoned back to Wakanda to help quell a coup intending to remove him from power and usurp him as the Black Panther.
My complaints with volume 1 hold true here. The story was a bit hokey but pretty standard fare given its age. What bugged me, though, was all the externalized internal monologuing on the part of Panther. It gets annoying having to read him speak every step he takes. Rely on the visuals, Jack! Please!
My complaints with volume 1 hold true here. The story was a bit hokey but pretty standard fare given its age. What bugged me, though, was all the externalized internal monologuing on the part of Panther. It gets annoying having to read him speak every step he takes. Rely on the visuals, Jack! Please!
June 24, 2017
Campier than the first volume, volume 2 is still an amusing exploration of Kirby era Black Panther action. This volume introduces T'challa's family- sadly not Shuri, and portrays them as a cartoonish crime fighting family. Kirby continues his somewhat proto-Afrofuturist themes present in the first volume, but a Black Panther fan isn't missing much if they haven't read this.
July 25, 2016
Should Marvel’s Black Panther hunt for ancient treasure, ala Indiana Jones?
That’s what Jack Kirby had him doing in BLACK PANTHER #s 1-7, originally published in 1976-1977 and collected in BLACK PANTHER BY JACK KIRBY VOLUME 1. Kirby abandoned that approach in the second half of his run, and thus, for the VOLUME 2 stories (originally published in 1977-1978), we find the Panther back in the fictional African country of Wakanda.
The stories in this volume are fast paced, but sadly, it feels like the Panther doesn’t really get to do much. It takes two and a half issues just to GET him to Wakanda (Along the way, he experiences difficulties with Sicilian mobsters, a Hollywood film crew and the Sudanese military) as the Wakandas desperately battle a monster. He finally arrives and saves the day, and then, Kirby spends two issues setting up an encounter between the Panther and a vampiric super villain. Alas, Kirby, for whatever reason, did not get to finish this story. Readers of this volume are not left hanging, as the hasty wrap-up - not written or drawn by Kirby – is included, but one can’t help but be a little disappointed, nonetheless.
On the plus side, I do approve of the direction change. I don’t know if it was Kirby’s idea or forced on him by editorial hands, but regardless, I feel that the Wakanda setting and back story make the Panther unique and more than just “a black super hero.” Like Don McGregor before him, Kirby provides some geography for the fictional Wakanda and gives our hero a court of royal advisors. Unfortunately, Kirby’s Wakanda seems to bear little resemblance to McGregor’s, as he essentially ignores all Black Panther stories that don’t have the Kirby name on them. By the late 1970s, when these stories saw print, fans sometimes criticized Kirby for ignoring the greater Marvel Universe – quite an irony when you consider that Kirby was largely responsible for creating that universe in the first place. Creating universes was probably easy for a person with Kirby’s imagination, but he wasn’t going to bother minding OTHER peoples’ stories. Given all that he did give to us fans during the course of his career, I find it difficult to judge him too harshly for this.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this collection, but it can hardly be considered essential Kirby. The $19.99 price tag is a little too much, but if you can find the volume for half that price or less, then it might be worth a look.
That’s what Jack Kirby had him doing in BLACK PANTHER #s 1-7, originally published in 1976-1977 and collected in BLACK PANTHER BY JACK KIRBY VOLUME 1. Kirby abandoned that approach in the second half of his run, and thus, for the VOLUME 2 stories (originally published in 1977-1978), we find the Panther back in the fictional African country of Wakanda.
The stories in this volume are fast paced, but sadly, it feels like the Panther doesn’t really get to do much. It takes two and a half issues just to GET him to Wakanda (Along the way, he experiences difficulties with Sicilian mobsters, a Hollywood film crew and the Sudanese military) as the Wakandas desperately battle a monster. He finally arrives and saves the day, and then, Kirby spends two issues setting up an encounter between the Panther and a vampiric super villain. Alas, Kirby, for whatever reason, did not get to finish this story. Readers of this volume are not left hanging, as the hasty wrap-up - not written or drawn by Kirby – is included, but one can’t help but be a little disappointed, nonetheless.
On the plus side, I do approve of the direction change. I don’t know if it was Kirby’s idea or forced on him by editorial hands, but regardless, I feel that the Wakanda setting and back story make the Panther unique and more than just “a black super hero.” Like Don McGregor before him, Kirby provides some geography for the fictional Wakanda and gives our hero a court of royal advisors. Unfortunately, Kirby’s Wakanda seems to bear little resemblance to McGregor’s, as he essentially ignores all Black Panther stories that don’t have the Kirby name on them. By the late 1970s, when these stories saw print, fans sometimes criticized Kirby for ignoring the greater Marvel Universe – quite an irony when you consider that Kirby was largely responsible for creating that universe in the first place. Creating universes was probably easy for a person with Kirby’s imagination, but he wasn’t going to bother minding OTHER peoples’ stories. Given all that he did give to us fans during the course of his career, I find it difficult to judge him too harshly for this.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this collection, but it can hardly be considered essential Kirby. The $19.99 price tag is a little too much, but if you can find the volume for half that price or less, then it might be worth a look.
September 5, 2022
Fun, as Jack is more focused on making the Black Panther a super hero, more like the Phantom, rather than the political mover and shaker/Batman clone he is today.
Yes, there are the usual attempts to overthrow his rule of Wakanda, but there is a lot more action and adventure.
Going from the Jungle Action run to this, must feel have felt like watching the Nolan Batman movies and then immediately watch the Adam West TV show, but much as I can appreciate the more political, message driven Black Panther, the Kirby stuff is more fun to read.
Yes, there are the usual attempts to overthrow his rule of Wakanda, but there is a lot more action and adventure.
Going from the Jungle Action run to this, must feel have felt like watching the Nolan Batman movies and then immediately watch the Adam West TV show, but much as I can appreciate the more political, message driven Black Panther, the Kirby stuff is more fun to read.
October 17, 2015
This story is more connected to Wakanda and the Black Panther most readers are familiar with. That sounds good in theory, but Kirby replaces the fast paced hi jinx of issues 1 through 7 with a pretty slow and uninteresting tale. He also introduces the "Black Musketeers", which isn't quite as bad as it sounds.
July 23, 2011
Not as surreal as the last volume. Black Panther returns to Wakanda and starts to become the character we know and love.
September 20, 2011
Meh. Far from Kirby's best work, and the final collected issue is by other hands--apparently, he got dumped mid storyline. Sad, really. Even the art isn't all that exciting to look at.
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August 30, 2016"Stand clear! Those who are too slow to avoid the power backlash will shatter like eggs!"
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews