Black Panther: Panther's Prey by Don McGregor, Sandy Plunkett, Gene Colan, Dwayne Turner, Denys Cowan, Don Hillsman II, et al.

Black Panther Epic Collection: Panther's Prey

Collection published: 2021
Contents originally published: 1989-94
Read: August 2023

Writers: Don McGregor with Sandy Plunkett, Richard Bensam, Walter Simonson, Roy Thomas, Don Hillsman II & Dave DeVries

Pencilers: Gene Colan & Dwayne Turner with Sandy Plunkett, Ron Lim, Denys Cowan, Dave Hoover & Don Hillsman II
Inkers: Tom Palmer & Dwayne Turner with Scott Hampton, Jim Sanders III, Walter Simonson, Charles Barnett III & Don Hillsman II
Colorists: Glynis Oliver, Mike Rockwitz, Steve Mattson & Brad Vancata with Gregory Wright, Sandy Plunkett, Jim Sanders III, Noelle Giddings, Frank Lopez & Marianne Lightle

Letterers: Joe Rosen, Tim Harkins & Michael Higgins with Jade Moede, Gaspar Saladino, Jack Morelli, Clem Robins, Todd Klein, Bill Oakley & Rick Parker

After Don McGregor's Black Panther run from Jungle Action was cancelled back in 1976, he actually got invited back two more times: he did a story called Panther's Quest published in Marvel Comics Presents in 1989 and a four-issue prestige miniseries called Panther's Prey in 1991. This "Epic Collection" collects both of them, along with five short Black Panther tales by other creators from the same era.

Panther's Quest sends the Black Panther into South Africa in order to find his mother, missing since childhood. Sure, we did apartheid in a thinly fictionalized version of South Africa in the immediate previous Black Panther storyline, but why not do it again in the real place? This story ran twenty-five biweekly installments of (usually) eight pages... and it is interminable. Like, eight pages will go by and all that's happened is Black Panther has punched a guy. One thing I liked about McGregor's Panther's Rage was how it really made you feel the difficulty of what the Black Panther did, but this goes too far with it, because everything is immensely difficult, everything is enormously slowed down, it never feels like we're getting anywhere, being crushed under the weight of McGregor's enormously wordy style. Being set in South Africa means we again lose the worldbuilding that made Panther's Rage so interesting, too. It has it moments, including some nice side characters in South Africa, but ultimately, a tedious slog with little to say.

Thinking, thinking, always thinking.
from Marvel Comics Presents vol. 1 #33 (script by Don McGregor, art by Gene Colan & Tom Palmer)

Panther's Prey almost has the opposite problem: this is made up of four forty-page installments and is all over the place. Wakanda is modernizing, connecting with the outside world more—this is nicely demonstrated by the appearance of a food court selling pizza. But with the benefits of connecting to the outside world also come the downsides, and someone is smuggling crack into Wakanda and vibranium out... using an army of cyborg pterodactyls, of course! The story follows this main storyline, but also T'Challa's mother acclimating to life in Wakanda, what Monica Lynne's been up to in the U.S. since we last saw her in Jungle Action (McGregor ignores her later appearances), the guy organizing the drug smuggling operation, and updates to various members of Black Panther's Wakandan supporting cast. There's a lot of nice moments here but overall not much actually seems to happen despite the fact the story runs over one hundred and fifty pages. Black Panther doesn't even meet the villain until about ten pages from the end, and beats him by luck in about six seconds.

And in the end, crack is still a problem in Wakanda! Way to cheer me up, McGregor.
from Black Panther: Panther's Prey #4 (script by Don McGregor, art by Dwayne Turner)

The other stories here are nice to have for completism's sake, but not very memorable.

I did appreciate the reappearance of Monica's family from Jungle Action when T'Challa asks for her hand in marriage.
from Black Panther: Panther's Prey #4 (script by Don McGregor, art by Dwayne Turner)

What's interesting to me reading Black Panther chronologically is to see the development of the character I know from the movies. His mother, Raimonda, debuted in this volume, but she's not the imperious ruler of screen, but a South African woman romanced by T'Challa's father who returned to her homeland after her husband died. Many elements of the mythos have yet to appear at all. There's also still no sense of cohesion: McGregor doesn't really acknowledge that anyone used the character other than him since 1976. (Can't imagine why the "Black Musketeers" don't come up in discussions of T'Challa's family!)

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