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from Black Panther vol. 4 #9
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After its opening story arc,
Black Panther vol. 4 was immediately involved in a crossover with
X-Men. In this project, I've mostly stayed away from crossovers—but in the comiXology sale where I got all these
Black Panther issues to begin with, they considerately put the relevant
X-Men issues on sale as well.
Wild Kingdom sees Black Panther and the X-Men responding to the same crisis in the African nation of Niganda. After Niganda's abortive attempt to invade Wakanda, a number of genetically altered animals end up on the loose, attracting the attention of Black Panther because of the danger to Wakanda and the X-Men because they show up on Cerebro (in this story called "Cerebra" for some reason). Some third-rate supervillains called Dr. Paine and the Red Ghost are trying to use enhanced primates to take over Niganda... and then, of course, the world!
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from Black Panther vol. 4 #8
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I like a few of the
X-Men movies (i.e.,
X-Men,
X2,
First Class), but I don't think I've ever actually enjoyed an X-Men comic, and this didn't change my mind. There's not much for them in this story, just people with phonetically rendered accents bickering a bit. The only exception is Storm, as
Wild Kingdom's purpose mostly seems to be to delve a bit into the T'Challa/Ororo relationship. Coming off the back of Priest's run (which is where we first learned they had a thing), I didn't find this totally convincing; I don't think Priest's Black Panther was incapable of being awkward, but I do think he would be much better at confining and controlling his awkwardness than this stammering schoolboy.
I do think David Yardin and Jay Leisten did some solid work art-wise on the two Black Panther issues; hopefully they do more work on the series. But the story here is pretty goofy on the whole, and it feels weird to go from the entire history and an invasion of Wakanda being told in six issues to this mediocre threat being stretched out to four. I'll be curious to see how Hudlin's Black Panther develops when he just gets to do his own thing.
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from Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #10
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I also read "Law of the Jungle," a one-part story from
Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four, which retells the story of the FF's first meeting with Black Panther. In this version, Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four are taking receipt of a shipment of vibranium for science purposes—but what they don't know is that this isn't a legitimate export, but smuggled out of Wakanda. Black Panther attacks them, but the FF soon realizes what's up and travels to Wakanda to make amends and help defeat the smugglers. I haven't read much of Jeff Parker's comics work, but I always enjoy what I read; this has a good sense of fun to it, lots of little touches in terms of characterization and comedy that really elevate it. (My favorite is the Thing and the Human Torch playing good cop/bad cop.) My main complaint would be that it's very much a
Fantastic Four comic, not a Black Panther one; the trip to Wakanda and battle there is over pretty quickly. But this isn't really a complaint about the story, more a complaint about the decision to reprint it in
Marvel-Verse: Black Panther. (But I guess it makes sense; it's a nice one-issue version of the FF/Black Panther meeting, as opposed to the original 2½-issue one.)
Wild Kingdom originally appeared in X-Men vol. 2 #175-76 and Black Panther vol. 4 #8-9 (Nov.-Dec. 2005). The story was written by Peter Milligan (#175-76) and Reginald Hudlin (#8-9); penciled by Salvador Larroca (#175-76) and David Yardin (#8-9); inked by Danny Miki & Allen Martinez (#175-76) and Jay Leisten (#8-9); colored by Cory Petit (#175-76), Dean White (#8-9), and Matt Milla (#9); lettered by Randy Gentile (#8-9); and edited by Mike Marts (#175-75) and Axel Alonso (#8-9).
"Law of the Jungle" originally appeared in Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #10 (May 2006). The story was written by Jeff Parker, penciled by Manuel Garcia, inked by Scott Koblish, colored by A. Crossley, lettered by Dave Sharpe, and edited by Mark Paniccia. It was reprinted in Marvel-Verse: Black Panther (2020), which was edited by Jennifer Grünwald.
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