by Gideon Marcus

The phone rang insistently on my desk, waking me from my nap.  I dropped my comic book and spilled coffee all over the galleys for the next article.  On the other end of the line was a voice, a woman's voice, heavily accented in German.

"Is something wrong?  We didn't receive our shipment of Galactic Journey!"

That woke me up faster than a cup of pure zavarka.  Stealing a glance at the calendar, I saw that it wasn't the 22nd but the 23rd.  For the first time in two years, we'd missed a deadline.

"Uh, no!  Everything's fine!  We're just doing a special edition.  Building suspense-like.  Don't worry.  I'll call the vans and make sure they bring you your inventory."

The L.A. Times' Lester Rodney, not me…but close enough

Hanging up before my stunned caller could reply, I took stock of the situation.  Our beautiful next article was a sopping mess, completely useless.  I couldn't even see what the subject had been — a new book?  Skinny on Star Trek, debuting in September?  Candid photos of Tony Randall in swim trunks?

Whatever it had been, it was melted shreds now.  I had to put up something, and fast.  But what?  How could I possibly fill the slot, 24 hours late, no less!

My eyes lit upon the comic book at my feet, Fantastic Four #53.

God bless Stan Lee (and Jack Kirby)!

Of course, I didn't have time to write a full article.  That takes hours, research, several fingers of rum.  I didn't even have coffee in me!

Then I remembered that a picture is worth a thousand words.  And we have a limit on article length at the Journey: always try to keep things shorter than 2000 words, I say.

Two comic book panels would be enough.  Heck, eight would be sheer luxury!

So, with very little introduction (far less than he deserves), meet the newest Marvel Superhero: Black Panther!

This is the King of Wakanda, a highly advanced country somewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa.  He's invited the Fantastic Four to his nation for… some reason.

Turns out, it was to beat all four of them pretty handily. 

But why?  He's no villain.  He's a noble hero!  Turns out, the "Great Hunt" was really just the equivalent of a Wakandan handshake.  I mean, fighting is superhero foreplay, right?

So why did he really invite the FF to his swingin' super-sciencey jungle pad?

Sadly, when I got FF #52 last month, that ish left me on a cliffhanger, and it wasn't until this month I got the answer.

Seems the evil organization, Klaw, had attacked Wakanda.  In the process, the King was killed, leaving his son to grieve… and avenge.

Needless to say, FF #53 details the defeat of Klaw's minions at the hands of the grown-up prince.  But though his pledged duty be done, there's always more injustice to be fought. 

And so, the Marvel universe not only gets a new hero (and one of the most powerful in the pantheon) but our first black hero to boot!  Black Panther is not quite the first foreign hero to grace a Marvel Mag, now that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have joined the Avengers, but it's still nice to see villain-busting become an international affair.

All I gotta say is, Make Mine Marvel!

(and thanks for bearing with the delay and this makeshift slot-fill. I promise it won't happen again…for at least another 24 hours!  Next time, I'll lay off the sauce…)

Sammy Davis Jr. doing his Dean Martin impression

---

---