Figure 2. T’Challa, while fighting to escape Rudyardan prison guards, declares himself “The Black Leopard.”
Quickly rallying to the prison, Torch locates the imprisoned Wakandan king and, refusing to stop and explain as T’Challa asks how they found him, uses his entire body to melt the cell bars. When T’Challa reiterates his question, The Thing responds: “Frankly, jungle man, I’M still pretty fuzzy on a couple’a points, but this AIN’T the time or place for a POW-WOW. Two more GUARDS comin’ this way—and they’re loaded for BEAR.” Torch tells T’Challa to hide, saying that he and The Thing will take care of the guards themselves, but T’Challa checks him down: “You have done ENOUGH, Torch. Do not seek to do ALL my fighting for me.” Rushing toward the guards, T’Challa yells, “SOME things, after all, are best left to — [panel break] — the BLACK LEOPARD!” (Figure 2). The page turn following this unusual declaration of a new heroic nomenclature for T’Challa functions doubly as a scene break, and the narrative picks up with Torch and The Thing following T’Challa on a “DETOUR to retrieve [his] ceremonial attire”—or his iconic black costume—from an unidentified location. Eager to press forward, hunt down the remaining thief, and reclaim control of the Vibrotron, T’Challa attempts to spur Torch and The Thing into following his lead. But, reining in the plot’s advance and slowing enough to give voice to the question on the minds of readers, The Thing bellows out, “First things FIRST, yer highness. How come you called yerself the Black LEOPARD back there, ‘stead’a the PANTHER?”
T’Challa, unwavered, replies coolly: “I contemplate a return to YOUR country, Ben Grimm, where the latter term has — POLITICAL connotations. I neither condemn NOR condone those who have taken up the name — but T’CHALLA is a law unto HIMSELF.” He claims that his new name is a “MINOR point, at best.” And, as if anticipating critical questions or concerns from Torch and The Thing, T’Challa suggests that if they might disagree with his preferred name change, they would merely be arguing semantics. After all, he says, “the panther IS a leopard.” From the declaration and justification of T’Challa’s heroic name change, the story moves forward rapidly. After a short investigation, the three heroes learn that the mastermind behind the theft of the Vibrotron was none other than T’Challa’s original adversary and perennial rogue, the “sound incarnate” Ulysses Klaue. In the ensuing battle the Vibrotron is destroyed and Klaw is defeated, failing to put up much of a fight against the combined abilities of Torch, The Thing, and the newly christened Black Leopard. In the penultimate blow, Klaw’s primary weapon—his “Soni-Claw,” which is technology made flesh as a piece of his “sonically-altered body”—is crushed by The Thing. T’Challa delivers the knockout punch and Klaw is ushered away to face justice for his villainous plot. But rather than receiving a hero’s congratulations, T’Challa is offered a sort of free pass from the Rudyardan police officers whisking Klaw away. As one uniformed officer explains: “ACTUALLY, fellow . . . you’re not supposed to be IN this part of town . . . after DARK, you know. I mean . . . I’m not going to ask you for an I.D. or anything, but . . .”
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White Racial Innocence and the Superheroes We Don’t Deserve
Figure 1. Taku reminds The Thing about Rudyarda’s status as one the last remaining white supremacist nations on the continent of Africa.
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Heroic Politics on Screen
Joshua Plencner
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