Black Panther #5
Quest for the Sacred Water-Skin!
After fighting a samurai warrior that has been alive for centuries, kept vital thanks to a mystical water skin that extends human life, the Black Panther is shocked when the warrior rapidly ages into a mummified corpse. The Collectors want T’Challa to steal the water skin from the samurai’s hidden civilization.[1] However, T’Challa has no interest in getting further involved with the obsessed antiquity collectors.
Unfortunately, the group won’t take no for an answer and Princess Zanda threatens to launch a nuclear missile at Wakanda if T’Challa won’t get in line. With his homeland in danger, the Panther has no choice but to accompany Abner Little on this mission.
As they arrive in the mountains near the Sacred Samurai’s civilization their ship is blasted with a fire cannon that causes it to go up in flames. Luckily, T’Challa is able to grab Abner and bail out into a nearby lake. The samurai who shot their plane down sees that they are still alive and awakens a yeti in a nearby cave to destroy the intruders.
When the creature catches up with them, the Black Panther and Abner have retreated to a cave and started a fire to dry themselves up. As the two defend themselves against the massive beast, they discover that conventional weapons aren’t going to stop the yeti. While T’Challa keeps it busy, Abner builds a crude catapult from some rocks allowing T’Challa to fling a huge boulder into the yeti’s face with enough force to kill the monster.
That’s when the samurai who has been stalking them makes his presence known and decrees that by the laws of his order of Ronin, they must die.
Recurring Characters
Black Panther, Princess Zanda, Abner Little, Collectors (Nigle Pigman, Silas Mourner, Andreas Zorba), Akiro
Continuity Notes
Other than Mourner, the full names of the other collectors are not revealed here. Their names are revealed as Andreas Zorba and Nigel Pigman in Iron Man (vol. 3) #16 and 22 respectively.