The God Killer

After being defeated in battle against Erik Killmonger and Sombre, the Black Panther’s body was dumped in the frozen mountains in the Land of the Chilling Mists. Surviving an attack from a pack of wolves, T’Challa makes his way back to Sombre’s cave. There he finds two guards and after defeating them, he discovers that his foes have long since left Sombre’s cave.

Some distance away, Erik Killmonger has arrived Serpent Valley where he hopes to obtain the next component of his insurrection. Upon their arrival, Killmonger punishes his lackies — Tayete and Kazibe — for originally leading the Black Panther to him.[1]

Meanwhile, T’Challa reaches the edge of the Land of the Chilling Mists and discovers Sombre communing with the massive white gorillas that live in the region. These savage beasts are worshiped as gods by some Wakandans and somehow, Sombre has some means of communicating with the violent apes. Spotting the Black Panther, Sombre then orders the white gorillas to slay him.

Back in Central Wakanda, Monica Lynne has brought Karota to the newly built hospital. She is concerned about the widows health as she has not been eating much since the death of her husband.[2] Karota is suspicious of the doctors and modern medicine as she has a mistrust of anything coming from the outside world. There they are met by Mendinao, the Wakandian medicine man. He tries to assure Karota that modern medicine is as good as, if not better, than his old poultices. However, when he injects Karota with some vitamins, the pain from the needle causes her to panic and she flees the hospital. Monica follows after her to try and calm her down. Elsewhere, W’Kabi returns home from a long day of work to find his wife, Chandra, is upset about the lack of time W’Kabi has for his family. The two boys watch their parents argue until Chandra pushes W’Kabi too far and he lashes out by slapping her across the face. Horrified by what he has done, W’Kabi tries to apologize to his wife, but Chandra walks out on him.

While back at the domain of the white gorillas, the Black Panther finds himself fighting for his life once again, this time against the largest and most powerful of the apes. When the white gorilla grabs hold of T’Challa, he uses his claws to gouge out the beast’s eyes, blinding it. As the beast blindly lashes out in desperation, the Panther kicks the white gorilla over the edge of a cliff. When the white gorilla hits the ground it gets impaled on the jagged rib-cage of one of an nearby boneyard, killing it instantly. With the death of their leader, the other white gorilla rush to his side to mourn the death, allowing a battered and broken Black Panther the opportunity to crawl away.

Recurring Characters

Black Panther, Erik Killmonger, Sombre, Monica Lynn, W’Kabi, Tayete, Kazibe, Karota, Mendinao, Chandra, Kono

Continuity Notes

1. Tayete and Kazibe were captured by the Black Panther in Jungle Action (vol. 2) #11 and forced to lead T’Challa to Erik Killmonger last issue.

2. Karota’s husband, M’Jumbak, was murdered by Baron Macabre in Jungle Action (vol. 2) #9.

Supplementary Matieral

This issue features a pin-up of Venomm. Oddly enough, he is colored with brown skin when the character is actually Caucasian. As this coloring remains in reprints, I’m led to assume that this was an early design of the character and perhaps he was intended to be black.