Jungle Action (vol. 2) #20
They Told Me a Myth I Wanted to Believe
The Black Panther has gone out with Monica Lynne to go grocery shopping. T’Challa has gone out in full costume, attracting suspicious glances from the townspeople who don’t know what to make of the hero. Among the customers are two members of the Dragon Circle who single out Monica and attack her when T’Challa goes to help an old woman with her groceries. When the Panther see’s Monica in danger he comes to her rescue. In the ensuing fight, the two Dragon Circle members make mention of a meeting going down at the Devouring Swamp.
When the police arrive on the scene, things get tense with both the cops and the locals trying to attack T’Challa. That’s when Sheriff Roderick Tate arrives and diffuses the situation. Also arriving on the scene is reporter Kevin Trublood. As this is the second attack on Monica, the trio compare notes. Unfortunately, they cannot get any answers from the captured members of Dragon Circle from the night before as they have been released on bail. T’Challa decides that he should investigate the meeting that is happening that night in the swamps.
That evening, before going off on his investigation, T’Challa and Monica go for a walk. She thinks about how her sister’s official cause of death was ruled a suicide and how that doesn’t make any sense. She recalls her sister’s time in college where she got involved in student protests that turned violent. After seeing people getting shot, Angela came away from the experience hating guns. Still grieving over the loss of her sister, T’Challa comforts Monica and tells her that she will heal over time.
Later, T’Challa crashes the gathering at the Devouring Swamp. However, this is not a meeting of the Dragon Circle, but of the Ku Klux Klan. As T’Challa clashes with the KKK members, Monica waits at her family home with Kevin. While they wait, Kevin explains to Monica why he is so involved in the story of her sister’s death. The reporter has a strong sense of what America should be and wants to exposed racism and corruption, two of the biggest blights the country still struggles with. He admits that America is not perfect and many of its ideals are not true for marginalized members of society, but he fights for those ideals because they are what America should and can still achieve.
Meanwhile, despite his best efforts, the Black Panther is quickly overwhelmed by superior numbers and is knocked out. The Klan members then tie T’Challa to a cross and light it on fire.
Recurring Characters
Black Panther, KKK, Monica Lynn, Kevin Trublood, Lloyd Lynn, Roderick Tate
Topical References
Sheriff Tate makes a comment that T’Challa could dress in pink and team-up with Peter Sellers. This is a reference to Peter Seller’s character Chief Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther series of detective films. This should be considered a topical reference, particularly since Sellers died in 1980.
Monica states that her sister, Angela, went to college in 1968 and was involved in a student riot that claimed lives, probably alluding to the shooting at Kent State where a student protest ended in tragedy when the National Guard opened fire on protestors. These and other Civil Rights movement references being referred to as happening in the recent past should be considered topical. Modern readers should instead assume that Angela was involved in some unspecified student protests over Civil Rights that ended in violence, there’s no shortage to choose from since we live in a world where these types of tragedies keep on happening.
