Black Panther (vol. 3) #6
Hunted
Everett Ross is the US liaison for T’Challa, aka the Black Panther, during his time in the United States. He has been called into the office of the President of the United States to give a debriefing on what recently happened in New York City. Arriving at the Oval Office is Everett’s boss and girlfriend — Nikki Adams — and she shows up just as the President receives some bad news and begins chasing Everett across the White House threatening to beat him with a hockey stick. As he is being chased by the Commander-in-Chief, Everett explains what happened to Nikki.
As usual, Everett is in such a state that he begins telling the story in the wrong order. He starts by relating how he witnessed a battle between the Black Panther and Kraven the Hunter in the kitchen of a fancy midtown Manhattan hotel.[1]
Catching himself getting too far ahead in the story, Everett recalls back a little earlier. They were all at the hotel for a long over due White House reception for king T’Challa. It was something that was supposed to a political move as a nice gesture toward the African-American community. However, as T’Challa danced with Nakia — one of the king’s Dora Milaje — the only non-white people in audience were carrying service trays. He watched the two dance from a table where he sat with Zuri, an old family friend of T’Challa, who was unimpressed with the event. Ross couldn’t help but consider T’Challa lucky for dancing with such a young woman like Nakia, who was barely of legal age. But since the Dora Milaje only spoke to their king it was anyone’s guess what she was thinking in that moment.
What he Everett doesn’t know is that Nakia is thinking about her entire life up to this moment. She remembers how she was a young girl toiling in the swamps outside her village on the day her life changed forever. A representative of the king’s government had come looking for a suitable tribes girl to become a member of the Dora Milaje. Impressed by her good health, Nakia was brought to the royal palace and cleaned up to meet the king. When she met with T’Challa, he assured her that the role of the Dora Milaje — or wives in training — was an old custom that was mostly ceremonial. He would not be making advances on her and she was allowed to leave whenever she wanted. Flash forward a few years later and T’Challa had been tricked by Mephisto into kissing her while in a dream state. This has made the young one believe that T’Challa loved her.[2]
T’Challa is thinking of this moment as well, but not in the same way. He is thinking about how the devil tricked him to do it. Who he really loves is Monica Lynn, a woman who — up until this recently — was engaged to marry the king.[3]
Also watching from the sidelines was Everett’s current girlfriend, Nikki Adams. As it turns out, Adams once had a romance with T’Challa back when they attended college together. She thinks back to one romantic evening all those years ago. It was interrupted by Kamal Rakim, another student who took issue with an interracial couple and tried to fight T’Challa. However, the young prince was easily able to defend himself.[4] The fight was over before Zuri, T’Challa’s bodyguard showed up. Hearing what happened, Zuri scoffs at American society and its focus on race rather than character. He also puts down T’Challa for being in a relationship with Nikki Adams, not because she is white, but because she is not from Wakanda. Nikki snaps back to reality when the crowd begins applauding T’Challa and Nakia’s dance. She then removes a Wakandan bracelet she is wearing and hides it in her purse.
After the dance is over, T’Challa mingles with the crowd. He runs into Kamal Rakim, who is now a US Sentator. He apologizes for his behavior when they last encountered one another, but T’Challa assures him that it is all in the past. After pleasantries, Kamal brings T’Challa to the window and shows him a massive crowd of African-Americans that have gathered outside the hotel to hear him speak and asks what he would say to them. Rakim explains that when he was invited to this affair as an afterthought and saw that there were no representative from his community, he made some calls. Learning about the crowd outside, Everett begins frantically calling for additional security in case things get ugly.
T’Challa, meanwhile, changed into the Black Panther and went outside to address the crowd. He asks why they have come when he has always been among them. The crowd responds by saying this is the fire time they get to see him in real life. One man says that T’Challa has always been with the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, groups that they don’t view as heroes to their people. Meanwhile, up on the roof of the hotel, a tactical unit is being deployed in case there is trouble. Everett Ross has also arranged to have a decoy of the Black Panther take T’Challa’s place in case there are any assassins around. He is annoyed when the best person for the job turns out to be a guy with a big ol’ beer gut.
That’s when Kraven the Hunter arrived and took out the armed guards that came to be by T’Challa’s side and snared the Black Panther in a net.
Recurring Characters
Black Panther, Kraven the Hunter, Everett Ross, Monica Lynn, Zuri, Nikki Adams, Nakia, Kamal Rakim, Thing, Franklin Richards
Continuity Notes
Kraven the Hunter is drawn to look like Sergei Kravinoff, the original Kraven the Hunter. However, Sergei was dead at the time of this story, having taken his own life in Amazing Spider-Man #294. He will not be resurrected until Amazing Spider-Man #635. At the end of the story, Kraven states his name as Aloysha Karvinoff likely to explain away the mistake without having the artist redraw the character. Aloysha took over the mantle of Kraven the Hunter in Spectacular Spider-Man #243. When he first appeared on the scene he disguised himself as his father as a means of taunting Spider-Man. One could assume that he is doing the same thing here for…. reasons?
Mephisto tricked T’Challa into kissing Nakia by making her appear as his former fiancée, Monica Lynn in Black Panther (vol. 3) #3. This will has repercussions down the road where she tried to kill Monic in issue #11, causing T’Challa to expell her in issue #13. This will put her into the hands of Erik Killmonger who will train her into being the assassin known as Malice by Black Panther (vol. 3) #24. The flashback where Nakia is selected to the Dora Milaje (per the Marvel Chronology Project) takes place after Avengers #126. Per the Sliding Timescale, that places this flashback as happening about six years prior to this story.
Monica Lynn has been a long time ally of T’Challa dating back to when he saved her from the Sons of the Serpents in Avengers #73. T’Challa proposed to her in Black Panther: Panther’s Prey #3. However, by the time we see her again in Black Panther (vol. 3) #8, T’Challa had called off their engagement. It’s revealed in Black Panther (vol. 3) #48-49 that this was due to the fact that T’Challa met a future version of himself that was dying of a brain aneurysm that he himself was just in the early stages of. Seeing that he had no future to offer Monica was the reason why he broke off their engagement, although he kept the reason why a secret.
In the flashback, Kamal accuses Nikki’s father of being a racist saying that he used to drag Black men behind his wagon. If this is true or just an assumption on his part is never explored because, as of this writing (December, 2022), Nikki’s background prior to this point has never been explored.
Topical References
The President of the United States is depicted as Bill Clinton in this story. Clinton was President from 1993 to 2001, making him the President at the time this comic was originally published. His appearance here should be considered topical.
The hotel in this story is identified as the New York Hilton, located in Midtown Manhattan. The reference to it being a Hilton hotel should be considered topical as this is a real world hotel chain. That said, in Black Panther (vol. 3) #8, the location is later said to be the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. That wouldn’t be considered a topical reference since the Waldorf has been designated a heritage building and can’t really be run as anything but a hotel.
During the big 2 page ball room spread, I’m quite sure that artist Joe Jusko drew popular celebrities and government types that were prominent when this comic was published but damned if I can identify anyone specifically. Covering my bases though. If there is someone famous here, their appearances should be considered topical.
When commenting about the lack of Black guests at the White House reception for T’Challa he states that he made a call to Spike Lee’s casting director and made the event look like a Benetton ad. These should be considered topical references because:
Spike Lee: A film director whose films typically explored issues surrounding race relations in America and other issues relevant to the Black experience in American life. He was at the height of his popularity in the 1990s for such films as Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, and more.
Benetton is an Italian fashion company. They created controversy in the 1980s and 90s for a series of ads that were heavily focused on inclusivity and global harmony with such wild ideas as establishing peace between the US And Russia and an end to the Cold War. Shitty people who would be right at home in the cesspool that the Internet has become would refer to instances of diversity and inclusion in media as “Benetton ads”. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
When commenting on his invitation to the White House event, Kamal states that the government figured he would be a Dashiki wearing Black man listening to Gil Scott-Heron records and throwing darts at Pat Buchanan. These are all topical references. The details:
Gil Scott-Heron: Was an American jazz poet who mostly performed in the spoken word. Active from 1969 until his death in 2011, he was also considered the “godfather of rap”.
Pat Buchanan: A very, very white Republican in American politics. Best known for being Ronald Reagan’s communications director during his 1985-1987 Presidency. He was very active in politics around the time this comic was published. The man has been accused in the past of antisemitism and Holocaust denial. When it comes to Black people he was on record for demanding that the Central Park 5 — Black and Hispanic teens wrongly convicted of rape and murder — should be hung. Wehn the CP5 were later exonerated and released, Buchanan hasn’t retracted his original statements. So yeah, not the most popular guy in the African-American community on account of being a piece of shit.
Everett’s cell phone is depicted as an anologue model with physical buttons and a pull out antenna to pick up signals. This should be considered topical as this is an obsolete technology.
When commenting on the hired decoy, Everett refers to him as being “fatter than Meatloaf.” He is referring to the musician and actor who went by the name Meat Loaf. He was best known for his Bat out of Hell trilogy of albums and his appearing in films like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Around the time this comic was published, Mr. Loaf was slated to appear in the 1999 film Fight Club where he plays overweight cancer survivor Robert Paulson whose hormone treatment caused him to grow breasts. This is probably where that reference is coming from. Anyway, Meat Loaf died in 2022. The reference here is topical for the usual reasons.
When seeing Kraven the Hunter for the first time, he refers to him as looking like a “1970s Lenny Kravitz”. Lenny Kravitz was a rock musician who was at the height of his popularity at the time this comic was published, particularly after his 1998 single “Fly Away”. Kravitz’s early work was heavily influenced by music from the late 60s and 1970s. His style at the time was also retro inspired because the late 90s was a period of 70s nostalgia. These are still parts of Kravitz’s signature style, but the 90s was when it was mega popular. Topical reference.
