Black Panther (vol. 4) #13
White Light, Black Heat
Vampires have moved into New Orleans after the city was flooded from a recent hurricane. Coming to provide relief to those trapped by the flooding, the Black Panther (T’Challa) and Luke Cage finds the city overrun with vampires. They end up teaming up with Blade the Vampire Hunter (Eric Brooks) and Brother Voodoo (Jericho Drumm), who are in the area dealing with the vampire infestation.
That evening, the impromptu team ends up battling a swarm of vampires. As they fight, Brother Voodoo remains stock still because he has sent his spirit into the astral plane to find out who is responsible for the vampires. There, he comes into contact with Beatrice and Victor Montague. They were a wealthy couple that lived in Louisiana hundreds of years ago. Legends tell that the couple willingly allowed themselves to become vampires following the end of the Civil War. When the two vampires attack him, Voodoo uses his powers to try and kill them. Unfortunately, he has to return to his physical body because the vampires attacking him in the real world are starting to become too much for his allies to handle. However, Jericho was able to divine their physical location and can lead the others there if they can make it out of this vampires next.
The Black Panther has a solution and calls for the is bodyguards — two members of the Dora Milaje hovering overhead in two Wakandan jets — to extract them from the field. Once they are aboard the ship, T’Challa asks his aides to prepare his battle armor, the Ebony Blade, and to use his Avengers contacts to reach Monica Rambeau, who is also providing relief in the area.[1] However, before their ship can take off, it is swarmed by the vampires that are still on the ground. Deciding to deal with this personally, the Black Panther emerges from the plane clad in armor blessed by the Panther God and wielding the Ebony Blade. He warns the gathered vampires that these holy artifacts will be their destruction if they do not retreat. Beatrice Montague warns the Black Panther that if their plan works out, they will be victorious and tells T’Challa to pray that he is dead before this happens. She and her vampire legions then retreat into the darkness.
With the immediate threat, the Black Panther begins formulating a plan to deal with the vampires. Blade takes issue with T’Challa taking command as he is used to fighting things alone. Luke Cage comes to the Panther’s defense, pointing out that they an assemblage of Black superheroes trying to save the local community. Blade has been alive long enough that he no longer sees race anymore. The bothers Cage, but he decides to drop the subject for the time being, instead getting a gun loaded with silver bullets from the vampire hunter so he is more effective in the coming battle. They all agree that in order to prevent New Orleans from becoming a slaughterhouse, they need to eliminate the head vampires. Soon, the Black Panther locates Monica Rambeau, and recruits her to his cause.[2]
Elsewhere, Blade and the others have located the coffins of Victor Montague and his fellow vampires. Their coffins had been ejected from the ground due to the flood waters, leaving them scattered on a nearby highway. Blade instructs them to start breaking the coffins in order to prevent Victor and his horde from having a place to rest in the daytime. However, as Luke Cage gets to work they are ambushed by a massive winged vampire who has been charged with protecting the coffins.
As Luke and Jericho deal with this threat, Blade tracks down Victor Montague. He finds the vampire at his ancestral home plotting with his descendant on how to rebuild New Orleans to reflect the old ways. As the two battle to the death, the Black Panther coaches Monica on how to use her powers to turn her body into sunlight and vanquish the vampires infesting the city. Many of the vampires fall, and others flee into the night. Seeing his plan coming apart distracts Victor Montague long enough for Blade to impale him through the heart killing the vampire. The Colonel tries to absolve himself of wrong doing by saying that he was only helping Victor out of fear for his life. Blade doesn’t really care, but warns him that karma has a way of paying him back for his misdeeds.
With the battle over and the sun rising, the Black Panther has found Brother Voodoo’s car — a vintage 1959 Eldorado — and they all drive out of New Orleans together. Blade, on the other hand, has moved on to his next hunt in Washington, DC.
Recurring Characters
Black Panther, Luke Cage, Blade, Brother Voodoo, Pulsar, Victor Montague
Continuity Notes
T’Challa is in possession of the Ebony Blade after it was used in a failed invasion of his country. See Black Panther (vol. 4) #1-6.
The Black Panther goes through the laundry list of previous codenames that Monica has used in the past. They are:
Captain Marvel: A name she took when she first got her powers in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16.
Photon: The name she took after encountering Genis-Vell, the son of the original Captain Marvel in Avengers Unplugged #5.
Pulsar: When Genis-Vell started calling himself Photon circa New Thunderbolts #6, Moncia decided to change her name to Pulsar in issue #9 of that series.
Here, Monica says that she simply goes by her actual name rather than a codename. This has been in her capacity as a member of the Nextwave, as seen in Nextwave #1.
Topical References
This story is framed around the relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina which was a category 5 storm that hit the south eastern coast of the United States in August, 2005. This caused the levies in New Orleans to fail and the city ended up flooding much of the area. The relief and restoration efforts by the United States government in the wake of the disaster was heavily criticized at the time for being inefficient. The disaster also became a pet cause to many celebrities who became arm chair philanthropists over night, but many failed to deliver on their promises or hired grifters. At any rate, any references to the 2005 hurricane in this story should be considered topical. Modern readers should instead interpret this disaster to be a unique one as opposed to a specific real world hurricane event.
