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| Cover Art: Giuseppe Camuncoli |
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Title: "There Is a Place Called Wakanda: Part 2"
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Jefte Palo
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Colorist: Jim Campbell
Editor: Jordan D. White
Assistant Editor: Annalise Bissa
Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski
SYNOPSIS
The Panther God Zarathos tells T'Challa the origin story of Erik Killraven, a time traveler who grew up after Martians conquered the planet. He hates Wakanda due to being exiled from there as a child, allowing him to grow up as a gladiator in the Martian arena while Wakanda remained the only free country. Now he has traveled back in time to kill T'Challa's father and attack Wakanda. In order to protect his sister Shuriri, T'Challa again agrees to become the Ghost Panther and is resurrected by Zarathos.
Killraven attacks Shuriri in Wakanda but is interrupted by Ghost Panther. However he is quickly overwhelmed by Killraven'a ability to predict his moves. In the spirit realm Zarathos talks with the ghost of T'Chaka, T'Challa's father, who offers his soul to help his son. Zarathos sends him to Earth as a flaming panther that easily subdues Killraven. Ghost Panther eats Killraven'a soul and joins his father and sister as protectors of Wakanda.
ANNOTATIONS
This issue is a tie-in to the "Infinity Wars" crossover event. In that series Gamora used the power of the Infinity Stones to merge the universe into itself, dividing the population by half by combining two individuals into one. This new Earth produced its own heroes, one of which was Ghost Panther, a combination of Black Panther and Ghost Rider.
Ghost Panther makes a cameo appearance in Infinity Wars (2018) # 6, which has the combined Infinity Warps reality placed inside the Soul Gem. He makes his next full appearance in Secret Warps: Ghost Panther Annual # 1.
Podcast Review: Inner Demons Episode 36 - "Dad Panther" (Click to Listen)
REVIEW
Ghost Panther concludes and it's terrible. Seriously, it's just awful.
Not long ago on the Inner Demons podcast I proclaimed that this was the worst Ghost Rider comic ever published, which was a bit of a harsh statement. I mean, Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys Marvel History disproved that claim almost immediately. So, while this isn't the worst that doesn't mean it's good. In truth its a hodge podge of elements that only serve to distract from the whole.
The most glaring problem is the character of Erik Killraven, who consists of two characters warped together only because their names both have "kill" in them. It forced the writer to take what needed to be a simple concept and drown it in a sea of Martians and Time Diamonds. i understand the need to have Killmonger, he's the most recognizable Black Panther villain, but couldn't they have at least warped him with a Ghost Rider villain?
That flags up my biggest problem with this comic as a whole, it means far too heavily into Blac Panther while all but ignoring the Ghost Rider half of the equation. That side is represented solely as a striking visual minus any of the nuance or characters. Instead of playing up any kind of internal struggle of man versus demon the story gives us Flaming Dad Panther.
The artwork is less than impressive as well. I still wonder if Jefte Palo was under some kind of deadline crunch because this is much more sloppy than his usual work. He's always relied on heavy blacks, but here the figures are nothing but blobby silhouettes on flat colors in place of any backgrounds. I do like his Ghost Panther, who claws wildly in the air like an animal, but that's about the only positive.
Ghost Panther just can't move past its ridiculously contrived premise and chooses to double down on science fiction nonsense. Its a hot mess and definitely not recommended.
Grade: F
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