Sorry for the delay, wireless died on my laptop and while waiting for a replacement part I was struck down by an evil curse, or nano-robots or a sinus infection. One or the other or maybe all three the jury is still out on this one. This is not my favourite episode and I almost skipped it. Purely cause of Mary Sue Black Panther, I just don't like him and god help me I've tried. I read his ongoing for over a year hoping I could find something. So anyway here we go.
For an index of all episodes go here
Original Air Date: 17/11/2010 Production Code:011
Writer: Sebastian Montes
Director: Paul Giacoppo
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| "I Don't appear in this episode" |
Titles Assembled: Captain America, Giant Man, Iron Man, Wasp and Thor.
Panther's Quest is a reference to storyline of the same name that ran in Marvel Comics Presents in 1989 issues 13 to 37 to be precise.
We start with a flashback to the events of Living Legend with Cap downed and Zemo standing over him about to deliver a finishing blow, when Panther blocks it with Cap's shield. Then we pull back and realise this is the Avengers reviewing the security footage of the event.Trying to figure out who the mystery man is.
Cap makes another delightful 40ism (I think that's what I will call them from now on) about the projectionist. They are trying to figure out who he is, but his suit is so high-tech they cant get a reading. Cap assures them he is an ally as the intruder alert sounds.
"Let me tell you about the time when record players . . . "
The Avengers run to the entrance where the Panther is waiting for them, and launches himself at them and attacks. Panther takes on the Avengers, His Suit can counter all their attacks, he can dodge Caps shield, his claws easily penetrate and disable Iron Man's armour. He effortless takes down Giant Man but kicking various pressure points, which was kinda funny cause of how easy Pym's Giant forms seems to get defeated. The Panther just stops fighting, having seen enough. Lucky for the Avengers I guess.
He removes his mask revealing he is T'Challa prince of Wakanda, Hank recognises him. He tells them he needs their help. The team he just singled handed destroyed with little effort, He needs them to do something he cant on his own? yeah right . . .
"You would think the ability to grow three stories tall would give you combat advantage"
In the Assembly hall, Janet pretty much paraphrases the previous paragraph. He lays out the story of M'Baku taking over his country and wants the Avengers help to get past the people so he can restore his throne. Cap wants no part of it, if the Wakandans are following a legitimate government of their own free will. No one really wants to help, cant really blame them, if you are such an advanced and enlightened country, why have a law where any idiot can wander in out of the jungle, challenge the king to a fight and if he wins he gets the crown. So he pulls out the "Vibranium will explode and destroy everything if you down help me" card. again while sitting on it all your life with amazing technology, it never dawned on you to take some precautions about that. I guess he was too busy being awesome to care about silly things like that.
With that kind of guilt trip the Avengers reluctantly agree, Panther then plugs in his jungle USB drive and orders Jarvis to do things that Stark has never been able to get a computer to do . . . Stark bewildered asked how did you do that? Panther just said t'wern't nothing I just studied them.
"Listen back in 40's we didn't just run around invading countries and toppling government!"
So we see Hydra taking the Vibranium, we see Grim Reaper and Abe Lincoln Klaw, who you may remember from The Man in the Ant Hill. So with that all sorted out, the Avengers hop in the Quinjet and set off to invade the borders of a sovereign nation and topple its government, (The UN and Shield are going to love it when they hear about it)
Iron Man drops a line about not being able to locate Thor, thus explaining why he doesn't appear this episode. Janet lists the itinerary that sounds like places the gang from Scooby Doo would investigative abandoned fireworks factories and haunted swamps. Cap gives us another delightful 40ism.
"It's a high tech spear"
Iron Man deviates from the course laid out by Panther, so natural the get shot down instantly cause Wakandan defense tech is better. Panther runs off on his own ( Then why ask the Avengers to come along in the first place?) Cap goes with him, leaving the others to deal with the Wakandan army. A bunch of guys in stereotypical African tribe outfits that throw spear, high tech spears that explode.
Now we see Klaw demonstrating Vibranium's abilities to Reaper. The banter and posture about who wants what and how much they will pat for it, until something tells them the Avengers crash landed in the jungle.
Giant Man, Wasp and Iron Man manage to just narrowly defeat the jungle tribesmen . . . Black Panther appears and challenges M'Baku. instead of fighting himself he sends two identical lackeys to fight him.
"Wow! This is decades beyond any spears we have in the West"
The Avengers arrive at the Vibranium mine and Janet tells us Reaper is number 34 on the list. A fight ensues. Hank takes on his old friend Klaw encasing him in African Army Ants, again Pym that will probably kill him, but he doesn't seem to care. Hydra goons are carelessly shooting at the Vibranium. Klaw and Pym realise if they don't stop it will explode taking out half of Africa.
Klaw falls on and somehow merges with the Vibranium's energy. Becoming a being made of pure sound. Naturally he starts destroying everything around him. Reaper decides it's a good time to leave, takes whatever Vibranium they have an head for the ships.
"Careful Avengers, they have spears."
Meanwhile Panther is still fighting the wonder twins. Cap saves him, saying he will take on the twins while Panther takes M'Baku. Panther being the best fighter ever in the world, easily defeats him, and then summons some kind of energy staff for some reason. M'Baku uses the same sonic device he used to defeat his father. Man Ape is about to finish him, when the side of mountain explodes and monetarily distracts him. Its then Panther decides the sonics don't bother him any more and just stands up and walks over to M'Baku and uppercuts him.
Hank and Stark are trying to solve problem the way real men do, with Science, since they are not as amazing as Panther. They deduce that Klaw's sonic arm gizmo is somehow sustaining him, and they need to destroy it.
The Wakandans have no decided T'Challa is they king, they really need a proper voting ballot system.
"As bad as Man Ape was, at least he actually wanted to stay in the country and rule"
Jan is bantering and distracting Klaw, while Stark and Pym work on whatever their plan is. They are going to us Vibranium somehow stop him. Iron Man with chunks of Vibranium flies into Klaw and contains his sonic emitter. With that the monster for dissipates.
T'Challa the new king decides on vast policy reforms, he makes a council to rule the country and decides he wants to be an Avenger, doesn't ask, just tells them he is an Avenger and everyone just seems to go along with it.
"I'm an Avengers now! and there is nothing you can do about it."
Now with all that nonsense over, we seen a Hulkbuster unit approaching the Cube. A monstrous hand grabs a solider, and a green blast of energy goes up from the Cube from a green dome, setting up for the double sized next episode Gamma World!
Check your References:
I Didn't catch and really references this time, not sure if they were some and I missed because I'm not familir enough with Panther, or just cause I didn't really care enough. I guess maybe the Cap Panther interactions could be notched up the Ultimate Cap, Ultimate Black Panther relationship. Feel free to point them out please.
Overall this was a weak episode, the T'Challa regaining his throne could have easily been done in a micro-episode, with a little restructuring it could very easily have been slotted in instead of Enter the Whirlwind, and left the rest of this episode to the Hydra/Klaw/Vibranium storyline.
One a side note, during my previously mentioned maladies, I was able to catch up on some reading, I discovered I had all eight issues of the Marvels Project just sitting there unread for some reason. I picked them up and was waiting for all eight then forgot about the, I can highly recommend it and everyone should go check it out, It can be enjoyed in both sickness and health. Its very versatile.
So with that I will leave you, see you next blog.
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