Black Panther Epic Collection, Vol. 3: Panther's Prey

Black Panther Epic Collection

by Don McGregor

The saga continues! From Don McGregor, the world-building writer of "Panther's Rage," come the second and third chapters in his epic Wakandan trilogy! In "Panther's Quest," T'Challa searches for his long-lost mother - and it will lead him on a brutal hunt like no other, set against the violence of South African apartheid and illustrated by the legendary Gene Colan! Then, in "Panther's Prey," the painted art of Dwayne Turner brings the action back to Wakanda - where the winged menace called Solomon Prey swears vengeance on the king! Plus: The Panther prowls in a quintet of rarely seen tales! Collecting BLACK PANTHER: PANTHER'S PREY #1-4 and material from MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS (1988) #13-37 and #148, SOLO AVENGERS #19, MARVEL SUPER HEROES (1990) #1, MARVEL FANFARE (1982) #60 and FANTASTIC FOUR UNLIMITED #1.
Parental Advisory

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Fiction, Collections

504 pages, Paperback

First published March 10, 2021

About the author

Donald Francis McGregor is an American comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics, and the author of one of their first graphic novels.

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Until the movie really brought this character into the mainstream I always thought Marvel never did enough with him. Great collection. Recommended

[Josh Bungs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don McGregor for Black Panther is one of the best writers to have ever written for marvel.
The art from Gene Colan and Dwayne Turner is fantastic.
The bonus content is one of the reasons I collect these epics.

[Fez Vaccaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection rounds out McGregor's Black Panther trilogy, beginning with "Panther's Rage" in Black Panther Epic Collection Vol. 1: Panther's Rage, with the follow-up "Panther's Quest" and "Panther's Rage".

As others have said, McGregor is pretty verbose and this is one of the longest collections I've taken to get through. Panther's Quest is set in South Africa during the Apartheid regime. McGregor uses Panther's journey there to have his say on the politicial and racial situation there at the time. No disrespect to Colan who does his best to keep up with McGregor's story - but McGregor has a lot to say and a lot of it is difficult to describe through art. I think you could argue that it is almost a half-illustrated novel, rather than a comic in parts, due to how much McGregor writes. I do think it is an important story to tell of the racial tensions in the country, so I don't want to fault either creator in doing their best to tell this story, it just seems to lack a certain synergy between both creators. I'm also not too much of a fan of Tom Palmer inking over Gene Colan's pencils here.

The follow up is "Panther's Prey" in it's own over-sized book format. It feels like the synergy is better here between McGregor and Dwayne Turner but it is also likely helped in being helped it's own self-contained book, rather than being 8 page shorts as part of a recurring monthly anthology. This story being set in Wakanda allows McGregor to further increase the world-building aspect of Wakanda and its culture. There's also been a certain amount of sexuality by McGregor in his Panther trilogy - and this story being it's own thing also allows that to also come further to the fore here.

Overall I think both stories by McGregor are satisfying reads on their own for different reasons, Quest for allowing commentary on both real world events and Prey for it's world-building. There are a few shorts also included of varying quality. I really enjoyed Sandy Plunkett and Scott Hampton's art on "The Vanities of Philip Whitehead". Roy Thomas has the best of the lot, with a story adding more background to the Panther family legacy and attempting to explain Klaw's obession with Wakanda in "Legacy".

There is, however, a story, wonderfully illustrated by Denys Cowan, with short story and inks by Walt Simonson that has a really racist Asian stereotype. For the story as a whole, it's not really needed and it is very hard for me to get past, even if it is kind of explained in the story - but I circle back to whether that racist stereotype should be included to begin with and it shouldn't.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find this book too easy to put down. Having read Panther’s Quest before, I hoped to like it better this time, but the saccharine nature of McGregor’s story undermines what otherwise could be a powerful critique of apartheid. The treatment of Ramonda specifically feels a bit unbelievable, designed to create an emotional reaction that reinforces the evilness of the antagonist. The follow-up story with Solomon Prey has excellent art but feels a bit muddled with an anti-drug focus that also feels out of place in a Black Panther comic. I think there is a reason why McGregor’s first run on the comics tends to be the one that is more widely celebrated. This book maintains many of those stories’ flaws, but lack the tighter pacing that makes the first story in particularly work so well and allows Panther vs the Klan to build momentum as well.

[Shawn Gallagher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art is great but Don McGregor takes forever to tell a story. I can't handle it.

[Joshua Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is more verbose than most silver age books and that's a problem

[Edward Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a little too dense and quite a struggle to get through.