Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1976-11-01 00:11:30 |
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Jungle Action #24
Issue(s): Jungle Action #24
Cover Date: Nov 76
Title: "Windeagle in flight"
Credits:
Don McGregor - Writer
Rich Buckler & Keith Pollard - Penciler
Keith Pollard - Inker
Review/plot:
Buckler is credited with layouts for pages #1-13, and Pollard is "artist".
This is the final issue of Jungle Action. The Black Panther uncovers another version of Monica Lynne's sister's death...
Click for full-size
...and after going to a country club to follow up with the real estate magnate that was potentially a witness - or worse - to the murder, the Black Panther is attacked by a villain called Wind Eagle (the official spelling, not used in this issue, is apparently Windeagle).
Click for full-size
While the fight is going on, members of the Dragon Circle drive up and hit the Panther. This allows them to tie the Panther to a watermill. Windeagle half-heatedly protests this, but it's clear he's working with them.
The Panther eventually breaks free and gets ready to continue his fight with Windeagle when the issue and series ends.
Jack Kirby will soon start a new Black Panther series that completely ignores everything that's happened here, and when Hannigan takes over he'll reveal that the Panther got amnesia during the watermill trap...
...explaining why he completely neglects the Dragon Circle and Angela Lynne plots (and, perhaps, his personality shift during the Kirby run).
It's clear from the comments in the lettercols that this issue was cancelled due to low sales, not because Kirby demanded the book or anything like that. There's also a kind of passive-aggressive comment noting that McGregor might have had time to actually wrap things up if he hadn't slipped his deadline, forcing a reprint to be shipped last issue. It's all kind of disappointing. This arc definitely felt like it was floundering but i think McGregor could have brought it to a good conclusion if he had the opportunity.
We don't learn much about Wind Eagle in this story, but the similarities between his powers and the Wakandan technology that gave the Falcon flight ability is noted in Ed Hannigan's eventual follow-up. He's also given pants. On the cover and at least one interior shot...
...the Eagle seems to be colored black, but he's mostly white throughout this issue. His ethnicity is eventually given as Dominican.
*I* enjoyed this series, flaws and all, but i can see why it got cancelled. I have a hard time convincing anyone that a book called Jungle Action took its black lead character seriously, and McGregor's dense scripting and long-boiling plots are not for everyone.
Quality Rating: C+
Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Windeagle
Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
| Previous: Thor #256-257 | Up: Main 1976 / Box 11 / EiC Upheaval | Next: Inhumans #12 |
Comments
Unused Buckler pages from this issue(and, I think, the unpublished #25) were seen in some issues of Comic Book Artist.
Windeagle's original outfit is a truly bizarre costume design--a fully covered upper body, and then a nearly-nude bottom half. We've seen women characters get costumes like that before (Mockingbird, Carol Danvers, etc) but rarely men.
Windeagle looks like he could be a college football mascot. With the the color scheme and a few tweaks, I thought at first he could be used by the Michigan State Spartans. However, I recalled that a similar color scheme is used by Eastern Michigan University, who changed their name to the Eagles from the Hurons in 1991, out of respect to Huron tribe and no longer wishing to perpetuate a Native American stereotype. I could see a guy dressed like this leading a team out of the tunnel or rousing the home crowd at basketball games, although being in Ypsilanti, Michigan, he'd want to get some leggings for late October-November home games, due to the crisp Midwestern autumn setting in.
