Avengers #74: Review

Mar 1970

Roy Thomas, John Buscema

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Story Name:

Pursue the Panther

Review & Comments

Rating:

Avengers #74 Review by Rob Johnson (October 1, 2022)

The Avengers taking civilians along on missions seems to be becoming a habit. Barney Barton in #64 and now Monica Lynne here.

That's the end for Dunn and Hale. But Sons Of The Serpent will re-emerge with yet another leader in Defenders #22-25.

Monica Lynne will build a relationship with T'Challa in #78-79 and accompany him to Wakanda in his Jungle Action series.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers #74 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Last issue Black Panther was captured while investigating the racist Sons Of The Serpent. Now the other 4 Avengers see him on news reports robbing businesses that support the Serpents, leading to speculation that he's black and gone vigilante. There are calls for the Avengers to prove that they aren't hiding him by going out and capturing him. The Supreme Serpent airs a video claiming that that they're going to unmask him tonight on TV. We see that T'Challa is captive in the Sons' snake-like submarine HQ. And the far-right Dan Dunn hosts another episode of his talk show with the African-Americans Montague Hale and Monica Lynne as guests. Dunn and Hale argue over whether BP is black traitorous revolutionary while Monica tries to turn the discussion to the more general subject of equal rights.

The Avengers split up to try and find the thief and determine whether he's the real BP or an imposter. The citizens of New York are still wary of Vision. Yellowjacket has to avoid autograph hunters by going ant-size. Goliath stays human-size until he hears girls laughing at the costume that bares his muscles. But when he goes giant-size a policeman accuses him of blocking traffic. However it's Wasp who spots their target robbing a jewellery salesman in his apartment. She alerts the others and then interrupts him, and can tell by his voice and speech patterns that he's not T'Challa. She easily evades his lunges until Goliath does a King Kong to reach the apartment window and reach a giant hand in. The 'Panther' flees (and his thoughts tell us this was a robbery not authorised by the Supreme Serpent) but Yellowjacket spots him on the roof and Vision corners him. However they are attacked by a flying craft which fires gas at them which makes Goliath fall over the edge of the roof. As he hangs on Vision flies down to the ground and catches him when he falls. Meanwhile the aircraft takes the bad guy away.

When the team get back to Avengers Mansion butler Jarvis shows in Monica Lynne to say that she's met Black Panther (briefly last issue) and she's sure he's being framed. They watch another broadcast by the Supreme Serpent who now claims they're going to unmask BP very soon. But the Avengers track the broadcast to an abandoned TV studio and they go there, taking Ms Lynne with them. They fight their way past guards and into the studio itself where the Supreme Serpent is ranting to a civilian audience. They watch from behind a curtain as a handcuffed man in Panther garb is unmasked as black but not T'Challa spouting anti-white slogans. Meanwhile Vision ghosts into a boxed-in area of the room where he finds the real BP and breaks his chains. There is another Supreme Serpent in that place with them, and when T'Challa attacks him the 'box' shatters and the audience can suddenly see 2 SSs and 2 BPs. Our BP rips a facemask of the fake to reveal a white man, who panics and admits that the Serpents put him up to it. Wasp and YJ go small and airborne to pull the hoods off the 2 Supreme Serpents who turn out to be Dunn and Hale, who never believed what they were saying on TV and were just in it for the power. They pull blasters to menace everyone else, but Monica Lynne emerges from behind the curtain to push them over and Panther KOs them both. It all ends with singer Lynne and BP dedicating their lives to a higher cause.

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