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Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of our Fathers #2: Review

May 2010
Reginald Hudlin, Denys Cowan

Story Name:

(No title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of our Fathers #2 Review by (May 5, 2010)
Solid issue, full of action and hints of a deeper theme, gives us a look at Captain America as we’ve rarely seen him: young and perhaps a little too naïve. We’ll see where it goes. The only debit to this issue is the absurd face on Cap, resembling a crazed Billy Bob Thornton, on the cover.

The Black Panther is T’Chaka, father of T’Challa.


Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of our Fathers #2 Review by (July 4, 2011)
In last issue's Comments I wasn't sure whether this series was set before or after Pearl Harbor. This issue settles the issue, the US is in the war. In Marvel terms Captain America also says that the Invaders are operative. But this messes with continuity a lot, if Cap still has the triangular shield at this point. With this late date for the action, the presence of Red Skull, Baron Strucker, Master Man and Warrior Woman isn't a problem. The Nazi agent called the Armless Tiger Man is more obscure. He only had one Timely appearance, as a foe of the Angel in Marvel Mystery Comics #26 (Dec 1941), which also doesn't clash with the post Pearl Harbor timing of this series. He recently popped up in Hades in Incredible Hercules #129-131. (Why his soul should be in Greek hell I don't know.)

Pace Peter, this Black Panther isn't T'Challa's father T'Chaka, it's his grandfather. One of the young princes is T'Chaka. In the earlier version of this story in 2001's Black Panther #30 it was considered still OK to have T'Challa's father active in WWII. But this may have been because Christopher Priest was playing up the angle of T'Challa being the fairly mature ruler of Wakanda. But now maybe they think the yoof of today can't relate to someone that old. Or it's just a typical Marvel-time adjustment. T'Chaka here has a younger brother S'Yan. T'Chaka gets killed by Klaw when T'Chaka is a teen (flashback in FF#53). In BP(1977)#8 we learned that someone was regent and Panther between T'Chaka's death and T'Challa's ascension. In the 2005 BP series we were told this was T'Chaka's brother S'Yan. The 2 women seen fighting alongside Panther are presumably his Dora Milaje. T'Challa's generation of these traditional bodyguards were introduced in BP(1998)#1. The defensive device that rises out of the ground was seen in BP(2005)#1. It gets destroyed this issue. I wonder if it is replaced by the panther totem that rose out its silo in Fantastic Four #52.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of our Fathers #2 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Sergeant Fury and the Howling Commandos are treated to a fine dinner and entertainment at the royal palace of Wakanda while Captain America confers with King T’Chaka. The King is willing to cooperate with the Americans in combating the Nazi menace so long as his nation maintains its sovereignty. Fury, however, does not trust him and assigns Gabe Jones to spy on the Africans. Meanwhile, T’Chaka startles Cap by revealing he knows Cap’s true identity, thanks to his nation’s vast spy network. An optimistic Cap sees the defeat of the Nazis as the beginning of the end of racism in his country but T’Chaka warns of America’s seeking an enemy within….

In the Nazi camp, the Red Skull orders a single regiment to assault the capital (countermanding Baron Strucker’s request for six). When the attack comes, Fury and the Howlers find themselves locked up, and suspicious of the reason that it’s for their own safety. Wakandan technology provides the defense: a huge device sends a jamming signal that causes the Nazi weapons to explode. Captain America and the Black Panther, backed by T’Chaka’s warrior-wives, take the battle to the enemy, while the King’s young son T’Challa, desiring to join in the fray, is kept safe inside the palace. When the battle ends, Fury and his men are released—to help clean up the corpses.

In private, Steve asks why Wakanda will not join the Allies. T’Chaka explains that their isolationist policy assures the rest of the world that his nation harbors no imperialist ambitions and asks whether Steve can maintain his American ideals in the face of what is to follow….

In the Nazi camp, the Red Skull reveals to Strucker that the attack was merely a reconnaissance mission, to gauge the enemy’s strength and make them overconfident. His real plan involves the Nazi super-soldiers: Master Man, Warrior Woman, and Tiger Man, and will end in success in twenty-four hours….



Denys Cowan
Klaus Janson
Pete Pantazis
Denys Cowan (Cover Penciler)
Klaus Janson (Cover Inker)
Dean White (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)
Red Skull
Red Skull

(Johann Shmidt)

Plus: Armless Tiger Man, Baron Strucker, Black Panther (Sr.), Gabe Jones (Gabriel Jones), Howling Commandos, Master Man, Nazis, Warrior Woman.

> Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of our Fathers: Book info and issue index

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