Warrior Falls
Nearly all of “Panther’s Rage” resolves political problems allegorically. Monica is framed for murder by a female palace servant, resulting in extended discord in the course. So whom does T’Challa fight at this point? A woman named Malice. After clearing Monica’s name and making peace with W’Kabi, T’Challa and his advisers face her again. How perfect, then, that a now loyal and placated W’Kabi offers to take her on: “I’ve got malice under control, my chieftain!” Malice herself knows that W’Kabi is being naive : “There isn’t anyone who has malice under control. You remember that!”
W’Kabi, so concerned with maintaining Wakanda’s integrity, cannot hold his own family together. He and his wife grow increasingly estranged over the course of the storyline, splitting up after W’Kabi’s own bodily integrity is permanently violated: he loses an arm, and now has to wear a cybernetic (i.e., alien) replacement. By contrast, it is not for nothing that the much gentler Taku is in charge of communications. He is the only Wakandan who makes it his mission to establish a bond with an outsider even more foreign than Monica: a white man with a scarred face and a passion for snakes who goes by the name Venomm. It is strongly implied that the two men are on the verge of becoming lovers (confirmed by McGregor in subsequent interviews and in Panther’s Prey).
By the end of the story proper (Jungle Action 17), we are told that it has been a year since “Panther’s Rage” began. A casual reader could be forgiven for thinking they had missed an issue, since, despite an 11-issue lead in, Jungle Action 17 begins in medias res: the Wakandan capital is under attack by enormous dinosaurs (introduced as a threat in previous issues). The palace, and virtually every building we see, is crushed beneath their hooves. Even the cemetery where young Kantu’s father is buried has been “needlessly desecrated.” The hospital where a wounded W’Kabi is being treated collapses around him, crushing his left arm. The destruction of the prison cells releases all the adversaries T’Challa had beaten over the past year, giving Monica a chance to clobber Malice (a literal villainess, but also the embodiment of all the hostility she has faced since her arrival). The story that began with T’Challa’s failure seems on the verge of ending with it: the city he calls home is gone,. Graham’s layout emphasizes Wakanda’s role as literal battleground between the Panther and Killmonger, with a two page spread of T’Challa fighting his way through crowds thematically framed by oversized images of the two men.
Once again T’Challa confronts Killmonger at Warrior Falls (that name again!), and once again, Killmlnger is on the verge of killing him and throwing him over the cliff. In a rushed final page, however, the battle is decided in T’Challa’s favor thanks to an intervention that is as symbolic as it is physical. Kantu charges at Killmonger, knocking him over the Falls and sending him to his (presumed, but eventually reversible) death. Killmonger destroyed Central Wakanda with the hulking embodiments of the distant past (dinosaurs), but the Panther is saved by a child representing the future.
The epilogue (Jungle Action 18) lingers over the damage Killmonger wrought, with the Panther perched on the fallen idol of the god for which he is named. He is distracted from his melancholy by Monica, who has discovered the new piano he had shipped in. The piano, T’Challa remarks, is “not a natural instrument in Wakanda,” but he has missed it. The piano in the rubble, along with W’Kabi’s bionic arm, suggest a new future for T’Challa’s country: a broken body to be mended with all the available pieces (domestic and imported).
The issue ends on an equally allegorical note: attacked by Killmonger’s hitherto unmentioned love Madam Slay, he has been tied to two leopards ands dragged over rocks. They almost pull his arms part, but he gains control, and manages to avoid the death that awaits him (a spiky rock formation right in his path). T’Challa leaps, and manages to ride both leopard (one leg on each), steering them back towards heir mistress. No longer will he be tolerate being torn in two different directions, though Madame Slay turns his newfound resolve literally on its head:
“I’ll tear you open, T’Challa.
“And I’m really surprised you stuck it out! Idealists…when faced with reality..normally bury their heads like ostriches!
“Before the day is over you’ll be buried, T’Challa—
“—and the rest of your body will join your head in the sand!”
In the end, T’Challa is saved by W’Kabi, whose mechanical arm blasts a laster beam at Madame Slay, inadvertently leading to her death. The Panther keeps his own body whole, just as he prevents the total ruination of Wakanda, but it is the hybrid body of W’Kabi that puts an end to the conflict. The Panther’s problem has always been that he is split between two worlds, leading his subjects to resent him, but now Wakanda’s future lies in the unification of local tradition and innovation.