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Common Knowledge

Legal name: Thomas, Roy William, Jr.
Other names: Thomas, Roy
Birthdate: 1940-11-22
Gender: male
Nationality: USA

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Reviews

Mighty Marvel Masterworks Presents The Black… by Stan Lee

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

I've been reading Black Panther comics in original publication order, but read this out of sequence because it's a collection of material from 1966-70 that wasn't released until after I'd read other material from this era. I didn't discover it until I'd got up to the early 2000s; I jumped back to read it after finishing Christopher Priest's run. Confusingly, it's called Mighty Marvel Masterworks Presents The Black Panther, Volume 1 but the stories collected are totally different to those collected in Marvel Masterworks Presents The Black Panther, Volume 1. Not sure why Marvel would have two so similarly titled reprint series, but I'm sure it must make sense to someone. (Note that the marketing calls this volume Claws of the Panther, but that title doesn't actually appear on the cover, title page, or copyright page of my digital copy from Hoopla.)

The story collects the Black Panther's original two appearances in Fantastic Four #52-53 (which I had already read, so I did not reread), plus the half of #54 where he appears (which I had not), and then goes on to reprint early guest appearances alongside the FF, Captain America, and Daredevil, as well as a few of his appearances with the Avengers. The first few stories are all Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, then Roy Thomas takes over as writer with John Buscema on pencils.

#54 and 56 are largely curios. It is neat to see the Black Panther play baseball against the Fantastic Four, but you have to suffer through a lot of blather about the Inhumans even though it's only ten pages long; the Panther doesn't really appear in #56, which is about Klaw returning to bedevil the Fanstastic Four. This has some amazing Kirby art but the writing is not Stan's finest, with a pathetic Sue and some pretty random resolutions. The Captain America comics didn't do much for me either, they are very much Captain America stories with Black Panther as a supporting character who could pretty much be any other hero, though I guess it shows that Marvel were interested in keeping the character going.

Then Roy Thomas takes over, and he clearly is very interested in the character because we suddenly get him and his world fleshed out a lot more. The Avengers stories weren't great, but were noteworthy. We get the story where Black Panther joins the team, the first appearance of Man-Ape, and a two-parter that introduces singer Monica Lynne, Panther's future fiancée who would play a big role in Don McGregor's and Christopher Priest's work. The story where T'Challa joins the team is weird; it has him in a mask where his lower face is visible, and he's not called "the Black Panther," his codename is just "the Panther." Clearly this minor attempt at a revamp did not stick—to the extent that in that in one of the later stories we're told he deliberately hides that he is Black so that he can avoid judgments on his skin color! The story has him being framed for murdering the Avengers, but the eventual explanation for what happened makes little sense. It is pretty easy to read this story with Priest's retcon that T'Challa only joined the Avengers to spy on them in mind, too.

The two-parter was pretty interesting at first; Black Panther and Monica get mixed up in the attempt of white nationalists to stir up racial animus. Initially, it seems like it's about them taking down the kind of people who might say things like "pointing out racism is the real racism!" Pretty woke, Roy Thomas! But then we learn that the white nationalist demagogue and the Black anti-racism crusader are part of the same evil organization, working together to undermine America. Not so woke after all. But you can see why Monica stuck around; she instantly pops off the page.

The best story here is the Daredevil one. It's a bit nonsensical in parts, but it's a neat story about the police trying to find Daredevil (he's been poisoned) but mistaking Black Panther for him, and so T'Challa helps them find Daredevil. Barry Windsor-Smith does some of the best non-Kirby art in this book, good atmosphere. We don't learn much about Black Panther here but it is well told.

So overall, a decent collection to read if you want a sense of where the Black Panther came from.… (more)

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Stevil2001 | Feb 28, 2024 |

The Chronicles of Conan Vol. 4: The Song of Red… by Roy Thomas

Great tales of Conan and one of the few writers to ever get Conan right other than REH.

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SESchend | 2 other reviews | Feb 2, 2024 |

The Chronicles of Conan Volume 3: The Monster of the… by Roy Thomas

Good solid Conan stories from Thomas, Smith, Moorcock, Kane, & Buscema.

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SESchend | 3 other reviews | Feb 2, 2024 |

Conan: The Hour of the Dragon by Roy Thomas

This was a very interesting read. It started as a comic adaptation of Conan's story "The Hour of the Dragon" it extends the myth somewhat with additional story about Conan's bride and their wedding.

Story is one full of twists and turns and truly one cannot be hundred percent sure that Conan will go unscathed through all of these ordeals. Massed against him are nobles who are shamed by what they see as a mere barbarian ruling them and group of wizards that are ready to do anything in order to bring Conan down for the same reason (and in case of the elder one there is wanting to rule the world again). Conan will end up beaten up and imprisoned more than once but with help of his allies (and through his notorious stubbornness) he will prevail in the end.

Art was somewhat mixed bag here. I did not read any comics drawn by Gil Kane before. After looking at some black and white panels available online they are truly great but art in this edition seems little bit off. I dont know if it is due to coloring (b&w's sometimes look much better without colors) or reprinting. On the other hand John Buscema's panels are good as always - although I think they would be much better in b&w too (again this is my personal taste).

All in all this is a hefty book covering pages and pages of adventure, story runs very smoothly and artistic representation is very good. I truly enjoyed it (but again I am a great fan of Conan's stories :)).

Recommended to fans of heroic adventure and our intrepid barbarian.… (more)

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Zare | 1 other review | Jan 23, 2024 |

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