Tales of Panthers Past continues as T’Challa and the gang conjure up another deep cut (corpse) from the royal hall of fame (crypt). It’s all paws on deck* as an ancient faerie witch crosses metaphorical swords with T’Challa and Shuri’s grandma of unknown greatness, and also some frog smoochin’.
1. Maiden Voyage
If there’s any major takeaway from these flashback episodes besides narrative progression, it’s that Shuri and T’Challa come from a long line of total bad asses. This week, we’re centered around the oft-mentioned Queen Yemandi the Wanderer and her own convoluted Panther’s quest to find the mythical Bashenga’s Core. Functioning something like an ancient Shuri cum T’Challa, Yemandi exemplifies that age-old trope of the monarch that doesn’t seem to give a shit about their country because adventuring is way cooler than passing legislation or hobnobbing with royalist sycophants. Her multi-purpose steampunk submarine makes an appearance and gets me wondering if somewhere down the line Thor is going to recognize Madame Masque’s mask as that of his old pal Yemandi’s and zap her in a terrible rage.
As an original character, Yemandi is pretty fun, and I’d like to see more. But after the little bit of build up, she ends up being a little one-dimensional as a result of her basically being a catalyst to a dead-end plot point. It’d be a shame to never see her or her kitty-ear pirate hat again.
2. One and All
So, yeah, we’ve got another MacGuffin in Bashenga’s Spear/Core, and sure I’m pretty over it as a plot device but it doesn’t seem like it’s going away anytime soon, and at least there’s a little closure in this. Yemandi has her own Panther Puzzle to solve, of course, but as it turns out all of the artifacts are basically the same thing. Bashenga’s Core is transmuted into the Crown and its awesome power can (apparently) only be contained in Yemandi’s Box. So there you have it for now, all the things are the same thing and now we’ve just got to worry about whatever the hell the Heart of Wakanda is which will probably show up next week in the form of the Heart-Shaped Herb or the original vibranium meteorite.
3. Saint Elmo’s Fire
Surprisingly, Yemandi’s Marvel Team-Up is unexpectedly with a baby Thor, introduced in a manner blatantly similar to a certain gladiatorial scene in Thor: Ragnarok. Prince Thor is basically everything you’d expect out of a…teenage (?) thunder god, though he’s missing the accouterments and animal companions we typically see in comics. Instead of the axe Jarnbjorn and the lovable battle goats Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder, our baby Thor is armed with only a super-positive attitude and an outfit that looks like he’s a big fan of DC’s Black Lightning. Prince Thor and the jovial Yemandi are a welcome antithesis to the comparatively grim team-up last episode and offer much-needed levity (culminating in the polymorphing of Throg!). This team-up yet again brings up ancestry and memory as a link to the present and solutions for the future; Thor and his relationship with Yemandi is sure to come up later this season, possibly as a method of clearing Panther’s name with at least one Avenger.
4. Vita Merlini
So I guess we’re somewhere in the Sixth Century because Morgan Le Fay is here causing all manner of ruckus. Briefly mentioned last episode as an ancestor of the Zemos, Le Fay is blandly similar to her progeny in her pursuit of world-conquering headgear. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about her presence short of her shaping Bashenga’s Core into the super weapon (and downfall of her greatest grandson) known as the Crown. While still a significant event in the Panther lore of this universe, there’s just nothing terribly exciting about the lip service, especially since it’s just treading old ground that we’ve since been told isn’t even the true aim of our season big bad, Killmonger. If anything, I hope Le Fay’s seemingly arbitrary inclusion puts us on the path to seeing a version of Black Knight whose Ebony Blade was hidden away in both Atlantis (due to make a comeback) and Wakanda in the particularly great 2005 Panther series by Reginald Hudlin.
5. Admiral of the Black Panthers
Hell yeah, the next episode is totally going to be another flashback and this time it’s to Bashenga, first Black Panther and King of Wakanda. While I definitely enjoyed Yemandi as a nice new addition to the Panther mythos, I’m flat out pumped for the Kirby-created Bashenga to give us all the original goods on the arrival of vibranium, the first mention of the heart-shaped herbs, and the royal connection to the goddess Bast. I’m curious to see if the writers pull a nod to the Avengers of 1,000,000 BC and include some similarly ancient variant of a preexisting character like they did this episode with Thor and Grizzly.
*I’m very sorry.
