Black Panther #38-40 (2002): Return of the Dragon

This three-part story contains Black Panther’s ‘Nuff Said issue, which is one of the best issues of this entire series–hands down. It starts with Mephisto getting violently ill in a toilet bowl.

He’s really Agent Ross, mind-switched with Black Dragon and not really Mephisto at all but…It’s still really funny.

The rest of issue #39 has Black Panther and Iron Fist fighting mindlessly because Iron Fist, too, is being mind-controlled…It’s complicated. And Priest, quite brilliantly, uses a children’s book as a narrative thread and to explain what’s happening to readers–without “talk balloons” per the ‘Nuff Said mandate.

Also, because EVERYTHING that happens in this book matters, the repercussions of this battle will lead to a dramatic shift in the series in issue #48.

By the end of the series, the “dragon” being emerges, there are huge fights, and most of the plot threads that had been around since the start of this series are resolved–and there’s a second Black Panther.

Nightshade found the alternate reality Panther in a stasis tube and woke him up.

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