The Avengers #73-74 (1970)

The Sons of the Serpent return, and John Buscema takes a break (for #73 only).  We haven’t seen them since their debut in Avengers #32-33.  The group is basically a neofascist organization, as you can see from the speech on the splash page, which means Black Panther is the spotlight hero for this story.

He goes it alone to save an attractive black singer who is a target of the Sons.

And if there’s a BP solo story, he has to be put in chains, right?

It’s not terrible, but it’s not great.

It also has another appearance of future Goliath and soul brother Bill Foster.

first apppearance of bill foster

Marvel was under an edict to be more “minority friendly,” so they brought back the Black Panther and introduced Bill Foster and a big racism storyline.  Unfortunately, the stilted use of slang defeated the purpose of the whole affair.

Also, Captain America is twice as popular as Hank Pym.

Pencils by Frank Giacoia (#73; he is usually the inker) and John Buscema (#74)

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