Who in the World Were Black Panther’s ‘Black Musketeeers’?

In “If I Pass This Way Again,” we look at comic book plot points that were rarely (sometimes NEVER!) mentioned again after they were first introduced. Today, we look at how Black Panther once had “Black Musketeers.”

Recently, I wrote about Jack Kirby’s return to Marvel in 1975. It was a strange point in Jack Kirby’s history. After over a decade at Marvel, in which time he essentially created the Marvel Universe with Stan Lee, Kirby had finally had enough of the broken financial promises he was constantly given by Marvel Publisher Martin Goodman (who had sold the company by the time Kirby left Marvel, but was still the Publisher until 1972), so he took a deal from DC. However, after a few years at DC, he wasn’t enjoying it much more than his time at Marvel, it was just at a different company.

Lee had kept trying to get Kirby to come back, and finally, at the end of his five-year deal with DC (well, technically before five years, but you know how it is, you’re setting up your future work while the other contract is still in play), Kirby returned to Marvel, where he was allowed to write and edit his own comic books, introducing new characters but also writing and drawing Captain America and Black Panther, two characters that Kirby had co-created. Interestingly, Don McGregor’s acclaimed run on Jungle Action had just been canceled (so Kirby’s return to Black Panther was not the reason for the cancelation of McGregor’s run, but it is possible that they pushed up which issue would be Jungle Action‘s final issue due to Kirby’s Black Panther launching).

Kirby’s run on Black Panther was very out of the ordinary. He didn’t want to tie into the Marvel Universe, so he created a whole new cast of characters for Black Panther to interact, including the short-lived group known as…the Black Musketeers?!?

Who were the Black Musketeers?

Black Panther #7 (by Kirby and inker Mike Royer) explored the history of the Vibranium mound in Wakanda (and the history of the Black Panther Cult), but it also saw Wakanda betrayed by one of its own generals, Jakarra (who was also T’Challa’s half-brother), who exposed himself to raw Vibranium to give himself super powers…

N’Gassi, an advisor to T’Challa who served as the regent of Wakanda while T’Challa was on missions outside the country, had to come up with a way to stop Jakarra while T’Challa was busy, so N’Gassi put out the word that he needed a team to help, and he was looking to specifically royal blood for help, T’Challa’s various cousins and people like that. At the end of #7, the first to answer was Dr. Joshua Itobo…

In the next issue, we then met the other three who answered the call: Ishanta, Khanata, and Zuni.

They each had specific skills that helped the team, and they then became…the BLACK MUSKETEERS!

By this time, Jakarra had been mutated by the Vibranium, and he was basically a monster, so the Black Musketeers had to take him down.

When was the first (and last) story involving the Black Musketeers?

Okay, so this story is just hilariously awesome. So, these are just four cousins of T’Challa, who are not superheroes at all, and yet, they just put on Black Panther-esque costumes, and simply attack a super-powered mutated villain!!

The funny thing about it is that they are even clearly admitting that their whole setup was kind of silly. I mean, I really do like this aspect of Jack Kirby’s comics. He just embraced the weird, but endearing, aspects of the story. Yes, the Black Musketeers were very weird (to the point where they even ADMIT IT THEMSELVES), but come on, they were awesome…

The problem with the plans of the Musketeers is that Joshua Itobo figured out a way to stop Jakarra, but it would have involved killing him, and as a doctor, Itobo wouldn’t kill another human being, even though he then realized that the mutated Jakarra was essentially sending out vibrations that were going to infect all Vibranium nearby, which would lead to the Great Vibranium Mound exploding, destroying the whole planet! He luckily came up with another way to stop Jakarra…

The problem, of course, is that the Black Musketeers weren’t particularly powerful, so it would be very hard for them to use the injector that Joshua Itobo invented, because while it COULD get past Jakarra’s mutated hide, you still had to be able to get close enough to him to DO it, ya know? And since Jakarra was super strong AND exuded a lot of heat, it was very difficult to GET close to him. The Musketeers just couldn’t get it done…

Then, out of nowhere, T’Challa luckily showed up, and grabbed the injector from the Musketeers, and head off to save the day…

And at the end of the issue, T’Challa finally managed to plunge the injector into Jakarra…

So, oddly enough, Khanata and Joshua both hung around in the next couple of issues, but not AS the Black Musketeers, just as sort of THERE. Khanata was kidnapped in the next issue, and Joshua just started to serve as T’Challa’s medical and science expert. It was quite weird, and then, of course, Kirby left the book, so the new creative team had no interest in the Black Musketeers, and they have essentially gone into comic book limbo since (although Joshua did make at least one later appearance decades later).

If anyone has a suggestion for a future If I Pass This Way Again, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com