BLACK PANTHER & DAREDEVIL versus KLAW & ERIK KILLMONGER
Of Kings... And Bright, Shiny Things... (Marvel)
Where: Over The Edge #6 When: April 1996
Why: Ralph Macchio How: Robert Brown
The Story So Far...
Notorious super-criminal Ulysses Klaw has been taken into custody pending the result of an extradition hearing for his role in the murder of Wakandan King T'Chaka.
Representing the interests of King T'Challa is presiding attorney Foggy Nelson, but even the watchful vigilance of his daring (and believed deceased) partner Matt Murdock cannot prevent Klaw staging an explosive escape from the court room!
Klaw has found an ally in Killmonger, who has returned from the grave to haunt Black Panther and claim the Wakanda throne for himself. Conspiring to infiltrate the Wakandan Embassy; Killmonger helps Klaw and his mercenaries kill their guards and leave T'Challa strapped to a bomb, but Black Panther has already found an ally of his own: the man without fear -- Daredevil!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Klaw 4 (Enhanced)
Intelligence: Black Panther 5 (Professor)
Speed: Black Panther 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Klaw 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Daredevil 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Killmonger 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Klaw 5 (Lasers)
Total: Killmonger 28 (Metahuman)
Black Panther and Daredevil are old acquaintances, but only one of the villains they're facing together is known to both of them.
Klaw debuted as Black Panther's arch-nemesis in Fantastic Four #53, where he succumbed to his own inventions when The Panther avenged the assassination of his father, King T'Chaka. The event transformed Ulysses Klaw into a being made of living sound, which DD met and defeated in Daredevil #237!
You might think a man controlling sound would be a problem for Daredevil and his radar senses, but there were really no issues in their previous spontaneous encounter. Which makes Erik Killmonger the wild card!
The man called Killmonger was once N'Jadaka: A Wakandan who was exiled to New York after his father's death. In Harlem he honed his brilliant mind and a hatred for the Black Panther. Upon returning to Wakanda, Killmonger began a traitorous path that brought him into direct conflict with King T'Challa.
Killmonger was ultimately defeated by T'Challa in a fatal struggle, but The Mandarin helped facilitate his first resurrection. This return was seemingly brief, but Killmonger secretly conspired to survive, returning these many years later to forge an unlikely alliance with Klaw to catch Black Panther in a trap!
Killmonger is Black Panther's equal in a great many ways, possessing a similarly keen intellect and acumen for engineering, a lust for battle that transcends his extensive training, and phenomenal natural strength later enhanced with many of the same herbs and treatments guarded by the Black Panther.
In Fantastic Four #52 we saw Black Panther use skill and technique to mititgate The Thing's strength, while in Tales of Suspense #98 he matched the hand-to-hand prowess of Captain America. However, in Killmonger he finds an opponent that possesses aspects of both -- with a passionate hatred fuelling him!
In theory, Killmonger and Klaw have the edge against both heroes. It's unclear if Klaw understands the innate vulnerability of Daredevil's radar senses. If he can figure that out, and resist conflict with his reluctant ally, it could be over!
The Tape: Klaw & Killmonger Ranking: Daredevil (#9)
What Went Down...
A high frequency blast bursts the eardrums of two guards stationed to watch King T'Challa's personal catamaran. Killmonger and Klaw are now free to board, but not before the aspiring conqueror admonishes his junior co-conspirator, a Wakandan student named N'Banu, for questioning his ruthlessness.
Better teachers present themselves as Black Panther and Daredevil vault over a stack of packing crates and launch themselves onto the Lower West Side dock!
The Panther leads with his fist cracking against the jaw of one of Klaw's mercenaries, while his boot catches another with a devastating kick to the body.
One of the soldiers manages to get a single shot off, but Daredevil contorts himself around it, delivering a flying kick to another mercenary, while smacking still another on the back of the head with his trusty billy club!
Killmonger grabs N'Banu and orders Klaw & his men to swiftly deal with the heroes -- or risk being left behind. He uses his sonic tuning device to conjure a towering monster forged from pure sound.
True to his reputation as a man without fear: Daredevil fly kicks a mercenary and faces down the huge creature with stone cold confidence. He urges Black Panther to go after Killmonger -- a wish the Wakandan King is glad to grant.
The Panther prowls his docked vessel while Erik Killmonger struggles to start its engines. It is all the time T'Challa needs to seize upon his prey and pounce!
The Black Panther smashes through a window and topples Killmonger with his momentum, but the conqueror is able to roll with the attack and use his leg to turn the diving assault against the attacker!
Outside: Daredevil uses his extending club to vault into a flying kick against the large, toothy monster conjured by Klaw's sound device. The villain attempts to conjure more, but Daredevil banters while making their defeat look easy!
On the boat: Black Panther reveals he learned of Killmonger's resurrection from his own covert agents and saw that he received fake plans for the catamaran and its starting procedures. A gambit driven home with a vicious lunging punch!
Remarkably, Killmonger weathers the blow and answers with the rising of his own indignant rage! He hooks his arm under the King's legs, driving the back of his head through the boat's wooden deck! An act of physical punctuation as he challenges T'Challa for all his inherited wealth and power.
Black Panther is buoyed by the righteousness of his loyal subject's love. It is a respect he earned through the acts of a worthy king -- even as he acts as a warrior, pressing the floor to aid in thrusting his feet into Killmonger's face!He put his whole body into the kick, but still Killmonger fights!
Embracing Black Panther and the violence accused of him: Killmonger literally wraps his powerful arms around T'Challa's waist and squeezes. A bear hug intended to shatter the spine of Wakanda's virile monarch!
T'Challa grimaces for a moment and then slams his hands together around Killmonger's head. He strikes again - hitting his nose. Then buries a jumping knee deep into Killmonger's gut. The blows at last rob him of air and power.
Killmonger collapses into unconsciousness -- but the toll of battle has sapped Black Panther of his strength as well.
He secures a protective vibranium pendant from Killmonger's neck, but is too exhausted to deliver it to Daredevil. Despite DD's best efforts, T'Challa senses he too has begun to feel the toll of battle with the sound-wielding Klaw. In an act of redemption, N'Banu offers to carry it for his once and future ruler.
Daredevil and Klaw both see the boy making his approach, but it's Klaw that understands the sound-absorbing properties of Killmonger's pendant. He charges his sonic converter and blasts, catching both N'Banu and Daredevil as the man without fear desperately dives to protect the boy!
For a moment their fate is unclear, but the vibranium talisman was successful in protecting them both. N'Banu explains its purpose, allowing Daredevil to deliver a knock-out uppercut to Klaw with total impunity!
While Daredevil pummels his sound-casting foe, Black Panther fails to notice Killmonger rising from the shadows behind him. He has recovered and will fight until dead to claim the Wakandan throne as his own!
A twist of fate unfolds to answer Killmonger's wish. Daredevil's punches resonate through the boat and its contents, tipping an already unstable mast to breaking point. The massive column snaps -- collapsing onto Killmonger!
The Black Panther's flag drifts gently from above, coming to rest over Erik Killmonger's broken body. The resurrected villain now returned to death.
The Hammer...
What happens when Marvel Comics removes Tom DeFalco as Editor-in-Chief, and divides EIC responsibilities between a handful of different brand-based offices and imprints? One of the coolest forgotten series of the mid-nineties, apparently!
Over The Edge was a ten issue curio conceived by Bobbie Chase and the "Marvel Edge" office in 1995.
The series led with another Daredevil story for its first issue, but featured a rotating cast of characters under the auspices of Marvel Edge.
DD was a flagship, but the hodgepodge imprint also featured surviving Midnight Sons series starring Ghost Rider and Doctor Strange, Hulk, and the launch of a third volume for The Punisher, who is perhaps the character I most associate with Marvel Edge. To clarify: this was Punisher's infamous ponytail period.
Marvel Edge dipped its toe into a vaguely mature slant of the Marvel Universe, with obvious focus on its urban heroes. Punisher connected the core series through a crossover event also called Over The Edge, which sent him on a crazed tour in pursuit of Nick Fury. A pair of Double Edge specials tied into the event, but the Over The Edge series itself remained separate, giving it a hidden gem, anthology appeal with slightly weightier significance than the average issue of Marvel Comics Presents.
Sadly, Marvel Edge didn't even last a full year before the Onslaught event and Heroes Reborn precipitated an editorial reorganizing. It did seem to have a lasting legacy, though. It's really impossible to look back upon its weird collection of characters & series without seeing an obvious forerunner to the enduring Marvel Knights imprint -- which launched just two years later.
Marvel Knights had its own massively successful Daredevil flagship (by Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada), and also touted mature series starring all of the major Marvel Edge characters within the first few years. Even Incredible Hulk received a Marvel Knights arc in 2004, despite always seeming slightly out of place.
Marvel Knights differentiated itself in a few ways, most notably launching with one of Marvel Edge's guests in a Black Panther on-going series.
Under seasoned writer Christopher Priest; the critically acclaimed run helped establish the definitive modern iconography for Black Panther and his world.
Marvel Knights was fittingly also where Erik Killmonger made his next appearance, remaining dead for three years in real time, after today's featured battle with Black Panther & Daredevil.
That might sound like a while, but it's really nothing. It had taken 14 years for Over The Edge to dig the character up after he'd fought Black Panther and Iron Man in 1982. Killmonger had originally died in 1975's Jungle Action #17 before that, but in Iron Man Annual #5 he was briefly reanimated by The Mandarin.
Usually I'd bristle at a character who's haphazardly resurrected, but Over the Edge #6 attempts to address the issue by retconning his previous demise as the expiration of a "simalicrum". A slightly pointless exercise, given his apparent death at the end of the battle, but standard practice for a comic book return.
Christopher Priest would further reevaluate Killmonger's recurring mortality with his third revival, making cheating death an integral part of Killmonger's legend, and the mythology of Wakandan tradition. It actually works quite well, elevating previous appearances by emphasizing a grip on life, rather than the expectation he will always meet an ironic end. South Park's Kenny, he is not.
Reintroducing Killmonger to nineties readers is just one of the cool things Over The Edge #6 managed to achieve. It also provided a follow-up to Daredevil's previously discussed battle with Klaw in Daredevil #237.
I hadn't been entirely satisfied that Klaw's sound-based attacks were properly explored against Daredevil's radar senses, but it seems Ralph Macchio largely took his cues from that previous encounter.
DD does show greater signs of weathering from this fight, but that stems more from the physical toll of facing Klaw's relentless creations, rather than their unique ability to interfere with, or capitalize upon, his heightened senses.
As in the previous battle: Klaw's solid sound body and constructs simply seem to give Daredevil a more vivid target to interact with. Which is actually fair enough, if you presume Klaw is ignorant to how uniquely suited he is to otherwise do Daredevil harm. Potential that may yet be explored in at least one more battle! I'm sure we'll take a look at that one some time in the future.
In the mean time: I must express sadness at this week's news of the passing of Chadwick Boseman.
The youthful 43 year old actor became instantly beloved to Marvel movie fans for his portrayal of T'Challa in Captain America: Civil War and 2018's Black Panther. I would argue his career transcended the comic book role with memorable performances in 42 and Da 5 Bloods, where he was an intriguing screen presence who seemed to just be getting started.
The revelation that he was receiving treatment for Stage III colon cancer while filming the majority of his Black Panther appearances has shocked and humbled us all. If you would like to make a charitable donation in his memory, you can find the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, where he visited sick kids.
Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured more than 650 battles and ranked more than 950 characters! You can find them all in the Secret Archive indexed in order of publisher, series, and issue number. You can also discover much more by following links included throughout posts.
You can find more and support the site by following on Twitter and Facebook for daily links to battles inspired by the topics of the day. Or become involved on Patreon for extra updates, polls, and my personal gratitude.
Winners: Daredevil & Black Panther
#7 (+2) Daredevil
#33 (+5) Black Panther
#593 (new) N'Banu
#928 (new) Killmonger
#970 (-28) Klaw
Where: Over The Edge #6 When: April 1996
Why: Ralph Macchio How: Robert Brown
The Story So Far...
Notorious super-criminal Ulysses Klaw has been taken into custody pending the result of an extradition hearing for his role in the murder of Wakandan King T'Chaka.
Representing the interests of King T'Challa is presiding attorney Foggy Nelson, but even the watchful vigilance of his daring (and believed deceased) partner Matt Murdock cannot prevent Klaw staging an explosive escape from the court room!
Klaw has found an ally in Killmonger, who has returned from the grave to haunt Black Panther and claim the Wakanda throne for himself. Conspiring to infiltrate the Wakandan Embassy; Killmonger helps Klaw and his mercenaries kill their guards and leave T'Challa strapped to a bomb, but Black Panther has already found an ally of his own: the man without fear -- Daredevil!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Klaw 4 (Enhanced)Intelligence: Black Panther 5 (Professor)
Speed: Black Panther 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Klaw 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Daredevil 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Killmonger 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Klaw 5 (Lasers)
Total: Killmonger 28 (Metahuman)
Black Panther and Daredevil are old acquaintances, but only one of the villains they're facing together is known to both of them.
Klaw debuted as Black Panther's arch-nemesis in Fantastic Four #53, where he succumbed to his own inventions when The Panther avenged the assassination of his father, King T'Chaka. The event transformed Ulysses Klaw into a being made of living sound, which DD met and defeated in Daredevil #237!
You might think a man controlling sound would be a problem for Daredevil and his radar senses, but there were really no issues in their previous spontaneous encounter. Which makes Erik Killmonger the wild card!
The man called Killmonger was once N'Jadaka: A Wakandan who was exiled to New York after his father's death. In Harlem he honed his brilliant mind and a hatred for the Black Panther. Upon returning to Wakanda, Killmonger began a traitorous path that brought him into direct conflict with King T'Challa.
Killmonger was ultimately defeated by T'Challa in a fatal struggle, but The Mandarin helped facilitate his first resurrection. This return was seemingly brief, but Killmonger secretly conspired to survive, returning these many years later to forge an unlikely alliance with Klaw to catch Black Panther in a trap!
Killmonger is Black Panther's equal in a great many ways, possessing a similarly keen intellect and acumen for engineering, a lust for battle that transcends his extensive training, and phenomenal natural strength later enhanced with many of the same herbs and treatments guarded by the Black Panther.
In Fantastic Four #52 we saw Black Panther use skill and technique to mititgate The Thing's strength, while in Tales of Suspense #98 he matched the hand-to-hand prowess of Captain America. However, in Killmonger he finds an opponent that possesses aspects of both -- with a passionate hatred fuelling him!
In theory, Killmonger and Klaw have the edge against both heroes. It's unclear if Klaw understands the innate vulnerability of Daredevil's radar senses. If he can figure that out, and resist conflict with his reluctant ally, it could be over!
The Tape: Klaw & Killmonger Ranking: Daredevil (#9)
What Went Down...
A high frequency blast bursts the eardrums of two guards stationed to watch King T'Challa's personal catamaran. Killmonger and Klaw are now free to board, but not before the aspiring conqueror admonishes his junior co-conspirator, a Wakandan student named N'Banu, for questioning his ruthlessness.
Better teachers present themselves as Black Panther and Daredevil vault over a stack of packing crates and launch themselves onto the Lower West Side dock!
The Panther leads with his fist cracking against the jaw of one of Klaw's mercenaries, while his boot catches another with a devastating kick to the body.
One of the soldiers manages to get a single shot off, but Daredevil contorts himself around it, delivering a flying kick to another mercenary, while smacking still another on the back of the head with his trusty billy club!
Killmonger grabs N'Banu and orders Klaw & his men to swiftly deal with the heroes -- or risk being left behind. He uses his sonic tuning device to conjure a towering monster forged from pure sound.
True to his reputation as a man without fear: Daredevil fly kicks a mercenary and faces down the huge creature with stone cold confidence. He urges Black Panther to go after Killmonger -- a wish the Wakandan King is glad to grant.
The Panther prowls his docked vessel while Erik Killmonger struggles to start its engines. It is all the time T'Challa needs to seize upon his prey and pounce!
The Black Panther smashes through a window and topples Killmonger with his momentum, but the conqueror is able to roll with the attack and use his leg to turn the diving assault against the attacker!
Outside: Daredevil uses his extending club to vault into a flying kick against the large, toothy monster conjured by Klaw's sound device. The villain attempts to conjure more, but Daredevil banters while making their defeat look easy!
On the boat: Black Panther reveals he learned of Killmonger's resurrection from his own covert agents and saw that he received fake plans for the catamaran and its starting procedures. A gambit driven home with a vicious lunging punch!
Remarkably, Killmonger weathers the blow and answers with the rising of his own indignant rage! He hooks his arm under the King's legs, driving the back of his head through the boat's wooden deck! An act of physical punctuation as he challenges T'Challa for all his inherited wealth and power.
Black Panther is buoyed by the righteousness of his loyal subject's love. It is a respect he earned through the acts of a worthy king -- even as he acts as a warrior, pressing the floor to aid in thrusting his feet into Killmonger's face!He put his whole body into the kick, but still Killmonger fights!
Embracing Black Panther and the violence accused of him: Killmonger literally wraps his powerful arms around T'Challa's waist and squeezes. A bear hug intended to shatter the spine of Wakanda's virile monarch!
T'Challa grimaces for a moment and then slams his hands together around Killmonger's head. He strikes again - hitting his nose. Then buries a jumping knee deep into Killmonger's gut. The blows at last rob him of air and power.
Killmonger collapses into unconsciousness -- but the toll of battle has sapped Black Panther of his strength as well.
He secures a protective vibranium pendant from Killmonger's neck, but is too exhausted to deliver it to Daredevil. Despite DD's best efforts, T'Challa senses he too has begun to feel the toll of battle with the sound-wielding Klaw. In an act of redemption, N'Banu offers to carry it for his once and future ruler.
Daredevil and Klaw both see the boy making his approach, but it's Klaw that understands the sound-absorbing properties of Killmonger's pendant. He charges his sonic converter and blasts, catching both N'Banu and Daredevil as the man without fear desperately dives to protect the boy!
For a moment their fate is unclear, but the vibranium talisman was successful in protecting them both. N'Banu explains its purpose, allowing Daredevil to deliver a knock-out uppercut to Klaw with total impunity!
While Daredevil pummels his sound-casting foe, Black Panther fails to notice Killmonger rising from the shadows behind him. He has recovered and will fight until dead to claim the Wakandan throne as his own!
A twist of fate unfolds to answer Killmonger's wish. Daredevil's punches resonate through the boat and its contents, tipping an already unstable mast to breaking point. The massive column snaps -- collapsing onto Killmonger!
The Black Panther's flag drifts gently from above, coming to rest over Erik Killmonger's broken body. The resurrected villain now returned to death.
The Hammer...
What happens when Marvel Comics removes Tom DeFalco as Editor-in-Chief, and divides EIC responsibilities between a handful of different brand-based offices and imprints? One of the coolest forgotten series of the mid-nineties, apparently!Over The Edge was a ten issue curio conceived by Bobbie Chase and the "Marvel Edge" office in 1995.
The series led with another Daredevil story for its first issue, but featured a rotating cast of characters under the auspices of Marvel Edge.
DD was a flagship, but the hodgepodge imprint also featured surviving Midnight Sons series starring Ghost Rider and Doctor Strange, Hulk, and the launch of a third volume for The Punisher, who is perhaps the character I most associate with Marvel Edge. To clarify: this was Punisher's infamous ponytail period.
Marvel Edge dipped its toe into a vaguely mature slant of the Marvel Universe, with obvious focus on its urban heroes. Punisher connected the core series through a crossover event also called Over The Edge, which sent him on a crazed tour in pursuit of Nick Fury. A pair of Double Edge specials tied into the event, but the Over The Edge series itself remained separate, giving it a hidden gem, anthology appeal with slightly weightier significance than the average issue of Marvel Comics Presents.
Sadly, Marvel Edge didn't even last a full year before the Onslaught event and Heroes Reborn precipitated an editorial reorganizing. It did seem to have a lasting legacy, though. It's really impossible to look back upon its weird collection of characters & series without seeing an obvious forerunner to the enduring Marvel Knights imprint -- which launched just two years later.
Marvel Knights had its own massively successful Daredevil flagship (by Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada), and also touted mature series starring all of the major Marvel Edge characters within the first few years. Even Incredible Hulk received a Marvel Knights arc in 2004, despite always seeming slightly out of place.
Marvel Knights differentiated itself in a few ways, most notably launching with one of Marvel Edge's guests in a Black Panther on-going series.
Under seasoned writer Christopher Priest; the critically acclaimed run helped establish the definitive modern iconography for Black Panther and his world.
Marvel Knights was fittingly also where Erik Killmonger made his next appearance, remaining dead for three years in real time, after today's featured battle with Black Panther & Daredevil.
That might sound like a while, but it's really nothing. It had taken 14 years for Over The Edge to dig the character up after he'd fought Black Panther and Iron Man in 1982. Killmonger had originally died in 1975's Jungle Action #17 before that, but in Iron Man Annual #5 he was briefly reanimated by The Mandarin.
Usually I'd bristle at a character who's haphazardly resurrected, but Over the Edge #6 attempts to address the issue by retconning his previous demise as the expiration of a "simalicrum". A slightly pointless exercise, given his apparent death at the end of the battle, but standard practice for a comic book return.
Christopher Priest would further reevaluate Killmonger's recurring mortality with his third revival, making cheating death an integral part of Killmonger's legend, and the mythology of Wakandan tradition. It actually works quite well, elevating previous appearances by emphasizing a grip on life, rather than the expectation he will always meet an ironic end. South Park's Kenny, he is not.
Reintroducing Killmonger to nineties readers is just one of the cool things Over The Edge #6 managed to achieve. It also provided a follow-up to Daredevil's previously discussed battle with Klaw in Daredevil #237.
I hadn't been entirely satisfied that Klaw's sound-based attacks were properly explored against Daredevil's radar senses, but it seems Ralph Macchio largely took his cues from that previous encounter.
DD does show greater signs of weathering from this fight, but that stems more from the physical toll of facing Klaw's relentless creations, rather than their unique ability to interfere with, or capitalize upon, his heightened senses.
As in the previous battle: Klaw's solid sound body and constructs simply seem to give Daredevil a more vivid target to interact with. Which is actually fair enough, if you presume Klaw is ignorant to how uniquely suited he is to otherwise do Daredevil harm. Potential that may yet be explored in at least one more battle! I'm sure we'll take a look at that one some time in the future.
In the mean time: I must express sadness at this week's news of the passing of Chadwick Boseman.
The youthful 43 year old actor became instantly beloved to Marvel movie fans for his portrayal of T'Challa in Captain America: Civil War and 2018's Black Panther. I would argue his career transcended the comic book role with memorable performances in 42 and Da 5 Bloods, where he was an intriguing screen presence who seemed to just be getting started.
The revelation that he was receiving treatment for Stage III colon cancer while filming the majority of his Black Panther appearances has shocked and humbled us all. If you would like to make a charitable donation in his memory, you can find the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, where he visited sick kids.
Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured more than 650 battles and ranked more than 950 characters! You can find them all in the Secret Archive indexed in order of publisher, series, and issue number. You can also discover much more by following links included throughout posts.
You can find more and support the site by following on Twitter and Facebook for daily links to battles inspired by the topics of the day. Or become involved on Patreon for extra updates, polls, and my personal gratitude.
Winners: Daredevil & Black Panther
#7 (+2) Daredevil
#33 (+5) Black Panther
#593 (new) N'Banu
#928 (new) Killmonger
#970 (-28) Klaw
