Reading Room ASTONISHING TALES "Doctor Doom: ...and if I be Called Traitor--!"

Witness a Clash of Kings...

...as the evil ruler of Latveria and the heroic monarch of Wakanda face off under a Herb Trimpe-rendered "split cover"...

In Marvel's Astonishing Tales #8 (1970), writer Gerry Conway and penciler Gene Colan step into the middle of a two-part story and while Colan (who's previously-drawn both Doctor Doom and the Black Panther) does an amazing job, Conway falls flat when it comes to his knowledge of both Wakanda and Vibranium!
Despite the flaws in continuity (and simple logic), Conway does convey the differences in T'Challa and Victor's attitudes towards their respective constituencies and abstract concepts like "honor" and "responsibility", as well as the fact Doom respects the Panther both as a strategist and a fellow ruler!

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Essential Super-Villain Team-Up

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Reading Room ASTONISHING TALES "Doctor Doom: Tentacles of the Tyrant!"

There are some all-but-forgotten Silver and Bronze Age stories featuring the title character of...

Disney/Marvel's The Black Panther...

including this tale behind a "split cover" by penciler John Buscema and inker Frank Giacoia!

A Clash of Kings...

TOMORROW!

You'll note the cover text mentions "T'Challa", not "The Black Panther", even though he's in costume!
When this issue of Marvel's Astonishing Tales (#6) came out in 1971,  controversies involving the political movement known as the Black Panthers were at their peak, such as this murder/kidnapping trial which ended in a mistrial.
Marvel was in a bit of a bind, as they had been developing plans to give T'Challa a higher profile thanks to his ongoing appearances as a member of The Avengers (which, at that point, featured characters who didn't have their own series).
So, when the Panther guest-starred in other titles (like here), or was cover-featured in The Avengers...

...he was promoted as "T'Challa", not the "Black Panther"!
When he appeared in Fantastic Four #119 (1972), though cover-featured as "T'Challa"...

...he proclaimed himself "Black Leopard", instead of "Black Panther".
But that's a story for another time...
Meanwhile, Doctor Doom scripter Larry Lieber (who hadn't handled the Black Panther previously) seems woefully uninformed about Wakanda in general and Vibranium in particular, with the most obvious fact being the Vibranium Mound isn't a volcano!
Two trivia notes:
Larry Lieber had written and penciled the first half of Doom's full-length cover-featured story in Marvel Super-Heroes #20 (1969), which would explain why he got the nod to write the ongoing Doom strip in Astonishing Tales a year later!
Penciler George Tuska would draw Dr Doom's two-issue encounter with Marvel's other major Black hero in Luke Cage: Hero for Hire #8 & #9 (1973)

Please Support Atomic Commie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Essential Super-Villain Team-Up

Volume 1

(which reprints this story...but in black-and-white!)