In this episode, Curt and Kevin look forward to the highly anticipated Black Panther film with a look back at the late 90s storyline Black Panther: The Client, collecting Black Panther vol. 3 #1-5, the start of the groundbreaking run by Christopher Priest, published by Marvel Comics.

T'Challa, king of the African nation of Wakanda, leaves his homeland in the middle of a refugee crisis for an urgent mission to New York City. Accompanied by low-level diplomat Everett K. Ross, the menacing monarch and his pair of sleek, deadly bodyguards investigate the death of a young girl and corruption at The Tomorrow Fund, a Wakanda-backed charity.

But our stealthy sovereign soon discovers that he's been duped by the murderous Reverend Achebe, who's taken advantage of his absence to stage a takeover of Wakanda!

Can the embattled emperor survive a confrontation with the demon Mephisto and rescue his realm from the ruthless reverend? And can he gain entrance to that peerless preserve of epic exploits known as … The Comics Canon?

Things Discussed in This Episode:

• The Marvel Knights imprint
• Hanging a lantern on Quentin Tarantino's influence
• The fascinating past of Christopher Priest
• Black Panther: The Man Without Fear
• Mephisto's debut in Silver Surfer # 3
• Bring on the Bad Guys
• The CW's Black Lightning TV series
• Black Lightning Vol. 1

Not Discussed In This Episode:

• Our previous Black Panther episode

Join us in two weeks as we commemorate Valentine's Day with a tale of longing and love (but no rockets) with the first Heartbreak Soup story from Love and Rockets by Gilbert Hernandez!

Until then, please rate us on iTunes, send us an email, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook, and we may read your comments in an upcoming episode. And as always, thanks for listening!