(Cat-Man Comics 004, 1941)
The district attorney of Central City, the NYC clone that the Pied Piper inhabits, has been murdered by what the authorities can only conceive of as a beast! The city is in a real tizzy, especially once Police Commissioner Gurry receives a note informing him that he will be the next victim (and the cute little signature on this note is why I am calling this villain the Black Panther when it is not used elsewhere in the story - if we can't go by what he calls himself then what's the point?).
True to his word, the Black Panther shows up at the Commissioner's office at 10:30, and sics his small-b, small-p black panther on him (I know it looks white in the above panel but trust me). It is only the timely intervention of the Pied Piper that saves the day.
Though the initial attempt failed, the Black Panther is nothing if not persistent and tries again once the commissioner gets home - I guess the police assumed that the scheduled 10:30 murder was some sort of hard and fast rule that the villain was going to stick to and so they all knocked off for the day once it didn't happen. It's all groovy though, because the Pied Piper is still on the case and his magic flute has a "panther-killing" setting. And his fist has a "villain-punching" setting that comes in handy when the Black Panther makes a third attempt on the Commissioner's life sans pet.
Once unmasked, the Black Panther turns out to be newspaper editor Purt Mason, and Purt Mason is revealed in turn to be gangster Razor Harris, who spent some time in South Africa while establishing his new identity (and acquiring a panther pal) and came back for revenge on the men who put him away. The Black Panther was a revenge killer the whole time!
REVENGE KILLER SCORE: 1/2
Categorized in: Animals (Panthers), Colours (Black), Murder (Revenge Killers)
