Given the publishing restrictions of the era, there was no conceivable way Marvel would have released a book with two openly gay characters. Apparently this isn’t a huge revelation as McGregor has discussed this tidbit in past interviews, so I was surprised that the same-sex relationship of Taku and Venomm wasn’t as widely known or talked about as I would have expected. The relationship between Taku and Venomm is one of the many highlights of “Panther’s Rage” but it may surprise people to learn that from very the beginning, McGregor intended both characters as gay. ![]() ![]() Thanks to the kindness and compassion of Taku, Venomm is persuaded to redeem himself by aiding the Black Panther against Killmonger’s insurrection. After being captured, Venomm gains the sympathies of Wakandan Chief Advisor Taku after revealing his tragic origin. As those already familiar with the storyline will remember, the Panther’s adversary Erik Killmonger initiates his coup d’état against the King of Wakanda by assembling and unleashing a coterie of deadly adversaries including the master of serpents Venomm (note the double “m” and no relation to the Spidey villain). Looking back, McGregor’s “Panther’s Rage” epic was ahead of its time in more ways than I initially realized. I gained a better appreciation of the less than progressive attitudes McGregor encountered at the time (including proofreading a reprinted comic story wherein a young Abraham Lincoln proved his manhood by shooting Native Americans, but that’s a story for another day). Talking for over an hour, McGregor recounted to me some amazing behind-the-scenes stories while working on Jungle Action and the famed Marvel bullpen itself. ![]() I’m proud to able to call McGregor a friend and honored that he took the time out of his hectic schedule right before preparing to attend the Black Panther movie premiere to let me interview him for a piece at the School Library Journal. Perhaps this was just a simple oversight, but my point remains that it is time to give McGregor the due recognition he wasn’t afforded when he first wrote these comics. While reading the New York Times article on Black Panther over the weekend, I couldn’t help but notice the journalist made mention of a number of notable comic writers associated with the character over the years such as Reginald Hudlin and Ta-Nehisi Coates but neglected to include Don McGregor despite referencing his groundbreaking work on Jungle Action.
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