Welcome to #AmalgamAgain part four. This mash-up is brought to you by Newsarama and returning artist Hailey Renee Brown.
You can check out exactly what Amalgam Again is here,and our first mash-ups, the Mighty Mortal, Recurve and Iron Bat. Then check out our latest amalgam below.
by Hailey Renee Brown
The Who: Panther Queen
The Inspiration: DC’s Wonder Woman and Marvel’s Black Panther.
The logline: Monarch of an advanced nation located on a hidden island off the coast of Africa, D’Anna the ‘Wakandan Wonder’ benevolently rules as her generation’s Panther Queen.
A fierce warrior with enhanced strength, senses and agility possessed by the island’s indigenous inhabitants and with indestructible bracelets, a tiara, and a lasso made from a mysterious metal ore, Panther Queen serves as protector of her people and hero to all the world.
by Hailey Renee Brown
The Meta: Yes, it’s 2020. We’re mashing-up a female and male character.
To our surprise while throwing ideas around for possible DC-Marvel combinations, Black Panther and Woman Woman have much more in common than immediately comes to mind. And not just because both were significant ‘first’ characters for mainstream comic books or for those reasons both fueled pop culture zeitgeist moments when their respective highly-successful films debuted within eight months of one another.
Narratively, both characters are part of the royal lineage of hidden, and in different ways mythical and exotic, kingdoms. Both characters’ superhero identities are cultural mantles that must be protected through ritual combat. Both serve as diplomats/emissaries of their kingdoms to the outside world.
In this version, the hidden African island of Wakanda is home to an ancient, advanced culture that was appropriated and adapted/combined with some historical facts into the Themyscira/Amazons mythology by the Greeks.
But they appropriated liberally.
In our Amalgam Again take, Wakandais not a nation solely of immortal warrior women, but is instead a matriarchal culture. And the mantle of Panther Queen is passed down to the first born daughter of the previous Queen but must be defended from challengers who have proven their skill as warriors in service of the kingdom.
The Artist: Hailey Renee Brown returns to bring Panther Queen to life. The Kubert School graduate colored our first amalgam, the Mighty Mortal (over Rags Morales’ pencils), but this time Hailey gets to show off her own design work. And the results are stunning.
You can check out more of Hailey’s work at hailrenarts.com or on her Instagram account.