SIR PANTHER

Real Name: Presumably Panther

Identity/Class: Terrestrial fauna (panther) mutate (New Men)

Occupation: Knight, warrior

Group Membership: Knights of Wundagore (notably Sir Ferret, Sir Puma and apparently at least four others unidentified)

Affiliations: Count Tagar, Mongoose, Thor Odinson;
    possibly the Recorder

Enemies: At least formerly Thor Odinson and Eric Masterson (at least some of the Knights on the mission plotted to slay Thor and Masterson)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Apparently perished in the Black Galaxy;
    formerly the High Evolutionary's citadel atop Mount Wundagore, Transia, Earth

First Appearance:  Thor I#406 (August, 1989)

Powers/Abilities: A panther evolved and mutated into humanoid conformation, Sir Panther presumably had enhanced human strength, speed, and reflexes.

    He presumably had enhanced olfactory and auditory senses, as well as enhanced nocturnal vision.

    He may or may not have had sharp claws on his fingers and/or toes, and he similarly may or may not have had enlarged canine teeth.

    As a Knight of Wundagore, he was trained and experienced in armed and unarmed combat, wore armor, wielded a sword and/or a staff, and likely a hand-blaster, at least.

    He flew atop an atomic steed, enabling him to fly through the air at a peak speed of Mach 1.3 and for a distance of 37,000 miles. His atomic steed was also accustomed for space flight (or whatever exists in the Black Galaxy).

    He wore a suit of armor, granting him an specified degree of enhanced durability as well as apparently atmospheric protection, enabling him to exist in the "space" of the Black Galaxy, although whether this had the frigid vacuum of space in other, conventional galaxies is unrevealed; presumably his armor would allow him to survive in the frigid vacuum of space as well as protecting him from other hostile atmospheric effects.

History:
(Thor I#406 (fb) - BTS) - At some point after returning to Earth, the High Evolutionary created another batch of New Men. Under unrevealed circumstances, Count Tagar returned to Earth and to the High Evolutionary's service.

    The New Men restored the Citadel of Science atop Mount Wundagore to its former glory.

(Thor I#402-405 - BTS) - Presumably under pre-existing orders from the High Evolutionary to obtain cell samples of Thor (which was presumably the start of what would become the High Evolutionary's plan to create the New Immortals via Thor's DNA), the New Man known as Mongoose kidnapped Eric Masterson and brought him to Mount Wundagore in order to lure Thor there.

(Thor I#406) - As Thor approached, ignoring Tagar's disagreement with his methods, Mongoose had a missile launched at Thor, and then after its detonation, he sent the Knights of Wundagore out to recover as much of Thor's body as possible.

     Having destroyed the missile and survived the explosion, Thor attacked the approaching Knights, shattering one of their atomic steeds with his hammer, Mjolnir. The Knights attempted to disarm him with Maneuver 138, in which at least four of them launched steel cables around Mjolnir and then tried to pull it free via the power of their atomic steeds. However, Thor resisted this force before hurling Mjolnir and pulling them all off of their steeds and then dropping them to ground in his vicinity when Mjolnir returned to him.

    As Sir Panther remained the only Knight still atop his steed, an unidentified Knight fired on Thor, and the blast, deflected from Mjolnir, shattered Sir Panther's steed. While Sir Panther fell toward the distant ground, Thor flew down and caught him, after which the Knights acknowledged that honor prevented them from further fighting him.

     At that point, the Knights were summoned back to base at once by Count Tagar, who explained that the attack was caused by the now-missing Mongoose, and he released Eric Masterson as a show of good faith. Tagar informed them that the Cosmi-Track device had located the High Evolutionary, and that he and Hercules were within the Black Galaxy.

When Thor vowed to travel there to rescue Hercules, the Knights insisted that it would be their privilege to accompany him. Not trusting the Knights, Masterson also insisted on going, and Tagar provided him with a nuclear-powered environmental suit to protect him.

(Thor I#407 (fb) - BTS) - The Knights were charged with two responsibilities: To find their master, the High Evolutionary, and to return with enough Asgardian cell samples for future experiments. They had no intention of allowing Thor or Eric Masterson to survive the mission.

(Thor I#406) - Shortly thereafter, Tagar had the Stellar Telejump activated, sending the Knights (including Sir Ferret, Sir Puma, presumably Sir Panther, and two others unidentified), Thor and Eric Masterson to the Black Galaxy, where they observed a giant image of Hercules...

(Thor I#407) - ...and the High Evolutionary, and one of the Knights concluded that they had become woven into the fabric of the Black Galaxy. One of the Knights discussed the nature of the Black Galaxy as a cluster of stars around the edge of a great circle/dark void, and that void was the home of a living "universe." However, molten energy then erupted from a nearby planetoid, destroying that Knight's atomic steed and possibly slaying him as well. As the group fled the planetoid, it exploded and apparently slew another of the Knights.

    An approaching ship was also destroyed by the planetary rubble, but its inhabitant, Recorder 211, ejected himself in time and flew to greet Thor as his old ally. The Recorder revealed that his Rigellian masters had sent a Null Bomb to destroy the Black Galaxy to stop the upheavals that were disrupting the neighboring regions. Unwilling to see the bio-verse destroyed, Thor resolved to stop the bomb. To this end, he summoned a sack that carried his enchanted armor and Belt of Strength and led the others in their quest.

    After the Recorder identified the giant swirling bands that snaked toward them as highly toxic, giant viruses against which the organic beings' bio-systems had no natural defenses, one of the bands snared Sir Puma, closing in on him before he could escape and pulling him off of his atomic steed; Thor urged the others to continue on and he would go to Puma's aid, but the Recorder advised him that that would be pointless as the swarm of bio-versal antibodies had already begun to digest him.

    Not seeing the "space stingray" approaching behind him, when Thor hurled Mjolnir at it, one of the Knights suspected that Thor had learned of the treachery he and his fellow knights had planned; however, when Mjolnir struck the creature, he realized that Thor had saved his life. After that knight exclaimed that the creatures had him completely surrounded, Thor instructed the others to gather together. However, Sir Ferret questioned whether he was mad, as there must be millions of the creatures, and he took off while urging the others to flee while they still good. Disregarding the mission, he insisted that survival was all that mattered. Someone else urged Sir Ferret to come back as he would never make it alone, but he refused to listen, and one of the creatures apparently stung him fatally soon thereafter.

    As the creatures swarmed closer, Thor formed a wind cocoon to protect himself, Masterson, the Recorder and the last surviving knight before launching them all into an asteroid field some distance from the creatures. However, as they alighted on the asteroids, the last knight misjudged his landing and fell through space. As Thor raced to rescue him, the knight told Thor he should not risk his life for them, and he asked Thor's forgiveness, telling him they were only following orders. As he urged Thor to beware his return to Wundagore, the knight passed through a membrane that aged him several hundred years, instantly killing him. Unaware of this fate, Thor passed through the membrane and was mildly affected by the aging, but when he removed the knight's helmet, he found only dust.

(Thor I#407 - BTS) - Ultimately, Thor deactivated the Null-Bomb and rescued the High Evolutionary and Hercules.

Comments: Created by Ron Frenz and Tom DeFalco.

    I'd initially thought that there were five Knights who battled Thor in Thor I#406 and five Knights who accompanied him and Masterson to the Black Galaxy, but in re-re-re-reviewing it, I see that there are six or more Knights in Thor I#406.
    Thor smashes the atomic steed of one of the Knights, and then four snare him with maneuver 138, and he unseats all four of them...and then Sir Panther is still on his steed, while whoever blasts at Thor, causing the ricochet that unseats Sir Panther.
    Certainly there six Knights shown on kneeling in respect to Thor after he rescues Sir Panther.
    When the Knights are shown without their helmets in the above image, there are five raised swords (including the partially seen one coming in from the right of the image) and one raised staff, but then the furry faced one on the left of the image (closest to Thor) has the view of his raised arm blocked by Thor's head. So that would seem to be seven raised weapons.
    The presumption based on the one Knight fully seen is that they are each holding up a weapon and holding their helmet in their other hand. That's not 100% certain, so it could be that one or more of the knights is holding up two weapons, but I think it is more likely that there were seven of them.

    In Thor I#406, the Knight were all silver-armored, lacking their familiar coloring, but most of them were back in their classic coloring in Thor I#407.
    Or, perhaps #406 was just poorly colored? A lot of the images looked to be more gray-scale than full color, although Thor was consistently his colorful self...
    Thor I#406-407 reminded me of the original Knights story in Thor I#134-135, primarily because the Knights in both sets of issues were poorly identified.
    Sir Ferret, Sir Panther and Sir Puma were identified and shown fully armored in Thor I#406-407, but the image of them without helmets in Thor I#406 only shows three of their faces and only two of their armors, although five are present. None of them are identified in the picture, and even more unfortunately, Eric Masterson is the foreground, blocking out armor that might be helpful in identifying them. It's hard to tell who's who (or whom)...the two to the right look like they could be Sirs Panther and Puma.
    Why not picture all of them unmasked, clearly show their armors, and identify them? Why not have fun giving them biped animal appearances?
    It really kind of looks like the artist was just copying the appearances of the Knights from Thor I#134-135.
    Unfortunately, it makes the story more confusing and makes the characters forgettable.

    So, which one is Sir Panther?

• Clearly on pg. 11's panels 2, 4, 5, and 6, he is the one on the atomic steed, knocked off, falling and caught by Thor. Silver metal armor, no feather, tassel, etc. on his head.
  
• On the next page, with the Knights kneeling (above right), of the three without feathers or tassles, etc., the one in the bottom right, directly in front of Thor, seems to most match the pattern of Sir Panther's armor. The one to the top right is the next closest, in my opinion.
• When they are next clearly seen, on pg. 13, panel 2, they have removed their helmets. Of the three that are somewhat visible, the only one whose armor seemed close to Sir Panther's was the guy in the back right...although Sir Panther's armor was only seen from the posterior, so the front of the armor could be significantly different. Regardless, I would think Sir Panther was more likely one of the two on the right.
  
• Since only five Knights went to the Black Galaxy, it is possible that Sir Panther did not go. However, the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z hardcover#8: New Men entry confirms that Sir Panther died in the Black Galaxy.
• Since two of the deaths are specifically associated with Sir Ferret and Sir Puma, that leaves one of the other three death scenes.
• The first Knight slain is unidentified, and he wears a silver armor like Sir Panther's from Thor I#406, but he has a single large-slitted eye hole, compared to the two separate eye holes on Sir Panther's armor in Thor I#406, plus he had a tassel deal atop his helmet.
• The second Knight slain is also unidentified, and he is not clearly seen, but he had dark blue armor and fur on his shoulders and a tassel atop his head, like the guy to Thor's immediate rear/left in the image on the above left.
• The third and fourth Knights slain are specifically identified as Sir Puma and Sir Ferret, respectively.
• The fifth Knight slain is also unidentified, but he has the traditional maroon and blue armor, with fur on his shoulders and a tassel on his head.
• So, none of the unidentified Knights clearly fit with the armor worn by Sir Panther in Thor I#406.
• However, it is certainly possible that they changed armor to some degree to prepare for the alien environment of the Black Galaxy.
  
• In terms of behavior, I would think that Sir Panther would be more loyal to Thor after having his life saved by him in Thor I#406, and the second and the last Knight slain was clearly plotting treachery.
• I would be inclined to think that the first Knight slain was Sir Panther, but I don't think we can know for sure.
• Why not just identify them more clearly in the story? Annoyancing...

First Knight slain

Second Knight slain .

Fifth Knight slain .

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Sir Panther should be distinguished from:

• PANTHER of the Old West Professor Elixir ) - late 18th century, posed as traveling medicine man, wore costume. Agile, skilled climber, used cat call to frighten cattle, carried pistols--Two Gun Kid#77
  
• PANTHER (Sekhem Naville) - human possessed by Panther god--Black Panther II#1
  
• PANTHER (Corinne Walton) - S.T.O.R.M., Gene Dogs, double agent for Mys-Tech, former lover of teammate Tyr, slain by Banzai--Gene Dogs#1
• SIR CAT of Earth-7614 - Knights of Witch-World; agent of Kirke--Marvel Preview#7/2
• SIR LEPARD - New Men, Knights of Wundagore--Thor I#134 
• SIR LEPARD - New Men--Thor I#422
• SIR PUMA - Knights of Wundagore, also killed in the Black Galaxy--Thor I#406
• other "Sir" or "Panther" characters, groups, items, events, races or places...
  

First posted: 04/17/2025
Last updated: 04/17/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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