Marvel Comics Presents #33
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMarvel Comics Presents #33 (Late Nov. 1989) is a dense four-story anthology that captures the creative ambition of Marvel's late-1980s bi-weekly format at full throttle. Its most historically significant cargo is a chapter of Don McGregor and Gene Colan's 'Panther's Quest' — a 25-part serialized epic running through MCP #13–37 that placed T'Challa squarely inside apartheid South Africa and engaged with real-world political oppression in a way mainstream superhero comics rarely attempted. Simultaneously, the issue carries an early Jim Lee-penciled Namor short, a notable artifact from before Lee's X-Men stardom, and an installment of the Excalibur pop-culture-parody arc that showcases Kitty Pryde's resourcefulness against Arcade's Looney Tunes–inspired Loonies. Together, the four stories in this single issue illustrate how the anthology format could serve politically charged long-form storytelling, rising talent showcases, and lighter team-book fare all within the same cover.
In "Having a Wild Weekend Part 3: One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest," T'Challa races against time to protect his sonar glider after discovering Anton Pretorius is behind the attacks, only to be drawn into a desperate confrontation when Doeke Riebeeck and Sgt. van der Merwe attack the craft. With Zanti Chikane caught in the crossfire, T'Challa must act fast to save both his ship and the life of the woman he’s trying to return home. Written by Don McGregor and illustrated by Gene Colan, with inks by Tom Palmer and colors by Mike Rockwitz, this issue delivers tense, grounded action on the edge of a volatile frontier. The cover by Paul Ryan and Bob McLeod captures the moment’s urgency in stark, evocative detail.
In "Panther's Quest Part XXI: Losing Control," T'Challa races to protect his sonar glider from Doeke Riebeeck and Sgt. van der Merwe’s forces while trying to uncover Anton Pretorius’ motives—just as Zanti Chikane is caught in the crossfire. The tension mounts as T'Challa must choose between pursuing the trail of a hidden enemy and defending his own, with Zanti’s fate hanging in the balance.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Marvel Comics Presents launched in September 1988 as a bi-weekly anthology designed to give serialized backup-length stories to characters who lacked their own solo titles, with each issue typically containing three or four eight-page chapters by rotating creative teams. MCP #33, cover-dated Late November 1989 and edited under Tom DeFalco's tenure as editor-in-chief, sits at the midpoint of several concurrent serialized arcs: Don McGregor and Gene Colan's 'Panther's Quest' (MCP #13–37) was McGregor's return to the character he had shaped in the 1970s, this time confronting apartheid, while Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy's 'Rise and Shine' Coldblood arc (MCP #26–35) and Michael Higgins and Erik Larsen's Excalibur 'Having a Wild Weekend' arc (MCP #31–38) ran concurrently. The Namor short in this issue is credited to penciler Jim Lee, who was still several months away from his landmark run on Uncanny X-Men.
Trivia · 8 facts
- MCP #33 is part of 'Panther's Quest,' Don McGregor and Gene Colan's 25-chapter Black Panther serial (MCP #13–37, 1989) set in apartheid-era South Africa — later collected in the Black Panther: Panther's Quest trade paperback.
- The issue's Coldblood story is 'Rise and Shine, Part 8: The Maze,' continuing the 10-part arc by writer Doug Moench and artist Paul Gulacy; Coldblood (Eric Savin) first appeared in MCP #26.
- The Excalibur segment — written by Michael Higgins with art by Erik Larsen and Terry Austin — continues the 'Having a Wild Weekend' arc (MCP #31–38), pitting Captain Britain, Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde, and Meggan against Arcade's Loonies, a gang of Looney Tunes parody villains (Rooster Cockburn, Guns Gummy, Billy Bird, The Ham, Southpaw, Tailgunner).
- The standalone Namor story in this issue was penciled by Jim Lee, an early Marvel anthology assignment predating his celebrated Uncanny X-Men run; the story features an environmental/pollution theme as Namor encounters a paper factory contaminating waterways.
- Coldblood (Eric Savin) was later adapted into the Marvel Cinematic Universe: the character was portrayed by James Badge Dale in Iron Man 3 (2013), though as a villain using the Extremis treatment rather than cybernetics.
- The 'Panther's Quest' arc is notable for tackling apartheid-era South Africa as its central setting and political backdrop — critic Todd Steven Burroughs observed that the story attempts to show how oppressive apartheid was for everyone involved.
- South African supporting characters Zanti Chikane, Doeke Riebeeck, and Sergeant Eugene van der Merwe appear in the 'Panther's Quest' chapters of this arc, grounding the story in a specific human geography of resistance and complicity under apartheid.
- The series format — bi-weekly, four eight-page stories per issue — meant MCP #33 simultaneously advanced four distinct narratives, reflecting the anthology's role as a proving ground for both established writers and emerging artists at late-1980s Marvel.
Cast · 19 characters
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Reprinted in X-Marvel #3 (1990), Excalibur Epic Collection #1 (2017), Black Panther: Panther's Quest #[nn] (2017), Excalibur Omnibus #1 (2020), Black Panther : L'intégrale #1989 (2021), Black Panther Epic Collection #3 (2021), Marvel Masterworks: The Black Panther #3 (2021), Black Panther: Panther's Prey Omnibus #[nn] (2025), Die Rächer #31
Key issues in Marvel Comics Presents
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