2016-11-03

Black Panther Vol. 3 #13 – 49, Deadpool #44 (December 1999 – November 2002)

Written by Christopher Priest (#13-49; Deadpool #44)

Pencils by Sal Velluto (#13-17, 19-23, 25-29, 31-33, 35-45, 48-49), Kyle Hotz (#18), Tomm Coker (#19), Mark Bright (#24), Norm Breyfogle (#30), Jim Calafiore (#34-35, Deadpool #44), Jorge Lucas (#46-47)

Inks by Bob Almond (#13-17, 19-23, 25-29, 31-33, 35-43, 45, 48-49), Eric Powell (#18), Jimmy Palmiotti (#19), Walden Wong (#24), Norm Breyfogle (#30), John Livesay (#34-35), Steve Geiger (#44), Justin Thyme (#44), Jorge Lucas (#46-47), Jon Holdredge (Deadpool #44)

Coloured by Brad Vancata (#13-17), Steve Oliff (#18-29), VLM (#30-36), Jennifer Schellinger (#37-49), Shannon Blanchard (Deadpool #44)

Spoilers (from fourteen to seventeen years ago)

I apologize for the length of this column, but there was no easy place to break up the impressive and long run that Priest, Velluto, and Almond mostly shared.

Let’s take a look at who was in this series:

Villains

Reverend Dr. Michael Ibn al-hajj Achebe (#13, 22-23, 36-37, Deadpool #44)

N’Jadaka/Eric Killmonger (#13, 15-16, 18-25, 36, Deadpool #44)

Hydro-Man (#13-14)

Dzhokhar Gapon (Russian mafia; #13-14)

Nightshade (#16-17, 38-41, 43-45, 48)

“Boss” Morgan (#16-17)

Cottonmouth (#16-17)

Stilletto (#16-17)

Cockroach (#16-17)

X-Ray (#19)

Nightmare (#21-22)

Titania (#23, Deadpool #44)

Constrictor (#23, Deadpool #44)

Nakia/Malice (ex-Dora Milaje; #13, 23-25, 31-33)

Lord Ghaur (Deviants of Lemuria; #26-29)

Klaw (#26-29)

Warlord Kro (Deviants of Lemuria; #27-28)

Mephisto (actually Black Dragon; #30, 34-35)

Man-Ape (#32-35, 48-49)

T’Charra (T’Challa’s future son; #36-37)

Lord Karnaj (#36-37)

Baran Macabre (#36-37)

Sombre (#36-37)

Madame Slay (#36-37)

Venomm (#36-37)

Salamander K’Ruel (#36-37)

Black Dragon/Chiangtang (#38-40)

Kiber the Cruel (#43)

Loki (#46-47)

Guest Stars

Justice (#13-14)

The Hulk (#15, 17, 35, 38)

The Falcon (#16-17, 37)

Power Man (#16-17, 37)

Iron Fist (#16-17, 38-40)

Jericho Drumm/Brother Voodoo (#17-22, 37)

Black Goliath (#17)

Iron Man (#19, 23, 41-45, Deadpool #44)

Moon Knight (#20-22)

She-Hulk (#22-23, Deadpool #44)

Edwin Jarvis (#22, Deadpool #44)

Deadpool (#22-23, Deadpool #44)

Triathlon (#23, Deadpool #44)

Hank Pym (as Goliath, #23, Deadpool #44; as Yellowjacket, #42)

The Wasp (#23, 27, 42-44, Deadpool #44)

Storm (#25-27)

Mister Fantastic (#26, 30, 43)

Captain America (#27, 30, 42)

Scarlet Witch (#27, 42-43)

Namor (#27-29, 35, 38)

Dr. Doom (#27-28)

Magneto (#28)

Henry Peter Gyrich (#30, 34-36, 38, 40-43, 45-46, 48)

Dakota North (#31-33)

The Thing (#33)

Valkyrie (#34-35, 38)

Nighthawk (#35, 38)

Silver Surfer (#35, 38)

Hellcat (#35, 38)

Dr. Strange (#35, 38)

Colleen Wing (#38)

Misty Knight (#38)

Wolverine (#41-44)

Pepper Potts (#42-43, 45)

Vision (#42)

Warbird (Carol Danvers; #42-43)

Quicksilver (#42)

Guardian (James Hudson; #42-44)

Vindicator (Heather Hudson; #42-44)

Invisible Woman (#43)

George W. Bush (#43-45)

Sasquatch (#43-44)

Shaman (#43)

Snowbird (#43-44)

Puck (#43-44)

Thor (#46-47)

Rawhide Kid (#46-47)

Kid Colt (#46-47)

Two-Gun Kid (#46-47)

Odin (#47)

Supporting Characters

Monica Lynne (#13, 15-16, 18-22, 24, 26-28, 30, 32-33, 36-37, 44-46, 48)

Everett K. Ross (State Department; #13-32, 34-49)

Queen Divine Justice (Chanté Giovanni Brown, Dora Milaje; #13, 15-22, 24, 26-29, 31-36, 38-39, 41-49)

W’Kabi (#14-16, 22-24, 32-33, 35, 40-41, 49)

Nikki Adams (Ross’s boss; #14-20, 22, dies in #24, body shown throughout #25)

Sergeant Tork (NYPD; #16)

Okoye (Dora Milaje; #16, 18-20, 24-25, 32, 34, 41-43, 49)

Ramonda (T’Challa’s step-mother; #18, 21, 24-25, 32, 41)

Taku (Communications; #18, 23, 26, 36, 40, Deadpool #44)

Zuri (advisor; #18-21, 23-24, 27, 32-33, 35, 40-41, 44, 49)

Hunter, the White Wolf (#22, 24-28, 36, 44)

Hatut Zeraze (Dogs of War; Wakandan Secret Police; #23, 25-26, 44)

N’Kano/Vibraxas (#25-29, 31-35, 48-49)

T’Chaka (T’Challa’s father; seen in flashback; #30)

M’Koni (T’Challa’s cousin; #31, 33)

Omoro (Wakandan Consulate; #31-33, 38)

Faida (T’Challa’s future daughter; #36)

Suspended Animation Kirby Suit Black Panther (#40-49)

Senator Kamal Rakim (#41, 45)

Toyosi (Queen Divine Justice’s ‘grandmother’; #41)

Junta/Vicente/Danny Vincent (NSA, LCL; #41-45)

Ma (Danny Vincent’s robot drone; #41-45)

Abner Little (Jack Kirby creation, adventurer; #41-45)

Princess Zanda (Jack Kirby creation, adventurer; #42-45)

Sundance Ross (Ross’s Western ancestor; #46-47)

Let’s take a look at what happened in these books, with some commentary as we go:

Ross continues to narrate this run, and starts by recapping Nakia’s story as a Dora Milaje, from her early preteen crush on T’Challa to her deceitful dumping of Monica Lynne in the jungle.  T’Challa comes to her bed chambers in full regalia, demanding that she explain what happened to Monica.  He threatens to send her back to her tribe in shame, but Nakia tells him nothing.  After he leaves, she gets on her sky sled and flies away.  Later, the sled having run out of power, she crashes outside a rural church, where she is found by a priest who looks a lot like Achebe.  He drags her to his church by her hair.  We see a flashback to McGregor’s 70s run, where Eric Killmonger threw T’Challa down a waterfall, and he ended up meeting Monica.  We see that Monica is lost in a Wakandan jungle, hanging out with a leopard.  T’Challa, who now wears a full-length cape, talks to Ross outside the ruins of his palace.  We learn that the search for Monica is not going well, and that the Panther must return to New York to deal with political issues.  He appoints Ross his regent in his absence.  We see Hydro-Man infiltrate an airplane.  In Chicago, we are introduced to Queen Divine Justice, a motormouth local activist who tries to keep a turbaned ice cream seller out of her neighbourhood because of reasons that don’t make a whole lot of sense.  When the cops try to stop her from creating a disturbance, she decks one of them.  We learn that Russian mafioso Dzhokhar Gapon is being extradited to Europe, but Hydro-Man kills the pilot and cockpit crew.  Justice is working out at Avengers Mansion when T’Challa comes looking for the rest of the team, or just Captain America.  They are interrupted by an alert about what’s happening on the plane, and the Panther tells Justice to come with him to a Quinjet.  We see that Nakia is strung up outside the burning church, and that Killmonger is there.  In Chicago, Queen Divine Justice is visited by a guy in tribal gear, who wants her to join the Dora Milaje.

Ross has been working as the Regent of Wakanda for a little longer than he expected, since the Panther got involved in the Ultron storyline in Busiek and Perez’s Avengers.  He’s mostly enjoying himself, but feeling a little out of his depths.  The Panther and Justice arrive at the airplane that’s been hijacked by Hydro-Man.  The Panther leaves Justice flying the Quinjet, and travels to the plane himself.  W’Kabi tries to advise Ross, who is more interested in reading the Wakandan plan for an attack by Galactus.  There is some kind of hunt that Ross is expected to attend.  The Panther boards the plane, finding the cargo area flooded, and starts to fight Hydro-Man.  He temporarily defeats him, and boards the plane proper, which is out of fuel and unpiloted.  The passengers don’t know what’s going on, and he attempts to deal with the marshals accompanying Gapon, who are resistant.  Hydro-Man attacks again, and they fight for many pages before the Panther tricks him into entering into electrolysis.  The plane is about to crash into the White House, but between Panther’s use of Kimoyo and Justice’s powers, they are able to put it down with no deaths.  Hydro-Man, who gives the Panther enough information to figure out that he’s been hired by N’Jadaka (I don’t remember who that is at the moment), is defeated by his own stupidity once again.  As Panther and Justice oversee the passengers disembarking and discuss the Panther returning to the Avengers, Nikki, Ross’s boss and the Panther’s former lover, arrives on the scene.

Priest returns to the layered narrative structure he so often employs with issue fifteen.  The framework of the issue is that Ross is narrating his misadventures with the Panther to Nikki, who is in a hospital bed with her leg in a cast.  Ross begins by talking about getting dropped off in New York by Dr. Jericho Drumm, and running into the Hulk, who wants to ‘smash’ him.  Ross flees the Hulk, and the Panther tries to rescue him, but as he’s not fully prepared for him, he’s not all that effective.  Queen Divine Justice is also on the scene, and she scolds the Hulk for trying to toss someone’s car at the Panther, who Hulk refers to as “black-man”.  Just as it looks like she’s calmed the behemoth down, she recommends that he toss the arriving police car at the Panther instead.  The Panther’s boots protect him, and Hulk and QDJ leap off to go clubbing.  Nikki scolds Ross for jumping around in the narrative, and we return to earlier, when Ross is still regent of Wakanda, and is taken on a ceremonial hunt by W’Kabi and others, wearing a Black Panther outfit.  Ross is expected to kill a gigantic rogue elephant bull, but stalling, he calls Nikki, who is having an awkward and mostly silent meeting with the Panther.  After she hangs up on Ross, the two former lovers begin to talk about how she has been avoiding T’Challa, and how he feels dishonoured by her sending her lover to work as his attaché.  Ross calls T’Challa, and he orders W’Kabi to protect the man.  T’Challa insists that Ross be told of his and Nikki’s former relationship.  W’Kabi and his men secure the elephant, and expect Ross to kill it, but he refuses.  At that point, the elephant frees himself and starts chasing Ross.  As Ross is chased, a large man appears and attacks the elephant, putting it down.  Monica Lynne also appears, with the leopard Preyy.  The man who stopped the elephant is N’Jadaka, who hired the Hydro-Man, and who is also known as Eric Killmonger, who has been hanging out with Monica.

Nikki searches for information on N’Jadaka on her iMac, while in Wakanda Killmonger fights Ross’s entourage, including W’Kabi, with whom he has some history, while Ross cowers and is harassed by Preyy.  Monica stops the leopard, and eventually stops Killmonger from killing W’Kabi.  Nikki finds the information she’s looking for, while the Panther searches for Killmonger in Harlem, with Sgt. Tork.  Nightshade appears out of nowhere and attacks them, using her science to protect herself from the Panther’s energy daggers, and using gas pellets to control Tork.  She places paralytic acid on the Panther’s outfit, and has a large number of men prepare to give him a beatdown.  He is saved by the Falcon, wearing a terrible 90s outfit, who takes him to Okoye, who uses the heart-shaped herb to revive him.  Ross and W’Kabi are taken to the village of N’Jadaka, named after Killmonger, and built as a neo-facist state.  It is clear that our people are there as guests now, and they are given time to freshen up.  Nikki continues to research Killmonger, which takes the form of a Marvel Universe entry on the man (courtesy of a geocities website – so 2000!).  In Harlem, the Panther refuses further help from the Falcon, and prepares to just wait to see who Killmonger sends after him next.  Queen Divine Justice is in New York, and argues with the older tribal man who has brought her there.  Ross calls Nikki, and lets her know he’s with Killmonger.  Nightshade blows up the Panther’s limousine, and reveals that she has gathered some other villains, Morgan, Cottonmouth, Stiletto, and Cockroach, to help her.  Just as a fight is about to start, Falcon turns up, accompanied by Power Man and Iron Fist.

Trying to sleep in the guest chambers in Killmonger’s house, Ross is awoken by the arrival of Jericho Drumm, Brother Voodoo.  In New York, the gathered heroes from last issue support the Panther in fighting the gathered villains, and these scenes are handled with a fair amount of banter and humour, as none of these villains are particularly difficult to manage.  At a point when heroes and villains end up lined up against each other, Brother Voodoo suddenly appears with Ross, creating more confusion.  At this point in the narration, Nikki kicks Ross out of her hospital room, frustrated with his storytelling.  We see that all the heroes, including the Hulk and Queen Divine Justice are in the waiting room.  The Panther goes in to talk to Nikki, admonishing her again for not telling Ross about their shared past.  He threatens to tell him himself, which he sees as a loss of face for all of them, and he heads out the window.  QDJ hears this conversation.  She takes over the narration, recapping what went before, and then letting Nikki know that Voodoo had sought out T’Challa to tell him that he’s felt a disturbance in the force, like someone in Wakanda had returned from “the deadside”.  Everyone starts to fight again, when Black Goliath, wearing a terrible chest/stomach exposing outfit, also arrives, to tell the Panther that the Hulk is wrecking the Brooklyn housing projects where he has established his home.  There’s a transmitter on the Hulk that has led him there.  Ross knocks it off him when Voodoo teleports him and the Panther to the scene, which we saw in issue fifteen (although it’s not explained how Ross is suddenly wearing a suit and not the sleepwear he was in pages before).  Nikki asks QDJ about her trip to a nightclub with the Hulk, and we see that scene play out.  The Panther goes to the club too, expressing concern about Killmonger, and arguing with QDJ about how bringing the Hulk there endangers everyone, especially since Ross called in backup.  She leads the Hulk out and tells him to go away for a while (although he clearly followed her to the hospital later).  Nikki shows up at the club and breaks her leg on the metal detector that the Hulk broke.  As QDJ finishes her narration, Ross walks into the room just as she mentions Nikki’s relationship with T’Challa.  He looks stricken.

Issue eighteen features guest art by Kyle Hotz and Eric Powell, and their Kelly Jones-style approach works well with the content of this issue.  It opens with Ross standing in the rain outside Nikki’s apartment, reflecting on the fact that she had a relationship with T’Challa, and feeling betrayed because he didn’t know about it.  She invites him in, and disturbingly, he smacks her.  They fight, and he backs up his narration (again) to explain what led to this place.  The Panther is standing vigil in Wakanda.  He sends Brother Voodoo and Zuri to the Resurrection Altar to see what’s going on with this Deadside stuff, and reflects on past defeats at Killmonger’s hands.  Ramonda checks in on him, and they talk about Monica.  We see Monica defeat Killmonger in a game of basketball in N’Jadaka Village.  Killmonger explains that he is not focused on defeating the Panther, but instead, in a very complicated way, is seeking to diversify Wakanda’s economy through his creation of a company called iFruit.com, which is about to have an IPO.  He plans on crashing the country’s economy to turn the people against T’Challa.  It’s a bit complicated, but Priest comics always are.  In the narrative present, after fighting, Ross discovers that Nikki has been researching iFruit.com, and that it’s both an online fruit delivery company, and a black ops provider.  The Dora Milaje come to get Ross to take him to Wakanda, but he refuses to go, claiming that T’Challa is no longer his friend.  In Wakanda, we learn that the Panther has purposefully distracted Zuri, and arranged his troops for some kind of plan.  A courier goes to the United Press to hand in a press release.  T’Challa himself dissolves Wakanda’s Parliament, and nationalizes all foreign companies operating in Wakanda.  Killmonger reacts in anger.  Ross learns about this, and discovers a large black man in Nikki’s apartment (I’m not sure if I’m supposed to know who this is).  The Panther goes to the Resurrection Altar, and Killmonger arrives with Monica his hostage, and backed up by a number of troops on flying platforms.

Issue nineteen marks the return of the regular art team, for the lead story in the issue, and Tom Brevoort’s arrival as editor.  Apparently the book was behind, so he used an inventory story for half the issue, and shuffled things around a little in the lead, which is why the cover has nothing to do with the contents.  Anyway, we see reaction to T’Challa’s economic actions, as the world teeters on the brink of global recession, Tony Stark looks surprised, and Bill Clinton is yelling in the White House.  We learn that the guy who grabbed Ross at Nikki’s apartment is a reanimated agent of Killmonger.  Queen Divine Justice starts to fight him.  In Wakanda, the Panther is fighting more of Killmonger’s zombies in the Resurrection Altar, while Killmonger shoots a wristblaster at him and drags Monica around by her hair.  Okoye shoots the zombie at Nikki’s, but another busts through the wall.  Zuri and Brother Voodoo chat during the chaos, and Voodoo’s dead brother pulls a Deadman and enters Killmonger’s body.  The Dora Milaje stop the new zombie in New York.  With Killmonger unable to control his body, the battle shifts in Wakanda.  T’Challa refuses to kill or incarcerate Killmonger, citing Wakandan tribal law.  Instead, he challenges him to combat at Warrior Falls, where they battled before.  Throughout the story, we’ve watched a stock exchange ticker keep track of the price of the Wakandan Design Group.  It finally stabilizes, and Tony Stark puts in an order to buy up its stock.

The backup in issue nineteen features very early art by Tomm Coker, and tells a story from the middle of the first story arc.  The Panther and his entourage, including Ross, get carjacked in Brooklyn by a guy named X-Ray and his crew.  The entourage take care of the robbers, while the Panther chases down X-Ray.  It’s a pretty straightforward story.

Ross and Nikki are flown in a jet towards Wakanda by the two Dora Milaje, Okoye and Queen Divine Justice.  Ross is nervous about going, knowing that Killmonger wants him dead (Ross is still regent), but QDJ is sure that the fight is over.  Instead, we see three straight pages of T’Challa and Killmonger fighting.  I like the way the fight is shown only through T’Challa’s eyes, in a series of five horizontal panels.  This is used again and again.  The fighters break, and we see that they are at the waterfall where I suppose these challenges traditionally take place.  The jet arrives at N’Jadaka Village, and is fired upon by Killmonger’s people.  They crash and find themselves in the village, which looks a lot like New York.  The Panther and Killmonger fight for another page, this time shown from Killmonger’s perspective.  Dr. Voodoo arrives in Brazil, where Stephen (Moon Knight) Grant is vacationing with his girl Marlene.  Drumm freezes time, and tells Grant to meet him at the statue of Christ before disappearing.  The two fighters continue to fight and argue about the nature of their hate for one another.  Drumm tells Moon Knight that he needs his help to fix a mystical imbalance.  Ross and his entourage ride a monorail in N’Jadaka Village.  QDJ is affected emotionally by the beauty of being in a technologically advanced African village.  When they arrive at the station, they are met by Zuri and Monica Lynne.  Monica wants them to go help T’Challa, which Zuri doesn’t agree with.  Monica is worried that Killmonger will kill T’Challa.  Those two men continue to fight, as Killmonger explains that he basically has T’Challa in checkmate; even if he kills him, Killmonger has forced T’Challa to tank Wakanda’s economy and make himself a failure as king.  Ross, Zuri, and Monica race towards the falls on a skycycle.  T’Challa has Killmonger down and on the ropes, but the arrival of Ross and the others creates a short distraction, which Killmonger takes advantage of, flipping T’Challa and thumping him on the chest.  Just as Moon Knight and Drumm arrive, Killmonger declares T’Challa dead.

Ross, feeling guilt over what just happened to T’Challa, remembers when he drove over his beloved pet dog as a child.  He finds the T’Challa is still alive, and is upset when Killmonger moves in to finish him, since T’Challa neither yielded the fight, nor put it on hold.  Ross, as regent of Wakanda, against Zuri’s advice, declares the contest over and yields on T’Challa’s behalf.  This means that Killmonger is now the Chieftain of the Panther Clan, effectively making him the Black Panther.  Brother Voodoo explain how Killmonger has come back to life a number of times, but that the Resurrection Altar cannot be used to revive T’Challa.  Instead, Voodoo transports everyone except Killmonger to Tranquility Temple, where the chief priest prepares T’Challa’s barely-living body.  Moon Knight’s ka, or spirit, travels to the Land of the Dead, where he finds T’Challa.  They are attacked by the Ennead, spirits who try to keep our heroes from the temple of Khonshu.  They fight their way past them, and find inside that Khonshu has taken the form of Ross.  In Wakanda, four days have passed, and Ramonda sits with her step-son.  Queen Divine Justice checks in on them, and she and Ramonda bond a little.  Ross comes along and verbalizes his trust in T’Challa’s having planned for all eventualities.  In the Land of the Dead, Moon Knight expresses disbelief in this aspect of Khonshu.  We learn that T’Challa needs a copy of the Book of the Dead.  In Wakanda, eight days have passed and a very frustrated Ross goes looking for Brother Voodoo, hoping to speed things along.  When he finds him, he is surprised to see that his throat has been slit, and we are led to believe that he is dead.  In the Land of the Dead, Moon Knight still does not believe that this is Khonshu they are dragging around with them.  They arrive at the Panther God Pavilion, where they find that the souls of all the chieftains that preceded T’Challa are now dead.  The Enneads attack again, and Ross/Khonshu slips his bonds, revealing himself to be Nightmare.

Ross has a weird waking dream wherein he defends Ka-zar in court, before waking up and finding himself standing over Brother Voodoo’s dead body.  In the Land of the Dead, T’Challa continues his fight with Nightmare, and is thrust into a memory of his father and Klaw, before almost fighting Moon Knight, as Nightmare’s hold on him shifts around.  T’Challa tries to figure out what Nightmare needs from him, and is shifted into a Batman and Robin scenario, with Ross cast as an Africanized Boy Wonder.  We see Achebe as the Joker, and Nakia as Catwoman, in a weird scenario where the Panther and Ross/Robin chase the villains in their strange Batmobiles.  T’Challa tells Ross that he counts on him to make tough decisions, when we suddenly see Ross revived in the waking world by Queen Divine Justice, Monica, and Nikki.  Ross figures out that T’Challa was sending him a message and runs off.  In the Land of the Dead, T’Challa and Moon Knight fight the Ennead again, and travel to ancient Egypt, where they find Khonshu and other Gods in their human forms.  Khonshu tells T’Challa that his body is healed, but that he needs to reunite his ka with the Panther God to rekindle their connection.  The Panther figures out that his ancestors’ souls are still alive but imprisoned, and Moon Knight conjures his plane to take him there.  In Wakanda, Ross speaks to the comatose T’Challa, and argues with W’Kabi, who does not want to follow his wishes as regent.  As T’Challa and Moon Knight approach Nightmare’s realm, they see that they are being pursued by the Egyptian gods, and T’Challa starts ripping up the Book of the Dead, which he believes will stop Nightmare from leaving the Land of the Dead.  T’Challa has figured out that Moon Knight is Nightmare.  We see T’Challa wake up in Wakanda.  Later, we learn that Drumm is still alive and healing, and that Moon Knight is fine.  Drumm, who cannot yet speak, identifies Malice as his attacker.  T’Challa calls for his advisors.  Ross meets with, and offers a job to Hunter, the White Wolf.  In New York, Killmonger, identifying himself as the new Black Panther, goes to Avengers Mansion to take his place on that team.  Also in New York, Achebe shows up to hire Deadpool, which leads the story into Deadpool #44.

I read Deadpool #44 on Comixology, so I’d be current with the story (it’s priced too high to pick up in a store these days), and since it’s also written by Priest (I don’t think I ever knew he did a Deadpool run; he’s not a favourite character of mine), I decided it made sense to fold that issue into this column.  It opens with T’Challa, still recovering from his injuries and confined to a ‘zero-gravity chair’ venturing into the technological jungle beneath Wakanda’s central city, where he meets with his communications minister, Taku.  We learn that Killmonger is at Avengers Mansion, and that Tony Stark keeps calling, but T’Challa wants to ignore this, instead focusing on the hunt for Malice.  In New York, Achebe hires and manipulates Deadpool to get him, Titania, and Constrictor (who I guess were working with Deadpool at this time?) to get him Killmonger’s leopard Preyy, who he claims was stolen from him.  Killmonger and Preyy are hanging out with Triathlon on the grounds of Avengers Mansion while Goliath and Wasp chat with Iron Man about whether or not they should arrest Killmonger or allow him on the team.  They don’t think they can do either thing.  Deadpool arrives disguised as an animal control worker who looks like Tom Cruise, and teleports Preyy and Triathlon away.  Achebe impersonates T’Challa in a video call with Tony Stark, wherein he tells him to admit Killmonger onto the Avengers, and to keep his shares of the Wakanda Design Group.  Tony is confused.  The Avengers fight Deadpool until Achebe drives an ice cream truck through the garden wall and Titania and Constrictor join the craziness.  After a few pages of fighting, the two villains grab Deadpool and escape, to find that Achebe has vanished, and that the teleporter did not send Preyy to Deadpool’s home, as it was supposed to.  The Avengers arrive to stomp the ice cream truck, Iron Man turns up at the Mansion to learn from Jarvis that they think they know where the cat and Triathlon went, and T’Challa learns that something was teleported into Wakanda.

Back in the Panther’s own book, Deadpool, Titania, and Constrictor are imprisoned and arguing.  The Avengers, including Killmonger, are on their way to Wakanda, where the Wakandan Air Force is unhappy with their entering their sovereign territory.  Killmonger, unimpressed with what he sees as the Avengers’ weakness, commands the jets to leave them alone.  Achebe has Triathlon and Preyy in an underground Wakandan complex.  He uses a teleporter to bring Deadpool there as well.  The Avengers meet with Ross and Zuri, while Deadpool finds Triathlon running with gazelles and prepares him to return home.  The Avengers and Killmonger enter the techno-jungle, following Preyy’s tracking device.  T’Challa and Taku monitor their progress, but do not want to intervene.  The Avengers are attacked by the Hatut Zeraze (although I have no clue under whose orders).  They dispatch them, and bust down the door to where Preyy is supposed to be, but find Deadpool instead.  He and Killmonger fight.  Triathlon finds himself lost in the techno-jungle, where he has a chat with a shadowy figure who is presumably T’Challa.  Deadpool and Killmonger trigger one of Taku’s escape routes, and are ejected into the central city, where Ross gets them to stop fighting.  A little later, the Avengers, Killmonger, Ross, W’Kabi, and Zuri all talk.  Killmonger decides that he does not want to be an Avenger, and Ross asks them for a ride home, not wanting to be regent any longer (whereas W’Kabi is eager to take on that role).  She-Hulk reveals to Ross that she has some papers from the State Department that say that Ross’s US citizenship has been revoked.  In the techno-jungle, Taku and T’Challa discuss the fact that while they can’t find, some dead Hatut Zeraze suggest that Malice is also in the techno-jungle hiding out.

Mark Bright returns to draw an issue.  Killmonger goes to the abandoned church where Achebe had been hiding out and finds his leopard, Preyy, dead.  Queen Divine Justice is trained in the ways of the Dora Milaje.  Ross worries over being stripped of his citizenship, while Malice attacks T’Challa in the techno-jungle.  It turns out that Malice is actually Nakia, the spurned Dora Milaje, who is operating separate from Killmonger, and out for revenge on her own.  T’Challa, still confined to a flying chair, evades her and goes to his office, where he is met by Hunter, who wants his approval, once again.  Killmonger arrives, demanding T’Challa give him Achebe, and blaming T’Challa for Preyy’s death.  Ross and Nikki arrive asking for help with Ross’s citizenship, while W’Kabi wants Ross stripped of his place as regent.  Monica asks to go home, while QDJ wants to complain about her trainer.  T’Challa wants Killmonger to take his place as chieftain of the Panther Tribe, without having to go through any rituals.  While everyone argues, T’Challa slips away.  In Texas, a glowing person appears and causes a train to explode.  T’Challa works at his physical therapy, and is joined by Ramonda, who questions Killmonger’s motives.  Meanwhile, Killmonger has to face Zuri and a group of warriors to ascend to the chieftain’s position.  He makes short work of them, while Nikki tries to talk to Ross about her relationship with T’Challa back in the day.  Monica leaves a note that she’s leaving and tries to slip away, but she is followed by Malice/Nakia.  Killmonger finishes off the warriors and demand he be given the heart-shaped herb, while Ross continues to feel hurt, and Nakia attacks Monica.  T’Challa starts doing gymnastics as Killmonger eats the herb, and Nikki and Ross hear Monica scream.  Nikki steps into the hall and screams herself.  Killmonger and T’Challa both collapse at the same time (I’m not sure if this is connected), Ross goes to the fallen Nikki (who has Malice’s knives sticking out of her back) while QDJ leaps to Monica’s aid.

Issue twenty-five is one of the most dense and complicated issues of this run, yet it’s also the one that made me decide it was time to start buying Black Panther.  It’s a tie-in to the Maximum Security event (which had the Earth declared a penitentiary for intergalactic criminals), as if it didn’t already have enough going on in it.  I love how Priest could take such a stupid reason for an event, and make it work so seamlessly with numerous plot threads he was already working with.  Civil Wars II should pay attention.  The issue opens with Ross floating in orbit around an alien planet.  It then backs up to a dead Killmonger, who T’Challa tries to save, and leaves on life support.  As Queen Divine Justice fights Malice/Nakia, Ross tries to resuscitate Nikki, who is dead.  In Texas, a Wakandan who looks like he could be Taku tries to reach Reed Richards on the phone while being shot at by police.  Later, Ross has taken Nikki’s body to the Resurrection Altar to try to bring her back, and the Panther and QDJ try to stop him, claiming that Nikki would not be herself if brought back.  Okoye, in a Talon fighter, moves to blow the altar up, and a group of heavily armed lizard-aliens appear out of the surrounding snow to stop her.  They shoot down Okoye’s jet, and QDJ goes to help her, while the Panther fights the aliens.  Inside the Altar, Ross prepares Nikki.  T’Challa comes to stop him, but the temple works its magic, and she returns just as the aliens come busting in, and are attacked by a second group of aliens.  Nikki also joins this fight, firing beams from her eyes.  As it turns out the Altar is an ancient teleportation device, and Ross and T’Challa find themselves on a distant planet, where they are attacked by aliens trying to destroy the temple.  The force of their blasts push Ross out of orbit (the planet has very weak gravity).  Off-screen, T’Challa negotiates his rescue and transport home.  While waiting for that, Ross goes off on the Panther’s use of the word ‘friend’ when describing him, and blames T’Challa for all that’s gone wrong in his life.  When Ross punches T’Challa, things get a little physical.  The Panther shows anger for perhaps the first time, bringing up his own problems, and pointing out the trust he’s shown in Ross.  He makes it clear that it’s because Nikki was dating him that he respected and trusted Ross, which makes Ross lose his anger.  Back in Wakanda, QDJ continues to work to rescue Okoye from her downed jet.  Later, we see that Okoye is Okaye (sorry), and that Ross and T’Challa have returned.  We learn through narration that T’Challa switched Wakanda’s money to the US dollar, fixing his earlier effect on the global economy, and re-privatized the American industries that he sabotaged earlier to stop Killmonger.  T’Challa also intends to help Ross regain his citizenship.  T’Challa is surprised to learn that Storm has come to visit him.

In Texas, the police fire on N’Kano (who we’ve seen for a couple of issues now, but who hasn’t been named yet).  He uses his sound powers, but also saves the cops from the accident he causes.  In a flashback, we see Storm and T’Challa as kids, although T’Challa is shown as being older than he was earlier portrayed as being when his father was killed, despite his father still being alive in this scene.  In the present, the Panther and Storm fly to the Resurrection Altar, where Barney Fiddler, of the US Commission on Superhuman Activities is gathering up the left over aliens from Maximum Security.  He’s portrayed as a typical American, standing on the neck of one alien, who starts yelling for her child in Yoruba.  The Panther has Taku initiate satellite scans of the area, and Storm starts flying around looking for the kid.  In America, N’Kano talks to Reed Richards about his newly unreliable powers.  Richards suggest he return to Wakanda, despite his having apparently denounced T’Challa (I really don’t remember anything about Vibraxas).  In Wakanda, T’Challa plays host to Lord Ghaur from Deviant Lemuria, who claims that one of his citizens has been mistaken for an alien and captured by the Americans.  T’Challa is scheduled to accompany Monica and Ross back to the US, where Ross has his citizenship hearing, but instead the Panther and Queen Divine Justice head back to the Resurrection Altar.  Storm, still flying around, finds an African-looking child, who hits her with some sort of mindblast, just as Fiddler and his people arrive on the scene, capturing the child.  T’Challa arrives just after that, but finds Ororo not herself.  She flies after the American’s transport, and attacks it.  T’Challa enters the fight, while Storm rescues the alien.  T’Challa figures out that the child has swapped minds with Ororo.  As N’Kano approaches Wakanda in a borrowed Fantastic Four flying thing, Hunter the White Wolf shoots him down.  Storm, in the child’s body, calms the child in Storm’s body, and they transfer back.  Lord Ghaur arrives to take them back to Lemuria, but when T’Challa learns that the child, looking human, awaits execution for extreme physical deviancy, he makes it clear that they can stay in his country.  Ghaur storms off, promising war.  Hunter has his Hatut Zeraze open fire on Vibraxas, agitating his abilities (he claims this is being done to help restore T’Challa to power).  The Vibranium Mound (I assume) is affected by N’Kano’s power, splits open, and Klaw is revealed.

The Panther sends a number of N’Yami class warships to surround Deviant Lemuria as a reaction to Ghaur’s declaration of war.  News leaks that there is a conflict coming, and we see the Avengers and the White House react to it.  Wakanda is portrayed as the aggressor.  Namor the Sub-Mariner, in his role as King of Atlantis, has a conversation with T’Challa, wherein he refuses to support him, and urges him to stand down.  Dr. Doom, in his role as King of Latveria, is also a part of this conversation, and he also urges that T’Challa return the Deviant child to Ghaur.  In Wakanda, Ororo, Queen Divine Justice, and the Deviant baby enjoy some naked flying time.  Ororo keeps referring to QDJ as ‘princess’, but won’t explain why.  QDJ finds N’Kano lying in the jungle, unable to make a noise.  When he tries to grab her to make himself understood, she gets angry and leaves him there.  Hunter manipulates Klaw, telling him about his history and how Klaw’s massacre of Wakandans, including King T’Chaka, affected his life.  Hunter makes it clear that he wants Klaw to either strengthen T’Challa’s position as King, or to kill him.  Monica finally prepares to leave Wakanda as the Panther gets ready to address the UN.  Monica expresses frustration at constantly being drawn into T’Challa’s orbit.  Ororo also comes to say that she is leaving, and to warn T’Challa that he is walking a path similar to the one that led Magneto to become a villain.  Ororo and T’Challa (while being spied on by Monica) exchange a long, tender kiss, after which T’Challa admits to not fully knowing how things will turn out, and that he is afraid.  She reassures him, and stresses he won’t become like Magneto, because of Ross’s influence on him.  In a news interview with Lord Ghaur, we learn that the Deviants are winning the war of public opinion.  The Panther arrives at the UN in New York, where he gets into a brawl with Warlord Kro, who claims T’Challa is playing into Ghaur’s hands.  Hunter has taken Klaw to Libya, where he sends him on a mission.  Just as the Panther is about to speak to the UN General Assembly, word comes through that the Panther has fired upon the US aircraft carrier Roussos (but we know it was Klaw).

I remember that it was with issue 28 that I completely fell in love with this series (having not checked it out until Moon Knight appeared, and having not bought it regularly until issue 25).  This might be the tightest issue of this whole series, in terms of Priest’s vision of T’Challa as a practitioner of realpolitik in a superhuman world.  As the issue opens, Hunter meets with Klaw, and is outmaneuvered by him, when the sonic villain has bribed a waiter to poison Hunter’s water.  Ross goes to Monica’s apartment looking for help, since he can’t find T’Challa anywhere.  She sends him to the school where he used to teach in Harlem.  Ross finds T’Challa meeting with Magneto, Dr. Doom (via hologram), Warlord Kro, and Namor.  The various world leaders discuss the current situation, and quickly move past blustering to figuring out what is really going on.  They want to know why Lord Ghaur, who has a history of trying to destroy the universe, is so concerned with one child, and also postulate that the sinking of the Roussos, which has sparked George W. Bush to want to launch strikes against Wakanda (this is prescient, as it was published before 9/11), was done by an outside player who has not tipped his hand yet.  T’Challa sends Ross to Deviant Lemuria.  In Wakanda, Queen Divine Justice entertains the Deviant child (who is still nameless), when N’Kano shows up, looking to avoid T’Challa, but telling QDJ that Hunter stole his powers.  In Lemuria, Ross figures out that the child is actually Lord Ghaur’s which starts to explain everything that’s going on.  Literally tossed aside, Ross recognizes Klaw, who attacks Ghaur and then imitates his voice to order a missile launch.  In New York, T’Challa stops to deal with a robbery in a liquor store, but he is interrupted by Namor, who attacks him, furious that T’Challa has operated behind his back.  Apparently his forces have fired on Namor’s, who were blockading Wakanda’s blockade of Lemuria.  T’Challa denies all knowledge of this, when Magneto arrives as well, and the leaders realize that, when the Wakandans discovered that the Lemurians were opening their missile silos, they disabled the Atlantean ships, so they could stop the Lemurian missiles, thus sparking a conflict.  The other leaders leave, and T’Challa moves to stop the conflict, when he is attacked by Klaw, who has orchestrated all of this, blocking T’Challa’s Kimoyo card.  Klaw is shaped like a subway on the elevated track, moving to run T’Challa down.

The conclusion of the Stürm and Drang arc is almost as good as the last issue, although the lengthy fight scene takes some points away.  In Wakanda, Queen Divine Justice, the Deviant child, and N’Kano are hustled towards safety by some guards.  The Panther fights Klaw in New York.  His new vibranium and anti-metal suit weave and claws make short work of Klaw, who retreats.  T’Challa goes to Namor to parley.  In Deviant Lemuria, Ross saves Lord Ghaur from drowning as the Atlantean and Wakandan vessels fire on each other outside the city, causing some collateral damage.  Atlantean forces attack Wakanda, and the US Government fires cruise missiles towards the country.  T’Challa makes it clear to Namor that he wants to end the conflict, but since his Kimoyo card is disabled, the easiest way for this to happen would be for Atlantis to surrender.  As Namor departs, Klaw attacks again, this time using his powers to form himself a very large body made of water.  Wakandan forces destroy the American missiles, but this leads to them crashing into the central city.  QDJ, N’Kano, and the child are caught in a collapsing building.  The Atlantean forces withdraw in Lemuria, while Ross aggressively negotiates with Ghaur, revealing that the child is Ghaur’s, knowledge of which will effectively ruin his rule.  Ross offers him a deal.  The Panther continues to fight Klaw’s water body, but using his father’s vibranium knife and the Kimoyo card, he is able to return the villain to his usual form.  Having defeated Klaw, the Panther continues to beat on him, until a crowd of New Yorkers try to stop him (they recognize him as being a dictator who sank an American carrier).  A police officer comes to arrest him.  Trapped in Wakanda, QDJ kisses N’Kano just as Namor arrives to dig them out and demand he be given the child.  Ross arrives in New York (in Lemurian gear) to explain to T’Challa that he has fixed everything.  He got Dr. Tambak (who is often mentioned but never shown) to write a death certificate claiming that the child was killed in the US attack.  After this, Ghaur withdrew his declaration of war, while Namor gets to keep the child in Atlantis.  Dr. Doom sent footage proving that Klaw sank the Roussos, so the US will stand down.  Ross notices that T’Challa is handcuffed, just as the crowd around them becomes violent.

Issue thirty, which features guest art by Norm Breyfogle, opens in 1941, as Captain America leads a group of US soldiers into Wakandan territory, and is confronted by T’Chaka.  When Cap refuses to fight, he is allowed entry into the central city.  Cap is telling this story to a senate intelligence committee, during a closed session, where the topic is T’Challa’s behaviour and the threat he poses to the United States.  T’Challa is there, and Ross is representing him.  Cap is asked about times when T’Challa has made him angry, and Reed Richards recounts his first meeting with the king.  Ross admits that T’Challa is completely unpredictable.  The officer from the mob scene outside the UN last chapter also testifies, explaining that the Panther saved her from the situation.  Ross continues to list T’Challa’s idiosyncrasies, but also makes clear that he is a monarch and the chieftain of a religious order, not a superhero.  Later, T’Challa is at Monica’s apartment, and while she is still angry at him about how he has complicated her life, he offers her a ring, and she tells him to leave.  They kiss on the fire escape, and she sends him away.  At Avengers Mansion, T’Challa thanks Cap for standing up for him, and gives him the original, triangular shield that he had left in Wakanda in the 40s.  In a flashback, we see that T’Chaka gave Cap some vibranium (which was later worked into his round shield) and that the two men parted as friends.  In the present, Cap returns the shield to T’Challa and salutes him.  Ross cleans up his apartment, remembering Nikki, and learns that his new boss is Henry Peter Gyrich, the famous Marvel scoundrel.  Ross is visited by Mephisto.

I believe that issue thirty-one is the first one not narrated by Ross, who barely appears.  The issue opens on Malice in bed with an unidentified man.  As he kisses her, she reflects on her life and does not speak.  This rendez-vous is photographed by Dakota North, who delivers the photos to a woman.  At the Wakandan Consulate, which is ringed with anti-T’Challa protesters, T’Challa and Omoro discuss things.  The King opens a letter with a note saying only ‘She’s dead,’ which he immediately recognizes as a message from Nakia/Malice.  He calls his cousin M’Koni, who is the woman with the cheating husband.  Although she says everything is fine with her and her husband, Wheeler, T’Challa knows she is lying.  He orders his mother and the Dora Milaje to America (although at the same time, Okoye is with him).  Malice, still not speaking and examining moments from her life, kills a female police officer and takes mental control of a male one, who now has her symbol on his neck.  T’Challa meets with Dakota North, telling her that he will protect M’Koni (her client) while she is to very visibly surveil Monica Lynne.  In Wakanda, Queen Divine Justice hangs out with N’Kano, who thinks she is a cook, and resists his romantic gestures.  The Panther continues to investigate the letter Malice sent him, which was posted in Lhasa.  He tries to figure out if anyone is missing from the Leslie N. Hill projects, where he keeps offices.  A visit to the post office reveals that a former student of his, Maria Henckel, is missing.  In her apartment, T’Challa finds Nikki Adams’s hairbrush and clothes, clearly left there by Malice as a message to him.  N’Kano and QDJ doze together, when they are interrupted by N’Kano’s godfather, the man responsible for him getting his powers.  The man is angry, QDJ leaves, we get a recap of Vibraxas’s hero career, and N’Kano learns that QDJ is Dora Milaje.  Velluto does a great job of registering his shock.  T’Challa visits Nikki’s apartment, and finds Ross there.  Examining the apartment, he finds Wheeler’s body stuffed in the water heater.  We see that M’Koni has taken a lot of sleeping pills.  Malice arrives at the gates of the Wakandan consulate, and starts swinging a spear around.  The Panther starts to fight her, but the crowd of protesters attack him, and Malice’s pet cop opens fire.  The cop and Malice drag the bleeding Panther away (although he’s wearing his habit, and that usually stops bullets).

Monica Lynne has noticed Dakota North staking her out, and goes to befriend the woman, claiming that T’Challa has sent her there to remove her from the board.  We learn that Malice has the naked T’Challa strung up and infected with the same Jufeiro Spore she has been using to control men.  She has made him watch as she’s had sex with a priest.  T’Challa is angry at the disrespect shown to his throne, reminding us that the whole Dora Milaje gig is kind of suspect.  Basically, Malice wants T’Challa to love her unconditionally, and she is prepared to kill everyone he loves to make that happen.  In Wakanda, Zuri and W’Kabi make clear to N’Kano how his actions with Queen Divine Justice are problematic.  QDJ and Ramonda are sharing a jet to America, and discussing how QDJ’s actions with N’Kano could lead to tribal war.  QDJ hears a noise in the back of the jet.  Monica and Dakota go shopping, pursued by Malice’s cop.  We learn that Monica is very hurt by the fact that T’Challa opened up to Storm and not her.  T’Challa frees himself from the ropes that bind him, and removes the spore from his neck.  Ross shows up, but does nothing to help him aside from pointing out that something has changed.  Omoro shows up right then, with guards, and administers an antitoxin to the spore.  He also shows the King that the totem of the white gorilla clan was placed on M’Koni’s husband’s corpse.  QDJ discovers that Man-Ape has stowed away on her jet, and he takes control of the plane, using it to shoot down its escort jets.  The Panther and Okoye discuss how to deal with Malice, and the Dora Milaje wants to be the one to stop her.  To his credit, T’Challa does question whether or not the Dora Milaje system of keeping teenage virgins as potential wives might be problematic, but Okoye points out that scrapping it would lead to tribal warfare.  Dakota and Monica are attacked in a fitting room by Malice’s mind-controlled cop and priest, and Dakota is able to save them.  A doctor controlled by Malice goes to check on M’Koni, whose sleeping pill had been adulterated.  Malice joins the doctor, but when she goes to kill M’Koni, we see that Okoye has taken her place, and she gets the drop on Malice.  T’Challa stops her and cuts Okoye up with his claws before kissing Malice.  QDJ leaves her crashed jet and finds herself prisoner of Man-Ape.

N’Kano is upset to learn that Queen Divine Justice’s jet has gone down, and is even more upset when he learns that W’Kabi, following the Panther’s orders, is taking Wakandan forces in the opposite direction from their crash site.  N’Knao vows to go rescue QDJ.  We see that Man-Ape still has QDJ, and is spouting some isolationist Luddite stuff, when she escapes from him, only to find herself in a frozen crystal forest.  Man-Ape’s aid informs her that QDJ is their clan’s queen, while she learns that her Kimoyo card is not working.  We see that it is actually being ignored, as W’Kabi brings a strike force to Q’Noma village.  Monica and Dakota sneak into the hospital, where they find Omoro, and learn that he has been controlled by Malice.  The Panther, apparently still under the influence of the Jufeiro spore, makes out with Malice in the embassy, but refuses to go further with her until they are wed, out of respect.  Malice leaves and Panther talks to Monica and Dakota, who are outside the window.  It is clear that they have fouled up his plans.  W’Kabi orders the evacuation of Q’Noma village.  The Panther suits up and leaves the embassy to hunt for Malice, while Monica and Dakota hang out there.  Malice attacks Dakota, but Monica tries to intervene.  T’Challa shows up and fights the girl.  While fighting, they talk about guilt, and T’Challa asks for the antidote to the poison that M’Koni and presumably Maria are dying from.  T’Challa threatens to destroy Nakia’s village to protect his country from the war her actions will cause, and she gives up, giving him the antidote formula before escaping.  Later, we see that M’Koni is fine, and that The Thing has located Maria in Tibet, where he has helped her recover as well (apparently he was a substitute teacher back when T’Challa was Maria’s teacher).  In Wakanda, QDJ is found by Man-Ape’s clan, who begin to bow down to her.

Ross finally returns to narrating the book, but something has changed with this new arc, drawn by Jim Calafiore.  We learn that Mephisto has swapped bodies with Ross, leaving him in his gigantic devilish form.  Gyrich phones Ross to complain that T’Challa is late for a meeting, confirming to Ross that he is not dreaming.  T’Challa arrives to meet with Gyrich, who shows off his Palm Pilot by rattling off Wakandan information from some proto-wikipedia.  Ross goes looking for T’Challa, but is turned away from the Consulate.  Gyrich rides hard on T’Challa, basically being Henry Peter Gyrich, but is surprised when Okoye arrives with a jet to take T’Challa to Wakanda to finally rescue Queen Divine Justice and Ramonda from Man-Ape, and insists that Gyrich accompany him.  Ross discovers that Mephisto is posing as him, and is finding career success.  The Panther and Gyrich jump from the jet into the crystal forest where Man-Ape’s people, the Jabari tribe, live.  T’Challa discovers that Vibraxas has gone ahead of him, and expresses concern for the youth.  Ross’s attempt to meet with the Avengers ends with him attacked by the Mansion’s automated defenses, and he heads off to look for Doctor Strange.  As the Panther and Gyrich speed through the forest on a skycycle, QDJ is visited by Vibraxas, who is immediately dropped by Man-Ape and QDJ’s servants.  Man-Ape explains to QDJ that he wants to secede from Wakanda and rule his people, who w

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