Black Panther: Two Thousand Seasons by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Daniel Acuña, et al.

The previous installment of The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda ended with T'Challa finally getting his memory back; the third and penultimate sees him reestablishing (first) contact with and (then) transportation to "Wakanda Prime" (e.g., the original Wakanda on Earth). We get to see T'Challa interact with his supporting cast again; we discover more about the origins of "Intergalactic Wakanda" and about how T'Challa ended up there; and the emperor of the empire is seemingly defeated... but secretly continues to lurk in the background.

Who among us hasn't forgotten we're a supergenius?
from Black Panther vol. 7 #15

I was hoping that this installment would see the story kick into gear, but overall, it's pretty slow; reflecting back over it, I realized that very little had actually happened across the first five issues. (The sixth is a flashback establishing how T'Challa first came to the Intergalactic Empire and ended up a mind-wiped slave.) It's nice to get some answers, but mostly it seems to be moving pieces into position rather than telling its own story. I suspect that, once again, Ta-Nehisi Coates has bitten off more than he can chew, and whatever remains of this story will not be able to satisfactorily tie up all the interesting themes and ideas he has introduced.

In particular, T'Challa is wrestling with his sense of responsibility toward the Intergalactic Empire. It is going around committing crimes in the name of his country. Does he need to stop it? The story indicates this is complicated by the fact that, since he left, Wakanda has entered its first period of prosperity and peace in a long time. Dare he disrupt this? That's an interesting idea, but it's one I found hard to buy into, because we haven't actually seen this new, supposedly peaceful Wakanda. The main Black Panther series hasn't shown us Wakanda Prime for a dozen issues; our visits to Wakanda in the parallel Shuri miniseries didn't indicate that things were going that well. If this dilemma is going to drive the rest of this series, we need more reason to believe in it.

from Black Panther vol. 7 #18

There are nice touches, though. I thought the character stuff between T'Challa and Storm was probably handled better than at any previous time in Coates's run, particularly in the last issue here, where they discuss the invisibility of oppression to those who benefit from it. The reunion between T'Challa and his mother and sister was also well done. I think Daniel Acuña's art continues to improve; there are some real killer action sequences here. On the other hand, I am pretty unexcited to see that the villains of A Nation under Our Feet are making a reappearance.

So overall, this continues to be the best storyline of Coates's run on Black Panther, but it also doesn't read like the best comic someone could have written about these concepts and ideas. 

The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, Book 3: Two Thousand Seasons originally appeared in issues #13-18 of Black Panther vol. 7 (Aug. 2019–Jan. 2020). The story was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, illustrated by Daniel Acuña (#13-17) and Chris Sprouse (#18), inked by Karl Story (#18), colored by Marcio Menyz (#18), lettered by Joe Sabino, and edited by Wil Moss.

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