King in Black: Black Panther / The Last Annihilation: Wakanda by Germán Peralta et al.

Between Ta-Nehisi Coates's run on Black Panther (which I just finished) and John Ridley's (which I will tackle next), there were two Black Panther–related one-shots tying into larger Marvel Comics events. In each case, I picked up the collection of the event from Hoopla, but I only read the Black Panther story in each book, plus the Hulkling and Wiccan one, since I do know those characters from Young Avengers (boy has their status quo changed a lot!), but none of the other stories in each book.

I guess this kind of scene is obligatory.
from King in Black: Black Panther #1

King in Black seems to about a bunch of Venoms attacking the universe or something. I guess they all work for a god of some kind? It didn't really matter to me; what you need to know is that Wakanda is under assault.

The story is written by Geoffrey Thorne (who got his start as a Star Trek writer, and surely his Trek fandom is the reason he knows the word "cathexis") and illustrated by Germán Peralta, but just as Jason Aaron was for Black Panther's Secret Invasion tie-in, Thorne is in full Christopher Priest mode here: T'Challa has a plan, and is ten steps ahead of everyone, including his own allies. It's not quite as good as Aaron's or Priest's take on this approach, but then, Thorne only has one issue for his canvas, so things just can't be as complicated. Peralta is a solid artist, capturing the characters and world of Wakanda well. This is a perfectly fine story on the whole—I doubt it will wow anyone, but I also think it works on its own and is enjoyable enough.

I've even less understanding of what The Last Annihilation is about, except that it seems to be about space and probably the Guardians of the Galaxy. Its Black Panther tie-in was also illustrated by Peralata; the scripting is by Evan Narcisse, who previously wrote one of the better Black Panther stories of the "Coates era," Rise of the Black Panther. One of the interesting storytelling consequences of the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda arc is that there's now a way for Black Panther to be involved in space-based Marvel crossover events; indeed, more of Wakanda is in space than is not!

And the enormous space empire was never mentioned again...
from The Last Annihilation: Wakanda #1

I found Coates's Intergalactic Empire storyline raised lots of interesting ideas but did little of interest with them. It would be glib to say that Narcisse finds more to do with the concepts in this single issue than Coates did in twenty-five... but this is surely one of the better stories to be told using the premise. Narcisse focuses the story on M'Baku, one of T'Challa's former comrades in the resistance, who now finds himself working for the very empire he swore to destroy. How can you build trust in an institution previously used as a tool of oppression? How can you trust it yourself? It's a great concept, and Narcisse does great by it, with some effective character-based writing and, again, strong art by Peralta. My guess is that future Black Panther stories will move away from the "Intergalactic Empire" setting (indeed, the last page of this story sets up how that could come to pass), but if they did not, they could do a lot worse than to follow the template set by this issue.

"Cathexis" originally appeared in issue #1 of King in Black: Black Panther (Apr. 2021). The story was written by Geoffrey Thorne, illustrated by Germán Peralta, colored by Jesus Aburtov, lettered by Joe Sabino, and edited by Wil Moss. It was collected in King in Black: Avengers (2021), which was edited by Jennifer Grünwald.

The Last Annihilation: Wakanda originally appeared in one issue (Nov. 2021). The story was written by Evan Narcisse, illustrated by Germán Peralta, colored by Jesus Aburtov, lettered by Cory Petit, and edited by Wil Moss. It was collected in The Last Annihilation (2022), which was edited by Daniel Kirchhoffer.

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