Black Panther: Wakanda Unbound by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Daniel Acuña, et al.

Black Panther: The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, Part Four

Collection published: 2021
Contents originally published: 2020-21
Read: October 2025

I finally made it to the end of all the Black Panther comics I got in a comiXology sale to commemorate the death of Chadwick Boseman, but those only go up to 2020... and obviously there are five more years of Black Panther comics after that! So I'll be continuing to discuss them, switching from single issues on comiXology to collected editions on Hoopla. That begins with the fourth and final part of The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, branded as "Wakanda Unbound" on the original issues, though not in the trade.

Writer: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Artists: Ryan Bodenheim, Daniel Acuña & Brian Stelfreeze*

Color Artists: Michael Garland, Daniel Acuña, Chris O'Halloran & Laura Martin

Letterer: Joe Sabino

Anyone who's followed my reviews of Ta-Nehisi Coates's Black Panther run will not be surprised to hear that it fizzles out instead of coming to any kind of interesting climax. Part one of this storyline was gripping if confusing, part two raised lots of interesting ideas, part three returned to the meandering slow style that is Coates's typical approach... and then part four throws away any interesting ideas in favor of endless superhero punchups. I think the idea of Wakanda as an empire in itself is one that could have really had T'Challa questioning his own principles, but we just get a big battle here. Wakanda is a byword for freedom across the galaxy now! But how can it be that easy? Can a formerly oppressive regime just become a force for good? Interesting questions that a writer could ask, but this story just dodges them all in favor of a totally unearned Big Win.

For some reason, a bunch of non-Wakandan superheroes show up for the final battle, but I think only Black ones.
from Black Panther vol. 7 #24 (art by Daniel Acuña)

In the end, I think Coates bit off more than he could chew time and time again. These are superhero comics, fundamentally they must be about punching bad guys in the face, but the very best superhero comics manage to do more than that. Coates was interested in Big Ideas, which I appreciate, but his run consistently failed to marry those Big Ideas to the conventions of the superhero genre, meaning almost every arc had Big Ideas that were discussed a bit but went nowhere, and boring, tacked on action. (Particularly tedious here is the largely dialogue-less, all-action issue.)

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* Note that the cover gives credit to Chris Sprouse and Karl Story, but they have no work collected in the volume. I'm assuming someone copied over the cover template of part three, which they did contribute to, and failed to change the names.

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.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

Black Panther: The Gathering of My Name by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Kev Walker, et al.

The Gathering of My Name is the second of four parts of The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda; Ta-Nehisi Coates continues as writer, of course, but Kev Walker takes over as illustrator; I know him best for his work on the surprisingly good Elsa Bloodstone tie-in to Battleworld. (He would go one, I believe, to do some acclaimed work on Marvel's Star Wars comics.) I found book 1 of Intergalactic Empire a bit inscrutable at times, and I think partially that was on purpose—Coates was clearly doing one of those stories where you start in a new context with no explanation—but not entirely so—I found it hard to keep track of all the characters, and Daniel Acuña's art was sometimes hard to follow.

from Black Panther vol. 7 #9

The basic premise was that T'Challa was a former slave in a space version of Wakanda, working with a group of rebels called the "maroons" to bring down the empire. Though many characters had familiar names but were not the familiar characters, it seemed like T'Challa was—but if so, he did not remember it. Stories in book 1 jumped around a lot, each focusing on some incident or battle for T'Challa and the maroons in their struggle against the empire.

Book 2 of Intergalactic Empire is easier to follow, for a number of reasons. Partially because, well, we read book 1 and so we have built up some context. Partially because the text pages at the ends of issues (in both books 1 and 2) have filled in some gaps for us. Partially because the last couple issues feature T'Challa regaining access to his memories, and thus fill in some key backstory for us. Partially because I think Coates lets us follow things more; it seemed to me that the plots of these issues were laid out more directly than those in book 1, Coates perhaps realizing you can only test an audience's patience for so long in an ongoing comic book. Partially because Walker has a more straightforward style and approach to the artwork than Acuña did.

The first two issues here are one-part stories, showing different missions of T'Challa and his rebel gang. These were the two that I enjoyed the most. The first is decent; the maroons decide to try to get hold of a guy who designs technology for the empire, and carry out an operation to abduct him from a pleasure cruiser. 

from Black Panther vol. 7 #8

The second was my favorite of all six parts of book 2. In this one, the rebels hit an imperial freighter for its cargo of raw vibranium only to discover that its cargo is also frozen prisoners—but the prisoners haven't had their memories removed yet. T'Challa, of course, wants to save the prisoners, but the rebel leadership wants him to focus on the mission. As T'Challa helps the prisoners, he bonds with a kid who is also a king. It's perhaps straightforward and cute stuff, but it's effectively done, exactly what you might want from a story about a former king trying to take down an intergalactic empire.

The last four issues here are one big story about a rebel operation on the planet Agwé, with some complexity deriving from the fact that different rebel factions are turning on each other; the hero Manifold, who accompanied T'Challa into space (as we found out in Shuri) is working for the empire. I did find some aspects of this story confusing, particularly revolving around the emperor and his daughter, but on the other hand, we are getting some answers.

from Black Panther vol. 7 #11

Overall, I have to say that I continue to enjoy The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda more than anything in Coates's run on Black Panther volume 6/volume 1. I do hope the end of this book represents a turning point, though. We are halfway through the story now, and I think it's time to move from "laying out a mystery" and even "solving a mystery" into "dealing with the interesting ideas." A story where T'Challa has to take down a Wakandan empire raises some interesting questions about power and violence; hopefully the story does something interesting with those questions in its thirteen remaining issues.

The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, Book 2: The Gathering of My Name originally appeared in issues #7-12 of Black Panther vol. 7 (Feb.-July 2019). The story was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates; illustrated by Kev Walker (#7-11) and Jen Bartel (#12), with layouts by Kris Anka (#12); inked by Marc Deering (#11); colored by Stéphane Paitreau (#7-10), Java Tartaglia (#10-11), and Tríona Farrell (#12); lettered by Joe Sabino; and edited by Wil Moss.

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Black Panther: Many Thousands Gone by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Daniel Acuña, et al.

After Avengers of the New World came to an end, Marvel did that thing that Marvel likes to do, which is that they started Black Panther over with a new #1... even though there was no gap in publication at all, and it was the work of the same writer! Ta-Nehisi Coates continues on, though the main artist of this new arc is Daniel Acuña, who is new to the character (other than a short story in Black Panther Annual vol. 1 #1).

from Black Panther vol. 7 #5

The first six issues of Black Panther volume 7 comprise a story called Many Thousands Gone, itself the first "book" of The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, a massive story arc that runs through all twenty-five issues of this volume of Black Panther. It seems to me that Coates must have taken some of the comments on his first couple story arcs to heart (though clearly not the one about how long his story arcs are!), because while A Nation under Our Feet in particular had lots of dialogue and seemingly little action at times, Many Thousands Gone has lots of action and little dialogue, and especially little exposition. 

from Black Panther vol. 7 #3

We're dumped into a new status quo in medias res: there's some kind of Wakandan intergalactic empire (you can tell Coates isn't a science person because he doesn't seem to know the difference between "galaxy" and "star system," much like Terry Nation), which is evil; there are a group of slaves, some of which become rebels, one of whom seems to be T'Challa. Many of the other characters share names with familiar Black Panther ones, but don't seem to be the same ones. Lots of time passes between some of the issues here—years, I think—and T'Challa is sometimes referred to as some kind of distant, historical, legendary figure, but also the T'Challa in the story dreams of Storm, indicating he's the regular T'Challa.

I appreciate the attempt to do something different and unusual—I appreciate it a lot. There's a very standard type of Black Panther story that's emerged ever since Don McGregor first wrote the character, and this is very much not it... but one can see how it might let Coates and his collaborators explore some issues that are often intrinsic to the character.

from Black Panther vol. 7 #2

On the other hand, I found this a bit too inscrutable at times: exactly who these characters were is so opaque, and the jumps between issues so large, that even though there's a lot of action, I didn't know why what the characters were trying to do mattered, and thus it was hard to glom onto.

By the end of these six issues, we don't know a lot about what's actually going on. Coates is clearly playing the long game here. He also did this on his previous two story arcs, but unlike on those... I kind of think it can work? A Nation under Our Feet didn't play any better with foreknowledge of where it was going, but I can imagine rereading this and getting it. Maybe I'm being naïve, but I have faith!

Unlike the editors of this run, I suspect. Each issue begins with a page that lays out some of the backstory, information that six issues in hasn't been otherwise revealed to the reader. It reads like someone chickened out of the in medias res approach to the series after it was written and illustrated and insisted this be stuck on the front. But it's not even that helpful, I was still confused! I wish they hadn't bothered, I felt like it showed a lack of confidence.

The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, Book 1: Many Thousands Gone originally appeared in issues #1-6 of Black Panther vol. 7 (July 2018–Jan. 2019). The story was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, illustrated by Daniel Acuña (#1-5) and Jen Bartel (#6), with layouts by Paul Reinwald (#6), colored by Triona Farrell (#6), lettered by Joe Sabino, and edited by Wil Moss.

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Rise of the Black Panther by Evan Narcisse, Javier Pina, et al.

The "Coates era" of Black Panther comics has seen a lot of a releases so far: twenty-five issues of the main series, plus three six-issue miniseries and assorted other stories. And, as I have chronicled here in detail, most of it has done little for me. I found Ta-Nehisi Coates's main series overly long and dull; I have found most of the miniseries fairly pointless.

from Rise of the Black Panther #2

So it was nice to find myself enjoying Rise of the Black Panther. This was an origin retelling for T'Challa, somewhat surprisingly the first one of them we've ever gotten since the character debuted way back in the day. Coates is credited as "consultant"; I am not sure what that means, nor why he should get first billing on the covers of a series he did not actually write. (Based on reading his Black Panther work so far, he's the one who needs a consultant on how to write comics!) The series is scripted by a new-to-me author, Evan Narcisse, and largely illustrated by Javier Pina, who did some good work for DC on Manhunter and Birds of Prey in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Of particular note are the beautiful colors of Stéphane Paitreau.

Narcisse does what a good retroactive origin story does in my opinion, which is take a lot of existing disparate threads and weave them all together into something coherent—something that works on its own even if you haven't read the stories that are being referenced. Over the years, we've learned a lot about T'Challa's youth, and Narcisse unites it all: we see T'Challa's birth mother (for the first time, I think), we see how his adoptive mother Ramonda (from McGregor's run) came into his life, we get bits of backstory from Captain America / Black Panther, we have Shuri (from Hudlin's run) woven into the texture of T'Challa's youth. Various comics have other the years given us a lot of different pieces of T'Challa's family; here we get to see T'Challa's Uncle S'Yan (from Hudlin's run) incorporated alongside T'Challa's half-brother Jakarra—a character from Kirby's run I had forgotten about and would have guessed most writers had too!

from Rise of the Black Panther #1

Perhaps because it had a lot of ground to cover, there's a lot more going on in these six issues than has been standard in the overly decompressed comics of this era. If the series has a downside, it's that the first issue is the very best one, leaving the later parts of the series feeling a little disappointing. Not that they're bad, but there's just not as much going on as in the first. The first mostly focuses on T'Challa's father, T'Chaka, and his relationship with the legacy of his father, as well as the son who sees him die. The issue is narrated by T'Challa's mothers; using a first-person narrator isn't something any of the series's later issues do, but it adds a lot of depth to what's going on, and I wish Narcisse had used this device more later on; imagine S'Yan or Shuri as the narrator of T'Challa's life, I think it could have been very effective.

But that shouldn't be taken as a strike against this comic. Unlike some other material of the "Coates era," I found that this series maintained a strong character focus. This is the story of how T'Challa chose in involve both himself and Wakanda in the outside world, and Narcisse effectively follows that thread through T'Challa's interactions with Namor, with S.H.I.E.L.D., with Killmonger. Plus, Javier Pina is a strong artist, with clear action and good character work; I found he blended fairly well with Paul Renaud, who also draws a couple issues. And, like I said above, Paitreau does some beautiful coloring here that really adds to the atmosphere and coherence of the story.

from Rise of the Black Panther #3

Overall, this works really well as an introduction to T'Challa and his world, as well as a standalone Black Panther comic. I'd imagine Marvel made it to make sure there was an origin on the shelves at the time the film came out, but I suspect it's likely to be an evergreen one. Solid work from a good creative team, and I'd particularly be interested in seeing more from Narcisse in the future.

Rise of the Black Panther originally appeared in six issues (Mar.-Aug. 2018). The story was written by Evan Narcisse, with consultant Ta-Nehisi Coates; illustrated by Paul Renaud (#1, 3), Javier Pina (#2, 4-6), and Edgar Salazar & Keith Champagne (#5); colored by Stéphane Paitreau (#1-6), with Morry Hollowell (#6); lettered by Joe Sabino; and edited by Wil Moss.

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Black Panther: Avengers of the New World: Klaw Stands Supreme by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Leonard Kirk, et al.

All in all, Ta-Nehisi Coates's second Black Panther story, Avengers of the New World, runs thirteen issues. Here, I am reviewing the second half of the story (which appeared in Black Panther #166-72, even though the first half appeared in Black Panther #13-18... comics, everybody!). The first three installments are called "Klaw Stands Supreme" on the cover, but inside are still titled "Avengers of the New World." I am rapidly coming to the unfortunate conclusion that of all the extended runs on Black Panther I've read, Coates's might be the worst. I loved Priest's run for the most part, Don McGregor never fails to be interesting, Kirby's is nuts but it's still Jack Kirby, and though I never really clicked with Reggie Hudlin's, it was never boring.

This is. 

from Black Panther vol. 1 #166
(script by Ta-Nehisi Coates, art by Leonard Kirk & Marc Deering)

How is this story thirteen issues? Either characters are having long, boring conversations, or they are having long boring action scenes. Coates doesn't seem to know how to integrate these two things, and especially doesn't seem to know how to use either to reveal character in interesting ways. Again and again, creatures come through a gate to another dimension. There is a whole group of villains here, of which Klaw is just one, but I don't know why because mostly they just stand around. Does anything noteworthy come out of T'Challa confronting the man who killed his father? Not really, when they finally meet up it's all over in a second.

Then we learn someone called the "Adversary" is responsible for it all. Who's the Adversary? Don't worry, the book literally never tells you. Not what his powers are, not what he wants, not why you should care. If you want to know any of that, you need to go read an X-Men comic! For real! There's just a footnote, but the book acts like you should be excited when this guy I literally never heard of pops up. Wasn't this book drawing in new Marvel readers who were intrigued by Coates as scripter and/or what they saw in the then-recently released film? It's a baffling creative decision that undermines what little of interest was going on in this story.

Plus Queen Divine Justice is in this, but she could literally be anyone for all it matters; none of her personality carries over.

I guess Coates was trying to say something about godhood? I don't really know but at the end Black Panther and everyone else suddenly becomes their own gods and then they win??? Why??????

I got all these comics for free so I will continue to read them but man, I am dreading that there are twenty-five more issues of Coates's run to go. They keep pairing him with good artists, but it doesn't do any good to hire Leonard Kirk if you don't give him something worth drawing.

from Black Panther Annual vol. 1 #1
(script by Don McGregor, art by Daniel Acuña)

The book invites comparison to those previous runs because it was during this span that there was also Black Panther Annual #1, which had three short stories written by Priest, McGregor, and Hudlin. Priest tells a story of Everett K. Ross, of course, who despite being promoted out of field work finds himself drawn into a new escapade with T'Challa, with hilarious results of course. It's abbreviated but fun, and I enjoyed that Priest poked a bit of fun at what later writers did with his concepts; Ross is very confused that the Dora Milaje can speak to people who aren't T'Challa, in English.

McGregor's story is set in a world where T'Challa and Monica Lynne never split up... and she dies of cancer. I appreciated how well McGregor could still evoke his old style, twenty-five years after he last worked on the character; it's a perfect pastiche of his own work. I didn't know he was even still writing comics! It was neat to see all the old characters rendered in the old style once again. The Hudlin one continues a story from the previous Black Panther Annual #1 (comics, everybody!) set in a dystopian future where Wakanda conquered the world. It's mostly just exposition. But I was much happier to read this than whatever it is Coates is up to.

Lastly, one issue has a three-page origin recap for the Black Panther. It's fine.

Parts 7-13 of Avengers of the New World originally appeared in issues #166-72 of Black Panther vol. 1 (Dec. 2017–June 2018). The story was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates; penciled by Leonard Kirk (#166-67, 169-72) and Chris Sprouse (#168); inked by Leonard Kirk (#166, 169-71), Marc Deering (#166-67, 172), and Karl Story (#168), with Walden Wong (#168, 172); colored by Laura Martin (#166-67, 169-72) and Matt Milla (#167-68, 172), with Chris Sotomayor (#168); lettered by Joe Sabino; and edited by Wil Moss.

Marvel Legacy: "The Black Panther" originally appeared in issue #166 of Black Panther vol. 1 (Dec. 2017). The story was written by Robbie Thompson, illustrated by Wilfredo Torres, colored by Dan Brown, lettered by Joe Sabino, and edited by Darren Shan.

Black Panther Annual vol. 1 originally appeared in one issue (Apr. 2018). The stories were written by Priest, Don McGregor, and Reggie Hudlin; illustrated by Mike Perkins, Daniel Acuña, and Ken Lashley; colored by Andy Troy and Matt Milla; lettered by Joe Sabino; and edited by Wil Moss.

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Black Panther: Avengers of the New World, Part One by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Wilfredo Torres, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, et al.

After my side-steps into World of Wakanda and Black Panther & the Crew, I'm back to Ta-Nehisi Coates's main Black Panther series with the first half of its second storyline, Avengers of the New World. His first storyline, A Nation under Our Feet, had felt somewhat overextended at twelve issues... this one is thirteen!

from Black Panther vol. 6 #13

Despite the title, this has nothing to do with the "Avengers"; following Wakanda's transition into a constitutional monarchy, the traditional gods of Wakanda, including the panther god Bast, have vanished—and entities are flooding into Wakanda through mysterious portals, as new religions begin to spring up.

Mysticism in comics is always a hard sell for me, I'm afraid, and Coates doesn't sell it. The idea of the gods vanishing all seems very abstract as a central conflict goes. Why should I care about this? The gods don't really have much of a day-to-day impact on the storytelling of Black Panther to begin with. It seems to me that having set up a major status quo change at the end of the last story arc, this one should explore the implications of it, but Wakanda's democratization gets a few token references; key character Changamire puts in just one small appearance. You could have told this story during any other Panther run, and that's a pity.

There's a subplot I don't totally get the relevance of, with Queen Divine Justice (an American member of the Dora Milaje from Priest's run) getting kidnapped; she is written so utterly different from her original appearances that I would not have even realized who she was if her original name hadn't been mentioned in the letter columns. (And the beginning-of-issue recaps say she knows T'Challa from his days in New York, which I am pretty sure is just factually inaccurate.) I'm glad to see Coates pulling from previous runs in theory,* but I'm not sure why he is bothering.

from Black Panther vol. 6 #17

Like the first story arc, it just feels like somehow so many issues go by with little happening; by the end of part 6, all we really know is that something mysterious is afoot and longtime Black Panther foe Klaw is involved. Surely we could have done this in two parts!

As for the art... well, you know things are rough when the "next issue" box proudly announces the return of the guy (Chris Sprouse) who on the last story arc was the fill-in artist! I think Wilfredo Torres is supposed to be the arc's main artist, but he draws only one complete issue, needing assists on three more. I didn't care for his somewhat heavy style. Chris Sprouse is typically solid, but I found his work less good than normal; I presume he was rushed. The six issues here have four pencilers and seven inkers! It is always a shame when a run by a "star" writer has such little focus on matching them with a quality artist.

I guess we'll see where things go, but based on the arc so far and on the last one, I don't have high hopes for the last seven(!) parts. 

from Black Panther Prelude #2

I also read the two-issue Black Panther Prelude at this point; this was a Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-in that came out shortly before the 2018 film. It actually takes place ten years prior to the film, after the events of Iron Man, and as a result, it seemed to me that it didn't really set up anything interesting to do with the film. T'Challa has recently become Black Panther; his father T'Chaka sends him on a covert mission to rescue a couple Wakandan hostages, along with Okoye of the Dora Milaje; they do it. It's a pretty straightforward, pretty generic action-focused story that didn't really give any insight into the characters or world of the film it was setting up.

Parts 1-6 of Avengers of the New World originally appeared in issues #13-18 of Black Panther vol. 6 (June-Nov. 2017). The story was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates; penciled by Wilfredo Torres (#13-15, 18), Jacen Burrows (#14), Adam Gorham (#15), and Chris Sprouse (#16-18); inked by Wilfredo Torres (#13, 18), Terry Pallot (#14-15), Jacen Burrows (#14), Adam Gorham (#15), Karl Story (#16-18), Walden Wong (#16), and Dexter Vines (#16-17); colored by Laura Martin (#13-18) & Andrew Crossley (#13, 16-17); lettered by Joe Sabino; and edited by Wil Moss.

The Panther and the People originally appeared in issues #1-2 of Black Panther Prelude (Dec. 2017–Jan. 2018). The story was written by Will Corona Pilgrim, illustrated by Annapaola Martello, colored by Jordan Boyd, lettered by Travis Lanham, and edited by Mark Basso.

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* The Marvel Chronology Project informs me that issue #14 of Black Panther volume 6 in July 2017 was her first appearance in any comic at all since issue #63 of volume 3 in September 2003... almost fourteen years!

Black Panther & the Crew: We Are the Streets by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Butch Guice, Scott Hanna, Yona Harvey, et al.

Like World of Wakanda, Black Panther & the Crew is a prequel miniseries that ties into Ta-Nehisi Coates's first arc on Black Panther. Partway through A Nation under Our Feet, T'Challa summoned the assistance of "the Crew," reviving the all-black superhero group devised by Christopher Priest, though with a totally new membership roster. While it originally included War Machine, White Tiger, and Josiah X (son of the "black Captain America"), this version is made up of T'Challa, Storm, Luke Cage, Misty Knight, and some guy named "Gates." The first and only story arc, We Are the Streets, reveals how "the Crew" (never actually called that, I think) originally came together.

from Black Panther & the Crew #1
(art by Butch Guice & Scott Hanna)

Coates and co-writer Yona Harvey borrow the structure of the original series, which is unfortunate, as I felt that the original series's structure was one of its flaws, with the group not coming together until the end of the arc. Of the first five issues here, each is narrated by a different member of the Crew in turn, focusing on their individual relationships with Ezra Keith, a black activist who recently died in police custody, leading to protests on the streets. This means we get a lot of meditations on the various characters' relationships with Ezra, but not a lot of them actually interacting with each other or, really, seemingly doing much of anything at all; it doesn't feel like there's enough going on in their investigations to justify spending six issues on it, even when it turns out that Hydra is behind gentrification in Harlem (an idea done much better in G. Willow Wilson's Ms. Marvel, as I recall). Coates and Harvey have a strong sense of voice and character, and I liked the art by Butch Guice and Scott Hanna a lot, but like A Nation under Our Feet, this rarely has a sense of forward momentum. The ending I found more of a fizzle than a climax: some things blow up, the story ends.

from Black Panther & the Crew #3
(art by Butch Guice & Scott Hanna)

Weirdly, while on the one hand the series doesn't seem to be doing enough to justify six issues, on the other hand, it seems to be trying to do more than its six issues can accommodate. Specifically, a series of flashbacks throughout most of the issues show that in the 1950s and '60s, Ezra founded an all-black superhero group with what he thought was assistance from Wakanda, but turned out to be a Hydra plot, and the group ejected him when they started using their violence for less principled reasons, but then he rejoined the group, but then he ended it. Introducing two new superhero teams is just too much for a six-issue series, and though I found some of this very intriguing, it was too rushed and too fragmentary to really work. The conflicts within the team have to happen very quickly and most off-panel, and ultimately I wasn't sure what Coates was actually trying to say about violent resistance through them.

So, as I have felt about all three stories I've read from the "Coates era" thus far, to me We Are the Streets had a lot of interesting ideas, certainly more than many other comics I have read, but also didn't know how to make those ideas work within the constraints of its format. I would have liked to have seen the Crew come together faster and do more, and to have seen the previous superhero team saved for some other story that could have done them justice.

We Are the Streets originally appeared in issues #1-6 of Black Panther & the Crew (June-Oct. 2017). The story was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates (#1-6) & Yona Harvey (#2, 4, 6); penciled by Butch Guice (#1-6), w/ Mack Chater (#2-3, 5-6) & Stephen Thompson (#5); inked by Scott Hanna (#1-6), w/ Chater (#2-3, 5-6) & Thompson (#5); colored by Dan Brown (#1-6), w/ Paul Mounts (#5); lettered by Joe Sabino; and edited by Wil Moss.

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Black Panther: World of Wakanda by Roxane Gay, Alitha E. Martinez, Roberto Poggi, et al.

Not only did 2016 see the return of a Black Panther series after an absence of four years, 2017 saw an unprecedented development in the world of Black Panther: multiple simultaneous series. While there would be just one Black Panther ongoing, from 2017 to 2023 there would be a number of mini- and maxi-series that ran alongside the parent title: Long Live the King, Rise of the Black Panther, Wakanda and Wakanda Forever, Shuri, Killmonger, Agents of Wakanda, Black Panther Legends, even a revival of The Crew. The first of these would be World of Wakanda, a six-issue miniseries mostly focused on setting up characters and concepts from Ta-Nehisi Coates's ongoing. (And though Coates gets co-writing credit on just one short story that makes up one-third of one of the six issues, he always gets cover credit, and is credited as "consultant" on all of the other stories.)

from Black Panther: World of Wakanda #2

The first five issues contain a serializes story called Dawn of the Midnight Angels. Though this was released along side the second half of A Nation under Our Feet, it mostly takes place before it, with its last issue ending during issue #1. Its main characters are Ayo and Aneka, two members of the Dora Milaje who in Nation went rogue and participated in the democratic uprising in Wakanda. Dawn shows us how they met and fell in love, and what drove them to the point of rebelling against their king. 

I've been doing this Black Panther project in publication order, but for the first time I found myself wishing I had read something in chronological order instead. Not so much because I got Ayo and Aneka's backstory—indeed, I'm not quite sure you'd care about them if you hadn't read Nation—but because Dawn fills in a lot of the Wakandan backstory missing from Nation itself. Though it's all filtered from the perspective of the Dora Milaje, we see what T'Challa and Shuri and their country and Namor went through prior to Coates's series, bits of backstory he didn't totally spell out but evidently occurred during Jonathan Hickman's Avengers. It's stuff that would have been good to know!

Unfortunately, though, I didn't find Roxane Gay's story terribly interesting on its own terms. I liked the idea of learning about Ayo and Aneka's romance, but found the writing a bit thin; quite why Aneka doesn't want to be involved with Ayo isn't very clear at first, meaning it seems like she's holding back for no real reason except to prolong the story to five issues. I also found the villain, a rogue Dora Milaje named Folami, pretty ham-handedly written; it seems like she goes evil pretty much just because. The last couple issues, as we see the events of Black Panther volume 6 #1 from their perspective, are a bit stronger in some ways, but a bit too unsubtle in others.

There are two other short stories here. One, "The People for the People," is a brief prequel about Zenzi, one of the villains of A Nation under Our Feet. Maybe I missed this piece of information in Nation, but I didn't like the idea that she was Nigandan. It seems to me that the potential drama of a democratic revolution in Wakanda is undermined when one of the revolutionaries is an outsider (Zenzi) and the other obviously "evil" (Tetu).

from Black Panther: World of Wakanda #6

Lastly, there's "Death of the White Tiger"—I had not expected the return of Kasper Cole! Cole took over as Black Panther for the last dozen issues of Priest's run, and then was reinvented as the White Tiger for The Crew. If you've read any of those stories, you've read this one. Can you believe that over a dozen years later, Cole is still trying to get a promotion and pay raise so he can care for his girlfriend (who hates him) and baby? Yikes, dude, get your life together. The ending of the story promises a role for Cole elsewhere in the Ta-Nehisi Coates Black Panther universe... I can't say I am excited. (It is nice that they brought back Joe Bennett, original penciler of The Crew, though.)

Dawn of the Midnight Angels originally appeared in issues #1-5 of Black Panther: World of Wakanda (Jan.-May 2017). The story was written by Roxane Gay, with consultant Ta-Nehisi Coates, penciled by Alitha E. Martinez, inked by Roberto Poggi (#2-5) and Alitha E. Martinez (#1-2), colored by Rachelle Rosenberg, lettered by Joe Sabino, and edited by Wil Moss.

"The People for the People" originally appeared in issue #1 of Black Panther: World of Wakanda (Jan. 2017). The story was written by Yona Harvey & Ta-Nehisi Coates, illustrated by Afua Richardson, colored by Tamra Bonvillain, lettered by Joe Sabino, and edited by Wil Moss. 

"Death of the White Tiger" originally appeared in issue #6 of Black Panther: World of Wakanda (June 2017). The story was written by Rembert Browne, with consultant Ta-Nehisi Coates, penciled by Joe Bennett, inked by Roberto Poggi, colored by Rachelle Rosenberg, lettered by Joe Sabino, and edited by Chris Robinson.

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Black Panther: A Nation under Our Feet by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, et al.

In my ongoing Black Panther readthrough (see link below), there have been a few gaps where there were no Black Panther comics being published: 1980-87 and 1992-97 are probably the two longest ones. There was another one from 2013 to 2015, the gap between The Most Dangerous Man Alive! and Black Panther volume 6. It's comparatively short, but on the other hand, it's the first time that a number of significant events have apparently transpired between Black Panther runs... they just happened to Black Panther in other comic books. Since we last saw T'Challa, he's become king of Wakanda again, his sister (queen of Wakanda on her last appearance) is dead, he and Storm have gotten divorced, and Wakanda has been invaded by both Namor and Thanos. It's quite a lot!

from Black Panther vol. 6 #5

The first twelve issues of volume 6 make up a single story arc, A Nation under Our Feet, which chronicles a populist uprising in Wakanda that causes T'Challa to grapple with the meaning of kingship as he also sets out on a quest to resurrect Shuri... who despite being dead is on her own quest. I'd actually read some of this before; the collection of the first four issues were a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story in 2017. I ranked it sixth, finding it incomplete and impenetrable. Having now read the whole arc with the context of earlier Black Panther comics, I'm pretty baffled that issues #1-4 were collected on their own; the story hasn't even come to a stopping point, it just stops. At the time, I assumed what confused me was from earlier Black Panther comics, but that wasn't the case—annoyingly, it mostly happened in Avengers, I think. Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates fills you in a little, but often not enough; in issue #12, for example, T'Challa apologizes to the way he deserted Shuri before she died, but because I didn't know he did that until the apology, the moment falls flat.

from Black Panther vol. 6 #1

Overall, I felt like this arc had some interesting ideas but Coates didn't know how to pace a comics story; at twelve issues, it feels like the whole thing goes in circles a bit too much. Again and again, T'Challa agonizes over what to do about this revolution; again and again, the two different rebel factions bicker; again and again, Shuri talks to someone in the afterlife. It rarely felt like anything was moving forward, like the state of play was changing. In a twelve-issue arc, I think you need to have clear moments of energy and upset, but this story didn't have that.

I did, however, very much enjoy issue #10, which is where I felt Coates finally nailed what he was going for—and the majority of the issue is a conversation between T'Challa and a political science professor! But in this conversation, I felt there was a lot more dynamism than in the story's endless series of action sequences that didn't actually move the story forward. The idea of T'Challa grappling with kingship finally pays off here, and though the idea of a T'Challa who'd rather be a hero than a king doesn't accord with how I see the character (I prefer Priest's take), it works well enough on its own terms.

from Black Panther vol. 6 #12

Unfortunately, the climax in #11 is a bit disappointing. After all the stuff about returning power to the people, moving away from a system of "one man" having a "nation under his feet"... the way T'Challa defeats the rebel army is by summoning spirits of all the previous Black Panthers? Why? I didn't see how it paid off anything from the previous issue or story as a whole. And I'm curious how the new government promised in #12 is different from the old one, but I guess that's an issue for stories going forward. I am also curious to see more of some of the supporting cast, such as the politics professor and the two rogue lesbian Dora Milajae.

Brian Stelfreeze is pretty good on art, but like a lot of superstar artists on high-profile runs, he draws fewer issues than the fill-in artists do!

A Nation under Our Feet originally appeared in issues #1-12 of Black Panther vol. 6 (June 2016–May 2017). The story was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates; illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze (#1-4, 9, 12) and Chris Sprouse & Karl Story (#5-8, 10-12), with finishes by Goran Sudžuka (#11), Walden Wong (#8, 11), Roberto Poggi (#11), and Scott Hanna (#12); colored by Laura Martin (#1-12), with Matt Milla (#4, 11-12), Larry Molinar (#11), Rachelle Rosenberg (#11), and Paul Mounts (#11); lettered by Joe Sabino (#1-7, 9-12) and Clayton Cowles (#8); and edited by Wil Moss.

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