Black Panther (2016) #1 Review

Black Panther (2016) #1

Here we are guys with the issue number one of Black Panther ongoing which is also a part of “A Nation Under Our Feet” storyline. We are still looking into Wakanda and see what’s changed in Secret Wars. The comic opens up as T'Challa recalls his past failures against his ancestors, being cast out from his own country and then to have his own people having questioned him about what he’s really trying to do as a King of that nation.

Then we see the Great Mound where T'Challa tries to praise the Vibranium miners for their hard work but someone’s manipulating them. Filling them with hate and trying to start a Civil War. T'Challa may question himself but he still knows that he is the Black Panther and with that he can track anyone through the wind and rain. Because he hasn’t tracked just the body, he tracks the very soul of a person. But then the deceiver’s scent has gone stale sort and he stops his pursuit with a soldier telling him that he must call the rest of the soldiers before it turns into a massacre.

War and Hate Spreads

The comic then cuts to the Golden City of Wakanda where sentencing of Aneka, the former captain of the Royal Guard for killing a chieftain without evidence for his wrongdoings. And it is then quickly change from black and white to gray when someone she cares about is the one being sentenced, the hooded woman speaks after the sentencing.

The Blood-Alloy of Wakanda

We then find out that the woman is none other than Ramonda, step-mother to King T'Challa. She asks his son what happened at the mines. He says that he tried to reason with the workers but it was no use. They were listening to someone else. Ramonda asks what they should do now and T'Challa says that he will find her and kill her to stop the madness. But his mother asks if death is always the answer and that Wakanda has bigger troubles than one person. Such as strife, invasion, flood, infiltration and regicide are among other things that he needs to focus on. But T'Challa decides to handle one problem at a time and Ramonda says, he should stop chasing ghosts and what really is important and not to lose oneself in the killing, because he isn’t a soldier but a king.

A King, Not a Soldier

Then the panel shifts to a woman in a green and her complex as we see they have agendas too rather than freeing the people of Wakanda. They are poisoned themselves as new rulers if the uprising works with filling people with rage. We then see former Dora Milaje, Aneka is being held in a prison where a breakout is staged by her lover Ayo. Later at the campfire as they contemplate whether they should be doing right now because they are both as good as dead by going against their king and believe that he does not care about Wakanda anymore.

The Midnight Angels!

We cut to the burial site of the previous Black Panthers, known as Necropolis where T'Challa ponders how long must he divided by his own people, to be hated by his own blood. And as the book ends we see T'Challa try to resuscitate his own sister Shuri.

Departure of Blood

It was a great first issue we see T'Challa think about what’s currently going on with Wakanda and how he copes with everything being a ruler that no one loves or even likes anymore because they just say that he’s just doing this for his own selfish reasons and not care for the people of his own, like he shifts from the previous Black Panthers and we see the inner struggles that has divided T'Challa from his own countrymen to the rest of the world. And he’s also lonely as these family things torn him apart. We see that Shuri is still dead for the most part and he is constantly trying to bring her back at the end. I do like that and we will see what happens next. It’s basically a Civil War. In a Civil War, whistle blowers are rallying up the common folks for no apparent reason or their own agendas which is here we’re trying to claim the throne for themselves, which I also love. Can’t wait for the next issue of this Marvel Comics series but the arc’s a little iffy for me to give this issue a high praise but writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and artist Brian Stelfreeze (Domino, Wednesday Comics) really pulled it nicely in overall.

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