Smash

While recovering in the hospital with a broken leg, Nikki Adams has requested an update from her employee Everett Ross. Ross is the United States government’s attaché to Wakanda and, as usual, he has a habit of getting the chain of events all mixed up.[1]

He starts off with an encounter with the Hulk in an alleyway. Ross was rightly scared out of his wits. Luckily T’Challa — aka the Black Panther — was there to face down the gamma spawned monster. In the middle of the fight, Queen Divine Justice — the newest member of the Dora Milaje — begins browbeating the Hulk for damaging property owned by the downtrodden African-American community that live in the neighborhood.[2][3]

Surprisingly, Queen manages to get the Hulk on her side. Unfortunately, however, she isn’t interested in stopping the fight, but protecting her neighborhood from property damage. Instead of throwing a car owned by one of her neighbors, she instead convinces the Hulk to throw a cop car instead. T’Challa easily cushions the blow from the squad car with his Vibranium soled boots and then tries to talk both Queen and the Hulk down. Uninterested in hearing anything T’Challa has to say — as she has no interest in being part of the Dora Milaje — Queen Divine Justice manages to convince the Hulk to take her to a nearby club for some dancing instead.

This is when Nikki interrupts Everett’s story because his jumping around is making it hard to follow. She gets him back on track by telling him everything that happened after T’Challa prevented a commercial airliner from crash landing on the White House.[4]

At the time, the Black Panther had put Everett in charge of Wakanda while he returned to the United States on Avengers business. At first, it seemed pretty cushy for Ross, that was until W’Kabi insisted that Everett go out on a hunt for a bull elephant. Even though the creatures are endangered species, W’Kabi insists that the hunt must go on because it will maintain peace among the many tribes that make up Wakandan society. When confronted with the giant elephant, Everett realizes just how out of his depth that he is and calls a time out while he make a panicked phone call to Nikki for help.

At the time, Nikki was in a meeting with T’Challa taking notes on how he rescued the commercial airliner from Hydro-Man.[5] They are interrupted by a panicked call from Everett, which Nikki promptly ignores and hangs up. T’Challa then begins pressing her on the cool attitude she has been giving him and the fact that she assigned her current boyfriend as liaison with her former lover.[6] He questions if she is trying to punish people by such an arrangement and she admits that maybe she’s trying to punish everyone. They are interrupted by yet another call from Everett, this time to T’Challa. Taking command of the situation, he asks that Everett pass the phone to W’Kabi who confirms that he will ensure Ross’ safety. W’Kabi then hands Everett an ancestorial spear of the Panther Clan to slay the elephant. It is so heavy that Ross can barely lift it off the ground.

That evening, T’Challa has returned to Nikki’s apartment and changes into the Black Panther, as he still has to talk to the local authorities. Nikki offers her condolences about the loss of Monica Lynne, who went missing during the war with Achebe. T’Challa explains that it was due to the machinations of Nakia, a disgraced member of the Dora Milaje that allowed her emotions to overtake her.[7] He then changes the subject back to her relationship with Everett. T’Challa has figured out that she hasn’t told Ross about their past relationship and insists that they tell him the truth.

Back in Wakanda, the warriors on the hunt have managed to restrain the massive bull elephant with ropes so that Everett can land the killing blow. However, with the beast at their mercy, Ross realizes that he can’t take its life. That’s when the elephant breaks free from its bonds.

By this time, the Black Panther and Adams are about to part company. Before she goes, she asks about them an who hired Hydro-Man for the hijacking. He tells her it is a man named N’Jadaka.[8] When she asks who that is, he tells her that he is a dead man and nothing more.

That’s when they get another panicked call from Everett Ross, who is fleeing for his life from the elephant. Once again, they dismiss his fears as nothing serious. That’s when someone comes charging out of the jungle and tackles the elephant with his bare hands. With this newcomer arrives with a leopard and Monica Lynne in tow. Monica tells Everett that she has managed to survive the jungles thanks to the man who is now saving Everett’s life. The leopard’s name is Preyy and it is owned by Ross’ savior. After killing the elephant, his rescuer introduces himself as Erik Killmonger!

Recurring Characters

Black Panther, Hulk, Everett Ross, Queen Divine Justice, Monica Lynne, Nikki Adams, W’Kabi, Erik Killmonger

Continuity Notes

1. How Everett found himself face-to-face with the Hulk will be properly explained in Black Panther (vol. 3) #17.

2. Queen Divine Justice is an outspoken civil rights activist that recently found out that she was the next in line to be one of T’Challa’s “brides-in-waiting” of the Dora Milaje, as will be explained in greater detail next issue. We first saw her in Black Panther (vol. 3) #13.

3. Everett mentions how he hoped T’Challa would treat the Hulk like he did Mephisto. The Black Panther fought the Lord of Lies in Black Panther (vol. 3) #1-5.

4. Over the last two issues, Erik Killmonger had hired Hydro Man to hijack a commercial airliner.

5. Its stated here that Hydro-Man made his “last stand”, implying that he had died in the battle. I did not, he was merely evaporated. He’ll be back causing trouble again in Thunderbolts #35.

6. T’Challa met and had a brief relationship with Nikki back in his university days, as revealed in Black Panther (vol. 3) #6.

7. T’Challa is glossing over the situation, but allow me to explain in greater detail. See, T’Challa was tricked by Mephisto into making out with Nakia in Black Panther (vol. 3) #3. This made her believe that he had chosen her to become his queen. As such, she took great issue with the fact that Monica and T’Challa had a relationship. When the Black Panther was liberating Wakanda from Achebe, Nakia ejected Monica into the Wakandan jungles where she was lost as seen in Black Panther (vol. 3) #11. In the aftermath of the battle, T’Challa figured out what Nakia did and had her banished in shame.

8. N’Jadaka was Erik Killmonger’s birth name, which he abandoned just as he was abandoned by the people of Wakanda when he was younger, as explained in Jungle Action (vol. 2) #7.

Topical References

• When making her political rant, Queen name drops luxury vehicles made by Lexus. This should be considered a topical reference as this is a real world brand of vehicles.

• Both Everett and Nikki are depicted as having a flip phone model cell phone with an antenna. This should be considered a topical reference as these types of phones are now obsolete.