Uptown

Then

Since being placed as temporary regent of Wakanda, Everett Ross has found himself a guest of the Black Panther (T’Challa’s) mortal enemy, Erik Killmonger.[1] Although treated like a guest, Everett is given a fancy room for the night. But, just like in Wakanda, the early morning drum beats are keeping him awake. When he goes to the door to see who is causing the drumming sound, he finds Brother Voodoo (Jericho Drumm) waiting on the other side.

At that same time, in Manhattan, the Black Panther has been ambushed by agents of Killmonger: Nightshade (Tilda Johnson), Boss Morgan, Cockroach (Dontrell) Hamilton, Cottonmouth (Burchell Clemens),[2] and Stilleto (Thomas Stuart). Luckily, his allies Power Man, Iron Fist, and the Falcon have come to help him even the odds. While Power Man (Luke Cage) and Iron Fist (Daniel Rand) trade quips as they while fighting Stilleto, Cockroach and Cottonmouth,[3] the Falcon clashes with his old foe, Boss Morgan.[4][5]

While fighting one-on-one, the heroes are triumphing over the villains. Deciding to change tactics, both sides begin a new charge as teams. However, before they can clash, Brother Voodoo and Everett Ross appear before them in a puff of smoke, having teleported from N’Jadaka Village in Wakanda.

Now

Everett is relating everything that has happened to his boss, Nikki Adams, who is currently in the hospital nursing a broken leg. When she asks if this is when the Hulk showed up, Everett admits that there is a lot more to the story. Having gotten fed up with the way that Ross recounts out of order, she tells him. As it turns out, Ross isn’t the only one visiting her at the hospital. Also present are Queen Divine Justice, Brother Voodoo, Power Man, and the Hulk. Seeing that Everett is out of his depth, Queen tells him she’ll go in and straighten out the story.[6] While Nikki is alone, the Black Panther enters the room and she laments how badly things are going. T’Challa, however, is only concerned about Nikki telling Everett the truth about their past relationship. When she points out that she’s been busy, the Panther tells her that he is going back to Wakanda to deal with Erik Killmonger and if she hasn’t told Ross the truth by the time he comes back, he will tell Everett instead.[7]

That’s when Queen Divine Justice enters the room and tells Nikki that she has come to straighten out the story for Ross. Nikki wants her to go and tries to bribe her, which doesn’t work since Queen recently joined the ranks of the Dora Milaje.[8] She quickly recaps how the Panther left Everett in charge while he went to work with the Avengers, then saved a hijacked plane by Hydro Man, who was hired by his old foe Erik Killmonger.[9] He left Everett in charge of Wakanda in his absence. In turn while Black Panther and his allies were fighting Nightshade and her cohorts, Everett was made a guest of Killmonger. That was until Brother Voodoo showed up and teleported Ross back to New York, which is where Ross left off before Nikki kicked him out.

Brother Voodoo had come seeking out the Black Panther’s aid because he had sensed a disturbance in the “deadside”, the veil between life and death.[10] He explains this to T’Challa while he and his allies continued fighting. They are soon joined by Goliath (Bill Foster) who helps them wrap up the battle quickly.[11] Foster explains that he came to deliver a message from T’Challa’s Brooklyn headquarters as he has a visitor waiting for him.

That’s when Nikki interrupts again and demands to know how the Hulk came into the picture. Hearing his name, the gamma spawned monster enters the room. Amazingly Queenie manages to placate the monster and send him back into the waiting room while she continues her story.

As it turns out, the Hulk ended up on the rampage near the Black Panther’s Brooklyn hideout because some villain had planted a sonic device on the brute, causing him to go on a tear.[12] When Brother Voodoo teleported them onto the scene, Everett accidentally fell on the Hulk, knocking the device off. That’s when Queenie was able to talk down the Hulk and convince him to go clubbing with her. Nikki is afraid to hear what happened next. Divine tells Nikki that nothing bad happened and she eventually talked him into going to Chili Burger with her….

Earlier

Having the Hulk sit down to eat some burgers with her, she confides in the monster that she is afraid of becoming part of the Dora Milaje. This is a huge responsibility and she fears that she might fail at the job. The Hulk, is able to empathize with her, saying that he has failed in the past as well.[13] That’s when they went to the club, and they were soon joined by the Black Panther and Everett Ross. T’Challa then managed to convince Queen to sneak the Hulk otu the back before the military shows up, as Ross called for back-up. She did as she was told and convinces the Hulk to leave before trouble shows up. She kisses the Hulk on the cheek and says she will pray for him. Hulk shares this sentiment, and Queen thanks him because she’s going to need it. That’s when Nikkie showed up with the others and broke her leg when she tripped on the remains of a metal detector that the Hulk inadvertedly smashed coming into the club.

Now

As Queen concludes her story, she then brings up the matter of Nikki’s past relationship with the Black Panther. She knows that she has been keeping this from Ross and tells her that he needs to tell him eventually. Little do they know that Everett was just walking in as she is saying this and is shocked by what he hears!

Recurring Characters

Black Panther, Brother Voodoo, Hulk, Power Man, Iron Fist, Falcon, Nightshade, Boss Morgan, Cockroach Hamilton, Stiletto, Cottonmouth, Everett Ross, Nikki Adams, Queen Divine Justice, Goliath, Redwing

Continuity Notes

1. Everett Ross was made regent of Wakanda while the Black Panther was away on Avengers business see Black Panther (vol. 3) #13. The Avengers business was fighting Ultron, as seen in Avengers (vol. 3) #19-22.

2. Luke mentions how he is the senior partner in their business. He is referring to Heroes for Hire, which he and Iron Fist first formed back in Power Man and Iron Fist #54. Everett’s narration states that Cage was wrongly convicted for a crime and “fell in a vat of cream of wheat” to get his powers. He is, of course, being hyperbolic Luke was indeed frame for a crime, but while incarcerated he agreed to undergo an experimental process that gave him his powers as seen in Heroes for Hire #1. Luke was an outlaw for a while until he was able to clear his name with the help of Iron Fist in Power Man #49.

3. Cottonmouth is misidentified as Quincy McIver here. This is actually the real name of Cottonmouth’s Serpent Society teammate Bushmaster. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #10 clarifies that Cottonmouth’s real name is actually Burchell Clemens. The possible source of this error could have been a typo in Dragon Magazine #15, which mixed up the identities of both Cottonmouth and Bushmaster.

4. Everett also gives mention of Falcon’s “origins” (using the cream of wheat line, again) and mentions his past as the criminal pimp named “Snap” Wilson. At the time of this story, it was believed that Sam Wilson became a crook after his parents were killed. This was later revealed to be false memories and a fake persona implanted on the law abiding Sam Wilson a falconer who made the mistake of taking a job working for the Red Skull and his Exiles. The Skull used the Cosmic Cube to alter Sam’s personality and make him seem like a criminal sleeper agent as well as gave him his ability to telepathically communicate with his bird, Redwing. The “Snap” Wilson thing wouldn’t be revealed as false until many years later. For all of these details check out Captain America #117, 186, 277, and All-New Captain America #3.

5. Falcon and Boss Morgon have a history together. See Captain America #152, 154, 157-158, 165, 177-179, and 183.

6. Everett started recounting these events back in Black Panther (vol. 3) #15, starting with an incident involving the Hulk. He has been spending this entire time trying to get to that part of the story.

7. T’Challa and Nikki had a relationship back when the went to university together, as revealed in Black Panther (vol. 3) #6. T’Challa had asked Nikki to reveal their past to Everett (her current boyfriend since the start of the series) in issue #15.

8. Queen Divine Justice, a Chicago native, is Wakandan by blood and was selected to replace her predacessor Nakia after she disgraced herself and was exiled. See Black Panther (vol. 3) #13.

9. The Hydro Man battle took place in Black Panther (vol. 3) #13-14.

10. This is in reference to how, at this point, Killmonger has managed to cheat death more than once. He was killed in a life or death battle with the Black Panther in Jungle Action (vol. 2) #17. He was briefly resurrected as a zombie slave of the Mandarin in Iron Man Annual #5, however he was brought back to full life in Over the Edge #6. He died again and was resurrected once more, how he cheated death this time around is explained next issue.

11. Queen Divine Justice last heard that Bill Foster had lost his Goliath powers and is surprised to see him in his old Black Goliath costume. The details:

    • Foster first operated as Black Goliath when he got his powers in Power Man #24. However he dropped the “Black” part in his name going with Giant-Man in Marvel Two-in-One #55.

    • Indeed, there was a brief period where Foster had lost his powers. This all began when he contracted cancer after being exposed to radiation from his foe Atom-Smasher in Black Goliath #3.

    • He was cured with a blood transfusion from Spider-Woman in Marvel Two-In-One #85, however the cure came at the cost of his powers. Not long after, while working for the High Evolutionary, Foster managed to restore his powers in West Coast Avengers Annual #3.

12. The Hulk appears here between the events of Hulk #7 (between pages 20 and 21 of that issue specifically, according to the Marvel Chronology Project).

13. You can’t read an issue of the Hulk without the monster screwing something up when he means well. But the footnote here cites Incredible Hulk #207 specifically. In that issue, the Hulk was seeking a means of resurrecting his recently deceased love Jarella (who had died in Incredible Hulk #205). When he sought the aid of Doctor Strange, but the sorcerer told Hulk that there was nothing to do.

Topical References

• When staying the night in N’Jadaka Village, he is depicted wearing a sweater shirt from the 1993 Janet Jackson world tour (simply titled “Janet”). This should be considered a topical reference as this could be replaced with a more contemporary reference.

• When explaining Nightshade’s arsenal, Everett hopes she has a box of Band-Aids. While this is the name of a brand of adhesive bandages it has since become a proprietary eponym, and its reference here wouldn’t necessarily be considered topical.

• Cage calls the Black Panther “Friskees Buffet”, this should be considered a topical reference as Friskees is a real world brand of cat food.

• Stilletto calls Iron Fist’s martial arts skills “Jackie Chan moves”, Chan was a famous actor best known for his martial arts skills. The actor was at the height of his popularity in the United States. This should be considered a topical reference as a more contemporary example can be used in its place.

• When the Black Panther tries identifying Iron Fist’s fighting stance, Rand quips that he’s doing Tae Bo. This was a fitness regimen that incorporated martial arts that was created by Billy Blanks, a taekwondo fighter. It was incredibly popular in the 1990s. Its reference here should be considered topical as a more contemporary reason can be used.

• When at the club, the song playing is “The Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang. This song is considered a classic of the genre. Its reference here could be considered topical since technically a more contemporary song could be used in its place.