Enemy of the State II, Book Two: Alliance

The Black Panther (King T’Challa, ruler of Wakanda), is setting plans in motion to prevent an organization called XCon from taking over the world. One of these steps involves sending one of his aides to the office of the Secretary General to the United States. This man has a piece of paper that announces that T’Challa is exercising his nation’s claim on an island located on Lake Superior and is gifting it to the local indigenous tribes in the region. Reading the note, the Secretary General demands to speak with T’Challa immediately.

Meanwhile, at Stark Enterprises, Pepper Potts arrives at work and sees that Tony has been ripping all the communications wires apart. When she asks what’s wrong, he shows her a file that reveals that ABC Wire & Cable — the company that provided these cables to both Stark and the Avengers — has been owned by the Black Panther this entire time. That’s when Happy Hogan comes back with some lab results and it looks equally grim: That these cables are swarming with nanites that could collect data and send it to T’Challa. Given the recent revelations about the Panther’s lack of trust of the Avengers when he first joined, Tony realizes the gravity of the situation and puts a call in to T’Challa’s liaison with the US State Department, Henry Gyrich.

At that moment, in Philadelphia, the villain known as Princess Zanda has fallen on hard times and is now working at a KCF chicken franchise. Despite this, she still pontificates about her destiny to her coworkers who have no idea what she is talking about or what to make of her. As she serves some impatient customers she chides them for having no direction and recalls how she once sought out King Solomon’s Frogs, rare items of antiquity.[2] Luckily for her, the days of toiling for minimum wage are about to end as the other Black Panther arrives on the scene with Everett Ross and Abner Little to recruit the Princess on their current adventure. Ross is an unwilling companion who can’t make sense of who this double of T’Challa really and why he exists.[3] Princess Zanda has guessed that the others have come because the Frogs have returned and that they seek to find them again. She eagerly agrees to join the Panther on his quest.

In Chicago, Queen Divine Justice has went to the rendezvous point to meet with Vibraxas. Instead of find N’Kano, she is ambushed by Junta (Danny Vincent), a spy who who works for intelligence for the Volcan Domyan Secret Police and affiliated with XCon. When she confronts him with this, Danny insists that he merely lives in Queens with his mother and writes books for the NSA. The two fight briefly until Danny manages to stun her long enough to grab her in his arms. As his powers are tied to a gravity well, contact with Vincent causes Queen to become disorientated and feeling slightly sick to her stomach. He explains why that is and assures her that he’s not there to fight, but to help her out.[4]

Meanwhile, Tony Stark (as Iron Man) holds an emergency meeting with the Avengers. Those present are Captain America (Steve Rogers), the Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), Yellowjacket (Hank Pym), Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff), Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff), the Vision, and Warbird (Carol Danvers) answer the summons. Iron Man reveals how T’Challa allegedly has bugged their entire IT infrastructure through a shell company. Tony explains to the others that he is planning on going to Canada to see what the Panther is up to now and wants everyone present to vote on whether or not they are going to expel him from the Avengers.

Later, Tony Stark meets with Henry Gyrich on a cruise ship passing the shores of Sault St. Marie, Ontario, on Lake Superior. Stark reaffirms his commitment to Gyrich to stop XCon. The situation, however, is growing more dire as more government assets and operatives have been murdered by this organization.[5] However, Stark has no illusions that Gyrich is doing this to get his old job with the NSA back.[6] Henry tells Stark that the reason they are on this floating casino is because it is the local base of operations for XCon and impresses on Tony the need to find T’Challa as soon as possible. Tony tells Gyrich that won’t be necessary as they have been spotted by the Panther himself who is also on the ship.

T’Challa then goes down to one of the high stakes gambling tables and puts down all of his money and the keys to his private jet as collateral for his bet. That’s when Tony joins the betting table to try and convince T’Challa to stop his obsession over XCon and how his obsessions will be unhealthy for everybody. However, the Panther isn’t going to be lectured about the ways of the world from Tony Stark. He points out how he has invited Tony to Wakanda many times as an honored guest, yet Tony has not invited him to his home. The point that he is making is that Stark does not see T’Challa as an equal and is speaking from his place of white privilege. As the man that T’Challa was gambling with leaves the table, Stark decides to do things T’Challa’s way. He then offers up his minor shares in the Wakandan Design Group and some cash and challenges T’Challa to bet his 51% ownership of the company.[7]

Meanwhile, the “Middle Eastern” man that T’Challa was gambling with was actually Wolverine (Logan) in disguise. The mutant has been helping T’Challa shut down XCon and, while Tony stark is being pre-occupied, he is doing just that. He forces his way into the central office on the gambling ship. Fighting his way through the guards is easy with both a mutant healing factor and a Vibranium weave make this task easy. He then forces the head of the casino to access the computer and install software that will uplink their database to Wakandan spy satellites and allow both Logan and the Panther to get past their biometric security systems.

As that’s going down, Tony Stark and T’Challa continue their game of poker. Stark notices that T’Challa’s hand has a tremor to it and suspects this is out of fear of losing his company to an American. In reality, T’Challa is still recovering from a severe beating he received from Iron Fist recently.[8] Suddenly, T’Challa folds and leaves the table, which comes as a shock to Tony. Especially when they turn over his cards and discover that he had a straight flush and would have won in the end. Stark heads off to change into Iron Man, bumping into Gyrich. He tells Henry to get off the ship as a fight is about to happen.

Reuniting with Wolverine, T’Challa and Okoye go down to the part of the ship where all the money is counted and stored. Thanks to the downloaded biometric and voice recognition patterns, T’Challa and his allies manage to force their way to the ship’s massive safe. However, when they open it, they are ambushed from inside by Iron Man. The Avenger grabs Wolverine by the throat and demands answers. T’Challa — fighting off another tremor from his injuries — slips inside to change into the Black Panther. When he leaps out of the vault, he uses his Anti-Metal weapons to pierce and disable Tony’s armor, making him put Logan down. Wolverine then does what he does best extracting his Admantium claws and going berserk on Iron Man’s armor. Eventually, the Pather has to pull Wolverine off Tony in order to spare his life.

They then begin searching the safe for what they have come looking for. While they are searching, T’Challa surprises Wolverine by taking a call on his Kimoyo Card from the President of Paolo Santera. He is overjoyed at the Wakandan donation of new trucks so they can bring a harvest of gravel berries to market. The Panther then finds what they are looking for stored in a briefcase and the pair make a tasty retreat.

Meanwhile, T’Challa’s man in the hall of power calls a press conference about Wakanda’s ownership of the island on Lake Superior. He tells the press that the a treaty signed in 1892 gave title ownership to King Asiri the Wise of Wakanda back in the day. Now, he announces that the current king, T’Challa, is going to be returning the land to the First Nation’s people of the region. The news quickly gets back to the Canadian superhero team known as Alpha Flight. As Guardian (James Hudson), Vindicator (Heather McNeil-Hudson), and Puck (Eugene Judd) go over the details they are unsure what the Black Panther’s motivations are. Regardless, this has just drawn the attention of their team who is now going to investigate.

Recurring Characters

Black Panther (616 & 1145), Wolverine, Iron Man, XCon, Everett Ross, Abner Little, Princess Zanda, Queen Divine Justice, Henry Gyrich, Avengers (Captain America, Yellowjacket, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Vision, Warbird), Alpha Flight (Guardian, Vindicator, Puck (voice only))

Continuity Notes

1. As revealed in Black Panther (vol. 3) #8, when the Black Panther first joined the Avengers (circa Avengers #52) he did so that he could spy on the team and find out if they would be a threat to his homeland. His ownership of ABC Cable is a sham, however, which you’ll find out once we get to issue #44.

2. For more on this quest for King Solomon’s Frogs, check out Black Panther #1-7.

3. This T’Challa was found in suspended animation in Black Panther (vol. 3) #35. As we’ll learn in issues #48-49, this Black Panther is from a timeline some 10 years in the future from the Modern Age. Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #4, this possible future has been designated as Reality-1145.

4. Here, Junta implies that his powers over a gravity well are all thanks to a technological belt that he wears. In reality, the belt actually regulates his powers and prevents his body from losing cohesion. This is revealed in The Crew #3.

5. XCon’s assassinations began last issue, starting with record company executive and CIA asset, MGM Grand.

6. Henry Gyrich was employed by the NSA back when we first saw him in Avengers #165. In recent times, he had a fall from grace after being roped up in a conspiracy to kill all Earth’s superhumans with nanites on behalf of Hydra. For that winding conspiracy check out Thunderbolts #34-50 and Citizen V and the V-Battalion #1-3. Gyrich has been redeeming himself via-a-vie his assignment to the Black Panther starting in Black Panther (vol. 3) #30. Also mentioned here is how XCom was responsible for trying to overthrow Wakanda. This was nearly accomplished by propping up Achebe’s coup in Black Panther (vol. 3) #1-12.

7. Tony Stark ended up buying up shares in the Wakandan Design Group after the Black Panther tanked his country’s economy in order to styme Erik Killmonger’s attempts to take over. See Black Panther (vol. 3) #13-20.

8. Under the control of the Black Dragon, Iron Fist beat the Black Panther pretty badly, as seen in Black Panther (vol. 3) #38-40. He will continue showing these symptoms until issue #62.

Topical References

• This story is steeped in commentary on ancestral land rights of the indigenous populations of both Canada and the United States as they were when this comic was published in 2002. As a white person who has been mostly ignorant of the historic grievances of the indigenous tribes of this continent, I can certainly say that the needle hasn’t moved forward on reconciliation very much in the 20+ years since this comic was published. Still, anything about these ongoing highly politicized issues should be considered contextual to the date of publication and as such the specifics therein should be considered topical. Not that it amounts to much colonialism is still alive and well in our society.

• Tony Stark is depicted as having a “flip” style cell phone with a visible antenna to pick up signals. These types of phones have fallen out of common use thanks to the advent of smart phones and are pretty well obsolete. As such this depiction should be considered topical.

• One of the angry customers at the drive through complains about Princess Zanda being at the drive through by saying “What’s with this Oprah action…?”, this is a reference to former daytime talk show host Oprah Winfrey who was still at the height of her popularity at the time this comic was originally published. The Oprah Winfrey Show ran from 1985 to 2011. While she still does the occasional TV interview, she has mostly retired from television. This would be considered a topical reference as this is a real world individual whose name could be replaced with a more contemporary example.

• Speaking of which, the Black men at the drive in are depicted using slang that was commonly used around the time this comic was published in 2002. Some of which are now considered dated by today’s standards and should be considered topical.

• Everett Ross refers to Black Panther-1145 as “the Fruity Pebbles version” of T’Challa to describe how crazy he is. Fruity Pebbles is a brand of cereal that has been sold since 1971 and best known for featuring characters from the Flintstones television series. This should be considered a topical reference as this is a real world product and really any kind of fruit flavored cereal could be used in its place (Froot Loops being the most common alternative).

• In his narration, Everett Ross states that most everything he knows about Tony Stark was learned from reading the National Enquirer. This is a tabloid newspaper that has been in publication since 1926. It is best known for publishing stories about celebrity scandals and the like. It’s utter trash. It’s also a topical reference here since it is a real world publication.

• It is stated that the T’Challa is gambling 33 million dollars in cash. Adjusting for inflation that would be worth about $56 million in 2024. He’s also stated as owning a Lear jet. This should be considered topical as it is a real world brand of private jet. Later, when Tony joins the game the total value at stake is 3.5 billion in 2002 money. That would be worth 5.6 billion in 2024.

• Wolverine remembers Jeffrey Sutter “that thing” in Malaysia in 1993. In all likelihood, Sutter is an ordinary guy with a normal human lifespan. As such, while Wolverine was around in 1993, the possibility that Sutter was as well becomes increasingly impossible as the Sliding Timescale pushes the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe forward in time. As such, this date should be considered topical as it is relative to the date of publication. Modern readers should interpret this to mean that Wolverine first encountered Sutter about 9 years prior to this story as opposed to a specific date.

• When getting access to XCon’s computer data base, Wolverine quips that he wants to check his AOL. America Online is a real-world internet service provider that was one of the largest in the United States at the time this comic was published. At the time, people checking their e-mail would refer to it as “checking my AOL” in the same way that we refer to “checking my Gmail” today. This is a topical reference because AOL is a real world business and the term is dated as evidenced by my example of a more contemporary example that can be used in its place. Logan also downloads the satellite uplink softwar via a an optical disc drive. Given the time frame this story was published this is either a CD or DVD-rom drive. This is another topical reference as these forms of physical media have fallen out of popular use and are on their way to obsolescence.

• Wolverine jokingly refers to Okoye as Queen Latifah, aka Dana Elaine Owens, a notable Black musician and actor. She was at the height of her popularity as a rapper at the time this story was published. This should be considered a topical reference as it can be replaced with a contemporary example. He later refers to T’Challa as “Whiskas”, a real world brand of cat food. This is another topical reference.

• Guardian is depicted getting a copy of the 1892 treaty via fax machine. This should be considered a topical reference as this is now an obsolete technology.

Translations

There are various instances of untranslated dialogue spoken by characters in this story. Namely Danny Vincent’s “mother” drone and when T’Challa speaks to the Prime Minister of Paolo Santera. They are:

• “Las balas no son letales, Danny” = “The bullets are not lethal, Danny”

• “Hola --? Senior Minister Primera? Ha llegado mi regalo?” = “Hello? Mister Prime Minister? Did you get my gift?”