Black Panther (vol. 3) #44
Enemy of the State II, Book Four: 60 Minutes
The Black Panther (T’Challa) is trying to take down an organization called XCon, which has been attempting to take over the United States after a failed coup of Wakanda and conquering Canada.[1] However, this has been a covert war requiring a lot of trickery and manipulation.
Unsure of the Panther’s intentions, Iron Man (Tony Stark) has been opposing his former ally. He has now returned to Avengers Mansion to see if they have reached a decision on the Panther’s continued membership in the Avengers.[2] The Wasp tells him that the team has voted to stay out of the matter since this appears to be some kind of personal grievance between Tony and T’Challa,[3] particularly since their companies have been entangled in the entire mess.[4] She then warns Tony to be careful what he does next as his actions could lead to both he and T’Challa being removed from the Avengers.
Elsewhere in New York City, Monica Lynne is trying to relax when there is a buzz at her door at six-thirty in the morning, not a good sign. When she answers the door she finds Everett Ross and Princess Zanda standing there. Before Everett can explain the situation, Monica slams the door in their faces, uninterested in whatever madness they are bringing to her home. That’s when she sees that the Black Panther is in her apartment. T’Challa becomes tearful because he believed that he would never see Monica ever again. Unaware that this isn’t the man she has been dealing with for months — but an unexplained duplicate of him — she tries to blow him off.[5][6][7] This T’Challa won’t relent and tries to charm her with a rose, which doesn’t seem to work.
While this is going on, Queen Divine Justice, the President of the United States, and Junta (Danny Vincent) have found refuge at a dance club. Danny interrupts Queen and the President’s on going debates on current policy to impress upon them the gravity of the situation. He explains that XCon has replaced the President with a identical duplicate somehow and they need to replace the impostor with the real deal in order to stop their plot. QDJ doesn’t think this will be a hard mission to pull off since getting into the White House will be simple since the President knows how to get in.
Meanwhile, the real Black Panther has leveraged the global economy to commit a hostile take over of Stark Enterprises, the company owned by his fellow Avenger, Iron Man (Tony Stark). With T’Challa now taking up the head office, Tony Stark promises him that this takeover won’t stand up in court and he’ll soon have his company back. T’Challa tells Stark that he’ll only need control of the company for an hour, just in time for an emergency meeting between the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada that is to take place in Washington.[8]
Sine they have some time to kill, Tony decides to go over events to figure out what’s going on. He starts by noting that the Black Panther started his seemingly mad quest when record producer MGM Grand was murdered in his car. Stark was then visited about the incident by Senator Rakim, a former rival of T’Challa from his university days, Tony saw it as a message.[9] T’Challa then sent another message, in the form of Henry Gyrich who managed to dig up documentation that showed that the Panther owned ABC Cable, the company that provided IT infrastructure to both Stark Enterprises and the Avengers. Tony knew that was impossible since he owned the company and decided to play along with T’Challa’s plan, even going so far as to make accusations of spying and asking the Avengers to expel him.[10] Then during their recent battle against one another, T’Challa intentionally crippled Tony’s armor while they were under water. Needing to get to the surface before a hardening foam caused his armor to sink like a rock, he was then attacked by a Wakandan flying battleship. His temper already at its wits end, Iron Man attacked the ship.[11]
It’s now that Stark realized that T’Challa had orchestrated that as well, that he wanted Iron Man to trash the ship to escalate things further. Stark realized that up to that point he had been looking at the growing situation from the wrong perspective. He was two busy trying to figure out what T’Challa’s plans were. He then realized that this kind of convoluted plot had to have be pretty big if it were to warrant the Panther’s attention. Tony then decided to head to the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada in Ottawa to follow a hunch. What he found there finally allowed Stark to understand T’Challa finally. There he found Hunter, the White Wolf of the Hatut Zeraze, who told him that his adopted brother has been playing Iron Man like a fiddle and explained everything.[12]
The organization known as XCon no longer exists because Hunter and the Hautut Zeraze took over the organization by eliminating its leadership. They managed to wipe everyone out except for an operative named Junta who managed to escape with the organizations key assets: The President of the United States. As it turns out, while everyone in the know thought T’Challa was trying to prevent the President being replaced with a duplicate, the ploy already happened 6 weeks earlier after testing out the plot with the Prime Minister of Canada. Hunter revealed that these duplicates were acquired from 11 seconds in the future. They plucked the world leaders from the timestream using King Solomon’s Frogs — one of which T’Challa stole recently. The future versions of these world leaders were then brainwashed into loyal operatives of the Hatut Zeraze and swapped out with their present day counterparts.
With his insane plot — all in the name of tribal justice — Hunter then pointed out the reason why the Panther never built a suit of armor like Iron Man was because he chose not to. While Tony pondered this, Hunter ordered his Hatut Zeraze to eliminate him. As Wakanda’s elite team of assassins swarmed him, Hunter revealed his true reason for all of this. The White Wolf was furious that Stark had purchased shares of the Wakandan Design Group, seeing it as an insult to the homeland he dedicated himself to.[13] Iron Man was distracted by this revelation at first, but was able to get his attackers off of him by unleashing a powerful sonic blast. It was then that Wolverine and Alpha Flight (Vindicator, Puck, Sasquatch, and Snowbird) arrived to take control of the situation.
This all led to the discussion they are having now with the two men waiting out the timed lock on Tony’s private safe. Stark now is debating on if he should let T’Challa have what’s inside or not. He is upset that T’Challa didn’t confide the truth to him and wonders if T’Challa harbors some kind of grudge. After a moments silence, the Panther points out that Tony nearly broke his jaw, and then explains how he had to act in secret to ensure Tony’s safety before it was time for Stark to know the truth. Now with minutes left, T’Challa suggests that they go to stop the duplicates of the Prime Minister and President. Tony then points out that they’re missing one of King Solomon’s Frogs, the one that can send these duplicates back. That’s when the other Black Panther and his entourage — Everett Ross, Nightshade (Tilda Johnson), Abner Little, Princess Zanda, and Monica Lynne — arrive on the scene. This flamboyant second Panther then presents to T’Challa and Tony the other brass frog that they need to complete their mission.
This menagerie turns the office into utter chaos prompting Tony to yell for everyone to shut up so he can think. While Stark is distracted, T’Challa blasts him with knock out gas. A few moments later, a second Tony Stark arrives and learns that T’Challa got what he needed from the vault. The other Stark knew he couldn’t trust the Black Panther. He then goes to the room where he stores his various suits of Iron Man armor and gets out his latest creation: A new stealth suit that is immune to the Panther’s Anti-Metal weaponry. He then takes off after T’Challa, seeking to stop whatever he plans on doing next.[14][15]
Recurring Characters
Black Panther (616 & 1145), XCon, Iron Man, Everett Ross, Monica Lynne, Abner Little, Princess Zanda, Nightshade, Queen Divine Justice, Junta, Hunter, Zuri, Alpha Flight (Guardian, Vindicator, Puck, Sasquatch, Snowbird), Wolverine
Continuity Notes
The war with XCon began in Black Panther (vol. 3) #41. The failed coup of Wakanda was chronicled in Black Panther (vol. 3) #1-12.
Iron Man asking to have T’Challa’s Avengers membership revoked also happened in issue #41.
Iron Man brings up how T’Challa first joined the Avengers to spy on them and had both Stark Enterprises and Avengers Mansion bugged to spy on them. Black Panther (vol. 3) #8 revealed that when the Panther first joined the Avengers (circa Avengers #52) it was in order to spy on them and determine if they were a threat to his country. That he had been bugging the mansion and Tony’s company wasn’t revealed until Black Panther (vol. 3) #42.
Tony had purchased shares in the Wakandan Design Group during a time when T’Challa was intentionally tanking the Wakandan economy to thwart the schemes of Erik Killmonger. See Black Panther (vol. 3) #13-20. Last issue, T’Challa manipulated global markets to begin a hostile take over of Stark Enterprises, seemingly in retaliation.
Monica Lynn and T’Challa have been in an on-again-off-again relationship since they first met in Avengers #73. Most recently — having many justifiable grievances against him — she ended their relationship in Black Panther (vol. 3) #30.
Monica asks T’Challa if Malice is back. Malice, aka Nakia, was a disgraced member of the Dora Milaje. Obsessed with her King, she attempted to kill Monica in Black Panther (vol. 3) #11, leading to her exile in issue #13. Reinventing herself as Malice, Nakia attempted to kill Monica on two more occasions: in Black Panther (vol. 3) #24 and again in issues #31-33.
As we will learn in Black Panther (vol. 3) #48-49, this other Black Panther is from a timeline some 10 years in the future. Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #4, this timeline exists in Reality-1145.
T’Challa has been using politics to force this meeting to happen, first by annexing a Canadian island using an old treaty in Black Panther (vol. 3) #41, then by the hostile takeover of Stark Enterprises last issue.
The murder of MGM Grand and the visit from Senator Rakim happened in issue #41. The rivalry between T’Challa and the Senator was over their mutual interest in Nikki Adams, as explained in Black Panther (vol. 3) #6.
Iron Man got totally wrecked by the Black Panther and Wolverine last issue.
Hunter mentions how he was adopted as a small boy by T’Chaka, T’Challa’s father. We learned this in Black Panther (vol. 3) #10.
Over the last two issues we discovered that King Solomon’s Frogs had returned since their disappearance in Black Panther #4. They had also been separated, one was stolen by T’Challa-616 aboard an XCon gambling ship in Black Panther (vol. 3) #42, while the other was recovered from Kiber Island by Panther-1145 last issue. Tony says that he has had past dealings with Abner Little and his crew, that was in Iron Man (vol. 3) #18-22.
At the time of this story, Stark has majority stock in the Wakandan Design Group, the company that designed and built the Avengers Quinjets. Wakanda’s involvement in the construction of the jets was first referenced in their first appearance in Avengers #61. However, the Wakandan Design Group was not mentioned specifically until the Quinjet was given schematics in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #1.
I saved this part until the very end, but the duplicate President, Prime Minister, and Tony Stark would all technically come from alternate realities. However, as of this writing (January, 2024) they have yet to be assigned a reality number designation.
When the other Tony Stark goes into his storage room we see some older suits of Iron Man. Including the original grey suit (Tales of Suspense #39) and its gold variant (Tales of Suspense #40), his first suit of red and gold armor (Tales of Suspense #48), the rivet head variant of that armor (Tales of Suspense #54) and lastly, the Silver Centurion armor (Iron Man #200).
Topical References
The scene where Queen Divine Justice and the President are at a nightclub is chock full of topical references that were relevant around the time of publication and can all be replaced with contemporary examples :
The President is depicted as George W. Bush, he was the President of the United States from 2001 to 2009.
QDJ and Dubya are debating political issues that were current in 2002. As they are being discussed in the present tense as though they are still on going, they should be considered topical.
Bush asks the DJ if he has any Merle Haggard, Faith Hill, Robert Earl Keen, Jr., or the Dixie Chicks. This whole exchange is topical for a number of reasons:
All of these real world musicians could be replaced with more contemporary examples.
The Dixie Chicks now simply called themselves the Chicks. In 2020 they replaced the word “Dixie” from their name due to the negative connotations by referring to anything involved in the Confederacy who lost the Civil War since it is steeped in a history of slavery and oppression.
Also, him asking for the Chicks is kind of funny as, one year after this comic was published, the group came under fire for speaking out against Bush’s decision to invade Iraq following the September 11th terrorist attacks.
The DJ is also using CDs to play music, this should be considered topical as this means of playing songs has fallen out of common use and is on its way to obsolescence.
This is more than a nitpick than a topical reference, but I wanted to bring this up. When Tony mentions paying a visit to the Prime Minister in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, he says he went to the Langevin Building on Wellington. Artist Sal Velluto depicts this building as a modern office building. First of all, the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada is called the Langevin Block, because it is a structure that makes up the Parliament Buildings, the seat of Canadian government. More over, it’s not a modern building, but a historical building that was first erected in 1889. It is located on Wellington Street though, so at least that was right. Kind of weird that a series that strives to be politically accurate would flub these details, but hey, nobody’s perfect.
Another interesting thing to point out here is that Hunter has a jar of jellybeans on his desk. I’m quite sure that this is a reference to former US President Ronald Reagan. Other than ignoring the AIDS crisis, committing war crimes, enriching corporations, and had early onset Alzheimer’s that would have made him unfit to lead the country in a sane world, Reagan also had jelly beans on his desk because it was his favorite candy. They like to remind you of that when they are trying to gloss over the atrocities that madman committed. I thought I would point it out as it seems like this was an intentional addition to the scene.
Abner Little is trying to find the Sally Jesse Raphael Show on the CRT television in Tony’s office. This should be considered topical as CRT models are now obsolete and Sally ended its TV run after 19 years in 2002.