Black Panther (vol. 4) #22
World Tour, Part 4: Inside Man
Civil War continues from Amazing Spider-Man #536…
When Jim Rhodes, previously War Machine, was asked to join General Lazer’s new Sentinel Squad, he only agreed to do so as a favor to his long time friend, Tony Stark (Iron Man).[1][2] Their primary task has been keeping the last of Earth’s mutants in line. Since the passage of the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA), Jim finds himself supporting the new law.[3] This is particularly because he has seen what happens when unchecked power gets out of control in the mutant community. He is referring to how the Scarlet Witch single handedly decimated their entire race.[4] He knows that the United States government has a long history of monitoring its citizens from the KKK to the Black Panthers. If it was right or wrong, depends on who you ask.
Meanwhile, the Black Panther (T’Challa) and Storm (Ororo Monroe) have decided to form a coalition of international superhumans in the event that the registration act in America spreads beyond its borders. To this end, they pay a visit to Captain Britain (Brian Braddock) to enlist his aid. Braddock is reluctant to get involved in the politics of another country. Storm presses on the fact that reducing humankind’s fear of superheroes should not come at the expense of injustice towards that same community. This reminds Brian how Charles Xavier formed the X-Men to show humans that mutants weren’t to be feared and how well that has worked so far.[5] Realizing that they aren’t going to get Braddock’s support, T’Challa thanks him for his time. Storm, on the other hand, is disappointed in him. Before they leave, Brian asks when his government can expect the return of the Ebony Blade. The Panther grimly tells Braddock that they can have it back when he is done with it.[6]
At that same time, the head of the State Department is going over footage of the Black Panther and Storm’s recent humanitarian efforts in Africa. With them is the American expert on Wakanda, Everett Ross, who has been briefing them on T’Challa’s recent activities.[7] They are annoyed that the Panther is building positive PR for himself, which may make him more likable that Iron Man and support for the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA). Ross suggests they get Iron Man to do some PR stunts as well. However the State Department head has a better idea: Using T’Challa’s public relations against him.
Later, T’Challa and Ororo are flying to the United States for a state visit to meet with the President of the United States. En route, they discuss their efforts to fight back against the SHRA. He has been applying political pressure in Washington by making contributions to a conservative congressmen who will argue against the “Big Government” aspect of the new law. Meanwhile, he is seeding a poison pill by having agents at a British shell corporation attempting to buy controlling stock in Stark Enterprises. He anticipates that Stark will take the bait and be distracted by preventing this hostile take over from happening. Unfortunately, Storm’s attempts to get aid from the X-Men hasn’t gone as successfully. When she contacted them earlier, Emma Frost told Ororo that the X-Men are sitting this one out, particularly since their primary concern is protecting the world’s remaining mutants following M-Day.[8]
In Washington, the African-American community has come out to show their support for the Black Panther and Storm. The authorities, in response, has shown up in force to maintain security in the event that there a riot breaks out, because white power systems in America always freak out when a crowd of Black people show up.
At the same time, Jim Rhodes and some of his Sentinel Squad unit have been asked to act as security in the event Storm becomes a threat to the President. As he suits up, one of his squad mates what his take on the current political climate. Jim takes offense to this because line of questioning is rooted in white privilege. His teammate gets defensive saying that if he was ordered to take down Captain America, he isn’t sure if he could do it. Jim grimly says that this is exactly why he was selected for this mission.
When the Black Panther and Storm arrive at the White House, they are pulled aside by some Presidential aides. They want Storm to fill out some SHRA forms to register with the government, a requirement if she is to meet with the President. Both T’Challa and Ororo take offense to this, pointing out that she is the Queen of Wakanda and the US government has turned a blind eye to other visiting dignitaries violating the law. They explain while that may be the case with other visiting leaders, Storm is still a United States citizen and is bound to its laws. Looking up at a security camera, T’Challa knows Tony Stark is watching this and says this will not work. He and his wife will not be coerced into showing support of the SHRA.
Outside they make preparations with the Dora Milaje to have their ship pick them up there. When the crowd gathered outside sees T’Challa people start cheering his name. Worried for their safety, the Panther addresses them and asks them to calm down. Unfortunately, his words come too late, as a man who was carrying his daughter on his shoulders has the child knocked off his back. Seeing the girl in danger of being trampled by the crowd, the Panther leaps over the White House fence to rescue her. Seeing this as their chance, the riot police begin pushing through the crowd to get at him. Seeing her husband in danger, Storm summons a bolt of lightning to knock the cops in riot gear back.
That Storm used her mutant powers give Jim Rhodes his cue to act. He approaches the couple in his War Machine Sentinel as T’Challa hands the unharmed child back to her father. Rhodey then orders Storm to surrender because she is under arrest for violating the SHRA. When Storm tries to fly away, Jim attempts to apprehend her. To protect their Queen, the Dora Milaje use a Vibranium line between their sky-cycles to split the Sentinel robot in half at the waist. The mob quickly smashes their way into the robot’s cockpit and are angered by the discovery that it was piloted by a Black man. Jim feels like a real asshole when T’Challa fights through the mob to rescue him. However, before this can happen, Iron Man arrives on the scene.
Stark is furious, reminding T’Challa that he told him to butt out of the civil war. He takes command of getting Jim medical attention and tells the Panther that they are not hashing this out here. T’Challa agrees and decides to leave. However, Stark wants them to stay and hacks into the sky-cycle taking him up to the plane. T’Challa manages to leap the final distance to his ship while Storm rescues the Dora Milaje who was piloting the cycle. Iron Man starts flying up to intercept her, warning the mutant that lightning will only piss him off. That’s when T’Challa emerges from the craft wearing a suit of high tech armor and wielding the Ebony Blade. He leaps from the plane and slices Iron Man down the chest, revealing that they were actually fighting a robot piloted by Stark. When T’Challa and Storm land on the ground, they are surrounded by an army of remote Iron Man units.
However, before an all out brawl can happen, Jim Rhodes arrives and tells Tony to stand out, leveraging their friendship and the fact that the Panther just saved his life. Tony agrees to stop the fight and tells T’Challa to return home since he has his own country to run. T’Challa, however has seen that the fears of the global community were warranted. This entire episode proves just how out of control things are in the United States. T’Challa may not know all the facts, but he refuses to leave until he resolves this situation one way or the other.
… Civil War continues in Captain America (vol. 5) #24.
Recurring Characters
Black Panther, Storm, War Machine, Iron Man, Captain Britain, Everett Ross, Emma Frost, Shadowcat, Ogre
Continuity Notes
Jim states here that he is the “only other guy” that Tony Stark trusted to wear the Iron Man armor. Jim indeed wear the Iron Man armor for the first time in Iron Man #197. He wore the armor on and off over the years until he became War Machine in Iron Man #284. However, Jim isn’t the first nor the only person that Tony entrusted to wear his armor. He has worn it the longest for sure. Other people who had previously worn Iron Man’s armor in the past included the following people:
The first person to wear Tony’s armor was a petty crook known as “Weasel” Wills who a suit temporarily in Tales of Suspense #65.
Tony’s former chauffeur and long time friend Happy Hogan was the first to put on the armor in Tales of Suspense #84.
Boxer Eddie March has worn the suit on a few occasions, the first time being Iron Man #21.
Michael O’Brien, formerly the Guardsman, wore the armor in Iron Man #300.
Bethany Cabe, Tony’s former girlfriend, she wore the armor in Iron Man #300.
Carl Walker, aka Force, also previously wore a suit of Iron Man armor in Iron Man #300.
Clarence Ward a former business rival who stole his suit of armor in Iron Man (vol. 3) #89.
Jim joined up with Sentinel Squad ONE in Sentinel Squad ONE #1-5.
This story takes place during the Civil War event, which primarily takes place in Civil War #1-7 as well as various other cross-over issues (see below).
The Scarlet Witch famously used her reality altering powers to deactivate the mutant gene leaving roughly 200 mutants left (give or take) following House of M #1-8. This will remain the status quo until Avengers vs. X-Men #12. Here, the Scarlet Witch is referred to as a mutant, which is what she was believed to be until it was revealed otherwise in Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5.
Xavier’s crusade for mutant rights first began in X-Men #1, obviously. Brian had only been tangentially related to the X-Men due to his sister Psylock joining the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men Annual #10. Brian would later join Excalibur a mostly-mutant group based in the UK in Excalibur Special #1.
The Ebony Blade, typically wielded by Dane Whitman, ended up being stolen by Dracula in a convoluted plot that is explained in Captain Britain and MI13 #10. What’s important to know is that it ended up in the hands of Augustine du Lac, the Vatican’s Black Knight who wielded the enchanted weapon in an attempted invasion of Wakanda in Black Panther (vol. 4) #1-6. It has been in T’Challa’s possession ever since his defeat.
Everett Ross is the expert because he spent a lengthy time with the Black Panther from Black Panther (vol. 3) #1-49.
The X-Men, by and large, aren’t really involved in the Civil War. However, mutants don’t totally stay out of the fight as seen in Civil War: X-Men #1-4, Wolverine (vol. 3) #42-47, and Cable & Deadpool #30-32.
Topical References
Everett Ross and the Secretary of State watch footage of T’Challa and Storm’s humanitarian efforts on a CRT model television. This should be considered a topical reference as this is now an obsolete technology.
Speaking of, the Panther and Storm are depicted providing prosthetic limbs to disabled children in Rwanda. This is a reference to the fact that the country was in recovery from lengthy civil wars and genocide between different tribal factions since the country was liberated from Belgian rule in 1959. The continued on until the 1990s. The country has been on the rebound since in the 2000s with the average life expectancy doubling over the last 20 odd years (time of this writing). Since this is a real world political climate that has since changed, this should be considered a topical reference. Modern readers should interpret this to mean that they were providing aid to an unspecified African nation, perhaps one of the fictional locations unique to the fiction.
The African American supporters who have come out to catch a glimpse of T’Challa make some real world references:
One compares T’Challa and Ororo’s marriage as being “better than Charles and Diana”. This is in reference to the marriage of British Royal then Prince Charles of Edenborough and Diana Spencer. It was an arranged marriage in 1981 and ended in divorce in 1996. The marriage was a massively celebrated event for the time. This should be considered a topical reference as the couple did eventually divorce, and Diana having tragically died in a car accident in 1997. More over, a more contemporary example as there have been royal weddings since.
Another man states that he hasn’t seen this big a crowd since the Michael Jackson Victory tour in 1984. This is topical because that is now a 40 year old reference (time of this writing), particularly since Jackson died in 2009 and his legacy has been tarnished due to allegations that Jackson molested underaged boys in the 1990s.
T’Challa scoffs at being offered a gas powered vehicle to drive him and storm back to their plane. While this was the common model of vehicles at the time, the rise of electric vehicles is slowly changing this. Provided the plan doesn’t get interrupted by later administrations, the US government is in the process of switching to electric vehicles, planning to be 100% electric by 2037. That these cars are fueled by gasoline should be considered topical. That wouldn’t change the fact that T’Challa would turn his nose up at vehicles built outside of Wakanda, so that much would still be the same.
Civil War Reading Order
Road to Civil War: Amazing Spider-Man #529, 530, 531, Fantastic Four #536, 537, New Avengers: Illuminati #1
Main Event: Civil War #1, She-Hulk (vol. 2) #8, Wolverine (vol. 3) #42, Amazing Spider-Man #532, Civil War: Front Line #1
Civil War #2, Thunderbolts #103, Civil War: Front Line #2, X-Factor (vol. 3) #8, New Avengers #21, Wolverine (vol. 3) #43, Amazing Spider-Man #533, Fantastic Four #538, Civil War: Front Line #3, Thunderbolts #104, Civil War: X-Men #1
Civil War #3, Cable & Deadpool #30, Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #1, Civil War: Front Line #4, X-Factor (vol. 3) #9, New Avengers #22, Wolverine (vol. 3) #44, Amazing Spider-Man #534, Fantastic Four #539, Civil War: Front Line #5, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #6, Civil War: X-Men #2, Heroes for Hire (vol. 2) #1, New Avengers #23, Wolverine (vol. 3) #45, Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #2, Cable & Deadpool #31, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #7, Civil War: X-Men #3
Civil War #4, Wolverine (vol. 3) #46, Heroes for Hire (vol. 2) #2, Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #3, Civil War: Front Line #6, Captain America (vol. 5) #22, Cable & Deadpool #32, Amazing Spider-Man #535, Civil War: Choosing Sides #1, Fantastic Four #540, Civil War: Front Line #7, Civil War: X-Men #4, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #8, Wolverine (vol. 3) #47, Heroes for Hire (vol. 2) #3, Captain America (vol. 5) #23, New Avengers #24
Civil War #5, Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #4, Iron Man (vol. 4) #13, New Avengers #25, Punisher: War Journal (vol. 2) #1, Civil War: Front Line #8, Amazing Spider-Man #536, Black Panther (vol. 4) #22, Captain America (vol. 5) #24, Civil War: War Crimes #1, Civil War: Front Line #9, Iron Man (vol. 4) #14, Fantastic Four #541, Black Panther (vol. 4) #23, Punisher: War Journal (vol. 2) #2
Civil War #6, Civil War: Front Line #10, Amazing Spider-Man #537, Fantastic Four #542, Civil War: The Return #1, Punisher: War Journal (vol. 2) #3, Black Panther (vol. 4) #24
Civil War #7, Amazing Spider-Man #538, Civil War: Front Line #11, Black Panther (vol. 4) #25, Civil War: The Initiative #1, Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #15, Mighty Avengers #1, Captain America (vol. 5) #25, Civil War: The Confession #1, Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Fantastic Four #543-544, Avengers: The Initiative #1