Power, Part 3

While on a state visit to America, Shuri (the new Queen of Wakanda and the current Black Panther) was attacked by cyborg assassins. The only clue pointed to Hellerman Exports, a company that brokers the sale of technology to terrorist groups. While stealing data from their computers, Shuri is ambushed by Ohyaku, a cyborg warrior hired by the people trying to wipe her out. The new Panther easily trounces Ohyaku and is extracted by her team just as reinforcements arrive. While Ohyaku’s team worries they’ll get fired for letting the Panther get away, she assures them that everything has gone according to plan.[1]

Meanwhile, in Wakanda, T’Challa has been trying to recover from recent injuries that took him out of commotion. Having reached a physical limitations due to the nature of his injuries, T’Challa has sought out a magical solution to his problem.[2] To this end, he has gone to the hut of Zawavari, the local witchdoctor. The centuries old mystic hands a bowl of medicine that will facilitate T’Challa’s needs but cautions him about the potential danger. T’Challa dismisses this, after literally facing Death itself, there is not much that scares him. He then drinks the strange brew. Suddenly, his eyes begin to glow as his body is charged with energy. When T’Challa collapses, Zawavari tells the unconscious former king that he tried to warn him.

At the same time, the Wakandan economy continues to nosedive since Shuri took over as Queen of the country. A global recession has hurt the local economy to the point where two major Wakandan banks have closed their doors. This is the subject of debate between N’Dega, and M’Toka, two talking heads on state run media. N’Dega — a traditionalist — expresses his concern about the Wakandan economy. He takes issue that Queen Mother Ramonda is trying to spin the situation when she should be retired from duty. He also is highly suspicious of T’Challa’s wife, Queen Storm (Ororo Monroe) given her American background.[3] This reporting is watched very closely by Latverian Monarch, Victor Von Doom, aka Doctor Doom!

Back in America, Shuri has taken the data she stole back to her team. N’Lix, her tech expert, parses over the data. From it he learns that there have been a series of transactions between a man known as the Broker and the Atlantean Salvage Company. The contact he has been dealing with is listed under the pseudonym “Rex”. This seems to be yet more proof that the attack was somehow instigated by Atlantis.

At that same moment, the Sub-Mariner (Namor) is watching the news media. The top story is focusing on the alleged terrorist attack on T’Challa days earlier. Something Namor somehow played a role in facilitating.

Exercising caution, Shuri tells her team that they need more concrete evidence before acting against Atlantis. That’s when N’Lix gets a call from his team back home and they inform him that two former Wakandan nationals living in the United States have received large sums of money recently and were capable of obtaining the stolen Wakandan tech used by Shrui’s would-be assassins. One is located in Brooklyn and the other in Philadelphia. Shuri decides to hand the one locally and sends Zakar to the other. She also order N’Lix to continue investigating the Atlantean angle, but demands that he find concrete proof before she will consider any actions.

Meanwhile, the potion drank by T’Challa sends him to the astral plane where he communes with the Panther God (Bast). The wise god sees through T’Challa’s reason for being here. While T’Challa says he has come to find out what he needs to do to save his country, Bast knows better. The great deity then takes on the form of Doctor Doom, the man who attacked and nearly killed him lording over the flaming remains of Wakanda.

At the same time, the organization behind the attack on Shuri continues observing the situation from their war room. Their leader is confident that they will successfully trick Shuri into attacking the Sub-Mariner. To them, there can only be two outcomes. The first, Shuri defeats Namor and proves herself worthy of being Queen. However, it seems more likely to them that she won’t survive the encounter.

Later, as Shuri goes to check on their target in Brooklyn, she calls Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards), leader of the Fantastic Four. When she tells him that she is calling for more information about the Sub-Mariner, he asks her to tell him everything.[4]

Things start picking up in rapid succession from here. First, T’Challa wakes up from his slumber seemingly restored to full health, and then some. Storm goes on state television to be interviewed by M’Toka and N’Dega. She tells the people to put their trust in Shuri even though there are concerns about her leaving the country so soon after taking leadership.

Lastly, the Black Panther confronts the Wakandan ex-pat in his apartment. He plays dumb until she pins him to the wall. He then reveals that he and the people he work for do not recognize her as their Queen and that they intend to take the nation back to the old ways. He then boasts that she has walked into a trap. He lifts up his dashiki revealing that he is wearing a suicide vest. He hits the detonator on it while calling out the name of his cause: Desturi. When he hits the detonator, the entire apartment building is destroyed in a massive explosion.

Back in Wakanda, T’Challa goes back to the training center for the Dora Milaje to observe how their combat training against robots is going. When one of the trainees is about to be harmed, T’Challa suddenly leaps into the arena at super speed and smashes the robot to bits with all of his strength. Everyone — T’Challa included — are shocked at how miraculously he has recovered. While in America, Shuri pulls herself out of the flaming wreckage of the apartment building. Thanks to the Vibranium weave of her costume, she is not seriously injured. However, before she can leave the scene, Ohyaku and her team of assassins arrive on the scene to finish her off.

Recurring Characters

Black Panthers (Shuri & T’Challa), Storm, Desturi (Ohyaku, T’Kan), M’yra, Flea, N’Lix, Zakar, Zawavari, Aneka, Doctor Doom, Sub-Mariner, Mister Fantastic, Franklin Richards, N’Dega, M’Toka

Continuity Notes

1. Shuri has recently won the mantle of Black Panther and Queen of Wakanda following the events of Black Panther (vol. 5) #1-6. She was targeted in issue #7, and began her investigation into Hellerman last issue.

2. T’Challa was nearly killed by Doctor Doom as we saw over the last six issues. This was the inciting incident that led to Shuri succeeding him.

3. At the time of this story, Storm and T’Challa had only just recently gotten married in Black Panther (vol. 4) #18. Unfortunately, the Wakandan people are slow to trust Storm.

4. The reason why Shuri is calling Mister Fantastic about Namor is because his team has had a long association with the Atlantean ruler as both a foe and ally starting in Fantastic Four #4.

Topical References

• It is stated that Zakar uses a PDA, or Personal Data Assistant. In the days before smart phones, these devices were quite popular to store information. There were still quite common in 2009 when this issue was originally published. However, these devices have since fallen out of common use and its reference here should be considered topical as it is a technology on its way to obsolescence.

• This story is framed around the global recession that occurred between 2007 and 2009. Any specific reference to that event should be considered topical as they are referenced in the present tense. Modern readers should instead interpret this as being an unspecified recession, unique to the fiction.