Black Panther #1-12
Originally released in 2009
Written by Reginald Hudlin (#1-7), Jonathan Maberry (#7-12)
Art by Ken Lashley (#1-6, 11), Will Conrad (#7-10, 12)
When T'Challa refuses an offer to join Norman Osborn's Cabal, and his ship is attacked hours later, he is left comatose and on the verge of death, and Wakanda is temporarily left without a Black Panther. While I'm familiar with how a similar story played out in the Marvel Cinematic Universe through Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, I hadn't read the comic that it was based on.
A little surprisingly, Namor is involved in this story, though he's much less antagonistic compared to his role in Hickman's Avengers or the MCU movie. He's the polite face of Osborn's alliance, though when T'Challa refuses, Doctor Doom makes it clear that refusal wasn't really intended as an option.
At this point, Storm is the Queen of Wakanda, though she feels like she can't be the Black Panther as she wants to focus on T'Challa's recovery. Instead, she nominates Shuri for the role, as Shuri has been training her whole life for it. This is apparently the first time that something like this has happened in Wakanda's history, since as T'Challa is still alive, there are technically two Black Panthers at the same time, so it's uncharted territory for the Wakandans.
As Storm faces a ritual to bring T'Challa's soul back from a place between life and death, and Shuri seeks the Heart-Shaped Herb that gives Black Panthers their powers, a rival group that's based around lions summons Morlun, a vampiric Spider-Man villain who hunts animal totems. Morlun is sent after the royal family, though he kills the people who summoned him first.
Morlun slaughters his way through Wakanda, allegedly killing M'Baku (a long-time Black Panther villain) as an appetizer, though this claim comes from a cowardly member of M'Baku's tribe who's looking for shelter so it's unclear if that actually happened. Meanwhile, Shuri goes through the ritual to become the next Black Panther, but the Panther God finds her lacking in the proper respect, as she sees the title as her right.
To the surprise of everyone, Shuri survives despite being rejected, though with Morlun bearing down on T'Challa's location, that survival might not last long. Things look bleak - Storm reunites with T'Challa, but it doesn't seem like love is going to conquer all, as there's a price to pay for getting T'Challa's soul back.
Shuri and the Queen-Mother Ramonda come up with a plan to solve both problems at once. Shuri lures Morlun away from the castle, bringing him to the place where Storm's ritual is being held, and Morlun is sent into Limbo. Death considers Morlun to be a bigger prize and is willing to let both T'Challa and Storm go in exchange.
As T'Challa recovers, recent events are reflected on, and it's determined that Morlun was so focused on chasing Shuri despite T'Challa being vulnerable because she became worthy of the Black Panther title through her actions. Surprisingly, at this point, I'm already halfway through the series; it only lasted twelve issues. Hudlin uses the first six issues to focus on the women of Wakanda given that T'Challa (who's generally its central figure) is comatose - his presence is still felt, but Shuri gets some good development as she overcomes her pride and becomes more concerned with the safety of the nation, while the depths of Storm's love and her willingness to sacrifice herself for those that she cares about are clearly shown.
As T'Challa recovers from his near death experience, forcing himself through rehab much earlier than the doctors recommended, Shuri makes a diplomatic visit to the US only to be attacked by high-tech assassins. Their armour and weapons are tied to Stark and Wakandan technology, though given the time period that this issue was made in, it seems safe to say that Norman Osborn is behind this.
Atlantean technology is also involved, so I feel like the feud between Atlantis and Wakanda is going to start sometime soon. Shuri goes to investigate a company that might have ties to the assassins, though she's attacked by a cybernetic assassin named Ohyaku. The people behind the assassination attempt, anticipating Shuri's actions, put falsified data on the computers that would lead her to attack Namor rather than the people who were truly responsible.
There are Wakandans living in the United States who have taken issue with the actions of the royal family, and particularly with Shuri becoming the queen. When Shuri investigates one of them, he blows himself up, with more cybernetic assassins showing up to try and finish the job.
As it turns out, the mastermind isn't Norman Osborn, but rather, it's Doctor Doom, in the lead-up to the Doomwar story where Doom attempts to destabilize Wakanda and take its Vibranium supplies. He's attacking Wakanda on numerous fronts - in addition to the attempts on Shuri's life, he's also been damaging Wakanda's crops and finding ways to weaken its economy - Storm knows that the crop failures are unnatural, though she's not aware of their cause as of yet, and even when Storm helps Wakandan farmers, Doom seems to have a plan to twist it to his advantage.
Doom seems to assume that T'Challa is still recovering, but instead, T'Challa is preparing for the war that he knows is coming. Seeking an audience with the Panther God in secret, he restores himself to his former strength before training himself and the Dora Milaje to face off against robots and sorcerers, despite his skepticism about the mystic arts. Meanwhile, Shuri confronts Namor about his apparent assassination attempt on T'Challa, which leads into a fight where Shuri appears to be outmatched, owing largely due to the fact that they're on a very small island.
Tensions rise and xenophobia spreads in Wakanda, though the Fantastic Four (or at least three of them; Sue's conspicuously absent) arrive to tell Shuri and Namor that they've been duped. The closest that they have to a lead is a man known as the Broker, so the five superheroes and Shuri's closest followers go after him.
As for Doom, it seems like he's taken all of the major players out of the game - Storm's occupied with the crops, Shuri's preoccupied with Namor and the Broker, and T'Challa's disappeared. However, Doom knows better than to think that T'Challa is still recuperating - he's undoubtedly got something planned in case Doom attacks again.
The Broker's island is attacked, but he's enhanced B- or C-list villains like Hydro Man or the Absorbing Man enough that they're capable of holding off the heroes for a little over an hour. As it turns out, that was all the time that Doom needed.
However, that was also a part of T'Challa and Shuri's plan - it's a huge risk, especially with Storm being arrested for an "unprovoked" attack against a Wakandan farmer (who was, by all appearances, reaching for a gun as he talked about "freeing" Wakanda from witches and foreigners), but now the people behind all of Wakanda's recent troubles have revealed themselves, and the siblings seemingly have a strategy in mind to strike back.
For a series that was sandwiched between two events, it did a good job at developing T'Challa and Shuri. Shuri still struggles with her titles of Queen and Black Panther, and while T'Challa isn't the ruler of Wakanda any more and spends most of the first half in a coma, the second half shows how prepared and, more importantly, how ruthless he can be. His actions here, such as going into isolation and telling Storm to surrender in order to avoid a bloodbath, seem like they'll drive a rift between him and Storm, highlighting a regular struggle that T'Challa faces - whether to prioritize the safety of Wakanda or the trust of his friends.
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