Best of this Week: Black Panther #14 (Legacy #186) – Ta-Nehisi Coates, Daniel Acuna and Joe Sabino

Since the beginning of this new series, we’ve been left wondering if this escaped slave, turned warrior, turned legend was the real King T’Challa. We’ve been introduced to an M’Baku, though M’Baku has been dead for years and a Nakia that isn’t an emaciated mess of a supervillain. There’s also a living N’Jadaka even though Killmonger too has been dead for a long time. We’ve gotten hints that maybe things aren’t as they seem, especially when Manifold shows up as a mind controlled slave. The last few issues had finally cleared things up and it’s official; the King i back.

The book begins with Manifold helping to evacuate the Teku-Maza, a group of alien warriors that have agreed to help the Rebel Maroons fight against the “King” N’Jadaka. In the middle of the evacuation, N’Jadaka’s forces appear from hyperspace and engage the Teku-Maza and the Maroon forces in battle. 

T’Challa, now with all of his memories back has finally contacted Wakanda Prime. Shuri, Storm and his mother all answer the call and tell T’Challa how the country has flourished despite his absence and that his request for aid in space might risk this newfound peace. Shuri even asks why should Wakanda Prime even be concerned with all of this and Nakia snaps back with the fact that N’Jadaka won’t just stop at the few galaxies that he has. Honestly, this should be a grave concern for them.

The Space Empire has managed to go unnoticed by the Black Panther and others for thousands of years. With the technology that N’Jadaka wields, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that he could give Earth’s heroes a run for their money. Shuri’s dismissal of such things comes off as naive at best, but outright dangerous at worse. T’Challa is one of the smartest and most capable of Earth’s heroes and he too fell to the Empire.

The call is unfortunately cut short as the Teku-Maza’s planet of Agwe is under attack and only T’Challa and the rest of the Maroon Elite can stop the Empire. Under M’Baku’s command, T’Challa, Nakia and the Goddess Bast take the fight to the Empire.

I’ve been waiting for Acuna to come back for large scale battles such as this. His art style is absolutely perfect to capture the sense of scale, speed and harrowing nature of this kind of space fight. He also has the perfect Afro-Futurist feel to each scene with ship designs that feel, maybe West African in nature, as well as the M’Baku’s body modification and the design on his sash. The colors are heavy with striking reds, intense greens and screaming hot yellows. Some pages also have a bit of a holographic/3D effect in some panels that adds a little bit of a trippy factor, especially as Bast uses her powers.

The battle is harrowing with each side taking casualties. The Teku-Maza leader tells his men that no matter what happens, N’Jadaka must not escape and he has them arm a weapon called the “Core-Killer,” a weapon capable of destroying the planet it’s armed on as well as almost everything within close enough range. N’Jadaka tells his people to fire on the population centers of Agwe and the Teku-Maza leader tells the Maroons to retreat as the core killer has been activated. Bast chastises M’Baku as he resigns himself to ask his forces to retreat and the Maroons get away just as Agwe goes up in flames.

This war has cost so many lives and having to give up an entire planet of people is absolutely devastating. On the possible upside, a tyrant may have finally been destroyed, leaving his people able to find freedom much like the Maroons have. I think what I like best about this is the position it puts T’Challa in. He’s lost his people many times over, so either his heart is completely hardened to it, or he values absolutely every life lost that he himself was unable to save. I don’t know how he’s going to handle this stunning climax to the war, but I can’t wait to see. High Recommend.