At this point, you're probably wondering: do I really have enough Black Panther comics to last me until the premiere of the movie? Yes. Yes, I do. BACKGROUND:
This is definitely the first I've heard of Agents of Wakanda. I haven't read any of the comics that show the team's formation, and I don't know if the team is seen again after this run. SUMMARY: The Agents of Wakanda are a rotating team of superheroes put together by T'Challa to help with the never-ending crises popping up across the world everyday. In this series, the agents take on a variety of missions, each spanning two issues. The roster changes each arc, and it's a really interesting mix of characters. T'Challa and Okoye are the mainstays through most of the missions, naturally, but they are joined by a wide variety of heroes. You have recognizable heavy hitters like the Wasp and Mockingbird, pre-Silver Age deep cuts like Doctor Nemesis and Gorilla-Man, niche but notable characters like Ka-Zar and Man-Wolf (AKA J. Jonah Jameson's son John), and simply obscure pulls from across the decades like Fat Cobra (a chi-empowered Immortal Weapon like Iron Fist), Broo the intelligent Brood alien, the Navajo hero American Eagle, and former SHIELD agent Roz Solomon. The team also calls in support from the likes of Thor and team up with Deadpool (unwillingly) in a couple of arcs. There's not really much time to see the dynamics between characters develop since the roster swaps out each mission, but I was nonetheless entertained by having such an oddball collection of characters in one place. Okoye questions T'Challa over the necessity of the team in one of the issues (in particular, she wonders about the point of enlisting outsiders for this mission, and her place in the team), and his response shows that he respects what each agent brings to the table. Apart from that, you get only brief character moments from the other agents, like Mockingbird questioning where she fits in the world. The four missions the agents go on throughout the series vary greatly, and the real delight to me is how each conflict calls on a variety of characters that's as varied as the team's roster. In the first arc, the team investigates an onslaught of creatures that prey on emotional vulnerabilities, and at its center is one of the most powerful beings in Marvel. In the second, they check out weird shit happening on the Moon, and it apparently involves an Elder of the Universe. The third arc blew my mind, as it sees the team uncover a derelict SHIELD facility with a shocking secret (and it involves some seriously deep cuts and a dash of LMDs). The last arc of the series appears to be a straightforward conflict with Makluans (the alien race of space dragons, the most notable member of which is longtime villain Fin Fang Foom), but with a funny yet also oddly wholesome twist. Although the missions themselves are straightforward, I absolutely enjoyed the variety of characters involved (both the team and the source of the conflict) and the smorgasbord of references to other comics. We have references to major events like War of the Realms and Avengers: No Surrender, callbacks to more minor series (like the Drax solo comic, of all things), and even a major feature for the Livewires (a super-team so obscure I'm pretty sure this was their only other appearance since their initial debut). This whole series feels like the writers were having fun pulling characters from all over the Marvel Universe and mashing together weird combinations to make some short but fun adventures, and I loved it. The art is solid throughout, and there's a decent amount of detail in terms of the shading, textures, and muscle definition (especially for T'Challa). The style itself isn't anything drastically different from what I usually see in modern comics (a style I still have trouble describing as a whole), and there are also some panels that look simpler (flat colors, less detail) than others. VERDICT: It doesn't have epic sagas for storylines and doesn't really spend much time building on its characters (let alone making its title character a main focus of the stories), but Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda had a winning formula for me. I liked the short form, episodic "mission of the week" format with a rotating roster of interesting characters (the variety of which deeply impresses me), as well as using all manner of past comic storylines and an equally interesting selection of guest characters or antagonists to give the team a problem to solve. I had a ton of fun with this series, and I kinda wish there were more issues. I don't know if I'd recommend this to casual readers since most of the characters on the team are likely not well-known (and you don't really get to know them), but if you don't mind not knowing 80% of these people and just want some simple superhero adventures, you can't go wrong with this one. It's also not really the kind of book I'd recommend picking up if you're here specifically for Black Panther, as he's only part of an ensemble here and you don't spend any time in Wakanda at all. On the flip side, this is a pretty decent book to check out if you want to see just how deep Marvel's pantheon of characters goes. - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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