Marvel Unlimited, Marvel’s digital comics subscription service, is currently offering all fans free access to some of Marvel’s most iconic stories from recent years, including now-classic Marvel Comics events and critically acclaimed runs featuring the Avengers, Spider-Man, Black Widow, Captain America, Captain Marvel, and more.
With that in mind, I’ve decided to take a look back at these classic stories and maybe help you decide whether or not you would like to check them out. Our next series is actually a continuation of a story we’ve visited before. T’Challa was able to reunite the people of his fracturing nation, but only barely in time for a new threat to arise.
Black Panther: Avengers of the New World
Mysterious gates are opening all over Wakanda, allowing various mythical creatures into the land to attack the people. Having just recovered from its most recent attack, Wakanda is vulnerable and King T’Challa still struggles to regain the faith of his people.
That becomes a lot harder when an old foe appears once again. Especially given the fact that this old foe is Ulysses Klaue, the man who murdered his father. With a new team of villains around him and powered up by a synthetic recreation of vibranium known as reverbium, Klaw is more powerful and more dangerous than ever.
And yet still, he is not the biggest threat in play. Something has felled the gods of Wakanda and has opened the portals for these creatures to enter their lands. Luckily for T’Challa, the power of the Black Panther is not all he has on his side. He also has his sister Shuri, his friend Eden, an unexpected ally in Thunderball and of course the goddess known as Storm.
With this second volume in his run on Black Panther, writer Ta-Nehisi Coates gets away (at least a little) from the politics of running a nation and delves into the beliefs of that nation. What happens if the gods of a people abandon them and leave them to deal with a new deity? This story tackles that question.
That allows the writer to get Black Panther in more action than before. We see him fight all kinds of creatures and even get to see him throw hands with an iconic villain like Klaw. And it’s not just T’Challa that gets in on the action. We also get to see Storm, Eden and even Shuri with her new-found abilities after the previous arc from Coates.
The title of this story arc may be a bit misleading as the res of the Avengers do not make an appearance. After all, Wakandan problems call for Wakandan solutions. Still, there is plenty of superhero firepower to keep Marvel fans happy, even if Black Panther isn’t necessarily their favorite. With that being said though, T’Challa is sure to climb a few rungs in your rankings after reading this one.
One thing Coates does exceptionally well with his Black Panther run, is he fills each and every issue with so much history and information about Wakanda. Whether its the relationship of the people with their gods or how vibranium turned to land into the technological country of today, each page is rich with the story of Wakanda, and that only draws you in that much more.
You can read “Black Panther: Avengers of the New World” for free now. And be sure to check back as we look back the rest of these classic Marvel Comics stories over the next several weeks.