After dealing with Thor, Doctor Doom gets involved in another long storyline with a different hero: Black Panther. Well, actually with TWO Black Panthers.
Black Panther vol5 #1 (2009)
by Reginald Hudlin & Ken Lashley
cover by J. Scott Campbell
I wonder if Hudlin had decided to introduce a female Black Panther before getting Campbell on the covers.
In a series of flashbacks, we see Namor trying to recruit T’Challa into the Cabal.
Doctor Doom later shows up with a more direct approach.
I wasn’t a big fan of the previous Black Panther series by Hudlin, who wrote T’Challa to be EXTREMELY unlikeable… seriously, he was such a smartass that he made DOOM look less arrogant by comparison!
This series continues that trend, considering Black Panther showed up to fight Doctor Freaking Doom with only two of his bodyguards to help.
Don’t get me wrong, the Dora Milaje ara badasses on par with several street-level superheroes, but… against DOCTOR DOOM!? C’mon, T’Challa!!!
Considering this is a flashback to explain why T’Challa is in a coma in the present, you can guess what happened.
Black Panther vol5 #2 (2009)
by Reginald Hudlin & Ken Lashley
cover by J. Scott Campbell
Or you can read the actual fight!
I can’t be the only one rooting for Doctor Doom against Hudlin’s Black Panther, right?
Dora Milaje do most of the actual fighting.
Hey don’t sell yourself short, beating up a Doombot is still an accomplishment!
Seriously, you took TWO REGULAR HUMANS to a fight with DOCTOR DOOM, what did you expect was going to happen!?!?
In the end, all the Dora Milaje manage to get is angering Doom.
This was one of the most savage beatdowns a superhero received.
Black Panther vol5 #7 (2009)
written by Jonathan Maberry & Reginald Hudlin
pencils by Will Conrad
cover by Paul Renaud
Doom doesn’t show up until issue 9, by which point T’Challa’s sister Shuri has succeeded him as the next Black Panther. And Jonathan Maberry will be the main writer from the following issue, finally replacing Reginald Hudlin.
But I’m mentioning issue 7 to mention that, other than having a GREAT cover…
…it really shows the upgrade from Hudlin to Maberry. I haven’t read much from the latter, but he’s a breath of fresh air after the immensely unlikeable Hudlin run.
Black Panther vol5 #8 (2009)
by Jonathan Maberry & Will Conrad
cover by Paul Renaud
Is it just me or does Namor look intrigued by the change of who’s beneath the Black Panther suit? He doesn’t show up in this issue, however.
One of the many, MANY reasons that made me dislike Hudlin’s run is the way he wrote Wakanda… it didn’t feel like a real place AT ALL. Maberry finally takes it back into a more plausible position.
During Shuri’s adventures, T’Challa has been recuperating. He’s also started to look into things that can counter magic, something that will eventually become VERY important during the Doomwar storyline.
Black Panther vol5 #9 (2009)
by Jonathan Maberry & Will Conrad
Shuri’s adventures and T’Challa’s subplots are interesting and all, but to be honest I’m more fascinated by the background destabilization of Wakanda.
And Doctor Doom is secretly behind all this!!! This is showcasing his abilities as a manipulator at their peak. The only other cases with Doom using politics and economics to destroy a country are from the Ellis run on Doom 2099 (which coming from me is VERY high praise, believe me).
Black Panther vol5 #10 (2009)
by Jonathan Maberry & Will Conrad
Shuri’s investigation has linked the attack on T’Challa (and other Wakandans later) to a power broker called simply Broker, who will be important later.
And who we discover is a close ally to Doctor Doom.
Adding to Doom’s very long list of manipulations, he’s also ruining the crops of Wakanda JUST to make sure Storm has to intervene.
Doom’s destruction of Wakanda is being aided by a local rebellion calling themselves Desturi. This is what really elevates Maberry’s run over Hudlin’s: it would’ve been SO easy to make the Desturi cartoonishly evil (you just KNOW Hudlin would’ve made them racists), but they’re a rather complex bunch.
Their actions are extreme, but the have a realistic origin and honestly they do actually make a couple of good points.
Maberry is also slowly deconstructing the relationship between T’Challa and Storm. They still love each other, but the cracks in their relationship keep getting wider.
Shuri’s investigation bring her to a confrontation with Namor. She’s as confident in herself as T’Challa was during the Hudlin run, but the major difference is that we’re not supposed to believe she has the slightest chance to win.
Doctor Doom ESPECIALLY doesn’t think highly of her.
Black Panther vol5 #11 (2009)
by Jonathan Maberry & Ken Lashley
I know I keep coming back to this, but this series feels like a complete rebuttal of Hudlin’s Black Panther. Shuri is acting the same way her brother did and proving he was really bad at basically everything.
Shuri’s tenure as Black Panther in a nutshell.
In fact, she would be killed by Namor if the Fantastic Four didn’t show up to provide actual evidence leading to Doom.
Yeah there’s a reason why EVERYBODY goes to Reed for the technical stuff.
It was obvious, really.
Storm is not being much smarter than Hudlin’s T’Challa. Honestly with all the super-beings in the Marvel Universe I’m surprised this kind of thing doesn’t happen more often.
Everything has been going pretty well for Doom, but Namor sparing Shuri is not something he predicted. As was the fact that T’Challa survived the initial attack.
Black Panther vol5 #12 (2010)
by Jonathan Maberry & Ken Lashley
It’s worth noting that Doom hasn’t fired a single shot since his fight with T’Challa, but he’s managing to effectively take control of Wakanda.
It’s also where T’Challa, in order to fight back Doom, has to turn into a manipulator as well.
Most of the story follows Shuri and the Fantastic Four fighting the supervillains employed by Broker.
You might recognize Broker with his former name: Power Broker, a.k.a. the one who made Nitro kill lots of children during Civil War.
But as always, the real attraction is just following the news!
Also, Doctor Doom just handed to the Desturi full control over the Wakandan arsenal like it was nothing!!!
Doom is just stone cold in this series.
He eventually makes it into Wakanda…
And that’s when we’re going to pause, because this continues straight into Doomwar… which will go through 2010, so we’ll have to catch up with the rest of 2009 and with Siege before we get back to Doom’s war on Wakanda.
Doom significance: 4/10
This is basically all a giant prelude to Doomwar. Which in itself, while being a great story, won’t have a huge impact on Doom.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
I skipped a lot of stuff in the review, but this is a great run. Doctor Doom in particular is AMAZING in this, managing to manipulate Wakanda to an extent we rarely get to see. As mentioned, for the first time in years Wakanda feels like a plausible place populated by believable people, and not just a power fantasy.
Shuri is an interesting case: she starts off as unlikeable as most Hudlin characters, but she grew on me really fast. As mentioned I don’t think we’re SUPPOSED to think she’s right, plus when she makes a dumb decision and pays for it she slowly understands why. Unlike T’Challa who, under Hudlin, was just unbelievably puncheable.
The only complain I have is that Storm is really left with almost nothing to do. It makes sense to a point, since unlike T’Challa or even Shuri she didn’t grow up learning how to one day be a ruler… but come on, she’s still a superhero, surely she’d be more pro-active?
It was a Doombot all along
T’Challa claims the one facing him is the real one, but how can he be sure? I’m inclined to believe the one behind the scenes is the real one; if it’s a Doombot, it’s one of the most effective ones ever!
Take over the world : 26
Doom’s eventual plan. Wakanda is just the means to a much larger goal.
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 98
Doom doesn’t meet Shuri YET, so she’s not in the count for a while.
Crazy tech
Doom manages to hide his actions from the technology of Wakanda AND Reed Richards for weeks or months, AND he effortlessly takes control of Wakanda’s systems!