Black Panther #5 Review

Writer: Ta-Nehisi Coates // Artist: Daniel Acuña // Publisher: Marvel “The Empire doesn’t just steal our past. They steal our futures.” – T’Challa   In issue #5 of Black Panther, the spirit of the Maroon resistance lies broken after the death of Captain N’yami. Set five years after the issue four attack that saw N’yami killed by Manifold, the Maroons remain hidden in Nehanda’s Lattice, the fair reaches of the Wakandan Intergalactic Empire. Due to not only the loss of N’yami, but also the hesitant promotion of M’Baku to Captain, the Maroons have taken to hiding rather than striking. T’Challa, adrift and in self-exile, pushes himself to the limit time and time again to end his own life, but in actuality only confirming his own destiny.  Nakia, his closest living connection, reaches out to him once more to reconsider joining the ranks of the Maroons.

SIDEBAR: Admittedly, this issue feels like a very strange narrative moment in the run of the new Black Panther series by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Daniel Acuña. The audience has already taken a reality jump with the 2018 volume of BP, but now jumping five years in narrative time from issues four to five feels…let’s stay…rushed? As Nakia hopes to persuade T’Challa to rejoin the fight, she mentions struggles of the recent past – mostly hiding, taking in more refugees, and withstanding an Askari attack. T’Challa, on the other hand, spent his time growing a melancholy beard and withdrawing from the Maroons. Her own feelings for T’C…