Black Panther #8 Review

Writer: Ta-Nehisi Coates / Artist: Kev Walker / Marvel Book 2: The Gathering of My Name Continuity be damned.  While T’Challa serves as the chairman of the Avengers in Jason Aaron and Ed McGuiness’ blockbuster series, the most subversive and compelling Black Panther stories appear in the hero-king’s own monthly title.  Rest assured that the fact he simultaneously appears in both books will be explained away with a casual line (“You were gone for a whole month!”), while T’Challa himself has lived an entire lifetime with no memories in this parallel universe. Meanwhile, Shuri continues the search for her brother and Manifold in her own monthly comic — this fan is in no hurry for them to return. This series is just that good.  What other comic features an imperial transport ship named Taharqua in reference to the Nubian-Egyptian pharaoh Taharqa of the 25th dynasty?  The only reason I look forward to Coates’ finale of this current storyline is so that I can break you all off with an issue-by-issue compendium of the historical gems hidden in these pages. Patience…patience. This eighth issue in the series, and second part of the current storyline, finds T’Challa on a covert mission to steal raw Vibranium for the purpose of a powering a device to restore the memories of the Nameless.  In the midst of his mission, however, he discovers that aside from Vibranium, the ship is also transporting kidnappees for the purpose of turning them into mind-slaves. Having known that pain firsth…