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A review by unladylike
Black Panther Book 6: The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda Part 1 by Ta-Nehisi Coates
5.0
Coates has really found his stride by now, and, after establishing intricate political and spiritual turmoil in and around Wakanda for the past several years, he has now introduced a totally new Empire spanning at least 5 galaxies!
This book pretty much discards anything you thought was happening in the world of Black Panther as we know it (or DOES IT?!!?). The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda is a platform for telling an allegory about imperialism and colonization. The various classes of ship names reference historical figures such as Mansa Musa (the ruler of Mali from the early 1300s who remains the wealthiest person in history!), François Mackandal and the Maroons (who together orchestrated "the only successful revolt by black slaves in history" - the Haitian Revolution of 1791), Shaka Zulu (who is credited with having unified the clans of southern Africa more than anyone else, through the brutal militarizing and expansion of the Zulus), and probably several others I didn't pick up.
I have a couple theories about the underlying cause of this whole situation, and whether or not it's A. all in T'Challa's head, B. in Earth 616 or another parallel dimension of the multi-verse, C. a sinister plot to take several key figures out of play in the Wakanda we know, or something else. I won't bother sharing them here, because I'd rather just wait for the second volume of this arc to come out and read it myself!
This book pretty much discards anything you thought was happening in the world of Black Panther as we know it (or DOES IT?!!?). The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda is a platform for telling an allegory about imperialism and colonization. The various classes of ship names reference historical figures such as Mansa Musa (the ruler of Mali from the early 1300s who remains the wealthiest person in history!), François Mackandal and the Maroons (who together orchestrated "the only successful revolt by black slaves in history" - the Haitian Revolution of 1791), Shaka Zulu (who is credited with having unified the clans of southern Africa more than anyone else, through the brutal militarizing and expansion of the Zulus), and probably several others I didn't pick up.
I have a couple theories about the underlying cause of this whole situation, and whether or not it's A. all in T'Challa's head, B. in Earth 616 or another parallel dimension of the multi-verse, C. a sinister plot to take several key figures out of play in the Wakanda we know, or something else. I won't bother sharing them here, because I'd rather just wait for the second volume of this arc to come out and read it myself!