Issue - 1

Writer - Jonathan Mayberry

Art - Scot Eaton

 

Summary:

The Desturi have taken over Wakanda in a non-violent revolution. Their goal is to expel foreign influences which they feel have corrupted the once proud nation. As part of the plan, they put Ororo Monroe (Storm), the former queen on trial for witchcraft and treason. She refuses to enter a plea and therefore she is pronounced guilty and sentenced to death. Doctor Doom, the secret backer of the Desturi, works in the basement levels of the capitol building to gain access to Wakanda's vibranium stores. A series of locks bar his entrance. To get past the latest lock, Doom uses a mixture of alchemy and a blood sacrifice. With the lock broken, he is left with just two more. Storm's situation is observed by her allies, the X-Men, when suddenly T'Challa and Shuri appear on their doorstep. T'Challa explains that for over a year his intelligence network had been investigating the Desturi. They found that the group had infiltrated the highest positions of government. He also learned they were being helped by Doom. Doom had introduced nanites into the palace food and watr supply turning everyone into living cameras for his spies. T'Challa further explains that Doom's goal is Wakanda's vibranium. Apart from its ability to amplify sound waves it also amplifies mystical powers. With Storm in need of rescuing and the threat Doom poses, T'Challa and Shuri ask for the X-Men's help. Cyclops decides that he can't sanction their official involvement, but allows team members to go of their own free will. Back in Wakanda, Doom coerces Storm to help with one of the remaining locks to the vault by killing one of T'Challa's family and threatening to kill the rest. T'Challa, Shuri, and the X-Men arrive with their forces and offer the Desturi government one chance to surrender. When they refuse, the attack begins.

 

 

 

 

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Issue - 2

Writer - Jonathan Mayberry

Art - Scot Eaton

 

Summary:

With Nightcrawler's help, Shuri and T'Challa teleport into the Wakanda palace and kill the Desturi high council. Doom meanwhile continues to hold T'Challa's mother as a hostage forcing Storm to break the final lock on the vibranium vault. Storm pleads with Doom because the final lock is not a mechanical lock. On the Wakandan border, Aneka leads her 500 Dora Milaje against 50,000 Wakanda troops in order to buy T'Challa more time. In the vault Doom discovers that the final lock is in fact a puzzle: "Only through purity, unencumbered by pretense, may you pass." T'Challa arrives at the vault. Doom confronts him with a choice, reveal the key to the last lock or Storm dies. T'Challa refuses. Doom gloats that victory is his and steps into the vault. Confused, when T'Challa opens the vault, its empty except for a message from Doom: Checkmate.

 

 

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Issue - 3

Writer - Jonathan Mayberry

Art - Scot Eaton

 

Summary:

T'Challa and Shuri recount to the Fantastic Four the sequence of events that led to Wakanda's take over by the Desturi government, their subsequent reclaiming of the throne, and Doom's theft of all their vibranium stores. T'Challa is perplexed at how Doom was able to get past the final lock, a Purity Arch.Thirty hours earlier, Doom stands before the Purity Arch and removes all of his armor to offer himself for judgment. Doom suddenly finds himself before Bast, Cat God of Egypt and Panther God of Wakanda. As the Cat God peers into his soul, Doom argues that despite the villainous nature of his actions, everything he has done has been out of love for the planet. Doom claims to have looked into many possible futures. In every future he sees that mankind destroys itself, except in one, the future where he rules. The Cat God concludes that Doom's intentions are pure and allows him to pass. Back in the present, Reed and T'Challa create a vibranium tracker which leads them to Easter Island. Shuri and T'Challa along with the Fantastic Four mount and attack on the base there when Doom's ally, The Broker, unleashes vibranium enhanced robot hounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Issue - 4

Writer - Jonathan Mayberry

Art - Scot Eaton

 

Summary:

Doom's new Vibranium powered Doombots wage a fierce battle against Shuri and her allies. To even the odds, Shuri breaks out her own arsenal of vibranium based weapons. The Doombots then self-destruct. Reed Richards studies the remains of the Doombots and learns that they were collecting data to be used for the next generation of Doom's army. T'challa's V-Tracker has provided them with the location of Doom's other Doombot factories, so Shuri decides its time to launch a massive attack on all of them. Shuri's attack plan is costly leading to a rising body count. T'Challe tries to convince her that she is moving too fast, but she insists that Doom has beaten them up until because they have followed T'Challa's lead. Seeing that Doom has them beat, T'Challa decides to adopt alternative strategies he would never have considered before. One of these is hiring the mercenary Deadpool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Issue - 5

Writer - Jonathan Mayberry

Art - Scot Eaton

 

Summary:

Deadpool returns from Latveria and reveals that Doom hasn't been there for weeks. Unable to locate Doom via his V-Tracker, T'Challa decides to use shadow physics, a science based on how all things are connected on the quantum level, to send Deadpool to Doom. With a device call the Nowhere Room, T'Challa hopes to transport Deadpool to wherever Doom is hiding with the principal vibranium stockpile. Accompanying Deadpool are the Midnight Angels, an elite team of Dora Milaje. Reed tries to warn Deadpool that this science is untested and he may no survive. After going through the Nowhere Room, Deadpool arrives at his destination as a pile of blood and guts. Elsewhere, War Machine joins the fight against Doom and provides some helpful Stark-Tech to Shuri's arsenal. Reed and T'Challa get a call from Deadpool. When they fix in on his location they realize that Doom has stashed the vibranium in a shielded base underneath his castle. Deadpool's communication is abruptly cut off when Doom, in his new vibranium powered armor, breaks his neck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Issue - 6

Writer - Jonathan Mayberry

Art - Scot Eaton

 

Summary:

Doom activates his new armor which links him to every piece of vibranium on the planet. Now linked, Doom turns every piece of vibranium in his reach into a weapon. Bridges, cargo ships, even whole buildings come to life under Doom's control. Shuri gathers her army in Symkaria and calls lure Doom out of Latveria for a battle, ruler to ruler. T'Challa makes one final plea for Doom to stand down, which of course he refuses. Doom's army attacks and a massive battle ensues. Doom and T'Challa battle one to one until T'Challa reveals his final plan. Now that Doom is connected to all the vibranium in the world, T'Challa sends a signal to all of the processed Wakandan vibranium and transforms it into a useless and inert form. This render useless all the vibranium in Doom's power as well as whatever was left in Wakanda. Shuri warns the defeated Doom that should he ever attack Wakanda or set foot on its soil he will be hunted down and killed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments:

The long gestating conflict between Black Panther and Doom finally culminates in this self-contained event. The series starts off well but halfway through loses some steam. The final three issues seem a little repetitious and padded. Some scenes, particularly in issues 4 and 5 seem to be subtle "recap" scenes telling us what we already know. For instance, Storm compares the new V-Series of Doombots to Sentinels twice, once in #4 and again in #5. The inclusion of Deadpool (Marvel's favorite new character apparently) could have been worse. The humor ends up working in favor of the story, though his presence seems to be the essence of padding. He goes to Latveria, doesn't find Doom. Next issue T'Challa sends him through the Nowhere Room  to find Doom's location and guess what? Doom was in Latveria after all! That plot point seems a little weak to me. Overall the series tries to be epic. We're bombarded with battle scenes rendered excellently by Scot Eaton, but for some reason they failed to get me hooked. Perhaps because I felt the story wasn't moving forward quick enough. Also the battle themselves just seemed like the same thing over and over again. Shuri and her allies fight unbeatable Doombots until 'X' bit of technology is introduced and suddenly they're not unbeatable. This happens three times over the course of the series. First they need vibranium based weapons, then they need Stark-Tech, finally they need Shadow Particles. This is a oft used plot device in comics used all the time. I'm sure Mayberry was just trying to show how much this "war" was escalating, and it would have worked fine to do it once, but to me it just seemed repetitive to do it three times over. Finally there is the resolution, T'Challa's transformation of "processed Wakandan vibranium" into a useless inert metal. The emphasis on Wakandan vibranium seems strange to me since, isn't all vibranium from Wakanda, or at least 99% of it. In fact isn't there some Wakandan vibranium in Captain America's shield? Maybe not anymore. After all we can't have Cap's shield turn into a Frisbee. My basic question is why didn't all the vibranium go inert? Perhaps Marvel editorial wanted an out just in case they need the metal in the future. Moving on to possibly my biggest gripe, why do T'Challa and Shuri let Doom live? Sure I love Doom and I don't want him to be killed, but if you put the character in a situation where he is face to face with two people who just a few pages before advocated killing the guy, why do they suddenly let him live? I can accept Doom escaping. I will even accept Doom seemingly being "killed." What I can't accept is these two letting him off the hook with just a warning to not bother them again.

 

In short, for me this wasn't the #1 Doom appearance of 2010 (I think I might give that to Doom's run in Doctor Voodoo). Overall disappointing considering that this has been in the works for a while.

Bottom Line: ** out of 5

 

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