Comic Review: Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda (2019-) #1

Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda #1

Marvel Comics

Writer: Jim Zub

Artist: Lan Medina

If you go back to January 2019 (practically forever ago) you’ll find Avengers #12. That issue introduces us to the team we’re here to talk about today, Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda. They’ve been making some appearances here and there in the pages of Avengers, but now they’re starring in their own series.

Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda #1 starts with a simple weapons heist. In Miami, a group calling themselves the “Scavengers” is raiding a shipping yard for S.H.I.E.L.D. weapons. But stopping them are The Wasp and John Jameson, the Man-Wolf. From there they regroup on the Wakandan helicarrier that is their base, straight into another mission. There’s strange energy coming out of small-town Oklahoma, so the Agents of Wakanda are investigating. With Black Panther leading the ground team, they find things are more deadly than they seem.

I didn’t think we’d see the Agents of Wakanda outside of a few one-shots and as background characters in Avengers. But here we are, and I straight-up love this team. Black Panther is leading the Avengers, and The Wasp is dating Tony Stark in his solo book. But the rest of the team are characters we aren’t seeing too often at all. Comics like this featuring some of the more B-and-C-list kind of characters help make a universe as big as Marvel feel more full. The actual story itself isn’t anything too unique, though. There’s an energy in a small town, and upon investigating, it’s more of a threat than we think it might be. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but not anything bad either.

The art in this issue is good. Off the top of my head, I couldn’t think of anything that Lan Medina has worked on that I’ve read, but there are some things. But I like what I see in this issue. I like the designs of the characters, and though not every team member is featured, I like the red-and-black uniforms we do see. The action isn’t too dynamic, more like a snapshot of the things happening. But it the details on the characters come through really well with it. 

I like the story in this first issue, but what really sells it for me is the characters. With the sheer amount of heroes and villains in the Marvel universe, a lot of them can just disappear for a while. Comics like this, with a cast of out of the way characters like Man-Wolf and Fat Cobra, end up being a lot of fun. And you know what? This issue is a lot of fun. The story is good, the art is good, what’s not to like about this comic?

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