Synopsis
Black Panther and the Agents Of Wakanda #4 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
Last issue Agents Of Wakanda Broo and Gorilla-Man disappeared on the Moon. Black Panther and Okoye took John Jameson and potential recruit Mockingbird after them. They found a large sentient plant living under the surface which had subdued the 1st 2 Agents with hallucinogens, and now added Jameson and Okoye to its captive pool.
We get a short history of astronaut John Jameson who found a gemstone on the Moon (Amazing Spider-Man #124) which turned him into the feral Man-Wolf on full Moons. In Marvel Premiere #45-46 he returned to the Moon and went through a portal to a fantasy realm where he was the Stargod, the Man-Wolf with his human mind. Now in his hallucinogenic dream he is Stargod once more in the Other-World.
Mockingbird is still free underground and has come across the tubes containing Jameson and Okoye. But Bobbi Morse is attacked by some of the plant's tentacles, and appears to be losing the battle.
Panther is also free on the surface and manages to begin communicating with the plant by sound. He leaps off the surface to get a better look around, and also to give the other a chance to see him. And he sees greenery erupting from 3 areas which suggest eyes and a mouth. The being calls herself Entea and relates her origin:-
There is a living planet called Euphoria that manifests when necessary as a green female plant-being. (We see a confrontation between her and Silver Surfer from SS(2014)#12.) She welcomed travellers many of whom stayed because they found peace there. The Elder Of The Universe called the Gardener turned up 1 time and offered a way to spread such peace to other worlds. He mated with Euphoria and their child was Entea. (And last issue we saw that Gardener planted Entea on the Moon some time ago.) Unfortunately the Moon is barren and doesn't support her existence well.
Mockingbird rallies against her foe and breaks John free from his prison and his dream. He becomes Man-Wolf in reality and slashes the tentacles off Bobbi who in turn releases Okoye from *her* dream of being back in Wakanda with her fellow Dora Milaje. They leave MW to his ferocity and go find Broo and Gorilla Man. As seen last issue the Broodling's vision is of basking in the adulation of the other X-People, and Ken Hale similarly being feted by other animal-based characters. But as he is awoken his dream turns to a nightmare as the Hellhound Sarge reminds him that he secretly betrayed the Avengers to Dracula (Av#19).
Entea wants the energy of Jameson's Godstone to sustain her, and he becomes Stargod to resist her. T'Challa arrives and persuades him to give the plant-thing a portion of his energy to assuage her. When he learns the full situation John hatches a plan. As Stargod he opens a portal to Other-Realm and takes them all through. But instead of a verdant paradise they find a desolate wasteland, and everything he knew has gone. But Entea says there *is* sustenance for her buried beneath the sand, and she begins to green the world again.
John decides to stay with her for a while to settle her in, and then he'll use the Star Gem to get home again. The others return to the Spearpoint-01 spacecraft and head back to Earth. Mockingbird agrees to join the Agents. Entea has completely removed herself from the Moon, but her caverns remain and the satellite now has a smiling face to look down on Earth.