Black Panther and the Agents Of Wakanda #5: Review

Jan 2020

Jim Zubkavich, Scot Eaton

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::

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Egregious autonomous: part 1 of 2

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Black Panther and the Agents Of Wakanda #5 Review by Rob Johnson (January 10, 2020)

Erick Arciniega helps out with the colouring again.

The back page of the comic kindly directs us to the 2005 Livewires mini-series where we'll find the previous appearance of these 5 'robots'. The 3 at the end of the issue are Gothic Lolita, Cornfed and hooked up Stem Cell. They are SHIELD Life Model Decoys, or at least based on that technology.

The real original Nick Fury is now on the Moon as the Unseen. So the guy at the end is probably just another LMD.

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Gwen Stacy, beauty queen of Standard High School, was Peter Parker's (alias Spider-Man) first great love.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Black Panther and the Agents Of Wakanda #5 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Black Panther is contemplating his many competing roles when Okoye comes to ask him why his Agents Of Wakanda that she leads are a very mixed bunch of outsiders rather than her Dora Milaje troops other other Wakandans. And why he always goes on the missions (at least the ones we've seen in this series) when he's got so much else better to do. T'Challa replies that the Agents bring a variety of skills to the table ... and also that they are expendable, ie without costing Wakandan lives. (I'm sure Wasp and the others would be overjoyed to know that!) She still asks him to trust the team to her more and save himself for being King of Wakanda and leader of the Avengers.

Dr Nemesis contacts them to say that they've detected a signal from an old underground SHIELD base in Death Valley. He and Broo have decoded it and it's from something called Project Livewire. But they've also been notified of an Instagram video from Deadpool at the same place. Panther remembers how (in the fairly recent BP vs DP mini-series by the same editorial team as this) Deadpool stole an experimental Panther suit from him and teleported the vibranium mound to New Jersey. He orders up a team of Okoye and Nemesis plus Wasp and Roz Solomon, and despite Okoye's protests says he's coming with them.

35 minutes ago as 'Pool finishes his video his motorbike is hit by a truck and he lands in a cactus. Wade Wilson stops the driver reporting the accident because he says he's fine. And the guy can get his dents repaired by claiming from Stark Unlimited as 'Hulk damage'.

Now DP has reached his destination on foot and he spots a 'rock' containing controls for the entrance to the underground site because its camouflage paint has faded. Overriding the security he gets it to open up a large hole in the ground. And he falls in when he's hit by a tranquiliser dart fired by Dr Nemesis.

Wasp flies down the 136 ft shaft after him and finds Deadpool with shattered limbs at the bottom. Wade asks Janet to pull the dart out then he can heal faster. But a computer voice initiates a security response and she's attacked by somebody invisible with a sword (also invisible) that clangs against her armoured wrist. Roz joins her utilising the glider wings built into her Wakandan jumpsuit. And special goggles enable her to see the cloaked figure and shoot at him. A lucky laser beam(?) shot breaks *his* dark glasses and coincidentally(?) he becomes visible. Deadpool has recovered enough to shoot at the foe too, and Wasp shrinks to attack but is stunned by a fist.

DP figures the guy is a robot but a new enemy makes an appearance and she says they prefer the term semi-autonomous, artificially intelligent, limited-nanofunction, humanform mecha constructs or mechs. She refers to the 1st foe as Hollowpoint Ninja as she uses pheromones to control Roz Solomon. HP reminds Social Butterfly that 'Eyepatch' wants them killed as he stabs 'Pool with his sword. SB tries to shoot RS with her own gun but it refuses to fire for an unidentified user. And Roz's uniform purges the pheromones so she punches Butterfly out and calls for backup ...

... which arrives in the form of the Panther landing on Ninja's back. They fight as DP gets rid of the dart in his head and the sword in his back. But Wade also finds time to ask T'Challa if he could join the Avengers. He vaguely remembers being 1 before, but that doesn't make sense. (He's referring to the 2015-2018 Uncanny Avengers series.) But just as he's on his feet Nemesis hits him with more darts.

DrN and Okoye and recovered Wasp join the fight. Butterfly mainly acrobatically avoids getting hit. Panther slashes Ninja's face exposing metallic innards. Wasp shrinks inside his works and there her bio-stings bring him down. Okoye pins the Butterfly to a wall with her spear through a shoulder. But the computer voice announces that it's scanned all the Agents and initiated appropriate countermeasures. Even Black Panther falls.

He awakes before the others and is confronted by 2 more mechs (and a 3rd hooked up to some holding tanks below). And their boss who claims to be (the original) Nick Fury head of SHIELD.

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::

Barberoids 1 cover original artwork on ebay

Jim Zubkavich

Scot Eaton

Sean Parsons

Marcio Menyz

David Nakayama (Cover Penciler)
David Nakayama (Cover Inker)
David Nakayama (Cover Colorist)

Letterer: Joe Sabino.
Editor: Wil Moss. Editor-in-chief: C. B. Cebulski.

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Black Panther
(T'Challa)

Deadpool

Wasp
(Janet Van Dyne)

Plus: Agents Of Wakanda, Cornfed, Doctor Nemesis (Michael Stockton), Gothic Lolita, Hollowpoint Ninja, Okoye, Roz Solomon, Social Butterfly, Stem Cell.

> Black Panther and the Agents Of Wakanda: Book info and issue index

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