Last Annihilation: Wakanda #1: Review

Sep 2021
Evan Narcisse, Germán Peralta

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Story Name:

Orphans of empire

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars
Last Annihilation: Wakanda #1 Review by (September 17, 2021)
This is part of the Last Annihilation crossover event.

The Intergalactic Empire Of Wakanda and the new versions of M'Baku, Zenzi and N'Jadaka were invented in the 2018 Black Panther series.

The original M'Baku was the Man-Ape, leader of the White Gorilla cult, debuting as the villain of Avengers #62 in 1969.

The original N'Jadaka was Erik Killmonger, the main villain of the Panther's Rage story arc in Black Panther's 1st solo series in 1973's Jungle Action.

The original Zenzi was the recurring villain of the 2016 BP series and continued into the 2018 one.

The Wakandan mystic Zawavari 1st showed up in the 2009 BP series but made some apps in the 2016 and 2018 continuations.

Vibraxas on the other hand debuted in 1994's Fantastic Four #391 and went on to be a member of Fantastic Force in their spin-off series before migrating to the 1998 BP series. He then disappeared until a few apps in the 2016 and 2018 series.

Titan, Starbolt, Fang of the Imperial Guard also appear in this issue.
Gwen Stacy: Classic Beauty
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Gwen Stacy, beauty queen of Standard High School, was Peter Parker's (alias Spider-Man) first great love.


 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Last Annihilation: Wakanda #1 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
Continues from LAST ANNIHILATION: WICCAN & HULKLING.

Dormammu has taken over Ego The Living Planet to invade this universe. He has sent his Mindless Ones to attack 5 planets. We've seen Hulkling and Wiccan with SWORD forces defending Hala and Skrullos. The Guardians Of The Galaxy are split between Chitauri Prime and Spartax. But what about the Shi'ar's Aerie?

On Earth M'Baku of the Intergalactic Empire Of Wakanda is trying to fit in to the Earthly Wakanda. He was 1 of the Maroons who helped T'Challa overthrow Emperor N'Jadaka, named after T'Challa's foe Erik Killmonger. Here he learned that his own namesake was the villain Man-Ape. But this M'Baku looks after N'Jadaka's innocent young daughter Zenzi who has now joined Wakanda's Dora Milaje. He worries that she too was named after 1 of Black Panther's enemies.

T'Challa and his sister Shuri receive a transmission from Abigail Brand of SWORD. She tells them how Dormammu is attacking 5 planets to form a mystical pentagram across galaxies. She asks him as an Avenger and a galactic Emperor to help the Shi'Ar defend Aerie. He says he's too busy trying to maintain peace in the Empire and deal with a security problem in Wakanda (as will be seen in the upcoming BP series). But he has someone with space warfare experience he can send.

He meets with M'Baku at the vibranium mound and recalls that it was an expedition to seek the origins of the vibranium meteorite that got lost in time and founded the Intergalactic Empire. And M'Baku reminds Panther that the Empire had people like him as slaves mining vibranium. T'Challa reveals that some time ago (when he was with the Ultimates) he learned of previous multiverses, and he believes that is where vibranium came from. He knows that the metal is too powerful to be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. But his quest to control it led to an Empire that *was* such wrong hands. Now he seeks to use the Empire to make amends. And he wants M'Baku to spearhead it.

M'Baku says goodbye to little Zenzi who fears that if he goes into space he'll become a monster like her father did. He assures her it won't happen, and Princess Shuri is going along to help him. He dons his battle armour and he and Shuri are joined by the Wakandan Vibraxas and Manifold of SWORD. And they and some troops take off in a Wakandan spaceship. On the way Manifold flirts with Shuri, and M'Baku warns them that there is bad blood between the Shi'ar and the (old) Empire. They reach the nearby stargate and Manifold guides them through to their destination ...

... to find that the Mindless Ones are attacking Aerie's vacation moon Bauble. Manifold teleports them down to the moon and they start fighting Mindless Ones and helping civilians alongside Deathbird and some of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard Superguardians, among them Gladiator plus Smasher of Earth. Deathbird doesn't believe that Wakandans will really help them. Smasher intercedes by explaining the situation re Dormammu and the 5 worlds.

Eden Fesi has teleported into the sky and created loads of teleport discs which send Mindless Ones back into space. But they are replaced by more (or just teleport back). And Manifold ports back to the ground to tell the others that the MO's have been converting Bauble into a giant version of the large Mindless One heads that we've seen in some other battles. They can't figure out why so Eden opens a portal to Earth and the Wakandan mystic Zawavari, who tells them that Dormammu wants to conquer Aerie because it's the origin world of the Shi'ar and this will give him control of all Shi'ar. And he's transforming the moon just to add the spice of fear. His only advice is to just don't get conquered.

Gladiator's plan is to just kill all the Mindless Ones on the moon. He sends the Wakandans to the dark side where there are no Shi'ar to distrust them, while the Imperial Guard handle the light side. Our guys try various tactics but have no luck. But the light-siders aren't doing any better. But then M'Baku thinks of a way of heeding Zawavari's advice.

He gets Manifold to teleport them to planet Bast, throneworld of the Wakandan Empire and his brainy young sister Captain Taku. He wants the Koukou Array, a vibranium satellite network that can shatter a planet. It's threat was used to force a truce with the Shi'ar. He tells Shuri that he wants to use it as a *shield* around Aerie to absorb the magical energy that the Mindless Moon will fire. Then they can study it and create a countermeasure.

The Superguardians have abandoned the fight and evacuated the moon. Smasher goes to see how the Wakandans are doing and finds them absent. Deathbird assumes they fled like cowards. And then she sees a Wakandan ship port in and deploy the Koukou Array, and she assumes they've sided with the enemy. M'Baku goes to explain his plan to the Shi'ar but they just attack him. But then the Mindless Moon directs a giant blast at the planet ... which the Array absorbs. The fighters defend the Array against Mindless Ones while Shuri analyses the energy and devises an antifrequency which she tries to send the energy back with. But the magic energy has fused itself to the vibranium network and won't move.

But then the cavalry arrives in the form of Black Panther and Storm with the Krakoan magical supermetal mysterium. Then everyone snaps into action. Vibraxas infuses the mysterium with the antifrequency. Manifold swaps the vibranium for mysterium. Smasher uses her superspeed  to get the duo all around the Array. Everyone else plays defence. When they're ready Manifold opens a portal to get Shuri back on their ship to fire the Array. But a Mindless One eye-blasts him. While Shuri helps him M'Baku takes the MO through the portal and then presses the big button. The Mindless Ones die/vanish and the moon is healed (I think).

Afterwards the Shi'ar and Wakandans kiss and make up. And T'Challa asks M'Baku to be his Regent in the Wakandan Empire.

The Last Annihilation will conclude in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #18.



Germán Peralta
Germán Peralta
Jesus Aburtov
Philip Tan (Cover Penciler)
Philip Tan (Cover Inker)
Brad Anderson (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Cory Petit.
Editor: Wil Moss. Editor-in-chief: C. B. Cebulski.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Black Panther
Black Panther
(T'Challa)
Storm
Storm
(Ororo Munroe)

Plus: Abigail Brand, Black Panther (Shuri), Deathbird, Gladiator (Kallark), M'Baku (of IntergalacticEmpire of Wakanda), Manifold (Eden Fesi), Mindless Ones, Smasher (Izzy Kane), Vibraxas, Zawavari, Zenzi (of Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda).

> Last Annihilation: Wakanda: Book info and issue index

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