Warning! Spoilers ahead for Black Panther #3
In the latest issue of Marvel Comics’ Black Panther, King T’Challa is attempting to cover up one of the worst things he’s ever done. However, the betrayal of his friends and loved ones’ trust will likely be discovered despite his attempts to keep the truth hidden. As such, significant consequences are likely headed T’Challa’s way, especially after this new issue reveals that the Black Panther is keeping Storm in the dark as well, his former love and queen who now leads her own nation on Mars.
In the first two issues of Marvel’s new Black Panther series, it’s been revealed that T’Challa implemented key sleeper agents working and living in other countries to be activated as deadly assassins should any nation rise to become rivals and a danger to Wakanda. Because this dark program was created by T’Challa before Wakanda turned away from a sole monarchy with the addition of a parliament, only the Black Panther knows of their existence…or so he thought. Now, T’Challa’s agents are being killed off one by one by a mysterious group that has somehow learned the truth.
While Black Panther is now trying to save his surviving agents, the only person he’s admitted the truth to is his sister Shuri. Likewise, he’s also chosen to pull back from leading the Avengers to handle this crisis directly, not wanting Earth’s Mightiest Heroes or his own nation to learn what he did in secret. It would be seen as a major betrayal of their trust and no doubt cause dire political consequences as well. However, Black Panther #3 from John Ridley, Juann Cabal, and Ibrahim Moustafa reveals that there will likely be personal damage as well. When T’Challa travels to the recently terraformed world of Mars run by his ex-wife Storm, he doesn’t receive such a warm welcome from the Wakandan mutant named Gentle who seemingly holds little love for his homeland, even brawling with Black Panther before being stopped by Storm herself. It’s later revealed that this is all an act to keep Storm in the dark, seeing as how Gentle is in fact one of T’Challa’s sleeper agents.
Considering the fact that Mars became the X-Men’s terraformed planet only recently, it suggests that Gentle was potentially given his sleeper agent status after Wakanda gained its parliament. This implies that T’Challa would have kept his dark program going in perpetuity had it not been discovered by whoever is placing his agents being in danger. The story seems to be building towards the secret being exposed one way or another. When and if it does, things will not be looking good for T’Challa, especially after breaching Storm’s trust along with everyone else’s due to his paranoia.
While T’Challa has been justifying the use of sleeper agents as the pragmatic choice of a king to keep his nation safe, Shuri very much disapproves. However, she’s still helping her brother all the same. At the moment, the Black Panther is trying to save his agents from being killed while keeping their existence a secret. The time will likely come when he’ll have to pick one or the other as the Marvel Comics series continues.
