Doomwar picks up after the end of Black Panther’s last series. T’Challa won’t get another solo book for several years, so if you want to read about him this is your best place to go.
And that is emphatically NOT good news. This is not a great comic. Much of the story is fine (just average), but the ending–which we’ll get to soon enough–is remarkably stupid.
Anyway, when we last saw T’Challa, he and Shuri (now Black Panther) had fled Wakanda in the face of a coup d’etat–and deciding to go back and fight.
Doomwar #1 opens two days later, with Storm sentenced to death for the crime of “witchcraft.”
Doctor Doom, meanwhile, is actually cracking a vault full of vibranium and sealed by T’Challa’s magic. As we already knew, Doom was behind the regime change in Wakanda. He’s infected everyone in the Royal Palace with nanite cameras so that he literally knows everything that happens there. His goal is to pillage and destroy the country.
Shuri and T’Challa flee to the X-Men’s island nation of Utopia, along with a contingent of Dora Milaje.
Cyclops says he can’t help T’Challa regain his throne because Utopia has to remain neutral–but he agrees to look the other way as a few members of the X-Men agree to help save Storm. Thus, we have the “war.”
Returning to Wakanda with the X-Men, T’Challa and Shuri kill the traitors in the Wakandan High Council.
Meanwhile, Storm is forced to help Doctor Doom break open the lock protecting the vibranium. She is with Doom when T’Challa fights his way through the Wakandan army to stop Doom–but Doom escapes with the Vibranium before T’Challa can stop him. With Doom gone, T’Challa and Shuri are able to end the insurrection–but as a result of the nanite infection, they have to set off an EMP blast that destroys Wakanda’s technology.
They then get help from the Fantastic Four and War Machine going to each of the locations where Doctor Doom may have hid the vibranium.
Deadpool is involved, too, because … Why not? T’Challa hired him to help, supported by some Dora Milaje known as the “Midnight Angels.” His plotline is truly not worth going into.
By the final issue, Doom has created new armor from the vibranium and infused it with magic.
He and some souped up Doombots face off against an army of heroes led by T’Challa.
To win, T’Challa pulls a deus ex machina by using a spell that converts all vibranium into a useless, inferior metal.
To make the ending even more “pat” and stupid, Shuri–who has displayed remarkable bloodlust in killing many Wakandans for the “greater good”–shows mercy on the dude who caused the entire mess, allowing Doom to walk away with just a threat that if he ever attacks Wakanda again, she’ll kick his ass.
Basically, she says: “You caused irreparable damage to our economy and hundreds of my people died as a result of your actions, but dont do it AGAIN or there will be consequences.
Oh God. How stupid.