written by Ta-Nehisi Coates
art by Chris Sprouse (p) and Karl Story (i)
colored by Laura Martin
While T'Challa springs his meticulously laid trap around Ezekiel Stane, his sister Shuri, still on another plane of existence comes to an important realization about herself. Tetu and Zenzi seek the support and blessing of Changamire, Tetu's mentor, an academic and a revolutionary, but his reaction is not what they expect.
This is a surprisingly dense issue, though the bulk of the issue seems focused on the big throwdown between Black Panther and his allies on the one hand and Ezekiel Stane and his crew on the other. As much as I have enjoyed the work of Chris Sprouse and Karl Story up until this point I confess I find myself as little disappointed at their somewhat unremarkable renderings in this issue, especially considering the rather spectacular fight sequence they were given to illustrate. Coates infused this story with a very health dose of good old-fashioned superhero action, something this title has been conspicuously missing, and I have to say this is a story that deserves much better art than Sprouse and Story have delivered here, which is a real shame.
The good news is that while this second arc may be wrapping up, Coates clearly has a lot more to say, and I hold out hope that, while Sprouse and Story stumbled a bit with this issue, they'll be back in fighting form for the climax of this arc. Coates has created something really special with this book, and even though this issue is the first creative misstep I've seen ever since this particular iteration of the title launched it is still eminently readable. I hope Coates sticks around Marvel long after he's moved on from this book, because his writing is really something special. I just hope he always has artists that can deliver the goods for him.
7.5/10
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