Whether or not you’ve kept up with the current continuity of Black Panther comics, this is a great supplemental book which focuses on the background stories of a few of the female characters as well as revisiting a character we haven’t seen recently. The stand-out story is Gay’s five issue arc about Ayo and Aneka, the two warriors who basically start a rebellion of the Dora Milaje against King T’Challa (A.K.A. Black Panther). The story shows how they met and become lovers and their growing dissatisfaction with the way T’Challa rules Wakanda. (The three invasions in a row really didn’t help matters.) Next we have Harvey and Coates’ story about the mysterious Zenzi and her strange powers. Lastly, though he hasn’t really been seen since Christopher Priest’s run on The Crew ended in 2004, we find Kaspar Cole focusing on making detective when T’Challa asks him to take on the White Tiger persona again as a favor.
As I said, the best part of this is Ayo and Aneka’s story. Theirs is not an easy romance, as Aneka is constantly concerned with always doing the right and proper thing, and Ayo is a little more brash, to say the least. Still, it’s sweet to watch the two women fall in love. Through this story, we can see exactly why the Dora Milaje lost faith in their king over time, leading us to where the story starts in issue # 1 of Black Panther (2016-). If you’ve been reading Black Panther, you absolutely should read World of Wakanda. I’m just sorry that the series was cancelled after only 7 issues, because I really would have liked to read more stories from Wakanda.
Review by Jessica A.
