Black Panther vol 3 by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Black Panther (2016), Vol 3: A Nation under our feet, part 3, illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze and Chris Sprouse

T’Challa and Shuri take on the two prongs of this Wakandan  Civil War, but one at a time. First, T’Challa gets the philosopher Changamire to see how his teachings have led to this moment, and Changamire gives T’Challa some other advice about kingship that sticks with him. Then T'Challa and Shuri go after Tetu and Zenzi, and they must win over the men Zenzi is controlling with her powers.  With Tetu out of the picture, Zenzi flees the country, presumably to regroup and come back to wage new war against T'Challa. Now, the only thing left is to confront the Midnight Angels, the fallen Dora Milaji, and have them come to terms with their choices and what they are demanding.

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This series is very dialog heavy, and Changamire seems to be a conduit for Coates to insert some of his own social commentary, albeit not necessarily just about the United States. Changamire preaches that no one man should have absolute authority over others.  The culminating battle in this volume was over very quickly compared to most superhero titles, so readers might be wondering if they missed something. With this volume, I continue to feel that this series needed more room to breathe and have conflicts play out on the page.  The philosophical conversation was meaningful, and I don't begrudge its inclusion, but Changamire got more page-time than the major conflicts we've been building towards for three volumes.

​The last 1/3 of this volume includes parts from 3 issues from New Avengers that explain how Wakanda got to this point in the first place. These issues were helpful to me, having missed New Avengers, but would have been more helpful at the end of volume 1 of this arc.

Sara's Rating: 6/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12

Reviews of previous volumes in this series: vol 1, vol 2

Publisher: Marvel
Publication Date: April 25, 2017
ISBN: 9781302901912 (Paperback)

Tags: Rating: 6/10, Suitability: High School, Comicbooks, Superheroes, Action Adventure, Marvel