Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Don McGregor

"As Zenzi and the people poison Wakanda's citizens against the Black Panther, a cabal of nation-breakers is assembled. And Ayo and Aneka, the Midnight Angels, are courted by Tetu to help raise their land to new glory! His allies dwindling, T'Challa must rely on his elite secret police, the Hatut Zeraze, and fellow Avenger Eden Fesi, a.k.a. Manifold! And with T'Challa's back truly against the wall, he even calls in some old friends to lend a hand: Luke Cage, Misty Knight and Storm! But Wakanda may be too far gone for this all-new, all-different Crew-- and there's one job the Panther must handle alone. Only he can voyage into the Djalia! Getting there is hard enough, but can even he find his sister Shuri inside Wakanda's collective memory?"--Back cover.

Honestly, the story is just plodding. You get the sense that Coates is doing some good world-building but in all that exposition, the actual stories themselves are frequently gummed up in monologues. Case in point: T'Challa spends several pages travelling in an astral/dream plane to save Shuri, and he just keeps talking and talking to himself.

The real saving grace is that Wakanda is in a sense the most interesting character in the book.

I'll continue to buy this for my collection and promote it (especially with the movie coming soon, which looks amazing!) but this felt even more confused than the first volume and I don't feel compelled to read any more of the story.

(read as single issues)

I see the trade collects a couple issues of Jungle Action, which...IDK what that is...I have just googled it and it seems to be from the 70s, so presumably does not tie in directly to this story.

I read this last night and I don't remember what happened in it

Black Panther I'm trying so hard to read you I really am. It's still just very confusing to me? It's kind of a bummer because I know I had never read any Black Panther stuff but then I loved him in the Civil War movie and was excited to start reading these comics...but it doesn't feel like a good jumping on point for a new fan.

I know there are people who love this series and that it means a lot to some readers, which is rad! But it just doesn't feel like it's meant for new fans? It could also partly be a function of the fact that TNC is a BRILLIANT writer but one who's never written comics before? Perhaps he's just trying to put too much in here? IDK for whatever reason it's just not working for me D: