Deron Generally
Deron Generally
Amazing Spider-Man: Wakanda Forever #1
Marvel Comics
Written by Nnedi Okorafor
Art by Alberto Alburquerque
Colors by Erick Arciniega
Letters by Joe Sabino
In Bed-Stuy a strange cloud descends from the sky and lands in the middle of a crowded city street. A group of kids becomes curious as to what it is when a mysterious figure in the alley bangs a ceremonial drum and causes the cloud to start attacking the kids and anyone trying to help them. The mystery woman has a goal for the attack, to attract T’Challa to the scene.
She does attract a hero to the neighborhood, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to be specific. The Dora Milaje make their way to the scene and take the assailant by surprise. The woman named Nakia aka Malice is determined to have an audience with the man she loves T’Challa and she will not stop. It’s an interesting motivation for the character and opens up some equally interesting questions about happened to her, why she left the Dora and what her end game truly is.
Spider-Man does his best to help the Dora, but he doesn’t understand what he’s facing and it costs them in the fight. After the introductions are out of the way (with a little too much exposition), the story continues with Spider-Man joining forces with the Dora to track down Nakia and the weapon she’s using. Aneka, Ayo, Okoye and Spider-Man make their way to a secret AIM facility underwater to continue their investigation and they run into another threat. One that has a link to Spider-Man himself and might be more than the four of them can handle.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable one-shot that kept the focus on the Dora and their mission without devolving into a Spider-Man centric tale. Both the narrative and art are great and I love the tone of the story as well. There are high stakes, but there is room for levity and wit in this story and that comes through. This first part of the Dora Milaje’s trip through the Marvel universe is fun and I hope to see it continue in the next issue.
