“I have to wait a whole month for the next issue 😭”
I sent the above message to one of the editors here at AIPT after reading Marvel Knights: The World to Come #1. Joe Quesada and Christopher Priest craft a page-turner with intrigue and a panther’s bite sure to ruffle some feathers.
The story begins with the death of T’Challa, now an elderly man, on the throne of Wakanda. Joe Quesada and color artist Richard Isanove make this scene fittingly mythic, with white marble accented with gold. Bold lettering by Richard Starkings and Tyler Smith set this opening scene 16 years after the titular “World to Come”, which in and of itself creates a puzzle to be solved. Those familiar with Priest’s work will recognize the non-linear storytelling as Marvel Knights: The World to Come #1 bounces back and forth across a forty-two year timeline.
While T’Challa’s death has been much publicized in the lead-up to The World to Come, it feels more a framing device than inciting incident, at least for the moment. Most of this first issue is told in flashbacks by a familiar face, and teasingly avoids showing just what the “World to Come” actually is (or was). There are hints – multiple wars are mentioned, but as of right now, it’s left to the reader’s imagination. If anything, this is the one negative of the issue. There’s lots of exposition setting up this hypothetical future. Priest and Quesada keep the pace flowing well enough, but the exposition is still there.
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The bulk of the issue actually centers around a challenge for the Wakandan throne by T’Challa’s son, Ketema, and it’s here that the issue really shines. Joe Quesada’s visual storytelling shines with a good sense of how to convey action without showing every blow of a fight. Quesada’s layouts create a tight sense of action. There aren’t a lot of double-page spreads, which keeps a methodical rhythm to the fight. Richard Isanove uses vivid greens and blues for Warrior Falls, making the challenge stand out visually from the often shadowed and moody colors elsewhere.
Priest amplifies the drama by introducing a religious cult led by the cleric “M”. T’Challa believes that Ketema has been manipulated by “M’s” cult while Ketema believes that he has been used as a pawn in T’Challa’s schemes. This emotional conflict is at the heart of the issue, and hints at the overall story.
T’Challa has often suffered personally due to his own machinations, but few writers have ever depicted it with the intelligence and nuance that Priest did in his initial run on Black Panther and that feeling carries over to The World to Come. The issue’s narrator calls out multiple “mistakes” in T’Challa’s life, but these are never presented as T’Challa being stupid, so much as they are presented as him being heroic, and even romantic. Combined with the opening pages, and Marvel Knights: The World to Come #1 is less a superhero story than a Shakespearean tragedy.
But if you’re familiar with Priest’s work, you should expect the edge. Priest has never shied away from making bold story choices, and the final reveal at the end of the issue feels intentionally designed to piss some people off. For myself, I laughed – it’s the exact type of reveal I like to imagine Priest does with a wry smile and it’s one that I wouldn’t trust many writers with. The rest of the story will ultimately determine whether or not it was worth it to turn this particular stone over. This series was developed in 2017, and I always wonder with if stories with long developments would have worked better when the idea first came to be. Regardless, it made me immediately read back through the issue and now I can’t wait to see what comes next.
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