[This is Part 4 of a multiple post series going over the details of one of the most important moments in the Black Panther mythos: The Wakanda/Atlantis War.
In Part 4, we look at the immediate aftermath of the flooding of the Golden City by Namor. In 4.2, we look at the end of the Royal Marriage]
The Royal Marriage started to crack before Namor flooded Wakanda. Captain America got the Avengers together to announce that the Phoenix was coming to Earth. Storm was a member of the Avengers at the time, and when she saw this... she dipped. She went back to the X-men. As is customary. T'challa went to stop her and Steve told him to let her go (lol wut? Great writing) and the schism began.
[Click to enlarge the pictures.]
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| New Avengers #24 |
AvX began. The X-Men started looking for Hope, leading Storm to lead a team of X-Men into Wakanda. The fact that the Queen of Wakanda lead a strike team into Wakanda is just all sorts of messed up.
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| Avengers vs X-men #4 |
And then the great T'challa vs Storm fight began. Now, I cannot post the entire fight contained in
AvX: Vs #5 due to it taking up half the issue and that gets into copyright/piracy land. So instead, we are going to go over some key points with scans for the key points:
1. Storm was the aggressor the entire fight. She made the first strike against T'challa.
2. T'challa's reason to fight was to save the Earth. He chose the Earth over his marriage... something heroes do. Storm's reason was "you're a terrible husband" instead of, you know, something like, "I chose the mutant race over my marriage."
3. T'challa didn't throw a single punch. All his maneuvers were in defensive in nature. Taking her powers away, blocking, grabbing, and throws. Storm opened the fight by electrocuting the dude and was throwing haymakers the entire time.
4. Storm ended the fight by leaving her wedding ring on the ground and flying off.
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| AvX Vs. #5 |
In a tie in, we get this baffling panel that states the T'challa knocked her out. Which you can choose two things to do with this. A) Storm is a lying idiot or B) editorial couldn't keep everything straight with the 25 billion tie ins and the writer fucked up therefore this isn't canon. Your choice, either way, the panel is way wrong.
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| Uncanny X-Men #13 |
So, to recap and catch-up on what has happened: Storm leads a strike team into Wakanda, instigates a fist fight in front of Wakandan citizens which ends with her throwing her wedding ring on the ground. Phoenix Namor, Storm's teammate, attacks The Golden City and floods the place, leading to death and destruction.
Leading to to this oft re-posted panel...
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| Avengers vs X-Men #9 |
T'challa annuls the marriage and Storm is... shocked???? Get that woman some medication because the Phoenix made her bipolar or something. In addition, the X-men are labeled enemies and are banned from Wakanda in general. Including Storm.
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| Avengers vs X-men: Consequences #1 |
Storm's credit, she gives up some info on the captured Avengers whereabouts, leading to T'challa and Storm fighting side-by-side once again.
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| Avengers vs X-men #9 |
Despite the divorce, the two clearly had feelings for each other immediately after AvX. It is clear T'challa did what he must for the earth and then Wakanda when he annulled the marriage.
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| A+X #3 |
Both still had jealous streaks post marriage. Storm rained on suitors of T'challa while T'challa had a weird obsession with Wolverine for a bit.
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| Wolverine and the X-men #24 |
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| A+X #3 |
Eventually, the ban on Storm was lifted in an issue of Wolverine, after Storm re-entered the country with Wolverine trying to stop some killer virus thing (that T'challa had already figured out).
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| Wolervine, vol 5, #8 |
