A dungpile is still a dungpile regardless of how much gold paint you throw on it.
T'Challa gets beaten like a government mule and is left torn and bloodied at Doom's feet, but just because he delays Doom long enough to give Reed the chance to hook up with the molecule Man this is cause for the usual gushing Hickman praise from some?
Hilarious and sad all at the same time.
Disagree.
Doom was set up so that NOBODY could physically defeat him outside of Molecule Man or someone/thing of that stature. Let us not forget that even on a even footing, DOOM WAS KILLING REED RICHARDS UNTIL MM STEPPED IN. TWICE.
TChalla did better against the impossible than anyone else at any previous time [ remember TChalla allegedly falling and breaking his neck right out the gate during Age of Apocalypse or some ridiculous story ? ], and that includes Thanos and Dr. Strange. Nobody tasked DOOM except for TChalla...and he did so in PRIEST fashion, on top of that. TChalla knew that he wouldn't beat DOOM in a Powers vs Powers on DOOM's Battleworld. This was a given if we understood all the work that Hickman had DOOM do beforehand.
What TChalla did...carving out a bit of the impossible against the omnipotent DOOM...was not only even in Doom's words, "...task" Doom and hurt Doom...he already had Doom undone with his horizon to horizon armies engaging in battle. Doom knew it was TChalla's work, and Doom acknowledged that it "...reeks of machination..."
This is Hickman channeling Priest. DOOM was beaten before the battle started. By TChalla. And Reed. T'Challa not only hurt and delayed Doom the way absolutely literally nobody else could [ the same Doom that off-handedly slaughtered Thanos ], he already had Doom outwitted before the battle started. That is QUINTESSENTIAL TChalla. Right when DOOM thought he had TChalla utterly defeated, humiliated, beaten, prostrate at his feet in the ultimate display of his superiority over TChalla...TChalla really had DOOM beaten. TChalla not only turned Doom's words back on Doom, he played on Doom's hubris. TChalla it was who sent Doom back to Reed by throwing Doom's own words...and a confident Panther smile...back on Doom. Letting Doom know he was getting played, and manipulating Doom exactly the way that TChalla wanted him to be manipulated.
Doom went to destroy Reed. Doom knew that TChalla had The Time Infinity Stone, but Doom also knew that he could return at his leisure and finish the job of killing TChalla after he killed Reed. Or so Doom thought. He had no clue whatsoever of what TChalla would and could do with that Time Gem Infinity Stone.
TChalla already had Doom beat by OUTSMARTING Doom BEFORE they even fought. This is the ULTIMATE refutation of the idea that Doom is inherently smarter than TChalla. This is the ULTIMATE refutation of all the raggedy hate that TChalla has received over the years. TChalla beat the #1 bad guy in the history of Marvel...when that "bad guy" [ who is more than a little complicated himself ] not only possessed Ultimate Power, but was also killing everyone NOT named TChalla. Killing Reed ON PANEL.
TChalla is the ultimate winner. TChalla wins, even when it appeared that TChalla lost.
This is QUINTESSENTIAL TChalla, I say again.
Look no further than SW9 for the ULTIMATE expression of BP uberprep. Look no further than SW9 for the ULTIMATE expression of BP superiority and ALL the good things we love about TChalla. This man
really wins even when he "LOSES". That's something that not even Captain America or anyone else in the history of Marvel. Literally. Has proven on THIS grand of a scale.
That, I must emphasize, is a trademark PRIEST move. Again. This is QUINTESSENTIAL Priest BP. It is.
We see...in a master stroke of genius...that TChalla had everything wired so cold that when the Molecule Man unleashed his gargantuan power, TChalla--instead of being at the mercy of such power, as Reed and The Maker were--used The Time Infinity Stone to ride and manipulate that power right back to the very moment of the very first issue of New Avengers wherein he rectifies his wrong. He saves the future of Wakanda [
MAKERS ], the future of Earth, the future of the multiverse, by saving The Makers [ I gotta say, as a man chasing his ph.d. in Afrikan Studies, that I gotta give Hickman props for making reference to Sundiata Keita, with his comment regarding "The Sundiata Code" ] and launching Wakanda into an ALPHA FLIGHT initiative. He learns from his disagreements with Shuri, with Namor, with Reed...and crafts a plan better than all of their previous plans combined. He shows his uberprep by pulling [ with Reed ] the greatest single uberprep move literally in Marvel publication history.
There is a reason that TChalla and Reed created a plan wherein TChalla is sent back. Not Reed. And that reason is? TChalla is still the guy who was/is the moral compass of The Illuminati. In addition to being literally the only supergenius superwarrior superking blend of The Illuminati? He's still the "purest" driving force behind them. TChalla...unlike all of the rest of them...was NOT corrupted. Even by The Inversion. He is the one who, therefore, is the most worthy to return [ having never been killed ] to monitor Earth and the multiverse directly.
So. Why wasn't TChalla overseeing the formulation of the universe, and Reed is? The biggest most glamorous job was given to Reed.
That is exactly how I would have written it. Because that takes into consideration who both characters are, and it says MORE for TChalla than it does for Reed.
Why do I say that? Because. To be frank. To keep it 100. TChalla could have done what Reed did. Reed COULD NOT have done what TChalla did.
Reed IS NOT the warrior that TChalla is, therefore Doom would have beaten Reed more quickly than he defeated TChalla [ as evidenced in their battle even when placed on equivalent "footing" when Owen Reece removed the unfair advantage that Doom had against Reed...and Doom was still literally killing Reed before MM showed up to save Reed ]. Reed could not have bought TChalla the time to do with MM and Sue what Reed did when he was there. But TChalla could buy Reed that time.
Also, TChalla is smart enough NOT to trust The Maker being anywhere near Doom when Doom is flinging about God Doom Powers. The Maker is highly likely to steal such energies for his own perverse plans.
TChalla showed here...and only TChalla showed here...that were they on equal footing? If Doom hadn't been possessed of the God Doom Power? TChalla would have killed Doom outright in a throwdown. Why do I say that? Because Reed the nonwarrior used his knowledge against Doom to stretch Doom pretty far,and get Doom to admit in the presence of Owen Reece that he is NOT the correct answer to this destroyed universe problem. Whereas TChalla...using an Infinity Gauntlet that all knew was not sufficient to defeat God Doom...fared much better in direct combat with Victor.
On equal footing? TChalla would have beaten Doom. Doom...regardless of his powers, his supergenius...is no Black Dwarf in battle. TChalla beat Black Dwarf. TChalla would have beaten Doom.
Nobody else has shown that combination of abilities. Nobody.
There is so much that is right here. There is so much that literally trumps what literally any other character in the history of Marvel has ever done, here. Some of us need to know when to accept YES as an answer, and not let our disagreement with other important but ultimately clearly lesser things and disappointment with important but ultimately clearly lesser things overwhelm the greatness of the ending of this story. And the greatness blooming for TChalla.
For the first time post RH, it's a good time to be TChalla in Marvel.
