In lieu of a review of the Black Panther movie (which I haven’t seen yet – but am excited about), I take this chance to recommend again T-Nehisi Coates’s Black Panther run (collected as ‘A Nation Under Our Feet’) to anyone who hasn’t read it.

T’Challa, the Black Panther, has for a long time been one of my absolute favorite comic book characters – and the two superhero films I’ve been most excited about are this Black Panther movie and the upcoming Captain Marvel film.

For anyone enthused by the Black Panther film and looking for some top-quality reading material, this is where to come. A year-and-a-half or so ago, I was drawn in by the fact that a well regarded journalist, educator and expert in social and political issues took the helm of the Black Panther comic book to tell a story very much grounded in real-world turmoil and intrigue.

MacArthur Genius and National Book Award-winner T- Nehisi Coates, along with Brian Stelfreeze, and colorist Laura Martin crafted a book that shows why Black Panther is one of the best and most iconic characters in the Marvel Universe.

But one of the most persisently striking things about this Series is its correlation to real-world events. Although various African nations or turmoils over the years could be cited, this particlar story from the outset always struck me as a retelling of the collapse of Libya – specifically, the ‘uprising’ against long-time Libyan figurehead Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

As someone who researched and wrote on the subject of the Libyan ‘revolution’ at length (and in fact compiled a book on the subject), the analogies struck me throughout this story.

A restless population rising up against their powerful figurehead, manipulated by cynical outside agencies into doing so, the figurehead/ruler (T’Challa/Gaddafi) struggling with how to deal with this threat to the nation, etc. Reading ‘A Nation Under Our Feet, Part 1’, the points of comparision come up so frequently throughout that I could compile a whole separate article on the subject (you can read my earlier review of the series here).

It would not surprise me in the least bit if Ta-Nehisi Coates – an expert in social, political and African affairs – deliberately used the Libyan nightmare as a basis or inspiration for this storyline.

I haven’t seen Coates say this anywhere, but the similarities between the real-life Libyan horror story and this fictional Wakandan story are so strong that I would be astonished if there was no conscious mirroring going on here.

But, moving on from the real world and Libya, ‘A Nation Under Our Feet, Part 1’ is a superb opening chapter in this story. Almost cinematic in its qualities, it establishes the situation with effective storytelling, particularly when conveyed through T’Challa’s own inner monologues. It is expertly illustrated and realised too and, as is often the case, Wakanda as a setting provides great space for imagination and for compelling imagery.

The unabashed poetry that opens Black Panther #3 is so rich in symbolism and feeling that you almost forget you’re reading a comic book – accompanied, at it is, by evocative desert images and a remarkable sense of vast open space and isolation, it is a potent way to start a comic book.

What is also interesting about this series is that T’Challa – our ‘hero’ and a Marvel standard – is at times depicted with the trappings almost of an African or Arab dictator.

There isn’t any real attempt here to water him down or make him more compatible with Western-centric sensibilities. He is very much a figure who believes entirely in his divine, sacred right to rule and in the power of his position.

He is even shown having ‘Secret Police’ that work for him (the ‘Hatut Zeraze’). While at no point is he depicted as being brutal or an oppressor, it is nevertheless interesting and even somewhat refreshing that Coates doesn’t try to gloss things over or avoid the reality that Wakanda isn’t meant to be an entirely open, liberal democracy.

What this Black Panther series further reinforces is the reality that some countries and societies – in Africa and elsewhere – are built on very unique, delicate and specific dynamics, cultural idyosyncracies and sensibilities, that evolve and coalesce over many centuries: and that high-minded foreign powers should always think twice before storming in and knocking over the entire edifice in a misguided attempt to ‘bring Western democracy’, as if it can work that simply.

As the series builds, the story gets dirtier and more grey as T’Challa seeks out the counsel of some highly dubious figures, counter-terrorism and counter-revolutionary experts, conveying the depth of his dilemma and what he is being dragged down to in order to try to save Wakanda.

One of the things this series also does well is to really dig deep into a sense of Wakandan national mythology and foundation legend: it does so via multiple characters and perspectives across the course of the series.

This isn’t just a book about T’Challa, but a book about Wakanda, Wakandans and their particular culture, spirituality and beliefs. We get a lot of particularly occult or esoteric material, involving spiritual dimensions or alternate levels of consciousness, inner visions or astral-like plains, etc, and it is all generally engaging, partly because it is usually very thematically appropriate to the broader narrative.

This kind of psychic or spiritual dimension to stories doesn’t always translate so well in comic books, and Marvel does it fairly frequently: but in these particular pages, it feels much more like an organic and important facet of the story and it is so tied to the Wakandan mythology that it never feels like a narrative trick.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, who is a journalist and National Correspondent for The Atlantic, was an inspired choice of writer for this series and did a great job creating a rich, absorbing scenario, mythology and re-framing of an iconic character.

The real-world parallels (specifically to Libya) invest it with even more resonance and meaning: but, even without this element, this would still be a fascinating, absorbing series of comics.