Editor's Desk 
It has been over a year since I reviewed the first issue of Marvel Knights: The World to Come‘s six-issue miniseries. I began that review, espousing my frustration with the fact that I would have to wait a full month for the next issue to drop. The irony is not lost on me. Whatever the hopefully benign reason for the delay, Marvel Knights: The World to Come #6 is finally here, and it is a beauty.
This sixth part of the miniseries, called “Empire”, heart-crushingly explores the relationship between T’Challa and his adopted son, Ketema as the two face off for the fate of Wakanda and the world. The World to Come has shown throughout its issues the way that T’Challa weaponized Ketema, first to assuage demands for an heir, then again to dismantle the power of the clerics. This weaponization corrupted Ketema, turning him against his father, and ultimately against the morality of the faith Ketema pretends to have. This is a battle between a man who has found faith, and a boy who has lost it.
Christopher Priest and Joe Quesada’s storytelling experience really shows in the payoffs here. Little details that appeared inconsequential are given deadly weight here. More importantly, The World to Come also doesn’t shy away from moral complexity. Ketema is a murderer, an incestuous rapist, an animal abuser, and a generally abhorrent person. Yet Marvel Knights: The World to Come still explores with a deft hand the idea that he, too, is a human being, without asking the reader to forgive him.
Priest makes great use of Ross’s unreliable narration, exacerbated by the character’s age and dementia. Priest and Quesada brilliantly work in an exchange between Nikki and Ross from their work on Black Panther in the late ’90s and reworks it into a cruel reveal of Ross’s faulty memory. Thankfully, as heavy as the book is at times, Priest still playfully weaves in humor in perfect moments.
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Joe Quesada’s artwork here is sublime. The story here relies so heavily on emotional weight, and Quesada’s expressive work with the characters here is amazing. Particularly affecting to me was the moment when Ross remembers the name of the Dora Milaje member who has been traveling with him. Equally powerful are the action scenes. The fights here are brutal and tragic, and moments like T’Challa’s arrival to face Ketema are as awesome as they are terrifying. One of the ideas Marvel Knights: The World to Come has played with is the idea that the world might be better off without superheroes, and here Quesada plays into that.
Working with Joe Quesada is color artist Richard Isanove, and the ability of the two artists to pull of the cinematic quality of this book is jaw-dropping. Much of the issue is set with heavy rain pouring down. Isanove’s colors help capture the slickness of that rain. More importantly, his colors provide the emotions of the story. Cool blues provide T’Challa’s calm as he and Dr. McGregor prepare for the battle. Sickly yellows surround Ketema in his paranoia. Violets and magentas light up the final battle’s sky, evoking not just royalty, but the ancestral plane. And finally, serenity, as the book ends.
This is a near perfect finale to the miniseries’ beginning. There are some minor quibbles – the timeline at the issue’s end refers to the new king in the epilogue as T’Challa II, rather than their actual name, perhaps a remnant of an earlier draft of the story or simply a typo. Given that it’s in the ancillary material, it isn’t a deal breaker.
Despite the delays, Marvel Knights: The World to Come #6 delivers a simply excellent finale. There’s action, emotional weight without heavy handedness, and substantive themes to chew on afterwards. While the wait has been long, this was absolutely worth it.
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