File:Black Panther 2099 Vol 1 1 001.jpg

Description
It is the year 2099. The scene opens on Castle Doom, in Latveria. There we find Doctor Doom, bedridden, and kept alive by machines. He summons his servant, Lucian to his side, and tells him the time has come. Doom removes his mask, revealing an old, wrinkled face, marked by time and illness, but not scarred as Doom's should be. As he hands the mask to Lucian, the two repeat their vow: One Doom, One Legacy. Lucian incinerates his fellow imposter, and takes the roll of Doom as his own. Outside Doom's bedchamber, he encounters another servant, who is relieved to find his master's health has improved. The false Doom tells the servant, "Lucian defied me for the last time -- I have rid myself of him." The body is now little but a large pile of ashes. "Clean up that mess." Elsewhere in the world, a man dreams of being a warrior. With a knife in each hand, he attacks a great, black panther. "He rips at my flesh. I rip at his. He bites me. I bite him. My struggle is worthy of his struggle -- and his of mine. But ultimately my efforts are futile. The Panther Devours me. And I welcome it." K'Shamba is awakened by persistent knocking at his door. K'Shamba answers and finds a man waiting with a long, black car. An emergency meeting of Wakanda's ruling Council has been called, and he is needed. K'Shamba goes to get ready, and says goodbye to his wife, M'Tolla, who is pregnant with their first child. Moments later, at the Wakandan Capitol Building, K'Shamba is the last coucilman to arrive. He is greeted with derision from the older council members. They lecture him on the importance of the council, and remind him it was the council that held the nation together after T'Challa's bloodline died with his son. Only the council, they lectured, kept every citizen from becoming a would-be usurper to throne when no heir was available. As the youngest, newest member of the council -- brought on to maintain a balance after his father, the previous councilman died -- they feel he does not understand just how important the work they do is. "Oh, I understand all too well how important the work you do is. Not very. This council is a joke! Any proposal that doesn't further your goal to line your pockets is refused. You think only of yourselves while our country withers and dies. And you come to me...." K'Shamba's indictment is cut off when an army of doombots crash through the wall and into the council chamber. K'Shamba fights, the whole time yelling. "it's our vibranium deposits! Doom must be after them! This is probably just a first strike! If we can scramble our military -- launch a counter-attack...." It is only then that K'Shamba begins to realize that he is the only one fighting. The other councilmen are already surrendering, and Doom advises K'Shamba to do the same. In the end, it took Doom a mere six weeks to conquer Wakanda. The skies, streets, and rooftops of Wakanda are thick with doombots. A battered K'Shamba bursts into his home, greeted by a shocked and relieved M'Tolla. "I thought Doom was keeping the council in the dungeons! I thought I'd never see you again!" K'Shamba says they were all officially released when then official signed the country over to Doom, but he suspects the release was only part of the plot. He may plan to kill all the councilmen separately, out in the open, rather than kill them all at once in the dungeons and risk inspiring a revolt. They speed away in their car, but are interrogated by a doombot when K'Shamba stops to check a burned-out market for food. The doombot explodes before it can the pair into custody. K'Shamba owes his good fortune to a motorcycle-riding freedom fighter, who wields a set of three guns bound together with duct tape. The fighter tells K'Shamba that the commotion will undoubtedly be detected by the other doombots. The fighter tells K'Shamba that the resistance has food and shelter where they'd be safe, and that would be honors to have him. In the tunnels beneath the capital, K'Shamba meets the resistance, a force of men armed with knives, guns, rocket launchers, and even traditional spears, each with their family, all organized during his incarceration. They fight, striking at Doom's forces where they can. In the third week of combat, the aged leader of the resistance passes on the mantle to K'Shamba, who has distinguished himself as a leader and a warrior. In the fourth week K'Shamba leads a massive assault, carving through the doombots to reach a transmission tower, where they send a distress signal to the U.N. Unfortunately, there is still no response days later on any frequency. They speculate that Doom has found a way to scramble outgoing transmissions; the Wakandan resistance is on its own. They push on, and in the fifth week they attack the occupied Capitol Building directly; even Doom concedes (to none but himself, of course) "this is not going as planned." Fresh from a hard won victory, K'Shamba rallies his troops: "We need to attack again. Soon. Now. Immediately. We need to continue to catch him off guard. He won't expect a second offensive so soon. He thinks we lack the manpower to do this. "He's right." K'Shamba recognizes the need for more men, for aid, whether from another country or more of their own citizens. The aged former leader claims to have just the thing needed to inspire more Wakandans to revolt. He had been saving it, all this time, waiting for the rightful heir to the throne, a true warrior king. K'Shamba searches for some words, something to mark the occasion. Ultimately his efforts are futile. He dons the black mask. "The Panther devours me. And I welcome it." The new Black Panther is spotted on the roof of a bombed-out building. The sight is enough to inspire revolt. The Panther leads his new army against the doombots, pushing the battle all the way to the Capitol Building, and up to Doom himself. It did not take six weeks to drive Doom's forces from Wakanda. Victorious, the Wakandans bow before their new warrior king. Having arrived back at Castle Doom after narrowly escaping Wakanda, Doom surveys the land from his balcony. "You are truly a great leader, master," remarks one of his manservants. "In the face of defeat you still stand proud and strong. Even now you have an air of victory surrounding you. "The Latverian flag no longer flies over Wakanda," responds Doom, "but my presence is there -- unknown, undetected, and no less influential. In truth, I can think of no greater victory... Can you, K'Shamba?" Hundreds of miles away, the new warrior king sits on his throne with a zombie-like gaze, and answers his master's voice: "No, sire. I cannot."