Marvel Knights The World To Come #1: Ambition Unrealized

It’s time for a new, different look at the Marvel universe’s potential future. Channeling the distinct Marvel Knights style, Marvel Knights The World To Come #1 looks at a world fashioned in some way by major events that take place in Wakanda. The ambition behind this first issue is hard to satisfy, though.

The difference between past and future is “The Time to Come,” and the demarcation point has a great deal to do with T’Challa, the once king of Wakanda. Marvel Knights The World To Come #1 is a quick summary of events that contributed to an apparently hopeless future. An old man recounts to a Dora Milaje (and thus, to the reader) key moments in T’Challa’s life, several of them centered on his poor decision making.

Marvel Knights The World To Come #1 is, like so many first issues of these flash-forward series, a work of vague world building and equally vague character introduction. Unfortunately the world presented here is a little too vague. Something happened, and it is tied to T’Challa’s actions as he grew older and made a series of apparently bad decisions. But that “something” and its consequences never rises to the level of a compelling world.

Finding more success are the brief looks at T’Challa’s relationship with his family–specifically his wife and son. These interpersonal moments are very few, but they contain Marvel Knights The World To Come #1’s real emotion (even if they are not truly the strongest part of the issue). A potentially rocky marriage between T’Challa and his wife is hinted at. A challenge for leadership by T’Challa’s son speaks to a damaged relationship that goes well beyond this formal challenge to T’Challa’s leadership.

T’Challa’s personal journey in Marvel Knights The World To Come #1, the consequences of which create this too-vague world, is the issue’s most intriguing aspect. It homes in on a single quality–indecision, of all things–and follows the ripples that begin with this seemingly minor flaw. Including T’Challa’s relationship with Storm grounds this trait in an event many readers will be familiar with, at least on the margins. This is an unexpected weakness to develop for a character who is usually presented with absolute certainty (at times to a fault).

Fortunately the struggling story is uplifted by the art. Marvel Knights The World To Come #1’s true strength is its visuals–both in dynamic action sequences and in quiet character moments. The challenge sequence between T’Challa and his son, being Marvel Knights The World To Come #1’s only real action set piece, will likely steal the show for readers. Quesada’s art is surprisingly restrained here, especially on the bare chested T’Challa. He eschews more liberal use of lines and intricate shading to heavily detail the physicality of the individual characters. Instead, Quesada defines them with fewer but thicker lines and starker fields of black. The reader’s eye is more likely to go to the overall panel composition. Though the characters are less intricately detailed, the overall fight is more dynamic.

Quesada’s more detailed style is reserved for the quieter moments where T’Challa is speaking with one or two other characters. Stress and, to a lesser degree, age tell more of the character’s story than the text. More liberal linework and subtle transitions in shading on T’Challs’ face speak to a man who never seems happy with any choice he’s made. The emotion communicated here takes the more clinical retelling of T’Challa’s life and makes it something to truly care about.

In as much as Quesada’s art creates the more subtle emotion at work here, Marvel Knights The World To Come #1’s visual success also owes much to Isanove’s coloring. Wakanda is bright, something almost out of a fairy tale. Exterior settings are relatively soft, and the contrasts between sky, trees, water, and distant mountains are gentle. More extreme are the Wakandan interiors. But even in their more vivid presentation, these settings are warm and inviting. The implied light sources don’t throw dark shadows. Rather, Isanove slightly shades the settings’ colors.

Wakanda’s color language heavily contrasts with the dark settings elsewhere in the issue. Light sources are bright, almost harsh, relative to their surroundings. Contrasts are more stark, whether from light sources to surrounding darkness or different elements within a nighttime setting. In a world barely described in text, Isanove creates the impression that Wakanda is the best place to be.

These color choices are reinforced by a choice made for the many caption boxes used to narrate T’Challa’s story. A muted goldenrod is used for the boxes, and it effectively straddles the two worlds Isanove has created. Within the non-Wakanda settings, it reads as muted and dour. Alongside the bright Wakandan environment, though, it is akin to a ray of softened sunshine. Once again, the visuals heavily reinforce Marvel Knights The World To Come #1.