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Avengers: Mech Strike just saw the Black Panther, return with a massive power boost that makes the King of Wakanda more powerful than ever.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Avengers: Mech Strike #4 by Jed Mackay, Carlos Magno, Gurur-eFX, Tom Brevoort, and VC’s Cory Petit, on sale now.
The Avengers have rarely faced a threat that they couldn’t handle on their own, but the latest machination of Kang the Conqueror in Avengers: Mech Strike may have just proven to be their undoing. With an army of impossibly resilient techno-organic monsters leading the way, Kang may have just cemented his place as the undisputed ruler of Earth no matter how hard its mightiest heroes try to stop him. Kang has been playing for keeps since the beginning, though, seemingly annihilating Black Panther after first revealing himself. However, it now appears that instead of actually destroying Black Panther, Kang inadvertently gave the King of Wakanda a chance to become more powerful than ever.
The Avengers have been fighting a losing battle ever since the first of Kang’s creations showed up on Earth. Things have gotten so bad that they have even accepted Thanos into their ranks. Unfortunately, even the Mad Titan proved incapable of holding his own against the time-travelling despot. After disposing of Thanos, Kang once again turns his attention to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, who are all prepared to die fighting for their world just as they believed T’Challa had done before them. However, the Black Panther managed to not only survive his encounter with Kang, but was also given the chance to harness a strength unlike any he has ever felt before, as he has now returned with the power of Eternity.
First introduced to the Marvel Universe by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee in 1965’s Strange Tales #138, Eternity is the physical manifestation of the universe. Across the Multiverse, every reality has its own Eternity, and although Avengers: Mech Strike might not be a canon tale, the reality still has its own Eternity. As one of the Abstract Entities of the Marvel Universe, much like Empathy and Entropy, Eternity is effectively immortal, and as such has little need to intervene in the affairs of the beings which reside within its bounds.
However, a threat to the universe is a threat to Eternity, and it manifests to take action on behalf of its own existence. Eternity has been killed so to speak during extreme, reality altering crises such as the one presented by the Beyonders during 2015’s New Avengers #30 by Jonathan Hickman and Dalibor Talajic, but nothing has been able to keep it down for very long. With the new cosmic power granted to him as the representative of Eternity, Kang stands little chance of defeating the most powerful version of Black Panther in any universe.
No matter what Kang’s endgame is, destroying the Herald of Eternity would only draw the wrath of the universe upon him, and destroying the same reality he inhabits is not a viable option, even if it is all but impossible. T’Challa has tasted all manner of power throughout the years, from his ascension to the King of the Dead to having tasted the strength of the Phoenix Force. Still, nothing that he has ever acquired comes close to the power of Eternity.
Black Panther might only be a herald, but he has still been imbued with abilities that come from the living embodiment of reality. It is difficult to imagine a being more powerful than Eternity, and by extension, the version of Black Panther who now acts as his herald. With the eyes of Eternity’s herald now firmly fixed on the threat of the time-traveler, it’s likely that Kang’s days may be numbered for the first time in his life.
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