Warning: SPOILERS for Black Panther #12Marvel's two of the richest heroes in the Marvel Universe, capable of fantastic feats of engineering as well as goodwill. But Black Panther #12 reveals this goodwill often runs up against their major flaw: a failure to trust that eventually morphs into instinctual paranoia.
2022 has not been kind to either superhero. Iron Man was trapped on an alien world while chasing a villain with Godlike powers, became addicted to morphine, suffered a severe spinal injury and even resumed drinking after losing his home and fortune. For his part, Black Panther has spent the last year estranged from Wakanda; his people no longer accept him as king, and the resulting Wakandan Civil War was brought about by his actions. But both Tony and T'Challa, even after itting their major weakness, have a tremendously difficult time eliminating it.
In Black Panther #12, written by John Ridley with art by German Peralta, T'Challa has just learned that Jhai, one of his spies planted in foreign countries, has launched a devastating attack on T'Challa - but allows him to live so he can explain his plan. He accomplishes this by faking his own death, knowing T'Challa would recall the remainder of his agents, thus destabilizing the Wakandan government...and the "killswitch" technology program against which the Avengers fought was T'Challa's own. Additionally, he recorded the of his own team to collect data.
Black Panther Trusts No One - Not Even The Avengers
Unfortunately, Iron Man is exactly like T'Challa in this respect. Avengers Tech-On's series-long subplot involved Iron Man giving enhanced armored suits to the team...but he could remotely control all of them, and force a retreat or an attack even if the Avengers inside refused. In Christopher Cantwell's Iron Man run, Iron Man hatched a plan to steal weapons from an arms dealing company by simply buying the entire stock of weapons outright - and decided against telling the Avengers out of fear that he wouldn't be trusted. Neither Iron Man nor T'Challa can trust their own team, or even their own close friends.
This level of paranoia is a defense mechanism - both men are famous and are targeted by assassins on a regular basis - but it is also misplaced when their team is concerned. By acting on this paranoia, T'Challa has destabilized his country and Tony has alienated his entire team (and lost his billionaire fortune as a result). Iron Man and Black Panther have more in common than fans initially realize - but unfortunately, this commonality is a weakness.
