Issue(s): Defenders #84, Defenders #85
Cover Date: Jun-Jul 80
Title: "Battle royal!" / "Like a proud Black Panther..."
Credits:
Ed Hannigan - Writer
Don Perlin - Penciler
Tex Blaisdell / Jim Mooney - Inker

Review/plot:
Doctor Strange and the Hulk are in Atlantis with Namor recuperating from their battle with the Unnameable One. Last arc, Strange did something awful to the Hulk in order to defeat the Unnameable One. He "surgically sealed the Unnameable One into the Hulk's memory cells". The Hulk is currently in a coma, and soon transforms into Banner.

Meanwhile, there's a weapons sale going on between some rogue Wakandan elements and some ambitious Atlanteans. This happens on Kiber Island, which is described as a protectorate of Wakanda.

The Black Panther, who apparently has to handle every aspect of governing his country personally, shows up to put a stop to things.

Misunderstandings and a phony sense of honor eventually escalates this into war between the two countries.

When the Hulk leaps out of Atlantis in anger, the Wakandans think he's a nuclear missile, and they fire a nuke at Atlantis as a counter-strike. When Black Panther hears about it, he warns Namor, who diverts the missile. It lands on the barren Kiber Island.

After an uneasy ceasefire, the Defenders let Black Panther know that the Mandrill is plotting against Wakanda. The Defenders' association with the Panther drives Namor away.

The Defenders go after the Mandrill but fail to capture him.

This is better than the Unnameable One storyline, but still not very good. The political conflict between the two fictional nations should have been soooo much better.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place soon after Defenders #83, before the Hulk or Doctor Strange appear elsewhere. Therefore it's been pushed back a bit from its publication date.

References:

• Kiber Island was previously seen in Black Panther #13.
  
• The Defender's search for the Mandrill started in Defenders #79.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Was the aggression here between Atlantis and Wakanda brought up at all in the third "New Avengers" series? That title focused on the Illuminati and the falling out between Namor and T'Challa after Namor flooded Wakanda in the "Avengers vs. X-Men" miniseries, so I'm curious if this was ever referenced.

First meeting + first clash between Namor + T'Challa warrants a Historical Significance point IMO

Thanks for brining this to my attention, guys. I would never have read this story on my own.

Perhaps it rates a "Should be Historically Significant, But Somehow Just Isn't" rating...

The map of Wakanda in my mind has always been the one in the OHotMU handbook, which seems to be landlocked, but has an arrow pointing to the Indian Ocean (to the left, meaning South is up on the map). The first map, of which I was unaware, has Wakanda on the Atlantic. Now, of course, it's landlocked again, though bordering Lake Victoria. Map of the Week has a history of Wakanda's changing geography.

It can't be their first meeting due, at least, to the Avengers/Defenders War, not to mention the earlier Kang story featuring the pre-Invaders.

You're absolutely right. I misread some of the panels, and don't have the original issue.
I do think this is the first "Namor/Black Panther clash" of a certain sort - i.e. on a geopolitical scale - and that this would become a key element of their fraught relationship as we get closer to modern day.

So now we have Strange throwing the Hulk into a coma by practicing nonconsensual magical brain surgery on him? Nice. Some doctor!