Guardians of a guardian. Bodyguards to a superhero king. They’ve been in comics for 20 years but have gone through quite a bit of change since their debut. What kind of changes? Let’s find out!
Long ago, the Dora Milaje, the Adored Ones, served two purposes, to protect their king and be wives-in-training. Brought from across the tribes of Wakanda, the best girls of each tribe could join the Dora Milaje to be trained in all manner of combat and learn to speak in only the Hausa dialect to best protect the royal family. As time went on, the practice of the Dora Milaje fell out of use, centuries would go by until King T’Challa, having just fallen out of marriage proposal to a New Yorker, saw upheaval among the tribes of Wakanda. To help appease them, he’d reinstate the Dora Milaje but dismiss the wives-in-training aspect, knowing that having a well trained unit of bodyguards to assist him when battles got one-sided in his heroic efforts, could even the odds.
The new Dora Milaje were teens when they were brought in, Okoye and Nakia were first of the new force. Okoye would be T’Challa’s chauffeur and was quite happy to hear that her King had gotten rid of the wives-in-training aspect. Nakia was T’Challa’s personal assistant but was upset to learn that she would not be trained to be her King’s future bride as she had feelings for him from the moment they met. T’Challa saw his first team of Dora Milaje like they were his own daughters so his love for them was familial and this further made things difficult for Nakia to handle, she’d eventually break away and become a villain for a time by the name of Malice and work with Killmonger.
Queen Divine Justice was a Jabari refugee hiding in Chicago, unaware that extremists had tried to wipe out her tribe but did get her parents. She’d be brought to aide T’Challa after the heel turn of Nakia, she’d prove to be quite loyal and show how Wakanda’s from other parts of the world could help improve their home country. As time went on, the look of the Dora Milaje would return to a more traditional style, gone were the red dress suits and long straight hair for modern Western professionalism and once more were the shaved heads, tattoos, and Wakanda garb. Times would get more troubled as the superhero Civil War meant their king would sometimes get involved in the matter of registration, ready to defend their king from hero and villain alike.
Doctor Doom and Latveria would prove to be a great enemy of Wakanda and the Dora Milaje. Five hundred Dora Milaje would face off against the might of Latveria’s 80,000 strong military. The Dora Milaje would prove victorious and aide their Queen Shuri in taking on Doom’s global forces. The Midnight Angels, the best of the best of the Dora Milaje, would join the mercenary Deadpool in retrieving Vibranium that was stolen by Doom. When the war with Atlantis began, the Dora Milaje would side with Queen Shuri and abandon their aide to King T’Challa, seeing her efforts as those to protect Wakanda while he seemed to be too willing to team up with King Namor of Atlantis.
When the dust settled after the battles and wars, Queen Shuri was believed dead and King T’Challa ruled once more. Unrest reached all aspects of Wakanda, even among the Dora Milaje, especially with Ayo and Aneka, two of the best in the Dora Milaje. They were also deeply in love with one another, taking their weapons and flight armor, they’d leave their posts and side with rebel forces for a time. The return of Shuri, now blessed by the ancestors, would have the two rejoin working with the royal family and helping try to reunite Wakanda under a new political system and new troubles from an ancient time.
There you have it! If you’ve seen Black Panther the film, you know how amazing the Dora Milaje are, they may have been different in the comics but they definitely seem to be syncing up closer and closer. Okoye leads them and Nakia has a different role but the Dora Milaje are there to defend Wakanda. May we seem more of them in the future.
Suggested Reading
Black Panther Vol. 3 and onward
Doom War #5
World of Wakanda
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
