NakiaMalice

NAKIA

Nakia, also known as Malice, is one of the Black Panther’s deadliest foes—and was once one of his most valued allies. Formerly one of Wakanda’s Dora Milaje, or “Adored Ones”—a group of deadly women that act as the king’s fiercest bodyguards—Nakia was a trusted confidant of T’Challa’s. Eventually, however, her infatuation with him poisoned her mind until she became the most dangerous kind of enemy: one who was once a close friend.

Fallen Dora

Nakia was born in a Wakandan fishing village in the Q’Noma Valley, where she was groomed to be one of the Dora Milaje, a concomitant of Wakanda’s monarch. The order of the Dora Milaje was established to promote harmony between Wakanda's many rival tribal factions. They also perform the role of the king's deadliest bodyguards and most faithful, most trusted servants. Nakia spent her post-adolescence studying under and protecting King T’Challa, developing a closeness that, for her, grew into an all-consuming infatuation. She couldn’t accept that her role was merely ceremonial and that T’Challa had no romantic intentions toward her.

Nakia’s jealousy changed her, leading to her attempting to kill the King’s former lover, a deceptive betrayal that caused T’Challa to banish Nakia back to her home village in disgrace. But when she fled, she was tortured and left to die by Black Panther’s foe Achebe, before being resurrected and empowered by Erik Killmonger as Malice.

Wakandan Warrior

As a former member of the Dora Milaje, Nakia is a skilled martial artist, adept at many Wakandan weapons and fighting styles with great agility, as well as a useful pilot. As Malice, however, her deadliness became positively superhuman, as she gained enhanced strength and frightening accuracy in her use of weapons, in addition to her newfound expertise with poison and mind controlling spores.

Would-Be Usurpers

When she was still fighting by T’Challa’s side, Nakia’s opponents were that of her King’s, but once she turned, Malice’s foes could be counted as anyone standing where she once stood. Namely, anyone close to the Black Panther, so former Dora Milaje compatriot Okoye, love interest Monica Lynne, and Nakia’s own Dora replacement Queen Divine Justice entered her crosshairs. She has also fought against other Black Panther allies, like Brother Voodoo and Dakota North.

Co-conspirators

First, Nakia’s circle of allies was rather intimate, existing solely of T’Challa and her fellow Dora Milaje, Okoye. But as Malice, it grew even smaller, as the only person she could call a compatriot was Erik Killmonger, the villain responsible for her resurrection and transformation into an agent of evil.

The Once-Adored One

As a youth, Nakia was chosen to represent the Q’noma Valley as a Dora Milaje for T’Challa, King of Wakanda. After three years of rigorous training, she finally met the King himself, and she became instantly smitten with him. Though T’Challa did not reciprocate her feelings, reminding her that the role was purely ceremonial, he did take her, along with fellow Dora Okoye, under his wing, helping them train to become worthy of their posts. But Nakia still held a candle for her King, becoming fiercely jealous of his American fiancée Monica Lynne. At her young age, however, her feelings were still dismissed as merely a schoolgirl crush.

Years later, after helping the King subdue extreme civil unrest in Wakanda stemming from his decision to admit refugees from neighboring, war-torn nations, Nakia and Okoye accompanied him to the U.S.A. to investigate corruption within the Wakanda-backed Tomorrow Fund, a stateside charity that was involved with the death of a young child. This scandal was engineered by the villainous Achebe to lure T’Challa out of the country. Okoye and Nakia proved instrumental in aiding their King in his battles with Dzhokar Gapon of the Russian mafia and Jack Taylor of Spectrum Dynamics, a U.S. intelligence agency front tied to the ongoing conspiracy against Wakanda, but their presence by his side would turn ruinous for a different reason.

While in the states, T’Challa came under the demonic influence of Mephisto, who used his considerable power to trick the King into kissing Nakia, whom he briefly saw as his former lover Monica. Despite overtures from T’Challa explaining the otherworldly deception, and interference from Okoye hoping to help her friend see sense, Nakia had long held the belief that the King’s feelings for her were mutual, so there was no way for her to see this infraction as anything more than proof of what she wanted so badly to be true. This belief that her and T’Challa were meant to be together had taken its hold and wasn’t going anywhere.

Not long after their return to Wakanda, Nakia and Monica Lynne found themselves alone in an aircraft during a battle, where Nakia let T’Challa’s erstwhile love interest know there was no room for her in his life any longer. Monica, at this point, just wanted her own life and was tired of her existence being tethered to the nonstop worry that surrounded T’Challa, so she wanted no part in a romantic rivalry with Nakia. Nonetheless, Nakia couldn’t stand the thought of competition, so she ejected Monica’s seat mid-air, leaving her to a presumed death.

Nakia lied to T’Challa, claiming someone else had killed Monica, but when her deceit came to light, he cast her out of the Dora Milaje, leaving her to return to her tribe in disgrace. Rather than face that fate, Nakia fled away, where she was intercepted by Achebe, who tortured her and left her for dead. Luckily for her, and unluckily for everyone else, T’Challa’s arch-nemesis Erik Killmonger found her and brought her back to life, healing her magically and genetically enhancing her. It was then that Nakia took the name Malice (borrowed from one of Killmonger’s former associates) and set out to enact her revenge upon T’Challa, falling right into Killmonger’s plans.

Her first malicious act was to sneak into the royal palace and try to slit the throat of Brother Voodoo (Jericho Drumm), who was trying to save an injured T’Challa. Malice was unsuccessful in her attempts to slay either man, and a second attempt on the life of Monica Lynne also failed, but she did kill T’Challa’s ally Nikki Adams. Recovering from this largely ineffective attempt to ruin T’Challa’s life, Malice retreated to come up with a more comprehensive plan.

Malice plotted to hold hostage every person he held dear in an attempt to force him to love her. She freed M’Baku the Man-Ape, so he could kidnap T’Challa’s stepmother Ramonda. She poisoned his former student Maria Henckel and his cousin M’Koni and also sent men to attack Monica, who were being controlled by the narcotic Jufeiro spores Malice had become so fond of. T’Challa hired Private Investigator Dakota North to protect Monica, so that part of the plan failed, but in order to get the antidote for Maria and M’Koni, he pretended to fall under the Jufeiro spore’s power. T’Challa then had Okoye attack Malice so he could pretend to kill her to prove he was fully being controlled. Unfortunately, Monica and Dakota interfered, thinking he was truly under mind control. Their well-intentioned arrival allowed Malice to flee, with T’Challa chasing after her.

With little left at his disposal while they fought atop a speeding train, T’Challa threatened to destroy Q’Noma Valley to prevent Malice’s many betrayals from sparking a civil war. Her loyalty to and love for her home village won, so instead of seeing her people wiped out, she provided the antidote, just before being seemingly killed as they passed under a low bridge. Her body, however, was never found.