Origin

M'Baku is a predecessor of a Wakandan space expedition looking for the source of Vibranium. This expedition would be affected by a temporal anomaly, sending them two thousand years into the past. With no Wakanda to return to, they built the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda on the far reaches of space. Unfortunately, when the empire eventually fell to a dictator, M'Baku was enslaved, forced to mine for Vibranium before joining a rebel group known as The Maroons.

Creation

M'Baku first appears in Black Panther (2018) #1 by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Daniel Acuña. He is named after Man-Ape from present day Wakanda and in many ways resembles the version on M'Baku popularized by actor Winston Duke in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Major Story Arcs

The Fall of N’Jadaka

As a high-ranking member of The Maroons, M'Baku was sent on a mission to save an amnesiac slave that proved to be the present day, Black Panther. He had come looking for the lost expedition only to have his memory wiped by Imperial dictator, N'Jadaka, for being a threat to his leadership. They would work together to sabotage the empire and collect resources.

One such resource was N’Jadaka’s own daughter Zenzi, who was temporarily possessed by Bast after her seeming demise at the hands of N’Jadaka. She uses what is left of her magic to return T’Challa’s memories, making the Maroons very dangerous. N’Jadaka led an assault on the planet of Agwé to get his daughter back, but the Maroons had already left, priming the core of the planet to explode. N’Jadaka’s physical body was destroyed, but the symbiote he was bonded to survived, possessed by his soul.

With the dust settled, T’Challa returned home, along with a group of Maroons, including M'Baku. Unfortunately, the symbiote possessed by N’Jadaka followed them. He allied himself with rivals of the Panther and hoped to resurrect himself with the dead body of Erik Killmonger. Using the Maroon’s galactic gate, N’Jadaka took leadership back of his loyal troops to attack Wakanda Prime on Earth. The combined might of the Maroons, Wakanda’s forces, and a team of Panther’s superhuman allies was too much for N’Jadaka’s forces. He was slain and his troops defeated for good this time. The Intergalactic Empire willfully joined Wakanda under T’Challa’s reign.

The Last Annihilation

Dormammu, ruler of the Dark Dimension, manifested in the living realm by possessing the sentient planet, Ego. He led an army of Mindless Ones across space, linking the homeworlds of five empires in a pentagram shape for a final spell. All of space’s peacekeepers were fighting back including S.W.O.R.D., the space faring peacekeepers of the mutant nation of Krakoa. SWORD director, Abigail Brand, requested aid from Black Panther, who asked M’Baku to head to space and lead Wakanda’s intergalactic forces as backup.

They were sent to Aerie, part of the Shi’ar Empire. The Mindless Ones were turning its Moon into a fellow Mindless One to scare the residents of the planet and make them more susceptible to the magic. With the reputation of the empire still negative, M’Baku agreed to focus his team on the moon while the Imperial guard actively fend off the golems. M’Baku believed the moon was too far gone. He had Manifold teleport him to Bast, homeworld of the empire, so that he could borrow the Koukou Array, a satellite system that N’Jadaka used to shake and heat planets as a threat. Shuri would reprogram it as a shield against the Mindless Moon. Because vibranium is unstable with magic, they bonded mysterium, a gift from Krakoa, to the array.

This success led to T’Challa naming M’Baku his regent to the intergalactic empire, so that he no longer had to split time between Wakanda Prime and the empire.

Imperial War

The major empires of the Galactic Council decided to attack the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda after they were framed for a series of assassinations. T'Challa and Shuri joined the Empire to help them take on the full might of the council. At the same time, two different coups took advantage of the chaos. During the attack, Skrull separatists rebelled against the Kree-Skrull Alliance, and Shi'ar separatists rebelled against Xandra and her Imperial Guard. A Skrull hiding among the Wakandan forces stabbed M'Baku in the back removing him from the war. In the aftermath, a new Galactic Union without the Skrulls was founded with Panther taking over as regent of the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, replacing M'Baku.

Due to his injury and betrayal, a bedridden M'Baku pulled away from the world, staying isolated in his hospital room. The Skrull disguised as a trusted ally has left him paranoid. Now, he surrounds himself with a private army he dubbed The Ebony Guard. They dutifully watched over him, scanning all visitors to ensure that he is never approached by another Skrull in disguise.

While investigating inconsistencies with Black Panther, M'Baku and the Ebony Guard uncover a number of robot hybrids of Black Panther and Earthbound supervillains. When Panther finally destroyed the computer that kept them volatile, the robots were given the chance to redeem themselves as members of The Ebony Guard, a team of champions that would fill in for Black Panther when he wasn't in space.