Warning! This article contains spoilers for Marvels #8.
Marvel Comics has revealed the Black Panther's kingdom of Wakanda has another secret X-Men connection. The X-Men have always had a curious relationship with Wakanda. They've usually been allies - a handful of X-Men even helped liberate Wakanda from Doctor Doom - but on occasion they've been adversaries, notably during the Avengers Vs. X-Men event when T'Challa allowed the Avengers to hide in his nation.
But the greatest connection between the X-Men and Wakanda has always been a very personal one; the bond of love. Storm and T'Challa first fell in love when they were just teenagers, and their love has endured all these years - and numerous wars between the X-Men and the Avengers. It continues to the present day, with Storm now crowned as Regent of the Solar System and T'Challa struggling to figure out how to be king in a more democratic age. But it seems that isn't the only love connection between the X-Men and the Avengers - because they are bound together by another romance.
Kurt Busiek, Yildiray Cinar and Guru-efX's The Marvels has introduced a mysterious new superhero, an Avian who calls herself Warbird. The Marvels #8 reveals that, decades ago, the Shi'ar - future allies of the X-Men now ruled by Charles Xavier's daughter Xandra - sent a scout team to Earth. Presumably drawn to Wakanda by the presence of Vibranium, they made contact with the dissident tribe known as the Jabari. The Shi'ar commander and a Jabari psychic fell in love, and soon they had a daughter - who has grown up to become Warbird. It seems the X-Men and the Wakandans have another secret love connection, one even King T'Challa is unaware of.
There have been several Warbirds in Marvel's history; Carol Danvers briefly used that codename long before she settled on her current Captain Marvel alias. But the Shi'ar Warbirds are essentially their bodyguards, their greatest warriors and most skilled fighters. The genetic combination of human (possibly mutant) and Shi'ar DNA has given this Warbird phenomenal powers - flight, remarkable agility, and tremendous physical endurance. She hasn't yet chosen to be a hero - in fact, in The Marvels she's on a very personal mission - but hopefully she'll stick around and become a force to be reckoned with.
Meanwhile, it's interesting to note the Wakandans have had contact with alien civilizations for far longer than even King T'Challa realizes. The Jabari tribe - famously ruled by M'Baku in the MCU - are notoriously isolationist, and no doubt they've avoided revealing their Shi'ar links to any other Wakandans. It will be interesting to see if Marvel develop this link, binding Black Panther's Wakanda closer to the X-Men's alien allies.