﻿Hey guys, I’m Kya and I’m finally back with more ‘Yellow Spandex.’
Today, we’re kicking off the superhero season right,
with a look at ‘Black Panther.’
T’Challa’s costume might seem basic on the surface,
but there’s a lot to unpack beneath all that shiny black vibranium.
It’s so much more than a super suit.
It’s a sacred symbol of the Wakandan people,
and, at the same time, it’s high-tech sci-fi battle armor.
It’s also the first costume ever worn by a black superhero,
so naturally, it’s caused a lot of controversy,
one of which led directly to its most iconic feature.
But we’ll get to that and more as we sink our claws into
The Secrets of Wakandan Wardrobe
Let’s start with
The Comics
T’Challa first appeared in Fantastic Four #52, in 1966.
Stan Lee felt that comics were long overdue for a black superhero,
so he kicked the idea to Jack Kirby, who created a character called Coal Tiger.
They dropped the Keebler Fudge Stripes and renamed him Black Panther,
without a clue that the Black Panther Party would form in Oakland just three months later.
But the character was causing a stir well before that.
Originally, T’Challa had a half mask exposing his face,
But the higher-ups at Marvel didn’t want to risk putting black skin on the cover of their flagship 'Fantastic Four' book.
So, they told the inker to paint over it,
giving us the suit’s distinctive full mask.
It really sucks that the most iconic part of Black Panther’s costume had such an ugly origin,
but to Kirby’s credit, he was never down with that.
He drew every single cover and panel with T’Challa’s skin exposed,
Leaving the inkers to do the dirty work,
when they remembered to, anyway.
But that’s why they call him the King, baby.
He beat up Nazis, and he stuck it to the man.
It’s like on ‘Star Trek,’ when Kirk and Oohoora flubbed every take except the ones where they actually kissed,
as a well-deserved forget you to the network censors.
You are flawed and imperfect!
T’Challa’s design is a classic, no matter how we got there,
and it hasn’t actually evolved too much since the ‘60s.
But there’s still plenty to talk about when it comes to
The Black Panther Habit
That’s right, I said habit,
and I’m not talking about a repetitive action.
First and foremost, Black Panther’s costume is religious garb,
just like monks and nuns wear.
For thousands of years, Wakandans have worshipped the Panther God, Bast.
It’s their state religion,
and throughout the millennia, the chief of the Black Panther tribe had the honor of wearing the sacred Black Panther Habit,
which is a lot snazzier than a big old Pope hat,
and definitely packs more of a punch.
Kirby’s design established most of T’Challa’s signature look,
like the striped gloves and boots,
and the little kitty ears.
I wish I had my little kitty ears...
For decades, the costume only changed in small, subtle ways.
The cool little cape comes and goes throughout the years,
and during T’Challa’s first stint in the Avengers,
the artists experimented with the half-mask that Kirby fought for in the first place.
But by then, it was too late.
Even though comic fans were more accustomed to black superheroes by the ‘70s,
T’challa’s fully-covered face was already established as his signature look,
and through the ‘80s and early ‘90s, T’Challa’s suit stuck pretty close to his classic design.
We didn’t see any huge developments until 1998,
when the always-awesome Christopher Priest launched a new solo Black Panther comic for
Marvel Knights
The Priest run is one of the most definitive modern takes on the character,
and it established everything from the Dora Milaje to Everett K. Ross.
But Priest’s biggest addition to T’Challa’s arsenal was his brand new habit.
In addition to the kingly gold accents,
Priest introduced the idea that the Black Panther suit was actually made of a Vibranium weave.
It was a big power upgrade for the character,
Who, up to that point, was basically just a really strong, fast guy in spandex.
[WHOOSING NOISES]
Instead of relying solely on the power of the Panther God and her Heart Shaped Herb,
T’Challa finally started using some of that crazy Wakandan tech he’s got lying around.
Priest basically turned the Panther into Marvel’s own Batman,
ditching the gregarious Kirby vibes for a darker, more independent persona.
Back the frick up, because cultural appropriation is real.
Priest is just like "Y'all appropriating our culture, get the frick out.
On top of the Vibranium armor,
Priest also gave Black Panther a frickin’ brain aneurysm,
which led to his brief replacement by an NYPD officer named Kasper Cole,
who added an edgy trench coat and utility belt over the traditional Panther habit.
After low sales, Priest was replaced by ‘House Party’ director Reginald Hudlin,
who rebooted the character with a high-profile new series in the 2000s.
It was a big hit, but it played fast and loose with Panther lore.
For one thing, it completely ignored T’Challa’s incurable brain damage,
And retconned his sister Shuri into existence.
She took up the Panther mantle herself after Doctor Doom put her big brother in a coma.
After T’Challa kicked his ass using mystic runes painted all over his body,
The Black Panther relocated to NYC,
where he briefly took up Daredevil’s role as the protector of Hell’s Kitchen.
He added some SWAT-inspired street armor on top of the traditional habit,
but that was long gone by the time Ta-Nehisi Coates and artist Brian Stelfreeze took over the character.
In the current comics, the Black Panther is back to basics again,
only now his trademark mask looks a little more feline.
That hasn’t made it to his MCU costume, yet,
but there have been a few--
too few--
examples of the Black Panther
Off the Page
T’Challa’s first animated appearance came a shameful 29 years after his debut,
on an episode of the ‘90s ‘Fantastic Four’ show.
He’s dressed in his classic costume and, more importantly, he’s voiced by Keith David.
I applaud your cleverness, Mrs. Richards. But even when a panther cannot hear his victim, he can always detect the scent!
A.K.A. Spawn. A.K.A. Goliath from 'Gargoyles.
A.K.A. just an awesome human being with a really great velvety voice.
As far as I know, I'm already dead. Which means I'm waiting for your sorry ass in the afterlife.
Honestly, how Black Panther looks in adaptations is usually less awesome than who’s playing him,
like D’Jimon Honsou in his short-lived motion-comic series on BET,
There is no feat I can achieve that you are not capable of.
and even Taye Diggs in Superhero Squad.
I'm hopin' for some REAL action!
The cartoons don’t usually mess too much with the classic look,
Although ‘Ultimate Avengers 2’ gave us a slimmed down sleeveless version of the habit,
and the jacked black and yellow Panther in this weird Marvel anime is pretty sick,
but I prefer the simple sleekness of his ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ design.
Still, you don’t want to get too simple.
When Wesley Snipes was lobbying hard to get a ‘Black Panther’ movie made in the early ‘90s,
his plans for the costume was basically to get as jacked as possible and wear a plain old leotard with cat ears on it.
Just no.
No one's sad that movie didn't happen.
Someone's sad. Just not me.
That might have worked for Snipes, who started his career as a dancer,
but when it was time for T’Challa’s live-action debut in Civil War,
designer Ryan Minerding needed to make the habit fit in with the complex, tactical costumes of the MCU,
so he pounced on the idea of the Vibranium weave giving the costume depth, texture, and an almost silver shine,
which he accented with larger patterns throughout the suit.
The live-action habit really gives you the sense that it’s made by a culture that’s impossibly more advanced than ours.
It just looks more elegant than anything Tony Stark could come up with,
and its otherworldly effect was heightened by the fact that, in 'Civil War,' it’s completely CG in every single frame.
For Black Panther’s huge solo debut,
director Ryan Coogler recruited Hollywood legend Ruth Carter,
an industry vet who created the costumes for films ranging from ‘Do the Right Thing’ and ‘Selma’ to ‘Meteor Man’ and ‘Black Dynamite.’
Freeze, turkey!
Dynomite! Dynomite!
Her Afro-futurist concepts for the world of Wakanda are absolutely stunning,
and the movie has some of the most jaw-dropping designs I’ve ever seen.
It looks like we’re getting an updated version of the habit, too.
Carter’s redesign loses a lot of the decorative elements from his original suit,
stripping away the excess and delivering a back-to-basics classic that’s the spitting image of his simple comic costume.
And I just love it when they use the comic costume, and call it a day.
It's sleek. It's new. It's you. Black Panther.
I dunno what the heck that was.
Since his debut, T’Challa has been at the forefront of a comics revolution,
and for his first movie, Marvel is giving him the coronation he deserves.
‘Black Panther’ is the last stop on the road to ‘Infinity War,’
and for a lot of people, it’s going to be their first introduction to one of the coolest,
and coolest looking,
characters ever created.