Black Panther is one of the most important characters in the entire Marvel universe and
it’s not just because he’s part of all these crazy crossover events, but it’s also
because he was the first black superhero in mainstream comics and fun fact, he was created
three months before the Black Panther party.
So contrary to popular belief, that is not where he got his name from.
Though most people only know about Black Panther from the Marvel cinematic universe and I think
that’s a shame.
So today, let’s take a look at his comic book history and origins.
As the prince of the African country Wakanda, T’Challa is the son of T’Chaka and a mother
who died during childbirth.
From the moment he was born, T’Challa was trained to take over his father’s role as
Black Panther, his country’s spiritual and government leader.
My favorite quote is that it’s “sort of like being pope, president, and the head of
the joint chiefs of staff all at once.”
His father’s reign would end when a man named Ulysses Klaw murdered him, but the young
T’Challa tried to avenge his father by shooting Klaw with his own gun, but only managed to
get his hand.
Because of his age, T’Challa’s uncle became the Black Panther in his stead and shortly
thereafter, T’Challa traveled the world to train his body and mind.
Kind of like Batman.
On this journey, he rescued a super powered girl from being captured by men trying to
exploit her abilities.
This was Ororo Munroe (that’s a tongue twister), but you might know her better as the X-Man
Storm.
The two of them fell in love, but they drifted apart because of T’Challa’s drive for
revenge against Klaw.
It’s not known where he went after leaving Storm, but at some point during his walkabout,
T’Challa attended the best schools in America and England where he mastered many sports
and acquired a Ph.
D in physics.
T’Challa is INSANELY smart like he is one of the most intelligent people in the entire
Marvel universe.
Now though the Black Panther title is hereditary, it still has to be earned.
Once a year, any Wakandan can challenge the king for the throne.
So when T’Challa returned home from his walkabout, he successfully defeated his uncle.
However, before T’Challa could become Black Panther, he needed to be deemed worthy by
the panther god and after eating a special heart shaped herb, he was successfully judged
and gained the throne along with his Black Panther powers.
These include your usual “superhero cocktail”.
You know, super strength, speed, durability, endurance, and reflexes along with a keen
sense of smell, night vision, and a mild healing factor to boot.
So in the comics, Black Panther first appeared in a few issues of the Fantastic Four whom
he invited to Wakanda to test his skills… by hunting them, but hey, at least they all
became friends afterwards.
This cameo was followed by some adventures with Captain America which led to T’Challa
being personally invited to join the Avengers which he did.
For years, Black Panther was a valuable member of the team and even supplied them with their
famous Quinjet as well as designing The Falcon’s Vibranium wings.
Of course, with T’Challa spending a lot of time avenging overseas, there were attempts
to seize his throne which prompted Black Panther to leave The Avengers and focus on ruling
his kingdom.
That’s a pretty good choice.
Now after a massive war between two alien races, the Kree and the Skrulls, a secret
meeting of powerful heroes was held in Wakanda.
The heroes?
Iron Man, Professor X, Black Bolt, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Doctor Strange, Mr. Fantastic,
and of course, Black Panther.
To prevent another travesty, Iron Man proposed that they create the Illuminati, a secret
group to pool information and stop big events before they happen.
The only one opposed was Black Panther, leading the others to continue on without him.
Instead, Black Panther went around looking for magic frog statues, dated a jazz singer,
protected his throne from being taken over…
many times, fought the KKK, and even battled the powerful demon Mephisto.
Because of all these adventures, T’Challa never settled down or produced an heir to
continue his bloodline so when his step-mother told him to go find a wife, T’Challa rekindled
his relationship with Storm and the two got married…
Right in the middle of the superhuman Civil War arguing about the right to a secret identity
and vigilantism.
Originally, the royal couple stayed out of it, but right before the wedding ceremony,
T’Challa tried to get both side’s leaders, Captain America and Iron Man, to hash out
their differences by taking advantage of Wakanda’s neutral grounds.
That...
didn’t work out and after their friend, Goliath, was killed by Iron Man’s forces,
Black Panther and Storm joined Captain America’s side…
Only for them all to lose.
Spoilers.
After the war, the duo joined the Fantastic Four when Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible
Woman decided to take a break.
There they did usual fantastic stuff like fighting the Silver Surfer and helping the
physical embodiment of the universe not die.
Because comics.
After leaving the Fantastic Four, Black Panther help fight against a Skrull invasion and later
fell into a coma after being attacked by Doctor Doom when he refused to join The Cabal which
is basically an evil Illuminati.
While in his coma, T’Challa’s half-sister, Shuri took over as Black Panther, but when
he awoke, T’Challa lost his Black Panther powers.
Of course, he didn’t want to be useless so T’Challa turned to alchemy to enhance
his strength.
It turns out though that Doctor Doom was also manipulating a resistance movement inside
of Wakanda, leading to the Doomwar where he tried to steal ALL of the country’s main
resource, Vibranium.
In response, T’Challa straight up rendered all the Wakandan Vibranium inert, completely
making his nation’s most valuable thing completely useless.
Needless to say, people were PISSED so he went to New York to fill in for Daredevil
who had just left after being taken over by a demon.
Don’t worry, Daredevil got better and came back, leading T’Challa to return to Wakanda.
Back home, T’Challa ventured into the Wakandan city of the dead and was blessed by the panther
god as her own personal Black Panther and King of the Dead.
This came with spiffy powers including those he normally had as Black Panther and the knowledge
of every Black Panther before him, kind of like The Avatar.
Yet when a powerful cosmic entity known as the Phoenix came to Earth, the Avengers and
the X-Men went to war over if they should embrace or kill it.
Though not with fire… because the Phoenix IS fire...
Kind of…
Storm sided with the X-Men, but T’Challa sided with the Avengers.
If that wasn’t enough to strain their relationship, Storm’s ally, Namor, flooded the Wakandan
capital so she was branded a traitor by association and her marriage was annulled… by Black
Panther himself.
Soon after the Avengers vs. X-Men event, universes started smacking into each other so Black
Panther calls together the Illuminati to solve it.
These were the Incursions and if one universe wasn’t destroyed before it crashed into
the other, both universes would be lost.
So alongside the Illuminati, Black Panther literally helped destroy entire universes
in secret.
Unfortunately though, this required T’Challa to work alongside Namor who was still considered
to be an enemy of Wakanda after that whole flooding thing.
So when his sister found out, she banished T’Challa from Wakanda, but they made up
right before she was killed by the mad titan Thanos who was invading Wakanda in search
of one of the Infinity Gems.
Not that it matters though because all the universes were eventually destroyed in the
Incursions leaving only the patchwork planet of Battleworld in its place and it’s comprised
of all the bits of the Marvel multiverse that the writers thought were cool.
Oh, and its god was Doctor Doom.
Now all of the Marvel characters that you know and love were on Battleworld, but only
a few remember a time before it and since Black Panther got onto a magic spaceship before
the final Incursion, he was one of the few with memories.
Comics sure are great, right guys?
On Battleworld, Black Panther used the power of the Infinity Gauntlet to help take down
God Doom, but also ALL OF THE MARVEL ZOMBIES because of his King of the Dead powers.
Don’t worry if that doesn’t make sense because some cosmic shenanigans and Black
Panther using one of the Infinity Gems basically made Secret Wars and the final Incursion not
happen, BUT T’Challa still has memory everything so… it kind of did?
Now in the rebooted Marvel universe, T’Challa is back as the only Black Panther, is the
king of Wakanda, is trying to bring his sister back to life, and leads a superhero team called
the Ultimates which is a pretty big deal considering they turned freaking GALACTUS THE EATER OF
WORLDS into the creator of worlds… in issue two.
So yeah, Black Panther is one of the most important parts of the entire Marvel universe
and if you want to learn more about his adventures, I’d recommend reading Black Panther Vol
4 from 2005, Doomwar, and the current Black Panther run which is Vol 6 which started in
2016
But who would you like me to talk more about in the future?
Storm or The Illuminati?
Or if you want to learn more about the guy T’Challa made wings for, then just click
that annotation right thereto learn everything you need to know about the Falcon A.K.A.
the current Captain America, but if you want to support the channel then you can always
like, subscribe, favorite, all that great stuff, but I would really appreciate it if
you took a look at my Patreon.
There’s a link in the description down below and with your help, I can make this show even
better and I can make it more often.
So please at least go take a look at it, but no pressure.
I love you anyway.
You’re my friend.