Black Hero Appreciation Month: Black Panther
For everyone and their mothers who have already seen the Captain America: Civil War trailer and is wondering “Who is the guy in the Black Cat-looking costume?” I am here to tell exactly who this character is and why his inclusion is so amazing. That character is the Black Panther, T’Challa, king of the highly technological secret African nation Wakanda, member of the Illuminati, and the Avengers as well as my favorite Marvel superhero.
For those who don’t know, Black Panther was actually the first mainstream black superhero ever. Created in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, he made his first appearance in Fantastic Four #52 where he fought the Fantastic Four to test his strength and he did win the battle until a friend of Johnny Storm’s helped saved them and Black Panther revealed his story to them. As mentioned earlier, Black Panther is the king of Wakanda, a technologically advanced nation which has never been conquered or even seen by outsiders. Many have tried but many have failed to defeat the Wakandans — going back as early as the 15th century, and forward the 20th century when Black Panther fought against Captain America… and won.
The main reason why Wakanda is so technologically advanced compared to everyone else is the fact that Wakanda is the only place in the Marvel universe (until the Savage Land was more developed) to have the metal known as vibranium — and the Wakandans sit on a mountain of it. They also refuse to share it with the outside world.
The mantle of Black Panther is passed down from generation to generation. It’s a sign of maturity, spirituality, and leadership to the Wakandan people. The current Black Panther is known as T’Challa. The young prince of Wakanda took the mantle of Black Panther after his father was killed by teh villain Klaw. His powers and abilities greatly shift in the comics depending on the writer. But basically from childhood T’Challa is a natural born super genius, surpasses Olympic level athletes, and is a master strategist, combatant, and a master of all forms of weaponry mainly using vibranium spears and daggers. His suit has a vibranium weave making him immune to most physical forms of damage as well as projectiles. He later has all five of his sense enhanced after consuming a mystical heart-shaped herb which the Wakandan people believe to be sacred. It also made him much stronger in everything else. Not to mention he has all the previous strength, skills, knowledge, and wisdom of all previous Black Panthers. He was also married to my favorite lady of the X-Men, Storm, until the Avengers VS X-Men crossover series sadly ended their relationship (and destroyed much of Wakanda’s capital city). He even had a son with her named Azari who had both Black Panther’s abilities and Storm’s lightning powers
Black Panther is my favorite Marvel character, mainly due to his strength and skills. He can be one of the darker characters due to his nature but he is one of the most trusted Avengers and I look forward to seeing him in live action played by Chadwick Boseman in Civil War as well as his own solo movie. If you wish to read up on Black Panther I suggest reading his 2005 run, as well as the Man without Fear run. He also has his own cartoon mini-series titled Black Panther, and appears as a main character in Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Heroes cartoon and was the star character in Ultimate Avengers 2 animated movie.
