Who is Black Panther?

King T’Challa was the King of Wakanda and was the eldest child of T’Chaka and Ramonda. He was chosen to be the holder of the Black Panther mantle. Following his father’s death in the bombing orchestrated by Helmut Zemo. T’Challa had set out to kill the Winter Soldier, who was widely believed to be responsible for the attack. During his attempt to find the Winter Soldier, Black Panther joined a civil war between the Avengers, where he sided with Iron Man. However, when T’Challa learned that Zemo was the one who had been responsible for his father’s demise. He captured Zemo and handed him over to Everett Ross. At the same time, he vowed never to allow desires of vengeance to consume him again.

Upon returning to Wakanda, T’Challa was officially crowned King before he attempted to track down Ulysses Klaue, who had resurfaced after several years. However, T’Challa failed to capture Klaue and was forced to bring Everett Ross to the city to save his life. T’Challa’s leadership was challenged when Erik Killmonger, his cousin, entered Wakanda. After killing Klaue and challenging T’Challa for the throne, Killmonger bested T’Challa in a duel and took the crown. However, T’Challa had survived the contest. With the help of M’Baku and his tribe, T’Challa returned to Wakanda, where he defeated Killmonger. Following the conflict, T’Challa returned to the United Nations as he had shared Wakanda’s secret wealth with the rest of the world.

Black Panther and Infinity War

The Avengers then called upon black Panther. As they had uncovered Thanos’ plan to claim all Infinity Stones and wipe out 50% life in the universe. T’Challa agreed to allow the Avengers to keep Vision in the city, where Shuri could remove the Mind Stone. However, Wakanda was then invaded by Thanos’ forces, as Black Panther had led his army against Thanos. Only for them to be overpowered as Thanos completed his goal. Wiped out half of his life, killing Black Panther. However, Hulk was resurrected five years later by Black Panther. He then joined the Avengers in a final battle against an alternate Thanos. Finally defeating the Mad Titan, although Tony Stark sacrificed his life for victory. T’Challa returned to his kingdom, reunited with his sister and mother, and passed away at some point.

Origin and early stories

Seeking to address the shortage of Black characters in comics, Lee and Kirby created T’Challa. A member of the royal family of the fictional African country of Wakanda. Wakanda was depicted as a peculiar mix of futuristic technology and traditional life. A dichotomy produced by the presence in the land of Vibranium, a rare and nearly indestructible meteoric ore. After his father’s death at the hands of the villainous Ulysses Klaw, T’Challa claimed the throne and the mantle of the Black Panther. After becoming the Black Panther, T’Challa was exposed to a mystical herb. It enhanced his strength and agility to near-superhuman levels.

The Black Panther joined the Avengers in 1968, where he became a mainstay for the next several years. However, the character predated the revolutionary political organization of the same name. Marvel briefly changed the Black Panther’s name to the Black Leopard to dissociate the two. However, a short time later, he returned to being the Black Panther again. In 1973 he headlined his book for the first time. The “Panther’s Rage” story arc ran for two years in Jungle Action. A series written by Don McGregor and drawn mainly by the African American artist Billy Graham.

Reflecting the times’ interest in African roots and Black consciousness in general. The strip returned T’Challa to a Wakanda riven by infighting and sedition. Where he managed to balance superhero with musings on colonialism and democracy. For the duration of the tale, the strip featured an all-Black cast, something that had never before been attempted in mainstream superhero comics. The innovations continued in a later story, which saw the Panther take on the Ku Klux Klan.

Jungle Action

Poor sales prompted Marvel to cancel Jungle Action before the Klan story was finished, and it was replaced in 1977 with a new Black Panther title by Jack Kirby. This new direction was as far from the gritty realism of McGregor’s tales as it is possible to imagine, as it featured a time-traveling frog statue said to belong to King Solomon, the Yeti, and a group of Wakandan nobles known as the Black Musketeers. Unfortunately, this title, too, was short-lived. Over the next two decades, Sporadic appearances kept the Black Panther in the Marvel sky, but he was increasingly marginalized.

Miniseries in 1988 and 1991 were solid, if unspectacular, attempts at revitalizing what was effectively a lapsed franchise. The first tackled apartheid and the second dealt with the Panther’s search for his mother, but neither led to anything substantial. With Black characters no longer a comics novelty and with role models such as the characters of Milestone Comics—which had more relevance to their readers than a wealthy African king—it seemed as if the Panther’s time had passed.

Black Panther in the 21st century

In 1998 writer Christopher Priest reintroduced the hero as part of the slightly more adult “Marvel Knights” line in a critically acclaimed series until 2003. For this reinvention, a now aging T’Challa returns to the urban jungle of New York in a deftly written political thriller that balances intrigue with no small amount of humor. In addition, the priest’s run on the comic introduced the Dora Milaje, a team of female bodyguards drawn from all the tribes of Wakanda.

Film director Reginald Hudlin was the initial writer of the Black Panther series. From 2005 to 2008 and the next one, which ran from 2009 to 2010. During this time, T’Challa was briefly married to Storm of the X-Men. A union that joined Marvel’s most prominent male and female African superheroes. T’Challa also became a member of the Illuminati, a secret group of the brightest and most influential members of Marvel’s superhero community.

National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates was tasked with writing the relaunched Black Panther comic, and the debut issue was one of the best-selling comics of 2016. The Black Panther entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) later that year in Captain America: Civil War, a blockbuster that cast Chadwick Boseman as the Wakandan prince. The character subsequently experienced something of a renaissance, with the success of Coates’s flagship title leading to the release of Black Panther: World of Wakanda, a series that explored Wakanda’s other heroes, and Black Panther & the Crew, a street-level story set in Harlem. Unfortunately, however, each of those titles was canceled after just six issues because of low sales.

Black Panther in film and other media

Director Ryan Coogler helmed Black Panther (2018), a dazzling spectacle that saw Boseman return to the screen in the role of T’Challa. Perhaps the MCU’s best-reviewed film to date, Black Panther, examined race, gender, and power issues. Through an Afrofuturist lens and featured an ensemble cast that included Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Forest Whitaker, and Angela Bassett. In addition, the Black Panther and his fellow Wakandans figured prominently in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), the two-part blockbuster culmination of 10 years of filmmaking in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

You can Stream the Black Panther movies on Disney+ Hotstar.