Black Panther Comic History

## Background info

The Black Panther, also known as T'Challa, is a Marvel Comics created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. Wanting to address the lack of Black characters in comics, Stan and Kirby created T’Challa, a member of the royal family of the fictional African country of Wakanda.

Wakanda was depicted as a mix of futuristic technology and traditional African life. There, Vibranium, a rare and nearly indestructible meteoric ore, gives the country wealth and protection. After the death of his father, T'Chaka, by Ulysses Klaw, T’Challa claimed the throne as well as the mantle of the Black Panther. Upon becoming the Black Panther, T’Challa was exposed to a mystical herb that enhanced his strength and agility to superhuman levels.

## First appearance

Black Panther first appeared in *Fantastic Four* no. 52 in July of 1966. In the first version of the cover for *Fantastic Four* #52, the Black Panther wore a cowl that exposed his face. In the published version however, the cowl became a full face-mask, and previews in other comics did not show the cover at all, indicating that Marvel was unsure how much to reveal.

In the comic, the Fantastic Four were given a flying vehicle by the nation of Wakanda as a gift, as part of an invitation to visit the mysterious African country. Mister Fantastic agrees to meet, and their visitor then contacts T'Challa, also known as the Black Panther. T'Challa and others rejoice at the news and they raise a giant panther idol very high up before he entered the sacred temple and wears his ceremonial Black Panther outfit.

When they arrive, they are shocked, and found themselves in a massive mechanical forest. Upon leaving the ship, they are suddenly attacked by the Black Panther. Caught off guard the group splits up and engages in various traps, Wakandan guards, and the Black Panther himself. Alone, each member of the Fantastic Four were no match for the Black Panther. However, when they regrouped, they easily outnumbered and overpowered T'challa, who then stops his attacks. Taking off the mask, T'Challa revealed that he was merely testing the Fantastic Four's abilities and invited them to his land to for a grave task, taking down Ulysses Klaw, his father's killer.

## History

T'challa's first appearance in comics was in in *Fantastic Four* no. 52 on July 1st of 1966, and while he wasn't the first Aftican American comic book character, he still played a very important role in African American representation in comics. The first ever African American comic character was in fact Lothar from the 1934 comic strip *Mandrake the Magician.* While the *Fantastic four* no. 52 starts out portraying the Black Panther as a villain, it turns out he was just testing their skills in order to acquire their help.

More than three months after the debut of Black Panther, the *Black Panther* *Party* was officially founded in Oakland, in 1966. In 1972, with *Fantastic Four* no. 119*,* Marvel revealed a new name for the character, and started calling him the “the Black Leopard.” The Black Leopard” didn’t stick however, but the creators’ reticence toward directly commenting on the world in which Black Panther existed did.

The Panther got his own solo run in 1973, written by Don McGregor called *Jungle Action*. Three years later, he took the Black Panther to the U.S. South to fight the Ku Klux Klan. McGregor explored the world Kirby and Lee created, and portrayed Wakanda more human and alive, and more complex. In *Panther’s Rage,* McGregor’s first big story arc, T'challa returned home from fighting with the Avengers to find the throne challenged. First by M’Baku the Man-Ape, and then by Erik Killmonger, similarlly to the MCU *Black Panther Movie.*

Christopher Priest's run of Black Panther was the next truly exciting thing to happen to the character, and didn’t occur until the late ’90s, almost 20 years after McGregor's run. Priest was the first black writer for Black Panther the character, and he ran 62 issues, the first of which was published in 1998, explaining—to Marvel, to readers, to the world—everything that the Black Panther was capable of, all the things he could mean. “It seems, after Fantastic Four no. 52 and no. 53, everybody kind of forgot who Panther was and treated him like Joe Blow,” Priest told Newsarama in 2015. “King T’Challa is not Joe Blow.” His run wasn’t fully appreciated thee, but he did revolutionize the character, creating the amazing, dignified, master strategist Black Panther we know today.

    The one of the latest runs, and one of the most important runs of Black Panther's history, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, started writing *A Nation Under Our Feet*, in which T'Challa's regime was challenged by the consecutive emergence of two insurgent groups, the People, led by Tetu, and the rebellious Dora Milaje, led by Aneka and Ayo. One article writes that "A nation under our feet shows Wakanda functions as a metaphorical Mecca, and this run of T'challa and Wakanda is contextualized in terms of the aesthetics of Afrofuturism and theories on the influence of ideology in comic books."

The most recent comic, and Coates last comic of his run, was *Black Panther (2018) #25.* Over four years, Coates has taken the Black Panther to hell and back and expanded the way we see Wakanda, not only as a nation, but as a people. In his final issue, he brings T'Challa full circle, back home to Wakanda - and to the crown he has never fully accepted. Coates' story was one of a king who sought to be a hero, a hero who was reduced to a slave, a slave who advanced into legend - and the man who has struggled to hold up an empire in his bare hands.

The Black Panther's popularity has risen significantly after his introduction into the MCU, and was played by the late Chadwick Boseman. In the MCU, T'Challa is first introduced in *Captain America: Civil War*, as the son of Wakanda's king T'Chaka. Following T'Chaka's death after a bomber attacks the United Nations, T'Challa seeks revenge on Bucky Barnes, who was implicated for the attack. The MCU's Black Panther's latest appearance was in *Avengers: Endgame*, where T'Challa was restored to life and was brought to the Avengers Compound to join their final battle against an alternate timeline version of Thanos and his army. Due to the success (over $22 billion worldwide) and overall enjoyment of these movies, as well as Black Panther's stand alone movie *Black Panther* and the other MCU movies, not only was there a revival of the Black Panther character, but also the comic book industry as a whole, as it introduced a new generation to the world of comics.

## Appearances in other media

* Television
	+ Black Panther's first appeared in the 1994 *Fantastic Four* animated series, voiced by Keith David. In the episode "Prey of the Black Panther", h e enlists the Fantastic Four to help him save Wakanda from Klaw's invasion.
	+ Black Panther's latest appearance is in the *Avengers Assemble* animated series, voiced by James C. Mathis III. Introduced in the third-season episode called "Panther's Rage", T'Challa speaks at an assembly before he is attacked by Crossbones, and joins forces with Captain America to defeat crossbone, right before stealing Captain America's shield, claiming that Howard Stark, the original creator of Captain America's Sheild, stole the Vibranium used in its construction.
* Movies (animated and MCU)
	+ The Black Panther first appears in the *Marvel Animated Features* series of direct-to-DVD animated films. In the movie, like his father T'Chaka, this version has the ability to transform into an anthropomorphic black panther.
	+ The latest appearance of the animated Black Panther was in the 2018 animated Lego film *Black Panther: Trouble in Wakanda*, voiced again by James C. Mathis III.
* Video games
	+ Black Panther first appears as a playable character in *Marvel: Ultimate Alliance*, voiced by Phil LaMarr.
	+ Black Panther's latest appearance will be a downloadable playable character in *Marvel's Avengers*.

## Resources

* Black Panther Wikipedia Page
* Fantastic Four no. 52 Fandom
* T'challa Fandom
* Evolution of Black Panther in comics