T'challa (Earth-7642)

**T'Challa** aka the **Black Panther** is the head of state for the African nation of Wakanda, the most technologically advanced country on Earth. In this role, he was the King/Chieftain, religious leader, and commander-in-chief all rolled into one. He was also considered among the top intellects in the world. Using Wakanda's advanced Vibranium technology and his own abilities and fortune, he pledged his life to the service of all humankind.

## History

### Early Life

**T'Challa** was the first biological son of T'Chaka, king of the African nation of Wakanda, a secluded technologically advanced country that contained the only source of the rare ultra-durable metal known as Vibranium. His mother, N'Yami, died a week after giving birth to her son as a consequence of a rare autoimmune disease she had contracted during pregnancy. T'Challa's adopted older brother, Hunter, blamed him for her death.

T'Challa was taught the properties of Vibranium when he was still a kid, and his lessons in royal duty began at age five. When he accompanied his father on border inspection for the first time, T'Challa got lost, but was found by outsider explorer Ramonda. After meeting T'Chaka, Ramonda remained in Wakanda and became a mother to T'Challa. He became the reason why Ramonda decided to stay in the country, and she ended up marrying T'Chaka.

During a ceremony held in the border of Wakanda, T'Chaka was approached by physicist Ulysses Klaw, who attempted to petition for the mining rights of the nation's rare metal called Vibranium. Klaw was backed up by a group of mercenaries, who opened fire as soon as T'Chaka refused. When Klaw's sonic weapon overwhelmed his father, T'Challa ran to his aid. Klaw prepared to kill the young prince instead, but T'Chaka shielded him, and died. After Klaw was disarmed by Zuri, T'Challa took his sonic blaster and maimed the invader's right hand, forcing him to retreat. Not long afterwards, Ramonda left Wakanda abruptly. Only decades later did T'Challa learn she had been kidnapped and brought back to her native South Africa.

When T'Challa was a teen, he was sent on the Wakandan rite of passage to roam the land. He saved a young orphan girl named Ororo Munroe from kidnappers, who then later used her mutant powers to control the weather to take out the same would-be kidnappers and killers when they came for him. The pair shared a romance and spent much time together, however, T'Challa's duties as a prince prevented them from further exploring their burgeoning mutual attraction.

As a young man, T'Challa traveled to America and Europe for school. B'Tumba, his childhood friend, was sent by his father N'Baza to study alongside him. While in the US T'Challa used the alias "Luke Charles" to remain incognito. It was during this time that he met another student Nicole Adams and the two had a short romance. Another student, Kamal Rakim, was angered T'Challa was dating a white person and attacked the two. T'Challa was forced to defend himself and Nicole and easily took down Kamal and his gang. He gained a Ph.D. in Physics from Oxford University.[ Being bested at every sport and every endeavor, B'Tumba grew jealous and turned to A.I.M., plotting revenge against T'Chaka's son.

### Return to Wakanda

T'Challa came back to perform his duties in his tribe to become a man to lead the country. He was sent to find the sacred Heart-Shaped Herb, whilst searching he was captured by A.I.M., B'Tumba was ordered to execute his friend, but since he couldn't do it, he freed T'Challa and joined him in battling the A.I.M. soldiers. During the combat, B'Tumba was fatally wounded, and after A.I.M. retreated, he apologized to Black Panther before dying.

Two years before it was expected, T'Challa anonymously challenged his uncle S'Yan for the throne, and upon victory gained the mantle of the Black Panther from him. S'Yan happily stepped down, so his nephew could rule. T'Challa then took a Heart-Shaped Herb to link himself to Bast, the Panther God. The herb also enhanced the new king, making him almost superhuman. As one of his first acts as King, T'Challa excommunicated his adopted brother, Hunter. As the White Wolf, Hunter had decades earlier assumed leadership of the Hatut Zeraze ("Dogs of War"), zealous patriots who acted as the Wakandan Secret Police, performing acts of sedition, counter-intelligence, and assassination against the countries presumed enemies. T'Challa would not be a king who tolerated such actions, and so he officially disbanded the Hatut Zeraze, although in reality the Dogs and Hunter merely left Wakanda to operate on their own abroad.

Being King continued to bring up new difficulties when a tribal war commenced in Wakanda. T'Challa was forced to take sides in the war, choosing Dora Milaje over the Jabari Tribe for his secret service agents as well as his harem. The more Wakanda became a technological global power, the more T'Challa realized the threats of the outside world.

### Encountering the Fantastic Four

While developing nuclear weaponry inside Wakanda, he began to invite super-powered people to his country, beginning with the Fantastic Four, Although once he found out what kind of people they were, T'Challa saw them as allies as well as friends. They helped T'Challa defeat Klaw without taking his life.[36] In thanks he played baseball with his new American friends. T'Challa later sends a missile from Wakanda to the Baxter Building, piercing the barrier. Inside, Reed removes the vibranium bands which he had radioed the Black Panther to send to him. Reed then uses them to beat Klaw into submission. After the battle Reed radios T'Challa to thank him for helping them out. T'Challa witnesses Doctor Doom travel the globe with the Silver Surfer's stolen cosmic power

T'Challa led an army to Panther Island in a battle against the Inhumans. He realized that they have mutual allies and that Black Bolt brought the Inhumans because he sensed danger. Investigating, they came across the Psycho-Man's base and had to fight off his defenses. They found themselves overwhelmed and so they had Lockjaw bring the Fantastic Four to the Psycho-Man's base to turn the tide. There they battled their way to Psycho-Man, who revealed to them that he came from the Microverse and that he intended to take over this world with a giant emoto-caster weapon. Psycho-man was subdued by all the heroes and Black Panther questioned him, only to find that he was actually a robot piloted by a tiny being.

### Joining the Justice League of Avengers

Black Panther, under the identity of "Luke Charles", teamed up with Captain America to battle Baron Zemo. After defeating him Cap asked Black Panther to join the Justice League of Avengers.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

**Divine Empowerment:** T'Challa was originally enhanced by the Heart-Shaped Herb which granted him to have Super Soldier powers. His body is enhanced to near the pinnacle of human physical perfection. He was given additional powers by the Goddess Bast, when he became the King of the Dead. This blessing seems to have restored him to the same power levels which he possessed as the chosen Black Panther. Aside from his senses, T'Challa's natural strength, speed, agility, durability, healing, stamina, and reflexes have been augmented to nearly superhuman degree.

* **Black Panther Knowledge:** After being crowned "King of the Dead," T'Challa has the power to draw all the knowledge, strength, and every experience from every previous Black Panther.
* **Superhumanly Acute Senses:** T'Challa's five senses are highly acute, although not superhumanly so like Daredevil's. He can see with greater clarity and greater distances than any ordinary human. His vision extends into the ultraviolet and infrared areas of the electromagnetic spectrum, allowing him to see in near-total darkness and retain the same level of clarity. T'Challa's hearing is similarly enhanced, enabling him to detect sounds normal humans can't and sounds they ordinarily could but at much greater distances. T'Challa can memorize tens of thousands of scents. His sense of smell enables him to recognize people/objects by scent, even if they are well hidden. He can track a target by scent and track them to the exact location, can smell fear, and detect if someone is lying by change in body odor. T'Challa's sense of taste is sensitive to the point that he is able to taste the exact ingredients of any particular food he is eating.
* **Peak Human Strength:** T'Challa's strength is enhanced to the peak of human potential. He received a blessing from the Panther Goddess Bast, which elevated his strength between peak human and superhuman levels. His physical strength is noticeably superior to any Olympic-class weightlifter and far superior to normal humans, allowing him to press lift approximately 800 lbs (363 kgs). His legs extends with his strength enabling him to vertically leap approximately 10 feet off the ground and 15 feet in a standing broad jump. He was able to bulldog a 3000 lb. black rhinoceros, and a 5-ton black rhinoceros. He has been seen to easily lifting a grown man with one arm and throwing him, tearing through a thin wall with just one hand, and wrestling a 20-foot long crocodile while using both of his hands.
* **Peak Human Speed:** T'Challa is able to run and move at speeds superior to any Olympic-class runners, able to run at speeds up to 35 mph. However, when pushed to his limit, T'Challa can potentially run up to 41-45 mph. He also has the ability to attack faster than the eye can follow. His combat speed seems more enhanced than anything else, as he has frequently kept up with other enemies in combat, and blitzed people before they pull their trigger fingers.
* **Peak Human Stamina:** T'Challa's body eliminates the excessive build-up of fatigue-producing poisons in his muscles and his musculature generates considerably less fatigue toxins than the muscles of an ordinary human being, granting him exceptional endurance, and lung capacity. He can physically exert himself at peak capacity for an hour before fatigue toxins begin to impair him. His lung capacity is at the peak human levels, enabling him to hold his breath underwater for 6 minutes. He was able to run for 15 miles in the New York sewer with little to no fatigue toxins begin to impair him.
* **Peak Human Durability:** His skin, muscle, and bone tissues are augmented to levels that are much denser and harder than normal humans, making him far more durable and resistant to damage to various degrees. He withstood getting smashed on his head by a glass bottle with no visible injury or discomfort.T'Challa can withstand blows from superhuman opponents like Killmonger, who have the strength to overpower and kill an adult bull elephant with his bare hands.
* **Peak Human Regeneration:** T'Challa's enhanced healing speed and capabilities allows him to have a conditioned metabolism and immune system that enables extraordinarily efficient healing.
* **Peak Human Agility:** T'Challa's equilibrium, balance, flexibility, dexterity, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels superior to any Olympic-level athlete that has ever competed. This gives him cat-like agility. T'Challa has been seen to run barefoot on utility pole wires, and leap across an entire opera room.
* **Peak Human Endurance:** T'Challa's endurance is about double that of an Olympic athlete. He continued to function for thirteen hours while fighting Killmonger despite being exhausted.
* **Peak Human Reflexes:** T'Challa's reaction time are beyond the natural limits of an Olympic-level athlete, allowing him to dodge multiple gunfire at point-blank range with ease. He has been noted to have reflexes faster than an actual panther.

### Abilities

* **Genius Intelligence:** T'Challa is a polymath genius and has an eidetic (aka photographic) memory. His knowledge of physics and engineering ranks him among the top eight intellects of the world. He possesses accomplishments such as a PhD in physics from Oxford University. He also combined alchemy with science to create a new scientific field called Shadow Physics, a dangerous discipline which allowed him to track Vibranium on a quantum level, craft weapons which would be particularly effective against Vibranium, and create an unstable teleportation device which at the time ripped apart anyone using it with great healing ability.

* **Master Martial Artist:** T'Challa has been groomed to be a warrior since birth. He is a master in practically all forms of armed and unarmed combat, having mastered various styles of martial arts from around the world. He is considered to be one of the best martial artists to have ever walked the Earth.

* **Master Acrobat:** T'Challa is a rigorously trained gymnast and acrobat. He is particularly accomplished at gymnastics, acrobatics, and brachiation (swinging from one branch to another using one's arms).

* **Expert Marksman:** He is a master marksman adept with hunting knives, firearms, and other projectile weaponry.

* **Master Tactician:** T'Challa is a genius tactician, strategist, and leader who is practically peerless.[24] He was taught tactics and strategies in his youth by his father who encouraged him to always think two steps ahead of his enemies and three steps ahead of his friends. His prowess is such that he is able to out think and out maneuver individuals such as Tony Stark, and other geniuses.

* **Expert Tracker & Hunter:** Even without his superhuman senses, T'Challa is a master tracker and hunter. He can pick up a prey's scent and memorize tens of thousands of individual ones.

* **Multilingual:** T'Challa can fluently speak his native language, English, and other various languages.

* **Master Inventor:** He can invent various devices with special properties when needed. He possesses engineering abilities and intellect that makes him a peer and has proven to be able to invent and create weaponry that rivals their engineering capabilities. T'Challa can also duplicate practically any other technologies after learning how they work or by glancing at the designs.

* **Highly Influential Connections:** As king of Wakanda, the Panther has access to a vast collection of magical artifacts, technological and military hardware, as well as the support of his nation's wide array of scientists, adventurers, and superheroes.

* **Diplomatic Immunity:** As the leader of a sovereign nation, he often visits the United States or the United Nations for political reasons. He enjoys diplomatic immunity during these trips, and his embassy is considered foreign soil.

* **Musical Skill:** T'Challa is a skilled musician and can play the flute.

* **Substantial Wealth:** T'Challa is Wakandan Royalty, thus he has access to a vast amount of wealth due to the advanced technology he has created/invented, and the stores of vibranium possessed by his country. His wealth surpasses that of Tony Stark, and Bruce Wayne whose net worth is in the billions.

### Weaknesses

Due to his heightened senses, bright lights, loud noises, & strong smells can potentially overwhelm him.