Hero Profile: Black Panther

He's like Batman, but richer, stronger,
and with a scarier animal theme.

Story time! No groaning. Over two years ago now the original Avenger’s film was coming out. At the time I was living in Winona, MN, while my younger brother Matthew was back home in Oakdale, MN. We were planning to meet up and see it opening day, and I was really freaking excited. So excited in fact, I got into the habit of sending Matt a series of text’s I refer to as the Avengers Assemble texts. I started each message with “Avengers Assemble, except,” followed by a character that wouldn’t be in the movie and a silly reason as to why. There were ones like “Avengers Assemble, except Dr. Strange, because there is no way another magic guy would help fighting Loki,” or “except Ghost Rider, as a matter of fact get out of here until you stop being Nicholas Cage.” But by far the most sarcastic was “except Black Panther, because there is no way America wants to see a brilliant, strong, successful, diplomatic, honorable, rich, African King on the Avengers team.” Goodness, even in retrospect the sarcasm on that one hurt. Such a shame that it’s going to take until 2016 or so before Panther even sees the light on the big screen. I mean, he is the first African superhero in mainstream comics. Period. He predates other black superheroes of Marvel and DC comics by several years. And given the list of attributes above, why wouldn’t you want this guy? I’ll get into that later, first a brief history on the Black Panther title and its most recent bearer T’Challa.

The Black Panther is the title given to the leader of the Black Panther tribe of the African nation of Wakanda. The Panther tribe has been the ruling group of Wakanda for generations, so to be the Panther also makes one the King (or Queen, it just doesn’t happen as often) of Wakanda. The title is hereditary, but just because one is the first born or oldest living child doesn’t mean they automatically get the top spot, a perspective Panther needs to face many years of training, study, and finally several life threatening trials to obtain the title. T’Challa’s father T’Chaka was king at the time. He was a wise and just ruler that did his best to protect Wakanda from dangerous outside influences. He was particularly careful of the Vibranium mound, at the time recently unearthed source of the rare metal Vibranium. It’s the super-powerful, vibration resistant metal that is mixed in the Adamantium that makes Captain America’s shield so strong. T’Chaka was still smart enough to know that the metal was very important, so he sold incredibly small amounts of it for absurd prices, making Wakanda the wealthiest reclusive nation in the world. Take that North Korea.

He pushed Capt. back, think about that for a minute.

Unfortunately, it was this habit of sharing a little Vibranium that ultimately lead to T’Chaka’s death. An adventurer and scientist named Ulysses Klaw had made a lot of headway building a sonic weapon, but needed a large about of Vibranium for it to work. He came to Wakanda to steal enough of the material to power his sonic device, but crossed paths with T’Chaka on the way out. Klaw used his sonic weapon on T’Chaka, killing him. T’Challa had secretly followed his dad to see him take care of the invader. Enraged at his father’s death, T’Challa maimed Klaw, ultimately lopping off Klaw’s right hand in vengeance. After this, T’Challa began to travel the world, to prepare himself to become the next Black Panther while his Uncle S’yan ruled as regent. And for once, the Uncle isn’t evil and planning to keep the throne for himself. Way to go against the mold Marvel.

After doing things like getting a Physics Ph.D. from Oxford and having a short lived relationship with Ororo Munroe (Storm, from the X-men, before she was with the X-men), T’Challa returned to Wakanda, assumed the throne and work towards a better Wakanda. Something’s he did were good, like increasing the amount of Vibranium shipped out to the world, thus making Wakanda richer. Something’s were good in theory but had a few nasty repercussions attached, like disbanding Wakanda’s Secret Police and banishing its leader, his adopted brother Hunter. Hunter took it pretty well, if you considered getting your own color specific animal theme and vowing to destroy family taking it well. He goes by White Wolf now.

I wonder if Wakanda's realize how
"eccentric" their leader is.

T’Challa has a love hate relationship going with Wakanda’s reclusiveness. He seems to constantly change his mind between having open borders and closed borders. He often works with the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, but Wakanda is always the thing he prioritizes. He’s retired, taken up the mantle again, and had his powers changes a few times, but he is Wakanda’s ever vigilant protector, the Black Panther.

He or She that holds the title of Black Panther is essentially Wakanda’s Captain America. Meaning that while they are still very much human, they are pushed to the absolute limits of the human body in terms of strengths, speed and agility. This is accomplished by eating a sacred Heart-Shaped herb that connects him to a mystic Panther god. Said god augments the aforementioned physical traits, and also gives him the sense of sight, smell, and hearing of a big cat. These powers when combined with things like his Vibranium laced black costume, and Vibranium daggers and claws, makes Panther a devastating hand to hand combatant. He’s also a master of several African fighting styles, so it’s not all the Panther God and Vibranium toys that make him a force to be reckoned with. Also, in Wakanda he has the full might of the technologically advanced army at his back. It’s good to be the king.

Panther has shown up in a variety of Marvel’s media, usually as a guest character on shows like the 1992’s X-men: the Animated Series, 1994’s Fantastic Four, and 2009’s Iron Man: Armored Adventures. He had a short lived series on the BET entitled Black Panther. He was played in that by Djimon Housou, if you don’t recognize the name he was the alien sort-of cyborg in Guardians of the Galaxy, the villain in Push, and the trainer guy from Never Back Down. It only lasted six episodes.

If I saw this coming I'd probably just put the gun
down and pretend to be unconscious.

His biggest appearance was in The Avenger’s: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. They keep more or less to his comic book origin, but add to it that his father is killed in a trial by combat with long time enemy M’Baku, the Man-Ape, with the cheating help of Klaw. This time, because Man-Ape “rightfully” won the top spot, Panther is forced to seek aid from the Avengers. He spies on them a bit, saves Captain America’s life, and then finally asks for aid. Afterwards he is a valued member of the Avengers, never saying too much, but when he does speak it usually ends a fight or an argument. He temporarily leaves the Avengers during the Skrull secret invasion, most likely to stop an imposter from claiming his seat. He rejoins the team when the Avengers need Capt.’s shield fixed, and goes right back to butt kicking.

He’s an unlockable character in both Marvel: Ultimate Alliance video games, and he’s well worth the time needed to unlock him. Again, play these games if you can. 1 is better than 2, but give both a shot.

Panther will be appearing in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War before getting his own film in 2017, portrayed by Chadwick Boseman. My understanding in Capt. 3 he’ll be taking Spider-man’s place as the hero stuck between Iron-man’s Pro Government side and Captain America’s Rebel side. I’m not exactly thrilled that they’re going to make such a major change to such an important story line, but I’d still rather see them make the movie then not because Sony and Fox have a vice grip on some of the most important franchises. Gotta take what you can get. Oh, and I need to say I called Boseman playing Panther back when 42, the Jackie Robinson story when it first came out. Now if only I could use this predictive power to win the lottery, or get date. But that’s my problem, not yours.

Cape just adds awesome points.

Now, to my understanding a Black Panther movie has been in the works since 1992 with Wesley Snipes in the lead role. But roughly fifteen years of scheduling conflicts, project delays and so on basically drove the project into the ground. It’s only just recently that interest in the character had been revived. Back in 2009 Marvel started searching for writers for lesser known characters like Panther, Cable, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, and the Vision. It’s sounding like three of these characters will see the big screen sooner rather than later. I have no idea how they are going to do something with Cable, since he is an X-man, son of two X-men, and his most common collaborator is another X-man.

Did somebody call me?

No Deadpool, get back in the corner.

Fine, Jerk. Not calling me for months, sticking me in the corner. It’s a travesty.

I’m so bad to you, I know. I’ll get to more stuff with you later Deadpool. Back on task.

I like Panther because he is just pure awesome. He is strong, intelligent, creative, and just an all-around awesome character. He fights like a savage beast, but is nevertheless tactically brilliant. Despite being number 8 on the list of most intelligent Marvel characters, he has made a habit out foxing the on paper more intelligent Tony Stark by just keeping his mind and imagination open. While at times he makes choices that could be viewed as good for Wakanda and yet bad for the rest of the world, it’s good to know that there are causes that he puts above himself and his personal desires. He’s the real king of beasts, the Black Panther. Next time, since its sounds like we in MN are due for a blizzard, it seems appropriate that my next post be on the most famous Cold Criminal, Mr. Freeze. In retrospect, Captain Cold should have been the Cold Criminal, and Freeze should have been the Frozen Foe, but I’ll bet most of you don’t care about my love of alliteration. 

How do you make a character more awesome? Add a few skilled guards you just know he doesn't need.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_%28comics%29

http://www.comicvine.com/forums/battles-7/deathpool-deathstroke-vs-captain-america-black-pan-650865/

 http://marvel.wikia.com/T%27Challa_%28Earth-616%29

 http://www.comicvine.com/images/1300-3170465

 http://marvel.com/universe/Black_Panther_%28T%27Challa%29

 http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130428173352/avengersearthsmightiestheroes/images/5/57/Black_panther-.jpg