Hello there! Only two to go! Next up we have the King of Wakanda himself: Black Panther. Please read if ya want and don’t forget the prior posts!

NAME: T’Challa

POWERS: Heart-shaped herb enhancements such as strength, speed and agility, enhanced stamina and reflexes, healing factor, genius intellect, master martial artist

APPEARANCES: 3 (Endgame?), first appeared in Captain America: Civil War (2016)

REFERENCES/MENTION: 4

AFFILIATION(S): Wakanda (Golden Tribe), the Avengers

EQUIPMENT: Vibranium suit, various Vibranium-based gadgets

KNOWN FOR: Taking the mantle of king after his father’s death, his involvement during the Sokovian Accords, providing an army for the invasion during Infinity War.

Overview/Interpretation: T’Challa was a prince of Wakanda, a country in Africa which is kept in secrecy by the rest of the world due to their advancements in technology. This technology is thanks to the use of Vibranium, a rare metal that their country was built upon and is the only known source of it (besides Captain America’s shield, which was made by the same material from Wakanda).

When T’Challa’s father, King T’Chaka, dies during a bombing crisis caused by Helmut Zemo to frame Winter Soldier, he takes it upon himself to gain vengeance by going after the Winter Soldier while also dawning the Black Panther mantle. He soon realizes the truth of the matter, as well as the similar vengeance path that Zemo successfully sought after, and decides to stop his need for revenge. T’Challa even helps the Winter Soldier in wiping away all the mind-controlling nonsense in his brain.

After properly becoming the next King of Wakanda, he goes after Ulysses Klaue in hopes of capturing his father’s prior nemesis. This of course leads up to him discovering Erik Killmonger, his cousin who’s father (T’Challa’s uncle) was banished from Wakanda and later killed by his own father. Erik Killmonger goes after Wakanda in hopes of becoming their rightful King. He also expresses his desires to use Wakanda’s technology in weapons to go after the rest of the world in order to obtain “true justice”. But despite the hardships received by this conflict, T’Challa manages to defeat his cousin and regain his status as King. However he does take this lesson by his cousin to heart in a way, and does open the true Wakanda to the rest of the world in order to provide aid and lessons to the rest of humanity.

When the threat of Thanos’ army and generals comes to earth, the Avengers seek help from T’Challa and his Wakandan armies in order to have a fighting chance, as well as to protect Vision who has the Mind Stone. He even helps get Winter Soldier a new arm and Captain America some new shields. Unfortunately they are unsuccessful at stopping Thanos or protecting Vision, and T’Challa becomes a victim of the Decimation.

My Opinion: Similar to Doctor Strange, people have been waiting years to see the awesome arrival of Black Panther and the wait was well worth it! Black Panther is basically layers of coolness and style. He is a great fighter, he is smart, and he even wears one of the coolest costumes out of any superheroes ever!

His personality is great too as both a leader and a team player, even though he occasionally wants to do things his own way he is still more acknowledgeable of his brash decisions than most heroes. Basically what I’m attempting to say is his flaws are much more minor than most heroes and yet he still comes off as interesting and viable in the Marvel Universe.

I doubt anyone is unsure of a Black Panther 2, it’s definitely going to happen! Despite his unfortunate fate in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), we hope to see way more of this guy…

Thanks for reading if ya did, just one final post to go! Until then…

-TOM