This is the second part of a two part series for Black History Month, the first part can be found here.
T'Challa realises that the future of mankind lies among the stars and resolves to use Wakandan technology to help humanity achieve this, helping create the Alpha Flight space program, on which he is Wakanda's representative. While all this is going on he starts to reconnect Storm. At the same time he starts to face increasing civil unrest in Wakanda, and revolutionary groups start to gain momentum. After Alpha Flight technology is used to trap the Earth off from the rest of the Universe it is T'Challa plays a key role in uncovering and foiling the culprit, and subsequently rejoins a reformed Avengers.
To paraphrase Eminem let's snap back to reality, seeing as we have spent a lot of time submerged in the Marvel Universe. The starting of the Black Panther are very humble, but nevertheless massively important to the evolution of comics. Debuting in 1966's Fantastic Four issue 52, T'Challa was the first African Superhero to debut in mainstream comics created by two of the most iconic names in comic book history, Stan Lee of Spider-Man fame, along one half of the duo responsible for creating Captain America, Jack Kirby. Black characters had featured amongst the publishing material of smaller comic company's for a while, with Dell Comics Western inspired Lobo being the first Black person to have their own title.
The origins of The Panther's creation came from Lee's desire to increase the visibility of black people within the pages of comics, encouraging artists to include black characters in the crowd, and the addition of Gabe Jones to the cast of Sgt Fury's Howling Commandos. When creating the character of T'Challa and his alter ego Lee would use historical influences, such as Mansa Musa I, a medieval era Islamic leader of the Malian Empire who would be famed for his riches, and early 20th Century civil rights campaigner, and founder of the UNIA-ACL Marcus Garvey.
According to Lee, even with these significant historical figures influencing his character, he "wasn't thinking of Civil Rights. I had a lot of friends who were Black, and we had artists who were Black so it occurred to me.... Why aren't there any Black Heroes?" As for the name? Well again according to Lee this wasn't political, rather he claims it was inspired by a Pulp comic where the hero had a black panther as his helper.
After his debut, T'Challa would make appearances in the FF Annual 5, before teaming up with Captain America in Tales of Suspense 97-99, then joining Cap in the pages of Captain America 100 in 1968, by May of that year the Black Panther was an Avenger and featuring regularly in the title. He would not however be confined to the pages of The Avengers. A trio of solo guest stories in the pages of Daredevil would see him get a two part solo story of his own in Astonishing Tales 6 & 7. This string of successful guest appearances would ultimately lead to T'Challa getting the lead feature for Jungle Action in 1973. It would be in these pages that two important people to T'Challa legacy would cross his path. His entirely fictional enemy Killmonger would make his first appearance, and the very much real writer Don McGregor.
When looking at T'Challa's early publishing history it's fair to say that his initial appearances could quite easily be categorised as being a 'guest star'. While on the surface this is true it is also a gross oversimplification given that is how many iconic characters have started off, just look at Deadpool. The reality is while he may have been a 'guest star', when you look at where he appeared, and who he was alongside it's clear that there was a sense of T'Challa's potential importance, both in the universe and within comics themselves. His early appearances were alongside the First Family of Marvel, The Fantastic Four, the iconic, as well historically significant in his own right, Captain America, and of course The Avengers. It's fair to say we're not talking about D-List characters, but the top rank of Marvel's cast. This in turn helped T'Challa gain not only an early prominence, but cast him clearly as a key player in the Marvel universe.
Yet it would be fair to say it wasn't until McGregor got his hands on the character that you see the clear shift from 'guest star' to the headline act. It was McGregor, at the time proofreader for all Marvel titles, who would introduce not just key characters in Panther's cast, but key parts to the Wakandan lore. It was he who highlighted the outdated concept of white heroes in Africa starring within the pages of Jungle Action, and who wrote bold stories such as the boundary pushing The Panther Vs The Klan, which at the time was seen as controversial even within the Marvel office.
While Lee and Kirby will always be Panther's creators, but it was McGregor who laid the foundations for the future of the character.
Off the back of the popularity of the character, particularly McGregor's run on Jungle Action, and the cancellation of the aforementioned title, 1977 would see the recently returned Jack Kirby helm the first self-titled Black Panther Comic. Now T'Challa would be the star of his very own show with one his creators at the helm. The first volume of Black Panther would run for 15 issues before cancellation.
T'Challa however wouldn't disappear from view, as he would feature in various other titles including Marvel Premier and Marvel Comics Present, before getting a four issue miniseries in 1988. This would be penned by Peter B. Gillies.
This was followed up with another miniseries running from 1990-91 called The Panther's Prey and saw McGregor return for yet another critically acclaimed run. McGregor even had a follow up planned called The Panther's Vow as the next installment of his saga with the character, but ultimately this didn't get off the ground.
This era shows that despite T'Challa being viewed as a key player within the Marvel Universe, the failure to keep a permanent series running certainly hindered the character. You might even go so far as to say the 80's were incredibly Stop/Start for The Panther. It almost felt like there was struggle to weave a longer term narrative as the characters run in Jungle Action had achieved. In fact had it not been for McGregor's return to the character and the subsequent success of The Panther's Prey, T'Challa may have found himself doomed to a life of miniseries and short permanent runs. McGregor's return really highlighted the rich vein of storytelling potential that T'Challa had.
It wouldn't be until 1998 that Black Panther would be relaunched with a new permanent series. Under writer Christopher Priest and artist Mike Texeria, T'Challa would have his longest running title to date, reaching 62 issues. Priest would use McGregor's work as part of his foundations, bringing back Killmonger, and Venomm (not to be confused with the Symbiote Venom). Priest would add his own additions as well, adding more to the rich layers of T'Challa's past by introducing Hunter AKA the White Wolf, former head of Wakanda's secret police which T'Challa dissolved when he became Panther. There was also the introduction of Everett Ross, and eventually a protégé for T'Challa in New York cop Kasper Cole.
With Priest's run we get something that it seems we hadn't had before. Just like McGregor, Priest recognised the true storytelling potential that Black Panther had. On top of this though, Priest identified that Panther had been incredibly underutilised by Marvel, and had fallen short of his potential. Priest however had a clear idea of addressing this, and in doing so created a character in the cast who could change that. Everett Ross. In Priest's own words "I realised I could use Ross to bridge the gap between the African culture that the Black Panther mythos is steeped in and the predominantly white readership that Marvel sells to". The importance of Ross's creation, while underappreciated by most, was key to Priest being able to successfully elevate Panther from being a well liked if not quite top tier Marvel character Lee and Kirby had hoped for to a true A-Lister. There was also the fact he was unafraid of being bold in his storytelling, using the high tech utopia of Wakanda as a juxtaposition against the gritty and seedy underbelly of New York, while even going so far as to have Cole don the Panther identity when T'Challa had abandoned it.
After Priest's run finished in 2003 with T'Challa returning to Wakanda, the wait for the next volume of Black Panther would be much less than the decade between Gillies four issue miniseries (officially recognised by Marvel as the second volume of Black Panther) and Priest's resurrection of the character. In fact, just two years after Priest's seminal run film maker Reginald Hudlin would launch Black Panther Vol. 4 to critical acclaim. Drawing on influences from Batman, as well as Spike Lee and Sean 'Puff Daddy/P-Diddy/Diddy/whatever this weeks pseudonym is' Combs in his characterisation of T'Challa and the overall feel for the comic. He would also be responsible for The Wedding of The Panther storyline, with childhood sweethearts T'Challa and Storm marrying in a lavish ceremony. After the events of Marvel's Secret Invasion crossover Hudlin would launch Volume Five of Black Panther in 2009 with one of the biggest shake ups the title had seen, with T'Challa's younger sister Shuri adopting the mantle while he was incapacitated.
The Hudlin era of The Panther was in some ways very similar to the Priest run. T'Challa was established as an A-List Superhero at this point, it is merely that Hudlin's run cements this. However this was down to bold contrasting moves from the previous volume. Hudlin focuses on the wider world to a larger extent than you could argue Priest does. Under Hudlin you could even argue T'Challa comes across more like a ruler of a country that happens to be a superhero, rather than a superhero who happens to be the ruler of a country. With the backdrop of the Superhero Civil War playing our across Marvel Hudlin used this to show T'Challa as a somewhat idealistic, but astute politician, getting further involved with global affairs. He also makes big changes to the world of the Panther, with Storm becoming queen of Wakanda and Shuri being the first female Black Panther.
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| Black Panther comics in Overdrive |
With a few more stop/starts including a brief tenure which saw T'Challa filling in for Daredevil as the protector of Hell's Kitchen, Volume Six of Black Panther saw former writer for The Washington Post and The Atlantic Ta-Nehisi Coates take the helm. Coates focuses on two key facets in his run. Firstly he fleshes Wakanda out way beyond anything we a seen in prior series. Rather than this hi-tech utopia it had been presented as Coates shows us that actually it is like any other country, with its own merits and flaws that lead to growing social unrest in Wakanda. However Coates also focused on something most previous writers had not really focused on, the conflict within T'Challa himself. Is he a Superhero or a King? Is it possible for him to balance both of these aspects of his life?
If Priest and Hudlin's runs served to get T'Challa to the top tier of Marvel heroes, and firmly establish him as such, then it's fair to say Coates run embarks on the next chapter in not only T'Challa's evolution, but of Wakanda itself. We have seen coups and revolutions in Wakanda prior to Coates, but never looked at in as much detail before. Not only do we get the insight into T'Challa's internal conflict with his dual roles, but his people's own perception of him.
So if you have reached this point then
1) congratulations and
2) you're probably wondering where I am going with this.
Well this is more than a gushing ode to a character who I find fascinating. No, the fact is that the Black Panther is one of the most important characters in comic book
history, but it's his cultural significance that should be revered. The first African Superhero in mainstream comics.
A character that has managed to become a cultural icon, and not just off the back of his
self-titled film. Whether they openly admitted it or not, you get the sense that Lee and Kirby sensed at the time the potential importance of T'Challa. The fact he featured consistently alongside prominent characters prior to the launch of his own series hints at this, and you could even go far as to say that Kirby, the creator of Captain America, being the first man to pen a standalone Black Panther series further suggests that T'Challa being a prominent character in the Marvel Universe was a long term aim of Lee and Kirby.
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| Black Panther comics in RB Digital |
Yet really and truly without the massively influential work that McGregor did with the character on both Jungle Action and The Panther's Prey, T'Challa may well never have become such. It was McGregor identifying the potential for the character to be a counter to the outdated and arguably crass stories in Jungle Action that showed that The Panther could not only be a title lead character, but a character for bold storytelling.
Lee and Kirby may be the parents so to speak, but McGregor is the Godfather of T'Challa and The Black Panther we have today. Furthermore, while McGregor may be the Godfather of T'Challa, if Christopher Priest had not utilised Ross as our window into T'Challa's world it is very likely all of McGregor's work would have been for nought.
The Panther is more than just a Culturally Significant literary character, and a massive icon in terms progressive racial equality within comics.
Thanks to McGregor, to Priest, to Hudlin, to Coates, to Ryan Coogler, and to Chadwick Boseman The Black Panther has become a pop culture icon.
And not many characters can say that.
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