Black Superhero: T'Challa

T'Challa

T'Challa was the first biological child of T'Chaka who is credited as the greatest King of Wakanda. By birth right T'Challa was destined for the throne and greatness. But, sometimes the road to greatness is covered in blood, grime, vengeance, hatred and death. T'Challa had an easy life, but he wasn't fortunate. T'Challa's mother N'Yami was said to be the only woman his father truly loved. N'Yami died giving birth to T'Challa. Hunter was T'Chaka's adopted son and T'Chaka wanted to raise them as brothers. However, Hunter blamed T'Challa for the death of N'Yami. Romanda was the second wife of T'Chaka and T'Challa's step-mother, she abandoned the family when T'Challa was 8. When T'Challa was a child his father was murdered by Klaw in front of his eyes. T'Challa tried to stop him and managed to destroy his hand due to surprise but was eventually brushed aside easily. All for the love of Vibranium. At that moment T'Challa decided to take his training seriously. He didn't want to be The Panther.  

 T'Challa only wanted revenge. Klaw also wanted revenge by destroying Wakanda. When T'Challa felt he had surpassed Wakanda's training he left and traveled the world for several years training with various martial arts masters. He returned in secret and defeated his uncle S'Yan who had been ruling and acting as The Panther since both T'Challa and Shuri were too young when their father died. He defeated S'Yan in Wakanda's annual tournament where the King or Queen (also acting Panther) runs a gauntlet of challengers. If you can defeat them you become King or Queen and the new royal family. This was a hard thing to do because only the King or Queen had access to the Heart-shaped Herb that basically made them a super soldier so it was rare anyone did this. T'Challa removed his mask and was welcomed home by cheers from his country, except Shuri because she was a hater at that time. T'Challa passed the trials to become Black Panther and consumed the Heart-shaped herb to become The Panther.

T'Challa decided he needed to test his abilities. He traveled to America to inform the world that he was the new King of Wakanda. As The Panther he invited The Fantastic 4 to Wakanda for a fight. It was Reed Richards who started calling him Black Panther because he just assumed that was his name. Chalk that up to casual racism and another reason I can't stand Reed Richards. In fact this whole story is racist. The Fantastic 4 called Wakanda a "Techno Jungle." Wakanda isn't in a jungle it's a walled off city in an African Plain. That jungle comment was unnecessary. T'Challa attacked them and defeated them quickly utilizing hand to hand combat and various tech. He laughed and told them that he was also King T'Challa. Afterwards they all actually got along really well. Ben admired him challenging them to a fight, Johnny thought he was cool, Sue was just being bubbly for no reason. Reed acknowledged T'Challa as one of the only people he'd ever met that could keep up with him mentally.

When Klaw and a group of mercenaries attacked the Fantastic 4 helped even the odds because the Wakandan Military was small and rarely sent into battle at that time. Klaw was still after revenge and vibranium but once again went home empty handed. T'Challa was actually done after this. He wanted to test himself, he was happy staying in Wakanda forever to protect it. Reed pointed out that with Wakanda continuing to grow and advance in technology it was only a matter of time until more people attacked. T'Challa decided he would dedicate his life, money and power to "The service of all mankind." T'Challa also teamed up with Captain America to stop a fake Baron Zemo. Captain America valued T'Challa's patriotism to Wakanda and they became friends.

T'Challa continued defending Wakanda as more threats continued to pop up. T'Challa began to have growing concerns about the destructive powers of mutants, super-humans and altered humans as more and more started attempting to take down Wakanda. Naturally he became of the Avengers as well. He decided to go to New York and investigate them. When he arrived he broke into the Avenger's Mansion. What he found dead Avengers. Wasp, Goliath (Ant-Man), and Hawkeye. Jasper Sitwell walks and blames T'Challa who says "They were like that when I got here."

Eventually T'Challa proves that he was innocent. The Grim Reaper had actually put them in a death stasis. The team offered him membership, strange considering they usually only have one black person and Falcon was already there. T'Challa accepted and quickly became friends with Falcon. He cemented the friendship by designing Falcon's new flight suit and he's been doing it ever since.

Back in Wakanda T'Challa hears a rumor that a groups of people representing American Charities were being killed throughout Africa. Two of the people murdered were Wakandan-Americans. T'Challa goes to America to talk to their child and begin his investigation. Meanwhile a man named Micheal Achebe from Ghudaza walked into Wakanda and usurped T'Challa for not being in Wakanda enough. When Ghudaza had been in a civil war T'Challa sheltered citizens wishing to escape the war in refugee camps. Achebe was one of those refugees, but he had made a deal with the demon Mephisto so that he was able to overthrow T'Challa.

Mepisto gave Achebe the power to control people's mind. This allowed him simply walk in and become ruler. Alongside him was Ramonda, T'Challa's step mother that walked out on the family, attempting to become queen again. In return Mephisto would be allowed to eat T'Challa's soul. When T'Challa discovered what happened he attacked Mephisto. He ripped out his heart and was transported to Hell. T'Challa offered his soul in exchange for Wakanda and Achebe's freedom. Mephisto accepted the deal but when he tried to claim his soul T'Challa once again was thinking ahead. The Panther God and all of the previous kings of Wakanda appeared. T'Challa reminded him that his soul was attached to all of theirs ans Mephisto begged to end the deal. T'Challa agreed then allowed the Panther spirits to seal Mephisto in hell.

T'Challa used a satellite to watch in on Wakanda. Achebe threatened to destroy the country if T'Challa ever returned home. T'Challa simply stayed away and the citizens were forced to accept Achebe even without his power to control them. Instead T'Challa stayed in New York and searched for other allies of Achebe. T'Challa learned that this was a plot from; A group of United States Intelligence Groups, Russia, and Domuyan a Latin-American terrorist cell. The group wanted to get Wakanda's technology and vibranium. Luckily, T'Challa had a plan for this as well. Seriously, he's more prepared than Batman ever was.

T'Challa told the US Security Council about the plot. He told them that it was an act of war against Wakanda. T'Challa teamed up with Dora Milaje (She's one of his body guards) and his estranged adopted brother Hunter The White Wolf. Hunter and T'Challa made peace and Hunter acknowledged he changed his mind when he saw T'Challa was a good ruler. The trio was attacked and separated by a group of American and Russian secret service members. Back in Wakanda Achebe denounced the war against the United States. Achebe also started destroying parts of Wakanda to prove he was in control, as well as inviting in soldiers from Ghudazai.

Hunter and T'Challa have a heart to heart and T'Challa learns Hunter's background. Hunter was a survivor of a plane crash, the plane landed just outside of Wakanda. T'Chaka found him and raised him. He became the leader of the Hatut Zeraze a group of Wakandan secret police. T'Challa also disbanded the Hatut Zaraze as one of his first acts to spite Hunter. The group then left Wakanda and became a group of hired mercenaries. T'Challa still couldn't trust Hunter because he was too violent so he knocked him out and caught a plane to Wakanda without him.

T'Challa arives in Wakanda where a war has broken out. He breaks into the palace with hopes of confronting and killing and Achebe. Achebe had however booby trapped the palace and already fled the country in fear of T'Challa. T'Challa realizes it's basically an exile and doesn't pursue him any further. Hunter was also there and attacked T'Challa in a fit of rage about being knocked out. T'Challa eventually took him out with a nerve pinch. The two agreed to go their separate ways and escaped the castle before it exploded.

After a few meeting with the X-Men T'Challa began to form a relationship with Storm and the two eventually began dating. After a while T'Challa managed to track down all of Storm's family members who had gone their separate ways. He brought them to the United States to propose to her and she of course said yes. The two got married in Wakanda and went on a world tour to introduce Storm as the Queen of Wakanda. When they finally got to the United States they walked in on the Marvel Civil War. I'm not sure how they didn't hear about this for 6 months. When they got to the White House they tried to force Storm to sign the Registration Act. That didn't work out well and the two joined Captain America's Secret Avengers.

When the Skrull attacked Wakanda, T'Challa managed to disarm them. This lead to a spear vs shield war. T'Challa eventually defeated the Super-Skrull who had the collective powers of several heroes amped up. The Skrull managed to capture Storm so T'Challa allowed himself to be captured. The two killed all of the Skrull aboard the ship while Shuri finished off the Skrull army. Afterwards they used Skrull blood to write a warning on the ship. Then they loaded it up with all the dead Skrull and sent it into outer space.

When S.H.I.E.L.D. was disbanded in favor of Norman Osborn's H.A.M.M.E.R. T'Challa was called by Namor starting a long long conflict between the two of them. Namor asked T'Challa to join a group called the Cabal. A group that would oppose the Illumuinati. T'Challa laughed and called them glorified supervillains. Namor let T'Challa leave out of respect, but his fellow Cabal member Dr. Doom (Not to be confused with MF Doom) was not going to let that happen and attacked T'Challa with Doombots. T'Challa's bodyguard Dora Milaje managed to get the plain off the ground but it crash landed near Wakanda and left T'Challa in a coma.

When T'Challa awoke he saw that the Panther Spirit had left him and went to Shuri. He still had the power from the Heart-Shaped Herb but to a lesser extent. He went from super soldier level to somewhere above peak human. Either way, he decided he needed to start training to get back to full strength. He searched out the Wakandan Witch Doctor and Alchemist Zawavari. Zawavari helped to increase his abilities back to their prior points with potions. Then to prevent Dr. Doom's magic from hurting T'Challa he cast spells to prevent magic from hurting T'Challa. At this point T'Challa was back to where he was prior to the ambush with the added magic resistance and knowledge of how Doom operates. Afterwards he searched for Aneka who trained Dora Milaje. From Aneka he learned ways to mix sorcery and alchemy into his fighting style along with the technology. Through all this he learned that it wasn't necessary to just rely on his hands to settle problems and other means should be used as necessary.

Doom had begun funding the Desturi (Wkandan's dedicated to starting a civil war) the group managed to capture Storm S'Yan and Romanda. T'Challa and Shuri recruited the X-Men and Fantastic 4 to help rescue them. Meanwhile Doom had started attacking cities at random. After the rescue the X-Men leave because they don't want to participate in the war. T'Challa instructed Storm, Shuri and the Fantastic 4 to take out Doom's troops while he did some secret save the world stuff. He waited in Latveria. Despite Shuri wanting to end it peacefully T'Challa dragged Doom out of the country after rendering all Vibranium useless so that he could apologize and be threatened by Shuri. He then stores remaining vibranium in Wakanda, hoping they can continue growing without it.

With Shuri now in charge, T'Challa goes to New York to take over for Dare Devil and find himself. Storm decided he needed some time to himself and left him to New York. Looking back they might have had more marriage issues than I thought. T'Challa gave up all of Wakanda tech and resources. He got a job as a cook and fought crime with just his hands and make shift gadgets. He didn't want to use these things until he felt he redeemed himself. However, when Dare Devil returned he said "whatever" and went back Wakanda.

Back in Wakanda T'Challa began being tormented by dreams of The Panther God Bast and Reed Richards. So he called up Reed and asked him to come to Wakanda. Reed just wanted to talk about Vibranium. T'Challa let him know they would talk after Shuri was initiated as Queen but the feast was attacked by spirits of the dead sent by Anubis. T'Challa and Reed went Necropolis, the city of the dead below Wakanda. Meanwhile Shuri, Storm and Sue were able to take an acid trip, pass out and defeat a god then wake up and have everything solved.

In Necropolis T'Challa and Reed came face to face with a The Panther God Bast, who created the dreams to bring T'Challa to Necropolis. Bast brought up how T'Challa had become restless since Shuri took over after his plane crashed. She asked T'Challa what was the thing he wanted more than anything else. T'Challa said he wanted to be King more than anything else. Bast asked what would become of Shuri if Bast was forced to leave her since they hadn't formed a strong connection yet. T'Challa changed his mind and said he didn't want to be king. Bast asked him once more what he wanted most of all. T'Challa stated he want to serve his people. Bast then made T'Challa her personal Black Panther and King of The Dead. This added to his already super soldier attributes, gave him the knowledge of all the previous Kings of Wakanda.

When Phoenix Force returns to Earth seeking a new host a young girl named Hope was thought to be the selected host and savior of the mutant race. The X-Men offered to shelter her. However The Avengers wanted to shelter her believing Phoenix Force would corrupt her. The two groups eventually start to fight. Tony splits the Phoenix Force and it selects 5 X-Men who start reshaping Earth. The Avengers thought this was dangerous and T'Challa sided with them. Storm sided with the X-Men and Shuri declared Storm a traitor to the crown. T'Challa sheltered the Avengers which lead to Namor destroying Wakanda with Tsunami. Storm arrived and T'Challa yelled at her for not warning him.

That's when it got real. Storm tried to explain she didn't know what Namor's plan was but T'Challa wasn't hearing her. So she solved it with her fist. Storm started attacking and T'Challa could only defend himself. People in Wakanda were shocked because they thought she had come to apologize for abandoning T'Challa and the people of Wakanda. When everything was finally settled. Shuri had the marriage annulled without asking T'Challa. Storm and T'Challa were both upset then quickly moved on like they weren't the most powerful couple in comics.

A while back Ironman, Reed Richards, Professor X, Dr. Strange, Namor and T'Challa met about forming a secret group called the Illuminati who would will the world in a better direction. Everyone agreed except T'Challa. T'Challa told them it would fail because they were trying to govern the world while keeping it a secret. He wanted no part of the group. They of course failed back then. This time around they invited T'Challa and Black Bolt after Incursions began happening, where two worlds from alternate universes would collide.

T'Challa met Black Swan who had destroyed her Earth to stop it from colliding with his own. T'Challa had been out in Wakanda's man made jungle with candidates to be the next top Wakandan astronaut. When Black Swan and her mercenaries killed astronauts, Black Panther snapped and killed them all before capturing Black Swan. At this point he became an official member of The Illuminati but he swore that he would kill Namor for trying to sing Wakanda no matter what. With the exception of Black Bolt the group chalked this up Black Rage or something and thought T'Challa was playing.

The group tried to finds ways to stop incursions without destroying other Earths but eventually they had no choice. Meanwhile Shuri had began building up Wakanda's military to retaliate against Namor and Atlantis. T'Challa attempted to stop Shuri because he was going to kill Namor as soon as the Incursions had stopped. Shuri brushed him off and went on to destroy Atlantis.

When Thanos attacked the Earth one of their first targets was Wakanda. Black Dwarf led one of Thanos armies into battle against T'Challa and the Wakandan military. T'Challa managed to hold back several waves of attacks. On the other side of town Namor pledged allegiance to Thanos is return for more power so he could get revenge on Wakanda.

When they were forced to deal with another Incursion T'Challa was with the Illuminati when they were abducted by The Builders who threatened to destroy all of the Earth's to prevent the end of all universes. T'Challa asked if they were going to destroy their own world and the Illuminati was sent home. When Thanos found the stash of weapons of mass destruction he was encased in amber leaving him frozen in a death like coma by his own generals. T'Challa's bodyguards betrayed him and told Shuri he was working with Namor and he was banned from Wakanda, forced to stay in Necropolis because he wouldn't reveal the secrets of the Illuminati.

When Namor came clean about his relationship with the Cabal group a plan was devised that would leave the Cabal stranded on the next Earth to be destroyed due to an Incursion. The plan was to destroy the planet before The Cabal had a chance to leave, of course Namor got immunity and everyone agreed. However, when Namor was preparing to leave the planet he was confronted by T'Challa and Black Bolt. T'Challa stabbed Namor in the heart with a ceremonial dagger rendering him temporarily mortal. That's when Black Bolt whispered "Farewell" and blew Namor out the building and half way across the world leaving him trapped on the exploding Earth to die. Then T'Challa went home.

Powers and Abilities

• Super Human Level Enhanced Attributes
• Already Peak Human, enhanced to super soldier levels via magic then doubled by Panther God Bast
• Stenght
• Speed
• Sight
• Hearing
• Smell
• Agility
• Durability 
• Endurance/Stamina
• Healing Factor - twice that of a normal human
• Black Panther Knowledge
• As Black Panther he has a spiritual connection that give him the added knowledge and experience of every past black panther
• King of The Dead
• The knowledge and experience of every person buried in Necropolis, not just previous panthers but kings, queens, scientist, war generals. All can be called upon.
• Martial Arts Master
• Has mastered every style Marvel's top Martial Artist
• Weapons Master
• Mastered every weapon known to man, several only known to Wakanda
• Expert Marksman
• Finds guns too easy, prefers to throw knives
• Genius
• Considers Reed Richards the only person that can keep up mentally
• Frequently outsmarts Tony Stark and considers him a non factor
• Respects Dr. Doom only because he uses surprise and viciousness
• Created the field of Shadow Physics
• Doctorates in almost every subject
• Master Tactician
• Top ranked strategist beyond the likes of Reed Richards, Tony Stark and Dr. Doom
• Has contingency plans for almost every hero and villain ready to go whenever necessary
• Expert Tracker
• He has a very specific set of skills and he will find you wherever you run
• Master of Technology
• Beyond his genius intellect he has the ability to quickly understand how any tech works
• Can build a duplicate of any object after seeing it once
• Diplomatic Immunity
• Just like the bad guy in Lethal Weapon 2
• Money
• Wakanda is the richest country in the world.
• With his own personal funds he ranks in the top 5
• Tony finally beat him at something
• Panther Suit
• Vibranium Mesh
• Bulletproof
• repels kinetic energy
• prevents stabbing
• Strong enough to leave T'Challa unharmed after fighting Hulk
• Gadgets Built in
• Anti-metal Claws
• Gold Claws that dissolve metal on a molecular level
• Teleporter
• Teleporter in gauntlets allow him to teleport short distances
• Cloaking Device
• Renders him invisible for short periods of time
• Energy Daggers
• Power can be adjusted to just burn flesh or cut through metals
• Can also fire shots like a laser gun
• T'Challa's favorite weapon
• Boots
• Increase T'Challa's jumping ability
• Provide extra grip when climbing
• Projectiles
• Stun grenades
• Flashbangs
• Smoke Bombs
• Grenades with Rubber Pellets
• Tear Gas
• Energy Shield
• Can be generated from thin air
• Kimoyo Card
• Supercomputer size of a credit card
• Thrice Blessed Armor
• Does everything Ironman's suit can
• Blessed By Roman Catholic Church
• Blessed By Panther God
• Blessed By Magic
• Ebony Blade of The Black Knight
• Light Armor
• Ironman's Suit done better

You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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