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Why the Black Panther is an Avenger

Before we begin the story of T'Challa son of T'Chaka I'd like to offer a couple of prefatory comments. Firstly, I know some AMB readers aren't too happy with the revelations of the current Black Panther series viz his joining the Avengers. However, this is now established Marvel history, so I've incorporated them into my thinking. Personally I don't have too big a problem with that stuff, but I can see why some folks do. Secondly, the Panther more than any other Avenger is affected by the cultural changes which American society has undergone since the 1960's, especially in the shifting perception of black people, and those evolving sensibilities force us to read older Panther material with newer insights. So while I usually do these "Why ... is an Avenger" essays purely on the in-continuity reasoning, in this case I need to make a few points about the "real" world as well.

So here we go. Once upon a time a massive chunk of extraplanetary material impacted in an unspecified bit of Africa. It interacted with the ecology of the area, especially the apes and panthers, and the strange properties of the meteor metal led to a worship cult forming up around it. The indigenous peoples formed a tribe and then a nation, and built deep into their sense of nationhood was the presence of the Sacred Mound and its totem animals. The protection of the mound became intertwined with the preservation of the people.

Clearly the most efficient form of government in a relatively primitive environment is a single strong leader. From what we have seen of the Wakandans there is a distinction made between a candidate for kingship and the leader of the disparate peoples who call themselves Wakandan. We have seen the boy T'Challa take command in battle after his father's death, but we have also seen that he then had to undergo difficult and brutal tests to prove his worthiness to take up the sacred mantle of the Black panther, the guardians and leader of the people.

T'Chaka has sometimes been called the greatest of the Wakandan leaders. In some ways he resembles Henry VIII of England, another absolute monarch with a far-from-spotless record, but who was regarded with respect and awe and even affection by his people in spite of or perhaps because of his massive enthusiasms, passions, and failings. T'Chaka was a brave chieftain who united the tribes as never before, but he was also the man who wedded a foreigner that later appeared to betray him, who took to himself an adopted son only to ignore him when a son of his own seed was born, and who ignored the brutalities of his own secret police because it was expedient to do so. T'Challa has been reviled by his people for not being the man his father was.

But T'Chaka died. He died during a mercenary raid to gain the wonder metal of the Sacred Mound, Vibranium. His stripling son took up the battle and turned the tide against Ulysses Klaw and the invaders, shattering Klaw's hand and sending him fleeing into the jungle. And that may have been the formative moment of T'Challa's life.

From that moment on, T'Challa was Wakanda, the sacred Black Panther. He had to prove himself again and again, to earn the right through sweat and blood to lead his people. And he had to learn to do it in a way that had never been done before, because the world was changing, growing smaller, and Wakanda could no longer count on its geographical obscurity to keep it isolated. T'Chaka's death had proved that. So T'Challa left his homeland to study in Europe and the United States, to learn of the world before the world learned of Wakanda. He also brought Wakanda to the forefront of technological brilliance, promoting science as another means of ensuring his country's future, building the amazing underground mechanical jungle later discovered by the Fantastic Four. But the motivation was always the same: keep Wakanda safe, and protect the Sacred Mound, as all the Black Panthers who had gone before had done.

T'Challa's encounter with the Fantastic Four was to prove the second formative moment of his career. Hot on the heels of his meeting with Reed and family came the return of the far more powerful, better-equipped Klaw, Master of Sound. That encounter and a subsequent battle alongside Captain America against a fake Baron Zemo taught the young monarch that Wakanda was no longer served best merely by securing its boundaries against invasion. Thereafter T'Challa became proactive and left his country to serve it overseas.

The Panther had been thrust into the bizarre world of superheroes. The Fantastic Four and the Avengers had the power to change the course of Wakandan history. Their enemies had the ability to destroy the world. Realising that he had to gain a better perspective on this, a fuller understanding of the threat or benefit these heroes might offer to his homeland, T'Challa accepted Cap's invitation to take his place in the Avengers and set off to live in New York.

Some have seen the interpretation of T'Challa's motives as presented in the current Black Panther series - that he joined to determine whether the Avengers were a threat to his nation - as meaning that he was in some way disloyal to the Avengers. Others argue that it questions Cap's good judgement that he sent so fickle an ally to the team. I prefer to believe that Cap judged the man correctly, as Cap would, with no concern for the political ramifications, the race issues, or anything but that he found T'Challa to be worthy to join Earth's Mightiest Heroes. And T'Challa, living an imperative of protecting his land and its unique resources, was moved enough by his encounter with Cap to accept the chance to understand what it was he needed to know about superheroes.

Certainly T'Challa served the Avengers nobly, loyally, and to the very best of his ability. In retrospect we may wonder why the monarch of a nation would spend his time disguised as schoolteacher Luke Charles, or why the Panther rarely had the prominence on the comic covers of some of the Caucasian members during his early tenure, but here we look back with the hindsight of many years of hard-won progress. In actual fact, the Avengers did address a number of race issues through T'Challa's membership, offering a number of "firsts" in comics, including comicdom's first black heroine, Monica Lynne.

So why is the Panther an Avenger? Certainly not only because he needed to learn if they were a threat to Wakanda. He could have ascertained that in weeks of joining them. Instead T'Challa developed an understanding of his wider responsibility, to the world as a whole, to struggling inner-city people in New York, to the scientific community, and more. He recognised the role Wakanda had to play in the fellowship of nations even as he played a similar role within the fellowship of heroes.

Many in T'Challa's homeland did not share his perspective. A series of challengers arose to lead Wakanda in his stead, each citing his neglect of his people and his duty. M'Baku the White Gorilla, Eric Killmonger, Reverend Achebe and other less memorable tyrants have arisen to challenge the Panther not just physically, but on grounds of his fitness to rule. But the panther's decision to embrace the outside world has proved important. His time as an Avenger has honed him, gathered him allies, tempered him in ways his homeland never could. It has contributed to his triumphs.

Another aspect of the Panther as an Avenger is that it is an escape for him. Only in Avengers Mansion is he not a king but a comrade. There the constant pressure of his office, of his responsibility, can be laid aside for other duties, equally as vital but subtly different. The Avengers rarely see T'Challa the King. They merely see their skilful ally the Black Panther.

T'Challa's time as a regular roster Avenger may well be over now. New duties call on his time more and more as the leader of a nation. But one suspects that just as one never loses all affection for a special time with special people - a college, an army unit, a bunch of old, good friends - T'Challa cherishes the time he spent, and believes the old maxim: Once and Avenger, Always an Avenger.

Follow-up: Allen M. comments: As always, fascinating analysis from Mr. Watson. Now, a few comments on T'Challa, a character who fascinates me more and more, these days.

I find it telling, on many levels, that T'Challa is one of the earliest Avengers members to have never served as chairman of the team. From a real-world perspective, this isn't shocking at all: while Marvel wasn't as conservative as DC in the 60s and early 70s, placing a black man as the leader of Earth's Mightiest Heroes might have garnered protest. By the time he might have been accepted as chairman without major protest, he had largely been written back into his role as dedicated King of Wakanda, and hasn't served a significant term since the early issues of the Englehart run.

From an in-universe perspective, T'Challa is certainly a very viable chairman prospect. He's a natural leader, well-respected, and most certainly boasts combat training that most of the team would not have received except through adventuring. However, the Panther seems content in his role as a specialist. I'll hit on this in a moment, but T'Challa generally seems a lot more comfortable when he acts, not when he's speaking and moderating. Englehart characterized T'Challa in the Avengers as the "man apart." As an Avenger, he is one of the team. Becoming chairman would take part of the pleasure of being an Avenger from him - he would be tied down by responsibility once again, and I'm not sure he wants that. Especially since one of his most trusted friends, Cap, is always so eager and capable in that role.

IW replies: And don't forget that T'Challa's methods of combat are essentially solitary ones. He tends to stalk alone, using stealth as a weapon. Unsurprisingly it's hard to lead a team while hidden from the foe.

Allen M. comments: I also believe that T'Challa is happiest as a man of action. This is part of the reason he stayed away from his duties at home, in Wakanda - all that awaited him there was politics and negotiations and paperwork. Again, as an Avenger, he is making his people safer through the most direct means possible - by defeating menaces that could potentially harm them. When you think about it, he could have garnered intelligence about the motives of the Avengers through means besides actually joining the team. The technology at his disposal could provide accurate, invasive surveillance of the team, if he so chose. But T'Challa enjoys doing things. It was an escape, and an opportunity to really work and accomplish something in person, which he couldn't pass up.

IW replies: That's an important perception. However, there are certainly things that T'Challa would find difficult to fathom without first-hand information - the Thanos wars for example - and T'Challa has proved a wise judge of men's hearts when he had met them face-to-face, so he was probably not unjustified in seeking a reason to associate long-term with the heroes he was researching.

Allen M. comments: Will the Black Panther ever serve as an Avenger again? Well, he could, if he really felt like it. As we've seen in the current BP series, he can go from Wakanda to NYC in a matter of minutes. Commuting Avengers aren't anything new for the team (Iron Man currently makes a cross-coast jaunt). He still regards the team well. The key difference is in T'Challa's view of his kingship. He accepts the duties of his office with a great deal more care these days. More than ever before, T'Challa seems to have accepted that he is the King, and he needs to live up to that. I doubt T'Challa would rejoin the Avengers if he could not devote all his skills and attention to that job, and given his rededication to being the best king he can be, I don't see that day any time soon. He could be an Avenger once again, but wouldn't want to do it unless he does it right.

Thanks again for the excellent commentary, Ian.

IW replies: Likewise.