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For more than 50 years, the Black Panther has stood at the forefront on the Marvel Universe. With T’Challa appearing on the big screen again this year in both Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War,” take a look back at over five decades worth of comic book adventures for the King of Wakanda!
Storm returned to Wakanda to help a young mutant named Nezhno in X-MEN: WORLDS APART #1, but found herself attacked by her husband The Black Panther. After T’Challa then publicly disowned her, she discovered his possession at the hands of her foe The Shadow King. She fled into the jungle with Nezhno in X-MEN: WORLDS APART #2 with the Panther hot on her trail.
Turning to fight her subjugated husband in X-MEN: WORLDS APART #3, Storm contacted the Panther God after defeating T’Challa and made a pact with the deity. In X-MEN: WORLDS APART #4 she beat The Shadow King, freed T’Challa, and saw herself accepted as Wakanda’s queen throughout the nation.
The Panther attended the funeral of Sue Storm’s future self in FANTASTIC FOUR #562, and then joined with the Avengers to check in on a newly de-Hulked Bruce Banner in INCREDIBLE HULK #601.
In BLACK PANTHER #1, T’Challa’s jet crashed in Wakanda, sending him into a deep coma. Wakandans turned to his sister Shuri to perhaps become the new Black Panther in his stead in BLACK PANTHER #2, and T’Challa’s mother conferred with Storm on a plan to save her son. In BLACK PANTHER #3, Storm prepared for a special mystical rite to enter the netherworld, while Shuri sought the Panther God for the transference of power. Elsewhere, the villainous Morlun rose from the dead to rampage anew.
Near death, T’Challa saw and spoke with his departed father in BLACK PANTHER #4, but the Panther God rejected Shuri for the role of Wakanda’s official savior. With Morlun swiftly approaching the capital city in BLACK PANTHER #5, Shuri defied the deity and donned the mantel of the Panther as Storm readied herself to take her husband’s place in the afterlife and allow him to return to the land of the living.
Ultimately, a Wakandan mystic managed to trade Morlun’s soul for T’Challa’s and Storm’s souls after Shuri battled and failed to stop the menace in BLACK PANTHER #6. Because of T’Challa’s necessary convalescence after his ordeal, Shuri became the true Black Panther in BLACK PANTHER #7 and fought mercenaries while on a trip to the United States.
The new Panther tracked down a Wakandan agent in BLACK PANTHER #8, and back in her home country, T’Challa underwent a strength-renewing ritual which revealed to him their true foe: Doctor Doom.
As the new Black Panther, T’Challa’s sister Shuri, drew ever closer to war with Atlantis in BLACK PANTHER #10; meanwhile, her brother sought to regain his strength and power after a brush with the afterlife. In BLACK PANTHER #11, Shuri, wearing vibranium-laced armor, clashed with Namor the Sub-Mariner while Doctor Doom tested the resolve of both T’Challa and his queen, Storm of the X-Men.
In an effort to draw out the identity of their attacker, T’Challa and Storm allowed the Wakandan government to fall to the Desturi in BLACK PANTHER #12. Elsewhere, Shuri and allies approached a mysterious island where they found a pack of super villains lying in wait for them, all part of Doom’s gambit.
T’Challa and Shuri ultimately abandoned their native country to Doom’s minions the Desturi in DOOMWAR #1 and sought the X-Men for aid in their plight. Doctor Doom moved in to attempt to broach the vault holding Wakanda’s vibranium stores, but encountered a set-back when Shuri returned to the throne room and killed the leader of the Desturi.
With the X-Men’s help, T’Challa and Shuri continued their Wakanda assault on Doom in DOOMWAR #2. The villain himself found it impossible to crack the code on the vibranium vault, and threatened the captured Storm’s life if T’Challa would not deliver access to it. With the king choosing his queen over his country’s precious resource, Doom made off with the vibranium in DOOMWAR #3. Later, the heroes fended off an attack by robotic panthers augmented by the wondrous metal.
Shuri, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four began a global campaign to track down and destroy all of Doctor Doom’s new vibranium Doombots in DOOMWAR #4, while T’Challa hired the mercenary Deadpool to track down the master manipulator himself in Latveria. Shuri and her companions hacked into Doom’s funds to distribute them to charities in DOOMWAR #5, and T’Challa helped Deadpool pinpoint the Doctor’s exact location.
The Wakandan heroes and their allies confronted Doom in his castle in Latveria in DOOMWAR #6, but discovered he’d connected himself through science and magic with all vibranium on Earth. T’Challa battled the villain one-on-one, and in a heroic yet tragic move, he chose to destroy all the Wakandan metal on the planet to deny Doom his victory.
In the wake of the Shadowland event, Daredevil asked The Black Panther to watch over the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York while he got his head together in BLACK PANTHER: THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR #513. T’Challa took on a new identity, complete with a day job at a diner, and threw himself into investigating a Romanian criminal gang and its leader, Vlad the Impaler.
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