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The Black Panther is the ceremonial title given to the chief of the Panther Tribe of the advanced African nation of Wakanda. In addition to ruling the country, he is also chief of its various tribes (collectively referred to as the Wakandas). The Panther habit is a symbol of office (head of state) and is used even during diplomatic missions. The Panther is a hereditary title, but one still must earn it.
In the distant past, a meteorite made of the (fictional) vibration-absorbing mineral vibranium crashed in Wakanda, and was unearthed. Reasoning that outsiders would exploit Wakanda for this valuable resource, the ruler at the time, King T'Chaka, like his father and other Panthers before him, concealed his country from the outside world. T'Chaka's first wife, T'Challa's birth mother N'Yami, died while in labor with T'Challa, so T'Challa would be raised by his father and his father's second wife Ramonda, at least until T'Chaka was murdered by the adventurer Ulysses Klaw. With his people still in danger, a young T'Challa used Klaw's sound weapon on him, gravely injuring him and forcing him to flee. Around the same time, his stepmother Ramonda visited her old home in South Africa. While on this trip she was kidnapped and taken prisoner by Anton Pretorius (T'Challa would not learn of this until years later).
T'Challa was next in line to be the king of Wakanda and Black Panther, but until he was ready to become the leader of the nation, his uncle S'yan, T'Chaka's younger brother, successfully passed the trials to become the Black Panther. While on his Wakandan walkabout rite of passage, T'Challa met and fell in love with apparent orphaned teen Ororo Munroe, who would grow up to become the X-Men member Storm. The two broke off their relationship due to his desire to avenge his father's death and to become the type of man who could suitably lead Wakanda, but they would see each other over the years when they could.
T'Challa earned the title and attributes of the Black Panther by defeating the various champions of the Wakandan tribes. One of his first acts was to disband and exile the Hatut Zeraze—the Wakandan secret police—and its leader, his adopted brother Hunter the White Wolf. Later, to keep peace, he picked dora milaje ("adored ones") from rival tribes to serve as his personal guard and ceremonial wives-in-training. He then studied abroad for a time before returning to his kingship. T'Challa next invited the American superhero team the Fantastic Four to Wakanda, then attacked and neutralized them individually in order to prove himself worthy as his people's defender and to test the team to see if it could be an effective ally against Klaw, who had become a supervillain made of living sound. After the ruler made proper amends to the superhero team, the four befriended and helped T'Challa, and he in turn aided the heroes against the supervillain the Psycho-Man.
T'Challa later joined the Avengers, beginning a long association with that superhero team. He first battled the Man-Ape while with the group, and then met the American singer Monica Lynne, with whom he became romantically involved. He helped the Avengers defeat the second Sons of the Serpent, and then revealed his true identity on American television. He encountered Daredevil, and revealed to him that he had deduced Daredevil's secret identity.
Return to Wakanda
The Panther eventually leaves his active Avengers membership to return to a Wakanda on the brink of Civil War, bringing Lynne with him. After defeating would-be usurper Erik Killmonger and his minions, the Panther ventures to the American South to battle the Ku Klux Klan. He later gains possession of the mystical time-shifting artifacts known as King Solomon's Frogs. These produced an alternate version of T'Challa from a future 10 years hence, a merry, telepathic Panther with a terminal brain aneurysm, whom T'Challa placed in cryogenic stasis.
Later, while searching for and finding his mother, the Panther contends with South African authorities during Apartheid. T'Challa eventually proposes and becomes engaged to Monica Lynne, though the couple never married.
Years later, the Panther accepts a Washington, D.C. envoy, Everett K. Ross, and faces multiple threats to Wakanda's sovereignty. Ross assists him in many of these threats, often fighting side by side (or attempting to). In gratitude, the Panther often risks much for Ross in return. The first main threat to Wakandan soveriengty he and Ross encounter is 'Xcon'—an alliance of rogue intelligence agents—backs a coup led by the sorcerer Reverend Achebe. Afterward, Killmonger resurfaces with a plot to destroy Wakanda's economy. This forces T'Challa to nationalize foreign companies. Killmonger then defeats him in ritual combat, thus inheriting the role of Black Panther, but falls into a coma upon eating the Heart-Shaped Herb—poisonous to anyone outside the royal bloodline, which had a hereditary immunity to its toxic effects. T'Challa preserves his rival's life rather than allowing him to die.
Later, T'Challa finds he has a brain aneurysm like his alternate future self, and succumbs to instability and hallucinations. After his mental state almost causes tribal warfare, the Panther hands power to his council and hides in New York City. There he mentors police officer Kasper Cole (who had adopted an abandoned Panther costume), an experience that gives T'Challa the strength to face his illness, reclaim his position, and return to active membership in the Avengers, whom he helps secure special United Nations status.
Marriage and superhero Civil War
Main article: Civil War (comics)
The marriage of Storm and the Black Panther: Promotional art for Black Panther #18 (Sept. 2006) by Frank Cho.
T'Challa then helps Ororo Munroe (alias Storm), with whom he had a brief romance during his teens, reunite with her surviving family members in Africa and the U.S. He shortly afterward proposes, and the two are married in a large Wakandan ceremony attended by many superheroes. However, he failed to reunite both Captain America and Iron Man because of their opposing views on the Superhuman Registration Act.
One of the couple's first tasks is to embark on a diplomatic tour, in which they visit the Inhumans, Doctor Doom, the President of the United States, and Namor, with only that last ending well. After the death of Bill Foster, the Black Panther and Storm side with Captain America's anti-registration forces. During the end battle between both sides, the Wakandan embassy in Manhattan is heavily damaged, though no Wakandans were hurt. After the confrontation, the Panther and Storm briefly fill in for vacationing Fantastic Four members Reed and Sue Richards before returning to Wakanda.
T'Challa served as one of the pallbearers at the memorial service for Captain America, along with Tony Stark, Ms. Marvel, Rick Jones, Ben Grimm and Sam Wilson.
Passing the mantle
Upon returning to Wakanda alone, leaving Storm in New York to aid the X-Men, Black Panther faces Erik Killmonger, defeating him with assistance from Monica Rambeau (a.k.a. Pulsar). Afterward, Wakanda fends off the alien shapeshifters the Skrulls, who had infiltrated as part of their "Secret Invasion" plan to conquer Earth. Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, attempts to recruit T'Challa for the Cabal, a secret council of supervillains. Attacked by the forces of fellow Cabal member Doctor Doom, T'Challa is left comatose. His sister Shuri is trained as the next Panther, with the mantle passing onto her officially after T'Challa awakens from his coma and attempts to recover from his injuries.
After he was tricked and ambushed by Doom and the passing of the Panther mantle, T'Challa lost all of his enhanced attributes given to him by being the panther totem. As a result, he has been working with his sorcerer, Zawavari, to accumulate a replacement. He has since made a pact with another unknown Panther deity, returning his attributes to an even higher level as well as placing incantations on his body, making himself highly resistant to most magic and mystic assaults. This has all been done in preparation for the imminent battle with Doctor Doom, which culminated in T'Challa rendering all of the processed vibranium inert to give his people a chance to rebuild without their dependence on the element.
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