Before becoming the Panther, T’Challa was simply the son of Wakanda’s king T’Chaka, a previous Black Panther. Unfortunately, his father ran afoul of the Vibranium-obsessed Ulysses Klaw, who ultimately brought about the king’s death. T’Challa would travel the world and study at the best universities, a journey that also united him with Ororo Munroe, the young woman who would become Storm.
Upon returning to his homeland, T’Challa secretly took part in the open challenge to the current Black Panther—his uncle S’Yan—and defeated him. Upon revealing his true identity, the country reacted first with shock and then adulation as he took his rightful place in the community.
Years after taking on the mantle of the Black Panther and becoming a more established leader, T’Challa reached out to Marvel's First Family, the Fantastic Four. T’Challa brought the team to Wakanda and, after testing their mettle, asked them to help unravel the mystery of huge monsters attacking his people that turned out to be the work of Klaw.
With Klaw seemingly defeated, T’Challa thought about quitting the hero game, but stuck with it to help humanity as a whole. This soon led to his first meeting with Captain America, as the two teamed up to stop a man posing as Baron Zemo. Upon succeeding in that endeavor, Cap suggested that the Black Panther take his place with the Avengers.
Unsure of these other masked heroes, T’Challa traveled to the United States and proved himself by saving his future teammates from the menace of Grim Reaper. His valor in the face of danger led to a quick and unanimous vote in favor of the Black Panther as an Avenger.
During his first stint with the team, T’Challa not only helped save the world dozens of times but also established a secret identity as Harlem school teacher Luke Charles, allowing him to help the children he oversaw. Though he would soon come to know the Avengers as true friends and heroes, T’Challa later admitted that he initially joined the team to gauge the threat that they might pose to Wakanda.
After the events of the Kree-Skrull War, the Panther allowed Professor X, Iron Man (Tony Stark), Mr. Fantastic, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, and Namor to meet in Wakanda for a meeting of the minds that would become known as the Illuminati. T’Challa disapproved of their secretive methods and left the group, encouraging them to dissolve it, but would find himself in their ranks again years later.
Though he would fully return to his duties in Wakanda, the Panther’s wanderlust would return again, sending him on a strange journey with the likes of Mr. Abner Little and Princess Zanda of Narobia, who was affiliated with the Collector. After a series of wild adventures all over the world, T’Challa returned home once again just in time to stop his Vibranium-poisoned half-brother General Jakkara from destroying the Great Mound.
Black Panther would spend the next several years leading Wakanda, while occasionally helping his fellow heroes in their various exploits. The murder of a woman who worked for a Wakanda-sponsored charity brought him to the United States, along with his honored bodyguards the Dora Milaje. They soon found themselves dealing with the evil Achebe, government liaison Everett K. Ross, and a variety of other conflicts stemming from the Panther's dual roles as leader and hero.
A while later, T’Challa faced another challenge, one that even he didn't want to tackle right away: finding a queen. This search lead him directly to his childhood companion Ororo. After a courtship, the two wed in a ceremony that was blessed by the Panther God and witnessed by the Watcher. The duo remained together through some intense times in the world’s history, as the American Super Hero Civil War raged. Ultimately, they chose to defend Captain America’s side and even helped in his endeavors.
While Reed and Sue Richards took some time away to repair their marriage (which nearly dissolved over the Registration), Black Panther and Storm took their spots on the Fantastic Four and moved the Wakandan embassy into the Baxter Building for a short time.
Never away for long, the king and queen headed back home after Reed and Sue returned to their own team. T’Challa and his people stopped an attempted coup led by Eric Killmonger. The immediate future would hold even more problems for the Panther as he defended Wakanda from the Skrull Secret Invasion and then nearly perished in an attack perpetrated by Doctor Doom.
While T’Challa healed, his sister Shuri took on the mantle of the Black Panther and led Wakanda. With the help of Shuri, Storm, the Dora Milaje, the Fantastic Four, War Machine, and Deadpool, T’Challa figured out a way to destroy the Vibranium sought by Doom, ending the conflict, but creating a variety of other challenges for his people. After this series of intense battles, T’Challa donned a stripped-down version of his costume and agreed to watch Hell's Kitchen for Daredevil, leaving Shuri to continue as the official Black Panther in Wakanda. During this time, he created a new secret identity as diner owner Mr. Okonkwo.
Matt Murdock soon returned to reclaim his territory, which sent T’Challa back to Wakanda, where he reunited with his wife and sister, who continued her role as the Black Panther. However, a dream alerted T’Challa to a danger that required some assistance from Reed and Sue Richards. While Shuri, Storm, and Sue dealt with an influx of Anubis’ agents, T'Challa asked Reed to follow him into the Necropolis found underneath Wakanda. There the goddess Bast returned T’Challa to Black Panther status, but made him king of Wakanda’s dead, while Shuri would continue leading the living.
Bast also gave T’Challa a look at future events, which featured the Avengers battling the X-Men over control of Hope Summers, who absorbed part of the Phoenix Force along with Cyclops, Namor, Colossus, Emma Frost, and Magik. The Panther sided with his longtime team while Storm did the same with hers, putting them on opposing sides.
This matter proved difficult enough, but paled in comparison to the devastation a Phoenix-fueled Namor brought on Wakanda when he flooded the nation. As the battle reached its nadir, T'Challa informed Ororo that their marriage had been annulled and that the X-Men were no longer welcome in Wakanda.
One of the first people to spot the reality-threatening Incursions, Black Panther reassembled the Illuminati, this time with Beast standing in for the deceased Professor X, to figure out how to stop these alternate realities from crashing into theirs. During that time, relations with Namor deteriorated even further, especially after he left the Illuminati to work with the evil Cabal.
Around this same time, Proxima Midnight of Thanos’ Black Order brought even more death and destruction to Wakanda. Shuri faced the threat head-on so her brother could carry on in his mission to stop the forces that nearly destroyed Wakanda from doing the same to the rest of the world.
Ultimately, T’Challa and the others failed to save their universe, leading to the Secret Wars and Battleworld. However, along with some fellow heroes, Black Panther made it into that new world in a life raft-like ship. On Battleworld, he once again worked with Namor to attain both the Siege Courageous and the Infinity Gauntlet.
Upon returning to Wakanda, T’Challa found himself dealing with a number of homegrown conflicts including the Dora Milaje who decided to revolt, citizens of his nation who considered him too invested in the larger world, and other threats.
That did not stop him from co-creating a new initiative called the Ultimates that aimed to solve some of the biggest problems in the cosmos, like figuring out a way to sate Galactus’ hunger. He also formed the Crew to find out what happened to murdered civil rights activist Ezra Miller, along with Luke Cage, Storm Eden Fesi, and Misty Knight.
Always aiming to keep his people safe and give them everything the world—or even the galaxy—has to offer, T’Challa continues to struggle with his own demons, as well as external adversaries from ancient gods to dangerous mortals.
No matter what, the Black Panther will always step up to the challenge and figure out a dozen ways out of it before he wins the day.
