BLACK PANTHER

 

BLACK PANTHER

Real Name: T'Challa

First Appearance: Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) #52, July 1966

Powers: T'Challa became the Black Panther after he ingested a heart-shaped herb that grows only in the wild jungles of Wakanda. For some reason, only the descendants of Assyri the Wise, first king of the Wakandas, can safely partake of the herb. Anyone else runs the risk of falling into a coma and possibly even death. T'Challa gained peak human levels of strength, speed, agility, endurance, reflexes, vision, hearing, and smell from the herbs. He particularly has excellent night vision and the ability to detect and sort thousands of different odors, identifying and tracking a man by his scent. For a brief period of time, T'Challa developed extrasensory abilities allowing him to read thoughts, sense people and objects in his immediate vicinity, and predict the future to a limited degree. These abilities have not been used in years and he relied on little more than his physical skills until recent times.

T'Challa's costume (or "habit") is woven out of Wakandan Vibranium, causing it to absorb and displace kinetic impact and vibration on contact to protect him from injury. His boot soles are forged from a more solid form of Vibranium, enabling him to run across water or straight up vertical inclines for short distances. They also generate a vibratory force field that increases the impact behind his kicks by reflecting vibratory force towards his target, and the force field is occasionally useful for protection as well. His costume comes with a cape that can be adjusted from full length, to half length, to non-existent, and the entire costume can be transformed into a three-piece black business suit. These changes are accomplished by mild vibrational surges triggered by his Kimoyo card. The size and shape of a credit card, the Kimoyo is actually a tiny computer with vast processing capabilities, and linked to the enormous techno-jungle under Wakanda to increase its capacity even further. It can be used for communication purposes, can summon up an encyclopedia's worth of data on any number of subjects, override electronic locks remotely, perform wide-spectrum sensory scans, etc. The Panther carries an ornately carved knife handle capable of producing phased energy daggers. These energy blades can be used for close quarters combat or fired as projectile shots. By modifying the intensity of the energy surge, Panther can kill a man instantly or merely mark him with a residual trace of energy, which the Kimoyo card can pick up and thus track. Finally, he has retractable claws on his costume made of a variation of Savage Land Vibranium, the "anti-metal". Generally, "anti-metal" radiates vibrations that liquefy any nearby metal objects. T'Challa has refined the substance so that his claws only break down metal on contact.

For a period of time, T'Challa wielded the Ebony Blade of the Black Knight. He also employed a collapsible armor that expanded over his body, thrice-blessed by the Panther God to make it magically protective and as lethal to vampires as a cross. Seriously injured in a crash, T'Challa lost the powers and protection of the Panther God when his sister Shuri arose to become the new Black Panther. T'Challa was confined to a wheelchair for a time, but employed forbidden Wakandan rituals to restore his body to health, recreate the physical prowess he previously possessed as the Black Panther, and affixed sigils to his flesh which warded off magical attacks. The power from these rituals eventually faded, leaving him healthy but with only the physical prowess of a normal man.

T'Challa reclaimed the power and title of the Black Panther in a meeting with the Panther God. Although Shuri remained ruler of Wakanda and the chosen Black Panther of the day, the Panther God made T'Challa champion of the dead, and king of the Wakandan necropolis and Panther Pavilion where the spirits of all former Black Panthers reside. He regained the enhanced physical capabilities, senses, and animal-like spirit he had in the past, as well as a near-conscious awareness of the knowledge, memories and wisdom of past Black Panthers through the Necropolis. T'Challa has also updated his weapons and uniform for a new era. He uses the phased energy ceremonial dagger once more, and his costume has stealth shielding to make him invisible to the naked eye. A disk-shaped energy shield can be projected from his glove for protection, and he is capable of "shunting", a form of teleportation that can cover several miles in one bound.

An accomplished gymnast and acrobat, T'Challa is also an expert tracker. In addition, he has mastered various African martial arts and holds a Ph.D. in physics. He is a genius in physics and advanced technology and is a brilliant inventor.