The Black Panther returns to his kingdom of Wakanda for much of the next twelve months and thus largely drops out of sight, as he didn’t have his own solo series at this point. Even so, we do get to see more of his developing friendship with Daredevil, which underscores the fact that T’Challa remains something of an outsider among the Avengers. As far as battling super-villains goes, he has rematches with Klaw and the Grim Reaper, as well as starting an interesting rivalry with his fellow monarch Doctor Doom. But we continue to wait for a more in-depth examination of Wakandan society.
Note: The following timeline depicts the Original Marvel Universe (anchored to November 1961 as the first appearance of the Fantastic Four and proceeding forward from there. See previous posts for a detailed explanation of my rationale). Some information presented on the timeline is speculative and some is based on historical accounts. See the Notes section at the end for clarifications.
Now continuing… The True History of the Black Panther!
January 1965 – T’Challa returns to Andrew Jackson High School in Harlem when the new semester starts and resumes his identity as teacher “Luke Charles,” wanting to finish up a few things before tendering his resignation and going home to Wakanda. He is concerned that his student Lonnie Carver continues to cut class consistently and remains a discipline problem. Feeling he has somehow failed the boy, T’Challa decides to try to find out where Lonnie goes when he skips school. However, the Black Panther is summoned to an Avengers meeting by Captain America and his new partner, the Falcon. When he arrives at Avengers Mansion, T’Challa is joined by Goliath, the Vision, Thor, Iron Man, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch. Cap and Falcon request assistance investigating a mystery in the Pacific Ocean, which they learned of while rescuing an old friend of the Falcon’s from a voodoo cult in New Orleans. T’Challa begs off, wanting to go back to Harlem to search for Lonnie. Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver also opt out, having promised Mister Fantastic they would keep an eye on the Baxter Building while the Fantastic Four are vacationing in Las Vegas. Even so, T’Challa feels that five superheroes should be enough for the mission Cap has proposed, and thus he returns to Harlem.
A few nights later, Black Panther discovers Lonnie roaming the neighborhood with the Thunderbolts street gang. Bitterly disappointed, he decides to confront Lonnie about it the next time the boy is in class. Unfortunately, Lonnie does not show up for school at all over the next several days. Black Panther checks on Lonnie’s home and finds that his older brother, Billy Carver, doesn’t seem to be living there anymore. He is disturbed, though, to overhear Lonnie on the phone discussing an upcoming warehouse robbery. T’Challa decides to delay his return to Wakanda in hopes that he can save Lonnie from a life of crime.
Held up by a routine Avengers meeting, Black Panther is late arriving at the scene of the warehouse robbery and finds that Daredevil has already busted it up. However, Lonnie has been badly injured after driving a truck into a brick wall, so the two heroes rush him to the nearest hospital. While Lonnie is in surgery, Black Panther and Daredevil go up to the roof to talk. T’Challa explains his history with the Carver brothers and his dual identity as “Luke Charles,” as well as revealing that he knows that Daredevil is Matt Murdock. When it seems that Lonnie has lost the will to live due to Billy having joined the Thunderbolts gang, Daredevil leads the Black Panther to another warehouse where they find Billy and the gang preparing to rob the local armory. The two heroes defeat the gang and rush Billy to Lonnie’s hospital room, where the older brother finally reveals that he was working undercover for the district attorney’s office to gather evidence against the Thunderbolts. With his faith in humanity restored, Lonnie’s condition begins to improve. Black Panther and Daredevil then get a bite to eat at a nearby all-night diner, where they get to know each other better.
T’Challa leaves New York a day early when he learns that a long-dormant volcano in Wakanda has suddenly become active again. He tries to calm his panicky subjects and vows to investigate the cause of the disaster. Thus, he descends into the volcano, where he discovers a highly advanced tunnel-boring machine belonging to Doctor Doom. Black Panther confronts Doom, who has come to steal vibranium from the sacred mound. Unfortunately, Doom easily overcomes his fellow monarch and has him chained up inside the machine. Realizing that Doom could trigger a catastrophic natural disaster by tunneling into the mound, T’Challa knows that he may have to match the tyrant’s ruthlessness in order to defeat him. Breaking free of his bonds, Black Panther takes a weapon from one of Doom’s henchmen and threatens to fire into an exposed vein of unstable raw vibranium, which could set off a chain reaction that would destroy the entire nation. Determining that T’Challa would indeed sacrifice Wakanda to prevent him from enslaving the world, Doctor Doom accepts defeat and withdraws. As the tunnel-boring machine disappears into the earth, T’Challa breathes a sigh of relief, wondering if he really could have pulled the trigger.
T’Challa then presides over a lavish state funeral for his uncle N’Baza, the late regent. By strictly adhering to tradition, T’Challa hopes to reassure those among his subjects who have felt disconcerted by his modernization efforts. Then, knowing that attempts by super-villains such as Klaw and Doctor Doom to steal vibranium are likely to persist, he turns his attention to developing a weapon he calls a ‘vibrotron,’ which can weaponize vibranium by generating a metal-disintegrating beam. This is based on the properties of the vibranium alloy found in the Savage Land dubbed the ‘anti-metal’ by the British scientist Lord Plunder. T’Challa becomes very disturbed when he watches TV coverage of the Avengers testifying before a congressional subcommittee on their involvement with aliens from outer space. The conservative politician in charge of the proceedings, H. Warren Craddock, seems to go out of his way to cast suspicion on the Avengers, who are represented by Goliath, the Vision, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and Rick Jones. The Fantastic Four also testify and are less than supportive of their fellow heroes, which T’Challa finds disappointing.
February 1965 – A few weeks later, T’Challa is contacted by the Vision after the Avengers find Hercules suffering from amnesia. Though he gives the matter his full attention, T’Challa is unable to come up with anything likely to help. Soon after, he is summoned by Rick Jones to rendezvous with all other members of the Avengers at Garrett Castle in England, home of the Black Knight. When he arrives, Black Panther joins Captain America, Ant-Man, the Wasp, Hawkeye (who has abandoned the Goliath identity), the Vision, Thor, Iron Man, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and even the Hulk. The Black Knight leads them into the depths of the castle, where he summons up the spirit of his ancestor, Sir Percy of Scandia, the original Black Knight of legend. Sir Percy’s ghost reveals how Ares, the Greek god of war, came into possession of the magical Ebony Blade and teamed up with the Enchantress to conquer three worlds: Earth, Asgard, and Olympus. Their first move was to transform the gods of Olympus into crystalline statues and banish Hercules to Earth, bereft of his memory. Unexpectedly, the Swordsman swings down from the rafters and claims his Avengers membership, demanding to help stop Ares. Captain America is not inclined to trust the Swordsman, but Thor accepts him into their ranks. The thunder god then chooses the Vision, Iron Man, the Black Knight, and the Hulk to accompany him to Olympus while the rest remain behind to guard Earth. Black Panther’s squad soon detects an interdimensional portal opening in the center of London and speeds to the scene, where they find an army of demonic creatures pouring through a hole in space. The demons are quickly driven back into their own realm, at which point Thor’s squad emerges through the portal, having rescued Hercules and defeated the villains. However, Hercules must remain in Olympus to help Thor close the portal. Having won the day, the Avengers go their separate ways, and the Black Panther returns to Wakanda.
March 1965 – Not long after the vibrotron has been completed, a small plane crash-lands in the Wakandan jungle. Bucking tradition, T’Challa has its two passengers—a black man named Nathan Kumalo and a white man named Jeth Robards—brought to the palace to recover. However, the two men steal the vibrotron that night and flee the country. A palace guard reports that he overheard the thieves planning to meet with their buyer in Rhodesia, but he was discovered and knocked out before he could apprehend them. Frustrated, T’Challa suits up as the Black Panther and pursues the thieves into the British colony notorious for its white-supremacist government. Unfortunately, he is arrested in the capital city, Salisbury, and given a harsh sentence when the authorities assume his Black Panther costume marks him as a member of some secret terrorist sect. In prison, T’Challa worries that his subjects will attempt to invade Rhodesia and rescue him, possibly starting a war. He is relieved when the Thing and the Human Torch turn up instead to help him recover the vibrotron. The Black Panther, the Thing, and the Human Torch then track Robards—who has already betrayed his partner—to an abandoned factory, where the buyer turns out to be Klaw. The villain immediately attacks the three heroes, and in the confusion, Robards tries to escape with the vibrotron in Klaw’s helicopter. Without hesitation, Klaw blows up the helicopter, killing Robards and destroying the vibrotron. The Thing crushes Klaw’s sonic blaster, after which he is easily defeated. Some white security guards appear and take Klaw into custody. They thank the Thing and the Human Torch for their help but ignore the Black Panther. Annoyed, the Thing smashes down a wall containing racially segregated doorways. T’Challa appreciates the gesture, and the three heroes leave the country together.
April–September 1965 – For the next six months, T’Challa focuses on governing Wakanda with the help of his royal advisors N’Gassi, Taku, and Zatama. He spends much of his time negotiating among the various factions in Wakandan society and comes to rely on the insights offered by W’Kabi, the hotheaded captain of the palace guard. The royal physician Mendinao is encouraged to bring his expertise in traditional herbalism to the new state-of-the-art medical facility, which is run by T’Challa’s young cousin Joshua Itobo, who has a degree in western medicine. With the traitor M’Baku in prison in America, T’Challa’s half-brother Jakarra has been promoted to a position of authority in the military, but the estranged siblings rarely speak to each other. T’Challa is concerned about rumors of unrest among the villages in the western hill country, though a multitude of other issues compete for his attention. When he needs a break, T’Challa retreats to his “technological jungle,” where he can indulge his fascination with high-tech gadgets.
October 1965 – Chafing under the yoke of kingship, T’Challa announces that he will be returning to the United States and rejoining the Avengers for a time, though he refuses to say how long he intends to stay away. He appoints N’Gassi to serve as regent during his absence, then departs. After settling in at his townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, T’Challa suits up as the Black Panther and walks over to Avengers Mansion. When he arrives, Black Panther is immediately recruited for a mission to Tierra del Fuego, at the southernmost tip of South America, in search of the missing Quicksilver. Scarlet Witch has learned that a trio of Chilean scientists doing research there has been abducted by strange men with superhuman powers, and she wants to check it out. Thus, Black Panther joins the Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, the Vision, and Iron Man, as well as Thor and his Asgardian lover Sif, aboard a Quinjet for the flight south. Along the way, T’Challa gets caught up on what the Avengers have been doing since January. When they arrive, the team discovers a tunnel that leads them into the mysterious Savage Land. While making their way through the prehistoric jungle, they are attacked by the Savage Land Mutates—Amphibius, Barbarus, Brainchild, Equilibrius, Gaza, Lorelei, and Lupo. Black Panther defeats Lupo while his teammates take care of the rest of their foes. Freeing the scientists, the Avengers march the Mutates out of the Savage Land and turn them over to the Chilean authorities to face kidnapping charges.
The next day, back at Avengers Mansion, T’Challa meets Thor’s other friends who have joined him in exile from Asgard—Fandral, Volstagg, Hogun the Grim, Balder the Brave, and Hildegarde, as well as two aliens called Tana Nile and Silas Grant. They are all currently staying at the mansion while they figure out what to do with themselves. Thor and Sif go off together, saying they have an important appointment elsewhere. Meanwhile, Scarlet Witch continues to search for clues to her brother’s disappearance. She soon calls the Black Panther, Hawkeye, and Iron Man into the communications room to show them a news broadcast their butler, Edwin Jarvis, had recorded while they were away. Suddenly, however, the console shorts out, and Iron Man discovers that the device has been completely rewired. Fandral, who has been hanging out there the whole time, insists that he saw no one sabotage the console. While Iron Man makes the necessary repairs, the other Avengers leave to check out the new lead, but it proves to be another dead end. Later, Thor reports that he and Spider-Man rewired the console while battling a group of Asgardian Trolls who had stopped time with a magic crystal.
A few days later, T’Challa receives a phone call from Daredevil, asking him to come out to San Francisco to help with a ruse to safeguard his secret identity. Since moving out to California, Daredevil explains, he has been seen in the company of the Black Widow in both his civilian and superhero identities, and people are starting to speculate. T’Challa agrees at once and takes a Quinjet out to the west coast. When he arrives, he disguises himself as Daredevil and fights off a Japanese assassin called the Blue Talon while Matt Murdock speaks with TV news crews on the scene. The Blue Talon is killed when he strikes a gas main with his steel hand blades, causing an explosion. The fake Daredevil then joins Murdock in front of the cameras and listens as he gives his elaborate cover story to the San Francisco police commissioner. After changing out of Daredevil’s costume, T’Challa returns to New York, glad to have been able to help a friend in need.
T’Challa looks up Monica Lynne to let her know he’s back in the states. He finds her still pursuing her career as a social worker while moonlighting as a nightclub singer in Harlem. True to her word, she is also very active in the civil rights movement. T’Challa and Monica start dating on a regular basis, but being a very private person, he does not discuss his personal life with the Avengers.
On Halloween, Black Panther joins the Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, and Iron Man in Manhattan’s East Village to investigate yet another mysterious disappearance. However, they are tricked into fighting each other by the Space Phantom, whom T’Challa remembers reading about in the Avengers’ files. While the Avengers are distracted by the Space Phantom’s boasting about his convoluted revenge scheme, the Grim Reaper sneaks up and hits them with a paralysis beam. The four heroes are taken back to the villains’ lair and imprisoned in an anti-gravity field. Black Panther is shocked when the Grim Reaper suggests that the Vision is working with them against the Avengers. He struggles to free himself from the anti-gravity trap, but to no avail.
November 1965 – Some hours later, Black Panther is relieved when Captain America and the Vision come to the rescue. The Avengers then storm through the underground complex and fight with a horde of HYDRA agents under the Space Phantom’s command. Unfortunately, the Space Phantom’s alien technology is able to subdue the Avengers, and they soon find themselves trapped once again in the anti-gravity field. The villains leave to hunt down the Scarlet Witch, who has escaped. Vision explains that the Grim Reaper had offered to use the Space Phantom’s machines to transfer the Vision’s mind into Captain America’s body, in exchange for help destroying the Avengers. The synthezoid decided to play along until he could devise a plan to defeat the villains. Soon, the Space Phantom and the Grim Reaper return, having captured the Scarlet Witch, Rick Jones, and Edwin Jarvis. The Space Phantom decides to assume Rick’s form while he kills the heroes but is unexpectedly thrown back into Limbo due to Rick’s shared existence with Captain Marvel. Materializing in Rick’s place, the Kree-born superhero frees the Avengers, and they make short work of the HYDRA goons. The Grim Reaper surrenders, and he and his henchmen are all turned over to the authorities. When the team returns to Avengers Mansion, T’Challa is surprised to learn that the Vision and the Scarlet Witch have fallen in love.
A week or so later, T’Challa is shocked by reports that Hank and Janet Pym have apparently died in a house fire, but Ant-Man soon turns up alive, fighting with a super-villain called Doctor Nemesis in the lower levels of Avengers Mansion. When his foe is defeated, Ant-Man leads the Black Panther, Captain America, the Vision, and Iron Man to rescue the Wasp from a secret A.I.M. installation on Long Island. The Avengers then invite the Pyms to return to active duty, but they decline, saying they prefer their private lives.
December 1965 – Two days after Hawkeye abruptly disappears from Avengers Mansion, an oddly worded letter arrives in the mail informing the team that the archer has accepted a business opportunity with a notorious corporate tycoon known as Champion. Knowing Hawkeye to be impulsive, T’Challa doesn’t think much of it.
A couple weeks later, Black Panther attends the fourth annual Avengers Christmas charity benefit with Captain America, the Vision, Iron Man, and the Scarlet Witch. T’Challa decides not to invite Monica to the party at the mansion but takes her out for a night on the town instead. After a day or so, Scarlet Witch convinces her teammates that Hawkeye’s letter is a forgery and he may be in trouble. Black Panther, Vision, Thor, and Iron Man join her in traveling to California, where they find Hawkeye held prisoner by Champion in the Mojave Desert. The Avengers overcome Champion and his gang of masked henchmen and foil their plot to detonate a string of bombs along the San Andreas Fault. Hawkeye refuses to rejoin the team, though, so the Avengers leave him in California and fly back to New York.
Notes:
January 1965 – The Black Panther and Daredevil team up against the Thunderbolts street gang in Daredevil #69. The Avengers meeting takes place in Avengers #88. T’Challa then returns to Wakanda and battles Doctor Doom in Astonishing Tales #6–7. The U.S. government’s Alien Activities Commission is created by the newly inaugurated President Morris N. Richardson, who is actually the leader of the subversive organization known as the Secret Empire. The head of the commission, H. Warren Craddock (actually a Skrull in disguise), grills the Avengers during televised hearings in Avengers #92.
February 1965 – Black Panther helps the Avengers foil Ares’ scheme of interdimensional conquest in Avengers #99–100.
March 1965 – Black Panther teams up with the Thing and the Human Torch to battle Klaw in Fantastic Four #119. In the story, Rhodesia is fictionalized as “Rudyarda,” named after British author Rudyard Kipling, who wrote, among other things, the imperialist poem “The White Man’s Burden.” There’s also some nonsense about the Black Panther changing his name to “the Black Leopard,” but that can be dispensed with. Shortly after this, T’Challa finds himself dealing with the end of the world—along with everyone else on the disintegrating planet—during Thor #185–188, but luckily Odin erases those events from the timestream, so they never happened.
October 1965 – Black Panther returns to the Avengers in time to join them on their mission to the Savage Land in Avengers #105. While hiking out to the Swamp Men’s village, T’Challa tells his teammates the tales Daredevil heard from Ka-Zar about how Magneto created the Savage Land Mutates. I assume Daredevil told the Black Panther about it at the diner in January. T’Challa is behind the scenes during the “negative time” effect in Marvel Team-Up #7. Four days later, Black Panther flies out to San Francisco to lend Daredevil a hand with his secret identity problems in Daredevil #92. The early days of T’Challa’s romance with Monica Lynne occur largely behind the scenes, as little attention was paid to his personal life during this period. Black Panther is then captured along with his fellow Avengers by the Space Phantom and the Grim Reaper in Avengers #106–107.
November 1965 – The Space Phantom / Grim Reaper story concludes in Avengers #108, during which T’Challa meets Captain Marvel for the first time. Black Panther then appears in Marvel Feature #10 for the conclusion of Ant-Man’s brief revival series.
December 1965 – Black Panther joins the Avengers in rescuing Hawkeye from the megalomaniac Champion in Avengers #109. The team’s annual Christmas charity benefit occurs behind the scenes, as usual.
Next Issue: The Black Panther – Year Four
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