Profile: Black Panther

Additional Information

Bashenga (paternal ancestor, deceased); Azzuri the Wise (paternal grandfather, deceased); Nanali (paternal grandmother, deceased); Chanda (paternal grandfather, presumably deceased); S'Yan (uncle, deceased); Joshua Itobo, Ishanta, Zuni, M'Koni, T'Shan (cousins); Wheeler (cousin by marriage, deceased); Billy Wheeler (1st cousin once removed); Storm (Ororo Munroe) (ex-wife, marriage annulled).

• Enhanced Senses: As a result of the heart-shapped herb and blessings from the goddess Bast, T'Challa has senses  beyond those of a mere human at Amazing rank.
• Infravision: T'Challa can see in total darkness, up to 5 areas at Remarkable ability.
• Enhanced Sight: Amazing ability to see and notice things that are up to 50 areas away as though they were right next to him.
• Enhanced Hearing: Amazing ability to hear sounds (including frequencies that would ordinarily be outside of the human range) over a 50 area range.
• Enhanced Taste: Amazing ability to tell by taste any ingrediant of any food he is eating.
• Enhanced Olfactory: Amazing ability to smell and recognize tens of thousands of scents.
  • Tracking: T'Challa can track with Amazing ability. Outdoors, he can follow a trail 12 hours after it was made. In a city, the time limit is 6 hours.
  • Detect Fear: T'Challa can smell fear at Amazing ability and uses it to his advantage when needed.
  • Lie Detector: T'Challa can tell by someone's scent whether or not they're lying with Amazing ability.
  • Poison Detection: T'Challa can detect poison with Amazing ability despite someone's attempts to hide it.

• Despite all of his powers and prowess, T'Challa is still just a normal human.

• He’s grown less comfortable opening up emotionally, only feeling comfortable doing so with a few people, such as his step-mother or Storm, and even then the aloofness he’s trained into himself can be difficult to shake. While he does occasionally have bursts of anger or frustration, it can be difficult to tell which are real and which are for an audience. He does have a hatred of Klaw, but isn’t so caught up in it that he would leave others in danger.

• T‘Challa has a huge ego and is very proud, which some view as cockiness. However, this is usually under his strict control due to his honour and discipline, and ordinary incidents are unlikely to turn his ego into a liability. It can be a tragic flaw in some circumstances, though, and his need to appear to know everything has tripped him up in the past.

• His actions, necessary to his mind for the good of his country, have taken a toll on him. As a King, he must often make decisions that personally cost him dearly, sacrificing friends in the chess game of international politics, or rejecting loved ones in favour of his duty. These necessities and this discipline have left him lonely and isolated, often wracked with self-doubt in the privacy of his throne room, and wondering whether he’s becoming the kind of monster he’s been protecting his country from.

Martial Arts A, B, C, E: The Panther May stun or slam an opponent regardless of their strength or Endurance, +1 CS to Fighting when Unarmed, gains +1CS to grapple rolls (Including damage), and +1CS Agility to dodge and +1CS to Strength for Escape Rolls, +1 to all Initiative rolls when fighting unarmed.

Martial Arts A, B, C, E: The Panther May stun or slam an opponent regardless of their strength or Endurance, +1CS to Fighting when Unarmed, gains +1CS to grapple rolls (Including damage), and +1CS Agility to dodge and +1CS to Strength for Escape Rolls, +1 to all Initiative rolls when fighting unarmed.

Acrobatics/Tumbling: The Panther is fast and nimble with Monsterous fighting to evade, Amazing Agility to Dodge and Remarkable strength to escape from holds or grappling attacks, he has also been trained in parkour allowing him to move at 3 areas around in crowded environments and fall up to 30 feet without taking damage on an Endurance feat roll.

Physics: Incredible Reason on matters involving physics and astrophysics, including motion, flight, and the planets and stars.

Electronics: Incredible reason on matters involving electronic devices, including their creation and repair.

Leadership: T'Challa has the brains and understanding of a cohesive group, such that he is a benefit to the team. Any Karma Pool to which T'Challa belongs receives a 50-point bonus, provided he is recognized as the "team leader."

Business/Finance: T'Challa does know his way around the financial world and money, as a result he has Incredible Reason when it comes to running his countries finances, influencing the world wide market or bring the financial might of Wakanda to bear and gets an additional +1 rank to all resource rolls.

Master Tactician: T'Challa is a genius tactician, strategist, and leader who is practically peerless. He was taught tactics and strategies in his youth by his father who encouraged him to always think two steps ahead of his enemies and three steps ahead of his friends. His prowess is such that he is able to out think and out maneuver individuals such as Tony Stark, and other geniuses. T'Challa has Incredible Reason in tactics and planning.

Multilingual: T'Challa can fluently speak Wakandian, English, Arabic, Egyptian, French, Hausa, Russian, Spanish, Swahili.

• T‘Challa is a black man in his late twenties/early thirties, with a muscular but lean build. He moves with catlike grace, and basically gives the impression that he is a black panther in human form. He wears his head shaved, with a beard and moustache, and has a tiny scar above right eyebrow. 

He wears a black full-body costume and mask.

Calm, disciplined, and reserved, T‘Challa speaks in a controlled and precise manner, displaying little emotion and appearing generally unreadable. He can come across as arrogant, where he’s actually just confident in his abilities, and displaying what he considers to be a regal bearing, as he tries to live up to the memory he has of his father as a perfect ruler, feeling the need to be in constant control of himself and events surrounding him. There’s little division between his masked and unmasked identities, his costume being ceremonial rather than a uniform, and neither is used as a retreat from the life of the other (like, for example, Peter Parker turning into Spider-Man if he needs time to think etc.). He realizes the difference the two masks have, though (his real face rarely displaying his true self, so is really as much a mask as the other face), and will use whichever is best suited for achieving his current goals.

When with hero groups, such as the Avengers, he tends to quietly observe proceedings, making sure he understands all the factors in play before acting. Despite his aloofness, he’ll never ignore other heroes, whether old friends or new to him (unless of course he’s manipulating them), but always has a certain reserve from everyone, having what’s been called “the world’s greatest poker face”. He’s dedicated to the welfare of his people and his country above all, and to leaving a legacy which can begin to come close to his father’s. It’s to this end he’s tried modernizing his country, removing the isolationist policies it had for so long. This has caused trouble among certain factions, but he views it as a necessary step in the long term, with a global community developing which he doesn’t want his successors cut off from.

A capable politician, and a master manipulator and strategist, the move he appears to be making, whether at a strategic of tactical level, is usually misdirection, and T‘Challa will manipulate friends as freely as enemies, keeping them ignorant of the facts for their own good. He’s always watching events around the world, even those which may not appear to be directly relevant to Wakanda, and is always trying to determine their true purpose, knowledge being what he considers his primary weapon in defending his country. Once aware of a threat, he’ll formulate a plan to counter it (and he has detailed files on how to deal with most considered threats, up to and including Galactus) manipulating or directing whoever he needs in play to do so. He’ll use duplicity, threats, and violence to manipulate people, and can be ruthless to the point of cold-bloodedness if the circumstances mean that it is - in his view - necessary. Many see this as a dark, almost villainous, side of his personality, but T‘Challa views it as what he must do for his country. T‘Challa is first and foremost a warrior-king, living in a complicated and morally unclear world, who puts the interests of his country as he views them above any moral consideration. He’s thus not quite a superhero and may have to manipulate, kill, start wars, or take huge risks with the lives of heroes and the welfare of entire countries. He’s more a trickster than a negotiator, and more a strategist than a politician.

• Black Panther Habit: The Black Panther clothing and cape is a holy vest of the living embodiment of Bast, the panther god. As the living embodiment, T'Challa's vest affords him certain abilities:
  • Costume: The Panther's bodysuit has a Vibranium microweave mesh that not only stops bullets but saps their momentum. Like Kevlar, it can be cut if you cut along the grain of the webbing, but cannot be punctured conventionally by blunt force.
  • Kinetic Absorption: His costume provides Excellent protection from physical damage.
  • Blending: The suit also provides Remarkable rank blending with shadows and in dim light.
  • Claws: The Panther's claws are retractable, and contain a new composite of the experimental "anti-metal" Vibranium, that can break down other metal alloys. His claws can cut through most common metals of Unearthly material strength and may inflict up to Excellent damage.
  • Boots: The Panther's boots have special Vibranium soles that absorb sound and impact, enabling him to leap off buildings up to 8 stories tall and land without injury. He can also literally run up the sides of buildings, however cannot be used to remain stationary.
  • Mask: The Panther's mask is fitted with night vision lenses to augment his already superhumanly enhanced natural senses. These provided Incrdible ranked Infravision.
  • Illusion Generation: Panther posesses an image inducer of Remarkable rank that allows him to appear in costume or not, as he desires.
  • Energy Dagger: A virtual blade that can be fired, thrown up to 5 areas and handled like an actual knife. Capable of causing Amazing Energy or Edged damage. Targets hit are marked by the energies, and can be seen by his costume lenses and tracked using Kimoyo Cards.
  • Kimoyo A.I.: This device is connected to several global positioning satellites and are able to monitor ones over a select area, thus notifying its user of potential dangers in certain regions. It can also home in on the unique energy signature Panther's Energy Dagger "marks" his prey with.
• Wakandian Support Structure: Unless his communications have been neutralized, T‘Challa has access to a Wakandan support group which maintains surveillance on him at all times, and which can access whatever information or specialized knowledge he requires. Through Wakandan stealth surveillance satellites, or hacking into local surveillance, they can usually offer up to date information about the surrounding area, people and politics as the King needs them.

Avengers; Black Panther II (White Tiger); Captain America; Fantastic Four; Storm; Wakanda Ruling Council; Falcon; Black Goliath; The U.S. State Department (Everett K. Ross); The United Nations; Interpol; S.H.I.E.L.D.

T'Challa is the first biological son of T'Chaka, King of Wakanda. His birth killed his mother, N'Yami, and his adopted older brother, Hunter, blamed him for her death. His second mother, Ramonda, left the family when T'Challa was only eight, and when he was in his teens, his father T'Chaka was murdered by Klaw over the rare metal Vibranium , that has it’s purest version located in the African Country of Wakanda. He started training himself with one purpose in mind, to take revenge. Klaw was later driven away after almost being killed by T’Challa, though Mr. Fantastic prevented him from doing so. As a young man, T'Challa traveled to America and Europe for school, and came back to perform his duties in his tribe to become a man to lead the country. After beating the then current Black Panther and taking an herb to link him to Bast, the Panther God, the herb also enhanced him which made him almost superhuman as T'Challa became the new Black Panther, leader of the Panther Clan, and King of Wakanda. This made his adopted older brother hate him even more, and in turn became the leader of the Wakandan secret police, the Hatut Zeraze, and was called the White Wolf.

As one of his first acts as King, T'Challa threw the Hatut Zeraze out of the country in an effort to establish his country as a global leader in technology. Being King continued to bring up new difficulties when a tribal war commenced in Wakanda. T'Challa was forced to take sides in the war, choosing Dora Milaje over the Jabari Tribe for his secret service agents as well as his harem. The more Wakanda became a technological global power, the more T'Challa realized the threats of the outside world. While developing nuclear weaponry inside Wakanda, he began to invite super-powered people to his country, beginning with the Fantastic Four, as well as infiltrate groups like the Avengers in an effort to test the limitations of their abilities. Although once he found out what kind of people they were, T'Challa saw them as allies as well as friends. Even so, he only allowed most members of the Avengers to know him as Luke Charles, an American teacher romantically involved with a singer named Monica Lynne.

For the next few years, T'Challa lived two lives, one in America as a teacher, and one in Wakanda as King. The many threats to his Kingdom continued, including the Supremacists of Azania, Solomon Prey, Moses Magnum, the Soul-Strangler, Kiber the Cruel, Wind Eagle, Baron Macabre, and even the Ku Klux Klan. On a mission to recover King Solomon's Frogs, T'Challa met a future version of himself who was telepathic and fatally sick. Attempting to change this future, he broke up with Monica Lynne and kept his future body in cryostasis. Wakanda almost went to war with Atlantis, during an incident on Kiber Island, and T'Challa found out that his stepmother had not left his family, but was kidnapped and made into a domestic slave by Anton Pretorius. A known white supremacist, who sexually assaulted her daily. It was soon after her discovery that T'challa rescued her and joined the Knights of Pendragon. Where he learned that he had a Pendragon Spirit within himself. With the help of Black Axe and Afrikaa, he exposed the efforts of Cardinal Technology to escalate the civil war in Mohannda.

Empowered by the demon Mephisto, Reverend Achebe led a coup on Wakanda backed by Xcon, an alliance of rogue intelligence agents and the Russian mafia. In exchange for Mephisto's abandoning Achebe and leaving Wakanda in peace, T'Challa sold his soul to him, knowing that his unity with the Panther God and its link to the spirits of past Panther Clan leaders would ruin Mephisto’s plans. Demanding sanctions against America over the Xcon coup, T’Challa linked the United States to it and presented evidence to the United Nations. Nakia attempted to kill Monica Lynne and was replaced in the Dora Milaje with Queen Divine Justice. Distraught and alone, Nakia was captured, tortured and almost killed by Achebe before Killmonger rebuilt her into Malice. Killmonger also attempted to wipe out Wakanda’s economy, so T’Challa was forced to nationalize all foreign companies. This resulted in Tony Stark having controlling interest in the Wakandan Design Group.

After the economy was once again stabilized, T’Challa fought Killmonger in ritual combat and was almost killed, but lost the Black Panther title instead of his life. Moon Knight and Brother Voodoo mystically nursed T’Challa back to health while Killmonger attempted to join the Avengers as the newest Black Panther. Soon after, Deadpool and other mercenaries attacked Wakanda on the behalf of Achebe, and the Avengers were forced to respond. While they were in Wakanda, Killmonger was supposedly killed and T’Challa was re-established as Black Panther. The criminal Nightshade resurrected the fabled Chinese monster Chiantang the Black Dragon to use against T'Challa back in New York. Black Dragon had a mind-controlled Iron Fist attack Black Panther. Panther managed to defeat Iron fist, however the assault caused the fatal sickness the future Panther had originally predicted. Nightshade, meanwhile, managed to revive the future Panther.

At the same time, the White Wolf took over Xcon and killed most of its leaders. The previous Xcon leadership had used King Solomon's Frogs to replace the U.S. President and Canadian Prime Minister with brainwashed future counterparts, allowing the company to overthrow both countries. Hunter continued with this plan and exacted revenge on Tony Stark for his buy-out of Wakandan Design Group. Afraid for Tony, T’Challa sent him a message by using financial finagling to seize control of Stark Enterprises and simultaneously annex a small Canadian island in Lake Superior. This prompted the U.S. and Canadian leaders to meet to discuss this crisis. The coordination of these leaders allowed Panther and his allies, including the future Panther, to invade the White House and foil Xcon's plot, thereby un-brainwashing the duplicate leaders and returning them to their own times.

As the Panther returned to Wakanda, the future Panther fell into a coma and was placed back into stasis until he was killed by Man-Ape. Man-Ape had then been freed by Divine Justice in hopes of freeing her tribe. After all of this, the original T'Challa became unstable and constantly hallucinating. He attacked the Jabari tribe with the intent of wiping them out; but almost accidentally killed Divine Justice. This caused him to come to his senses and stop the battle. Unable to face almost killing a woman he loved, the Panther went into hiding in New York and handed over Wakanda to his council.

A policeman named Kasper Cole adopted an abandoned Panther costume and sought out T'Challa for training and guidance. This incident gave T'Challa the strength to fight for his health, his nation and his world. Killmonger was revived later and challenged T'Challa's rule, an issue which remains unresolved. At the same time, T'Challa went back to the Avengers, who battled Scorpio, and unmasked U.S. Defense Secretary Dell Rusk as the evil Red Skull. The team was disbanded after the Scarlet Witch had a mental breakdown.

T'Challa had a somewhat brief romance in his teens with Ororo Munroe. After the fall of M'Butu, Erich Paine's facility released mutant animals, fruit of his experiments, and T'Challa took action against it. As he had knocked out Paine and was looking for a way to nullify his mimicking powers, the X-Men came and refused to listen T'Challa while he was ordering them to back off in order to avoid their powers to be mimicked. During this adventure, T'Challa tried to reconnect with his former lover Ororo. He helped reunite her with her surviving family members in Africa. As well as introducing her to her long lost grandparents in America. Where shortly after, T'challa proposed to Ororo. The two were soon married in a large Wakandan ceremony, and then headed off on a diplomatic world tour for their honeymoon.

They visited nations like Latveria, the Blue Area of the Moon, and Atlantis as well as America. There, the nation was gripped by the events of the Civil War, and while visiting the White House, the authorities attempted to force Ororo to sign on to the Superhuman Registration Act despite her status as a ruling dignitary. This resulted in the royal couple choosing to side with Captain America and the Secret Avengers in the war. At the conclusion of the superhero Civil War the Wakanda embassy in New York was destroyed, leaving T'Challa without a home while in the city. At the same time Reed and Sue Richards decided to “take a break” from the Fantastic Four, leaving an opening on the team. T'Challa and Ororo accepted Richards' offer to stay in the Baxter Building and along with the Thing and the Human Torch formed a new Fantastic Four. During their time with the team, they encountered Galactus and defeated his heralds Silver Surfer and Stardust, traveled to alternate realities, fought a new Frightful Four, and saved Eternity from dying with the help of Doctor Strange. They also stayed and fought alongside the entire Fantastic Four against the Hulk and his Warbound. Though they fought hard, they were eventually defeated along with many others. It was after this event that T'Challa and Ororo decided they had been away from their duties long enough bidding farewell to their allies and departed on good terms.