Black Panther (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

"Vengeance has consumed you. It's consuming them. I'm done letting consume me. Justice will come soon enough."

- Black Panther to Helmut Zemo in Captain America: Civil War

"Wakanda forever!"

- Black Panther after his victory.

T'Challa is the leader of the Kingdom of Wakanda, assuming the throne and the role of Black Panther. After his father was killed in a bombing attack orchestrated by Helmut Zemo, the new monarch set out to kill the Winter Soldier, who was widely believed to be responsible for the attack. After being drawn into the Avengers Civil War and siding with Iron Man, T'Challa learned the truth about Zemo's deception and decided to help the Winter Soldier by granting him asylum in Wakanda and also help him get a cure for his mental programming. He is the tetaragonist in Captain America: Civil War, the titular protagonist of Black Panther, and one of the tritagonists both of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

After his coronation, T'Challa began hunting down Ulysses Klaue, only to be confronted by his cousin Erik Killmonger, who sought the throne for himself. After a lengthy campaign, T'Challa defeated Killmonger and decided to introduce Wakandan technology to the United Nations.

Two years later, he assisted the Avengers in trying to stop Thanos and the Black Order from obtaining the Infinity Stones,  resulting in a massive confrontation between the Black Order, the Avengers, and Wakanda's army. However, while T'Challa and his allies managed to kill off all of Thanos's forces, Thanos came to Wakanda. The Mad Titan completely overpowered T'Challa and the heroes and retrieved the Mind Stone, completing the Infinity Gauntlet. T'Challa disintegrated into ashes alongside Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff, Bucky Barnes and Groot  when Thanos wiped out half of every civilization in the universe with the completed Infinity Gauntlet. He was later resurrected when Hulk/Bruce Banner used the Infinity Gauntlet to undo the snap and bring everyone back to life. He is portrayed by Chadwick Boseman.

Captain America: Civil War
Prince T'Challa is first seen visiting a United Nations summit with his father, King T'Chaka. T'Chaka represents the nation of Wakanda, a small country located in central Africa. T'Chaka is assassinated though, initial investigation begins to implicate the Winter Soldier. While the authorities, including the Avengers, struggle to track down the Winter Soldier, T'Challa makes up his mind to kill his father's assassin, by donning the mantle of Black Panther, an originally religious title passed down through Wakanda royalty that vests the bearer with the prowess of their Panther Goddess, but currently is largely symbolic in appearance but backed-up with cutting edge technology specifically made for the position.

During the Avengers Civil War, there is a divide in the Avengers lead between Tony Stark  and Steve Rogers. The United Nations demands state that the Avengers must either conform to United Nations regulation or be dismantled. While Tony Stark feels the Avengers need to be held accountable for their actions by registering with the United Nations, Steve Rogers does not trust international authorities with enhanced humans and the divide causes strife between the Avengers, as T'Challa is only concerned with avenging his father. Black Panther starts hunting down the Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers' former friend, James "Bucky" Barnes. Bucky has undergone brainwashing and Rogers wants to get him help, while Iron Man aims to capture him for T'Challa and the United Nations, thus the capture of Bucky became the central issue of the war. Naturally, T'Challa is on Iron Man's side for the divide, but T'Challa is less concerned with the precedent and more with exacting vengeance for his father's murder. When the involvement of a man named Helmut Zemo becomes known in the affair, T'Challa refocus his efforts from the death of Bucky to investigating the circumstances behind his father's death. After the Civil War, T'Challa returns to Wakanda.

Wakanda
Wakanda has Vibranium, a rare metal unlike any others on Earth due to an ancient meteorite which crashed into Central Africa in a land that would later be titled Wakanda. The stores of the meteor were massive and in addition to the miracle metal extracted, the plant-life around the meteor was mutated and took on specific psycho-tropic properties. Wakanda mined Vibranium, which developed both their technology and economy around it. The Vibranium saw to it that Wakanda developed a society a century ahead of the rest of the world.

Ancient Wakanda worshiped the panther as their central god, later due to trade with northern Africa, they would associate this with the Egyptian Goddess Bast. The worship of Bast is Wakanda's primary religion. More important than Bast herself, is the honoring of one's ancestors. The Kings of Wakanda became supplicants of the Panther Goddess and later Bast, the head of the royal family was said to be a servant of the panther and wore a ceremonial panther outfit to battle. Ingesting the psychotropic plants, mutated by the Vibranium meteor would induce visions of past family members. When awakening from their vision quest to commune with their ancestors, a king would be gifted with superhuman strength, speed, and instincts. This individual is titled the Black Panther. As the Black Panther is a ceremonial title, inheritors of it are intrinsically tied to the fate of Wakanda. When technology advanced enough, Wakanda would fashion a Vibranium suit for the Black Panther, the properties of which become more advanced with each generation.

Black Panther
In Wakanda, T'Challa undergoes the rites to formally be declared king. As is tradition, he ingests a modified extract of the plant which gives the Black Panther his abilities, which takes them away and accepts all challenges before the tribal elders. Chief M'Baku, an isolationist tribe chief is the only one who challenges the claim to Black Panther. T'Challa beats M'Baku and spares his life, convincing M'Baku to yield so he need not kill him and rob his tribe of their leader. M'Baku releases his claim and retreats to the mountains, with no further opposition, T'Challa become the Black Panther properly and undergoes the rites to visit his father's spirit.

Ulysses Klaw, a smuggler has been illegally exporting vibranium from Wakanda and selling it around the world. While the U.S. government has been the one largely to hunt down and round up the vibranium, T'Challa aims to stop the problem at it's source by finding Klaw himself and bringing him in for his crimes, or killing him if need be. Klaw's partner, Erik "Killmonger" Stevens proves to be an exiled Wakandan American. Killmonger turns out to be T'Challa's cousin, with his father, N'Jobu, having been killed by the late King T'Chaka for exporting vibranium for weapon use. N'Jobu intentionally sold vibranium while undercover in the U.S. an witnessing a still marginalized African population. N'Jobu was willing to undermine Wakanda's control of the vibranium supply in order to arm revolutionaries. Upon becoming aware of the details surrounding N'Jobu's death, T'Challa visits his father's spirit to confront him, however Killmonger is not interested in empathy, only justice. After Klaw is dealt with, dealing with Killmonger becomes a priority, since, as the son of a Wakandan prince, Killmonger has right to challenge T'Challa for the throne.

Personality
T'Challa is shown to have high respect towards other people, especially towards his father, T'Chaka. He honors the tradition and principles of Wakanda, and is willing to take action whenever it is necessary. When his father died, he was willing and ready to take his rightful place as king of Wakanda. While he does not seem to favor fights, he was very quick to try and avenge his father's death. An honorable fighter, T'Challa respects his opponents and is willing to spare his enemies' lives. That being said, he is not opposed to killing his opponents in a fight and does not always try to avoid lethal measures of disabling them, such as when he threw a gunman under a moving car. Though he mortally injured Erik Killmonger, he still offered him the chance to heal his wounds and even granted his wish to see Wakanda's sunset before dying. When M'Baku challenged T'Challa for the throne, T'Challa focused on forcing M'Baku to yield rather than trying to kill him.

Despite shown to be too action-oriented and had too much of a shoot-first-ask-questions-later attitude early in his introductions, he is, however, not incapable to see reason and was level-headed enough to know when to keep his emotions in check, shown when he finally had the chance to avenge his father, he ultimately chose not to, knowing that doing so would make him fall as low as Zemo, and would go against what the Black Panther stands for. As he stood by Zemo, the latter explained to him about how he had also lost his loved ones too, and that he and T'Challa were not so different, as they both are in pursuit of revenge. It was at this moment that T'Challa realized that revenge has completely consumed Zemo, and he realized that this is not what his father would have wanted for him, he even offered to heal Erik Killmonger despite wanting to kill him initially due to the multiple atrocities he committed, and for killing Zuri who was a friend and a mentor to him. In the end, he agreed to help Captain America and Winter Soldier by granting them asylum in Wakanda, despite their status being international criminals now, as he was able to empathize with the pain both went through. He also displays a strong resolve, as when Captain America warned him the world might declare war on his country for housing Winter Soldier, he confidently stated to let them come.

According to his father, T'Challa tends to disapprove of diplomacy but was nevertheless supportive of the Sokovia Accords, showing that he is more a warrior at heart than a politician.

Since ascending to the throne as King of Wakanda, he is constantly torn between honoring the traditions of Wakanda, and helping the wider world. T'Challa personally questions Wakanda's isolationism, yet unable to find any solid reasons to take a stand on the issue other than traditions. While he agrees that Wakanda, as the most advanced country in the world, can and should do more to help the world, he is unwilling to revise the country's isolationist policies.

It isn't until T'Challa has been dethroned by his corrupted and very destructive cousin, learning about his father's mistakes and the country is on the brink of declaring war against the rest of the world, that he realizes that Wakanda's isolationism had caused, and will eventually cause, more harm than good to the nation's interests, and that of the world's at large. His epiphany on the matter becomes so firm that he berates his father's and his predecessors' insistence on isolationism in the spirit realm, and vows to make Wakanda truly a part of the world.

To that end, T'Challa initiates a variety of programs dedicated to providing aid to the needy in foreign countries, and promote exchanges in a variety of fields, as early steps to break Wakanda's isolation in a very cautious manner, as it is impossible to fully share Wakanda's wealth, technological advancements, and vibranium resources, without causing worldwide chaos.

T'Challa is not a very talkative person, as he usually stays silent during conversations and often talks in short sentences. Even though T'Challa almost always shows a mostly serious demeanor, he is actually quite humorous and sarcastic around his family and friends. He jokes and playfully interacts with his sister Shuri, his lover Nakia, and bodyguard Okoye. He also had a good friendship with his best friend W'Kabi and advisor Zuri until the former lost faith in him for his failure to capture Klaue.

Powers
Heart-Shaped Herb Enhancement: After having consumed the Heart-Shaped Herb, T'Challa's physical attributes have been greatly enhanced to levels comparable to a super soldier. The herb grants him enhanced strength, mobility, stamina, endurance and instincts.
 * Enhanced Strength: After having consumed the Heart-Shaped Herb, T'Challa's strength is tremendously enhanced beyond the peak of human potential, moving into the early levels of superhuman condition. He could overpower Winter Soldier despite the latter's own strength and fighting ability, able to send him flying through the air with his attacks and is strong enough to push back Winter Soldier's bionic arm. He can also duel Captain America on equal grounds, even managing to knock back the super soldier while battling him. Furthermore, he was able to swiftly tackle down a charging rhino and destroy a Wakandan plane using a vibranium spear. T'Challa was able to overpower the Outriders and even topple down the Cull Obsidian during the Battle of Wakanda.
 * Enhanced Durability: T'Challa is much more durable than a normal human being. Even when not wearing his Panther Habit, he can survive blunt force trauma such as being hit with the Winter Soldier's bionic arm and surviving the explosion at the Vienna International Centre despite being right next to the blast's epicenter, both with minor injuries. While wearing the Habit, T'Challa's durability is increased to superhuman levels thanks to the Vibranium composition, which allows him to withstand bullets and explosions while being completely unfazed.
 * Enhanced Speed: T'Challa can run and move at speeds beyond the peak of human potential, moving and running into the early levels of superhuman condition. He was able to reach the second floor of the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre Building using his acrobatics before Barnes could walk up a set of stairs. He is able to catch up to and outrun speeding vehicles and outpace the running pace of Captain America and Winter Soldier respectively, eventually overtaking the Winter Soldier's motorcycle by using the vehicle Captain America hijacked as a springboard. T'Challa has proven to be slightly faster than Captain America, as shown during the Battle of Wakanda, when he ran at almost superior speeds with him when rushing towards the Outriders.
 * Enhanced Agility: T'Challa's agility is outstanding, far greater than Olympic athletes. He can coordinate his body with perfect balance, equilibrium, flexibility, and dexterity. His movements are akin to an actual panther, being capable of crawl and climb through walls and leap great distances with accuracy. He was able to lunge several feet when attempting to shield his father from the explosion in at the Vienna International Centre and could reach the second floor of the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre Building faster than Barnes could walk up a set of stairs. After being propelled into the air by a kinetic pulse, T'Challa was able to contort his body mid-air and land on the roof of a vehicle while it was traveling at high speeds.
 * Enhanced Stamina: T'Challa's musculature produces fewer fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of an ordinary human and his body eliminates the excessive build-up of fatigue-producing chemicals in his muscles. This allows him to exert himself at peak capacity for several hours before tiring or slowing down, granting him exceptional endurance and lung capacity greater than normal humans. He was able to intensely pursue the Winter Soldier on foot without any signs of fatigue and battle Killmonger for an extended period of time, ultimately defeating the latter.
 * Enhanced Reflexes: The Heart Shaped Herb enhanced T'Challa's reflexes to be superior to those of the finest athlete, allowing him to effectively process the world at an accelerated rate to more efficiently find solutions using his sense and strategies. T'Challa was able to catch Hawkeye's arrows with ease. He was also fast enough to evade a blast from Ulysses Klaue's Prosthetic Arm and cover a grenade using his body as soon as he saw it.
 * Regenerative Healing Factor: T'Challa's fast healing capabilities allow him to have a conditioned metabolism that enables an extraordinarily efficient recovery. After having consumed the Heart-Shaped Herb, T'Challa has suffered blunt force, cuts, and bruises due to fighting for the Black Panther monarch. Afterwards, T'Challa recovered from many of the damages he endured and were healed in a matter of hours. This even enables him to fully recover from being on the brink of death in mere hours.

Abilities

 * Genius-Level Intellect: T'Challa has a very high intellectual mind that is on par with some of the greatest scientific pioneers in human history, as seen by him being smart enough to hand-craft his own Panther Habit using his country's greatest resource with his own two hands.
 * Master Tactician: T'Challa is a master in strategy and tactics. Due to his desire for revenge on the Winter Soldier, T'Challa has been shown to be capable of planning an attack on Barnes in the short time the latter was on the run. When battling Killmonger, he was able to use his knowledge of the flaws in the Vibranium suits and had Shuri utilize the Wakandan Maglev Train's sonic stabilizers to disrupt the vibranium technology in the habits to get the edge on his opponent in their rematch, ultimately defeating him and even impressing the latter. During the Battle of Wakanda, T'Challa was able to use his battle strategies to lead an army against Thanos' Outriders.
 * Master Martial Artist: T'Challa is an extremely skilled martial artist, having been trained vigorously from childhood to become the greatest warrior and protector of Wakanda, the Black Panther. His unique Wakandan fighting style is very acrobatic and heavily attack-oriented, primarily utilizing powerful sweeping kicks, aerial takedowns, and slashing attacks with hooked and clawed fists, reminiscent of the manner in which a panther strikes. His attacks are fluid and swift, allowing him to transition from attack to defense rapidly. Black Panther's techniques combine African oriented martial arts and other styles, including Zulu Stick Fighting, Tiger Style Kung Fu, Wushu, Dambe, Laamb, Capoeira, Taekwondo, and Muay Thai. His resulting skill rivals the likes of Captain America, Winter Soldier, and Black Widow. T'Challa has displayed the sufficient level of skill that in his fight with Winter Soldier after the latter had swiftly beaten Tony Stark, Sharon Carter, and Natasha Romanoff, he could fight on par with and even pressure Barnes, forcing him to flee eventually. While wearing his suit, T'Challa is skilled enough to fairly quickly overpower and knock out Hawkeye using his staff unarmed, best and almost kill Winter Soldier and even fight on par with Captain America himself, briefly knocking him down, as well as contend with Erik Killmonger while wearing his own Panther Habit and boosted by the Heart-Shaped Herb and eventually defeated him, although not without extreme effort. Even without the herb's power, T'Challa's skill and rigorous training in martial arts make him highly formidable and he is also accomplished with the use of Wakandan weapons, as displayed when he fought for the Black Panther monarchy. He was able to best M'Baku, the leader of the Jabari Tribe, and go up against Erik Killmonger, initially having the upper hand, only losing due to the fact that he was hampered by his mercy and indecision to kill his cousin. T'Challa also managed to defeat hordes of the Border Tribe during the Battle of Mount Bashenga and bested and killed many Outriders during the Battle of Wakanda, although he was still no match for Thanos.
 * Master Acrobat: T'Challa is an professional gymnast and acrobat, which allowed him to quickly catch up to and cut off the Winter Soldier mere seconds after being knocked down, and the latter having gone up several flights of stairs. The Heart-Shaped Herb enhances his agility further to allow him to effortlessly outrun and vault over moving vehicles, perform aerial wheel kicks while fighting Captain America, and lunge forward several feet to knock Winter Soldier off his motorcycle.
 * Pilot: T'Challa has shown to be a skilled and elusive pilot, managing to tail Iron Man all the way to Siberia without the latter knowing.
 * Multilingualism: T'Challa speaks his native Xhosa, as well as fluent English; albeit with a thick Wakandan accent.

Equipment

 * Panther Habit: As the Black Panther, T'Challa dons a uniquely crafted Vibranium-weave combat suit that, like Captain America's Shield, is lightweight, nigh-indestructible, and renders him immune to most physical damages, especially from collisions and conventional firearms, though the Habit was notably susceptible to the electrical charges of Black Widow's Bite and vibranium weaponry. After his return to Wakanda, T'Challa received an updated version of the Habit designed by Shuri to be more advanced than his traditional Habit, capable of absorbing and manipulating energy for various purposes. The updated version also facilitates an extreme ease of storage, due to being constructed from vibranium nanites embedded in his necklace.
 * Sneakers: The Panther Habit is also included with sound absorbent shoes, letting T'Challa be unable to make noises while taking a step.
 * Jet: T'Challa utilized an advanced personal jet to follow Iron Man from the Raft to Siberia in his pursuit of the Winter Soldier. The jet was able to follow Stark undetected and could facilitate the transportation of Helmut Zemo after his capture.
 * Wakandan Royal Ring: The Royal ring worn by T'Challa is one of a set originally worn by Azzuri, passed down to T'Chaka and N'Jobu, and later their sons. T'Challa obtained the ring following T'Chaka's death in Vienna.
 * Kimoyo Beads: Vibranium technology used by T'Challa to communicate and control any system they're interfaced with. T'Challa was able to stabilize the condition of Everett Ross by placing one of the beads into a bullet wound in his back. When needed, they are able to be deactivated, allowing T'Challa and Nakia to speak undisturbed.
 * EMP Beads: T'Challa used EMP Kimoyo Beads to disable a human-trafficking convoy's vehicles in the Sambisa Forest during the Rescue of Nakia.
 * Implant: T'Challa possesses an implant behind his right ear, which allows him to mentally communicate with Kimoyo Beads as well as control his second Panther Habit, using it to manifest the suit or remove his helmet mentally.
 * Vibranium Iklwa Dagger: T'Challa used a cut-down Wakandan spear during the ceremonial duel for the monarch against M'Baku and later Killmonger.
 * Wakandan Short-Spear: During the Duel in the Great Mound, T'Challa stole Killmonger's spear and stabbed him in the heart to kill him.
 * Wakandan Communicator: T'Challa was given a small communication device prior to his departure for Busan to capture Ulysses Klaue. The device is small enough to be placed behind the ear for concealment and can be placed on others for surveillance purposes, such as when T'Challa placed one on Everett Ross to listen in on Ross' interrogation of Klaue.