First off, Captain America Civil War is an amazing movie and if you have not seen it yet, you absolutely should go do that right now! Minus out of this article and go see it! Then continue reading. Don't worry, there aren't any spoilers here, but you should still go see it! Now, let's talk about the Black Panther.
1. He is actually royalty.
T'Challa is the son of T'Chaka, king of Wakanda, a fictional nation in Africa. When his father is murdered, T'Challa inherits the throne and the title of Black Panther, the warrior protector of Wakanda. As the Black Panther T'Challa gets to eat a magical herb connected to the Wakandan Panther god which gives him superhuman powers such as enhanced strength, speed, healing, and extra acute senses. Eventually he gets very sick and has to give up the throne and Black Panther title to his sister, Shuri.
2. His people discovered Vibranium.
You know, that stuff that Captain America's shield is made of? 10,000 years ago, a meteorite made of vibranium fell to Earth and landed in Wakanda. The metal has the power to absorb energy waves such as sound or even kinetic energy. Once it was discovered in Wakanda, its leaders tried to hide it from the rest of the world so that no one would conquer them for it. While in power, T'Challa sold small bits of the vibranium to scientific businesses around the world and became incredibly wealthy. He used that wealth to build superhero technology and arm himself to fight against the bad guys.
3. He is married to Storm.
Ororo Munroe, also known as the X-man Storm, and T'Challa fall in love as teenagers and then get married later in life.
4. He teamed up with so many Marvel heroes.
This is including the Fantastic Four, which he actually had to defeat in order to prove to himself that he was strong enough to fight his father's murderer. He made up with them and then they fought the Psycho-Man together so no hard feelings. Black Panther also teamed up with the Avengers (as seen in Civil War) and actually fought against Ultron in the comics. For a while when he was in America, T'Challa took over from Matt Murdock, the Daredevil, as the protector of Hell's Kitchen. Foggy Nelson, Murdock's closest friend helped T'Challa assume a secret civilian identity. (Daredevil is also a very good show, 10/10 would recommend).
5. He is talented in basically everything.
T'Challa has a PhD in physics from Oxford University (of course) and is considered one of the 8 smartest people in the (Marvel) world. He is a skilled politician, strategist, hunter and tracker, and he is a scientist and inventor. He is an athlete and gymnast, and knows so many different kinds of martial arts, he created his own fighting style. Of course he combines all of these skills to make his superhero Black Panther costume, made out of (you guessed it) vibranium. The guy is a genius. Also, just to make things a little strange, since he passed on the title of Black Panther, and all the powers that go with it, to his sister, he connected with a different Panther god who gave him back his superhuman abilities and also made him lord of the dead...
So that is the Black Panther, and I hope that you can all appreciate his character a bit more when you see him in Captain America Civil War, in which he is a totally awesome bad-ass, and when he gets his own movie. (IMDb says it will come out in 2018, let's hope time flies!)
