Black Panther: The Young Prince

Black Panther is a collection of comic books—originally published by Marvel Comics—written by Don McGregor, Rich Buckler, Billy Graham, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby. The collection includes the first issues featuring the Black Panther: Fantastic Four in 1966 and the Black Panther’s first run of solo comics, Jungle Action, from 1973 to 1976. The Black Panther, or T’Challa, was originally created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. He is the chieftain of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. Wakanda is untouched by European imperialism and is the most technologically advanced nation in the world. The comics are works of speculative fiction and Afrofuturism and feature themes such as The Weight of Leadership, Resistance Against Racist Society, and The Conflict Between Technology and Tradition. This collection of comics comprises a single issue published by Penguin Books on June 14, 2022.

This guide references the 2022 paperback edition.

Content Warning: This guide and source material include scenes of violence, depictions of racism, and the legacy of colonialism, including instances of racist language.

Plot Summary

The Black Panther, the chieftain of the nation of Wakanda in Africa, sends the Fantastic Four, an American superhero team, a technologically advanced flying craft. The team is impressed and curious, and when the chieftain’s emissary invites them to visit Wakanda, they accept. As the emissary tells them of an upcoming great hunt, the Black Panther prepares his technology for their arrival in Wakanda.

The Fantastic Four arrive in Wakanda, shocked to find a technologically advanced country where they thought only jungle existed. Soon, a mysterious figure dressed in a black panther costume begins hunting them. He systematically preys on each of their weaknesses, trapping them until their sidekick, Wyatt Wingfoot, frees them. They capture the Black Panther, who reveals himself to be T’Challa, the chieftain of Wakanda. He explains that he invited them to Wakanda to help him train to face his ultimate foe, Klaw. Klaw is a greedy outsider who comes to Wakanda to steal vibranium, a special metal with incredible properties only found in Wakanda. Klaw wants to use it to help finish construction of his weapon, which can convert sound into living mass.

When T’Challa was a child, Klaw killed T’Challa’s father. T’Challa chased Klaw out of Wakanda after the murder, but Klaw now returns, completing his weapon and controlling incredible beasts made of sound. As the Fantastic Four fight these animals, T’Challa finds Klaw, defeats him, and destroys the technology. T’Challa declares that he will retire as the Black Panther, as his duty to protect Wakanda is completed with the death of Klaw, but the Fantastic Four convince him to protect people everywhere.

Years later, T’Challa returns to Wakanda with his lover, Monica, after years of fighting with the Avengers in the US. T’Challa, who brought superb technological advancements to his nation before leaving, finds Wakanda divided, with violence and distrust brewing over these technological changes. A villain named Killmonger rises and attacks Wakandan villages. W’Kabi, T’Challa’s advisor, chides T’Challa for leaving Wakanda and allowing this to happen. W’Kabi is also distrustful of Monica, an outsider.

T’Challa pursues Killmonger, but Killmonger throws T’Challa off Warrior Falls. T’Challa washes up down the river, and Monica finds him. He stays in the palace and heals, telling his advisors that, as a child, Killmonger lost his family in the fight with Klaw that also killed T’Challa’s father. Klaw then abducted Killmonger, who later escaped and found T’Challa in the US, convincing T’Challa to help him return to Wakanda. While T’Challa recovers in the present time, Killmonger returns to his village and tasks one of his sidekicks, Venomm, to lead his forces into central Wakanda.

Venomm is an American who can control snakes and resist their poison. T’Challa confronts, defeats, and imprisons Venomm. T’Challa strengthens himself with the heart-shaped herb that grants him his powers, preparing to pursue Killmonger. Taku, another one of T’Challa’s advisors, speaks with Venomm, forging a relationship to try and sway him to their side. In the palace, another one of Killmonger’s sidekicks, a woman named Malice, breaks in and frees Venomm. Before she can escape, T’Challa and W’Kabi return to the palace and stop them. They recapture Venomm, though Malice escapes.

T’Challa stops a rhinoceros from trampling a little boy named Kantu, and the boy’s parents, Karota and M’Jumbak, thank him. Karota is wary of Monica, disliking her outsider status. Later that night, M’Jumbak goes for a walk in a graveyard and is attacked by risen bodies and their master, Baron Macabre. Baron Macabre kills him. When Karota comes to T’Challa to tell him M’Jumbak is missing, T’Challa leaves to investigate. In the graveyard, T’Challa finds M’Jumbak’s body. Baron Macabre rises to fight T’Challa in the name of his master, King Cadaver. T’Challa flees, swearing to return.

When T’Challa returns, he follows tunnels beneath the graves to a bright room of mirrors, where he meets Baron Macabre and King Cadaver, who works his way into T’Challa’s mind. T’Challa breaks the mirrors and is shocked to find the tunnels lead to his armory. With the knowledge that Killmonger has access to his weapons, T’Challa leads his forces to Killmonger’s village, N’Jadaka. They face Killmonger’s allies, Baron Macabre, Lord Karnaj, and Malice, destroying the village and taking these villains prisoner.

T’Challa finds Killmonger and King Cadaver with Sombre at the Altar of Resurrection. Sombre oversees the altar, which rests over the remnants of a fallen star that grants supernatural powers. Killmonger defeats T’Challa, leaving him in the snow to die. T’Challa fights off a pack of wolves and survives the night. The next day, he finds Sombre with the White Gorillas—the god figures of one of Wakanda’s religions. Sombre sends the gorillas to attack T’Challa, but T’Challa kills one and pursues Sombre into Serpent Valley. Sombre falls back into a quicksand pit during their fight and sinks to his death.

In Serpent Valley, Killmonger captures dinosaurs for his assault on T’Challa’s palace. When he sees T’Challa, Killmonger unleashes a tyrannosaurus rex to distract T’Challa and escapes. T’Challa defeats the beast, but as he hunts Killmonger, he is waylaid by another of Killmonger’s allies, Salamander K’Ruel, whose skin is like a cactus. K’Ruel defeats T’Challa and leaves him to die. A pterodactyl picks up T’Challa, but the Black Panther manages to use it to chase Salamander K’Ruel, capture him, and bring him to the palace as a prisoner. At the palace, Taku and Venomm grow closer, though Venomm soon escapes.

Killmonger attacks central Wakanda, and T’Challa and his forces must face the dinosaurs, who free the imprisoned villains by destroying the castle. Venomm defects to T’Challa’s side and saves Taku from King Cadaver. T’Challa’s forces turn the tide of the battle as T’Challa races to Warrior Falls, pursuing Killmonger. They fight once again, and Killmonger is again on the verge of killing T’Challa. He claims he wants revenge for the pain T’Challa’s father caused him by not stopping Klaw, resulting in Killmonger’s capture. Before Killmonger can kill T’Challa, Kantu runs in and pushes Killmonger off Warrior Falls. T’Challa looks at Kantu and sees himself in the boy. Both lost their fathers at young ages, and both avenged them.

Wakanda recovers after the war, and Venomm is escorted back to the US by Taku. When leopard hunters go missing, T’Challa and W’Kabi investigate. They find the bodies of the hunters and are taken captive by a giant man named Mute. They wake in the lair of Madam Slay, the former lover of Killmonger. She seeks revenge not only for Killmonger but also for the leopards T’Challa’s people hunt. She reveres the animals and can control them. She ties T’Challa to two leopards and has them run, dragging him behind them. When he manages to gain control of the cats, he rides back into the lair and frees W’Kabi. In the ensuing fight, Madam Slay falls, hits her head, and dies. Afterward, T’Challa wonders if the violence will ever end.

T’Challa goes to the US with Monica after Monica’s sister, Angela, dies. When they visit the graveyard, a group of men with Ku Klux Klan (KKK) iconography attack Monica. T’Challa fights them off with the help of Kevin Trueblood, a journalist who arrives just in time. Trueblood tells Monica and T’Challa that he was working with Angela on a story about the KKK and believes that she was murdered. They drop the men off at the sheriff’s department, though they do not believe that the men are from the KKK, and Monica and T’Challa return to Monica’s parents’ house. Later that night, both the KKK and this mysterious group attack the house. T’Challa saves Monica and her family, and both villainous groups flee.

The next day, T’Challa and Monica go to the grocery store. Shoppers give T’Challa, still in his costume, strange looks. When he steps aside to help an old woman grab a can from a high shelf, two men attack Monica. They hold a knife to her throat and warn her not to interfere with the KKK. They mention a meeting they are holding in the swamp that night. T’Challa fights them off, but the other shoppers attack him, believing him to be the villain. They only stop when the sheriff appears. Later that night, Kevin Trueblood and Monica wait as T’Challa pursues the KKK in the swamp.

When T’Challa finds the KKK, he immediately fights. They soon overpower him, tie him to a cross, and light it on fire. The fire burns T’Challa, but before it consumes him, he breaks free and runs. T’Challa recovers from his injuries in the hospital, and weeks later, he, Monica, and Trueblood go to a KKK rally to confront them. There, Trueblood exposes the group’s crimes against T’Challa, but the KKK attacks T’Challa again. With some help, T’Challa defeats the KKK.