Marvel Comics' first Black superhero, the Black Panther, debuted in 1966 in Fantastic Four #52. The character capped off an immense period of creativity by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, following on from The Inhumans, Galactus and the Silver Surfer, and the standalone classic, "This Man, This Monster" in Fantastic Four #51.
Whilst he wasn't the first ever Black superhero - that honour goes to the short-lived Lion Man created by George & Orrin Evans in 1947 - he was certainly the first to appear regularly in mainstream comics in the U.S.
The story of his creation began in 1965. Martin Goodman, the owner of Marvel Comics, decided he wanted to expand their line of comics and tasked editor Stan Lee with devising some new characters. Lee, in turn, went to the man he had come to rely on so heavily by then - Jack Kirby.
There are two possible reasons why Goodman was suddenly so keen to expand the Marvel line at that time; one is that Kirby's former partner with whom he'd created Captain America - Joe Simon - was about to launch a line of superhero titles for Harvey Comics. (If that was the reason, then Goodman needn't have worried - the "Harvey Thriller" line was not a success and ended in 1967.) The second theory is that it was in response to the live action Batman TV show, which was due to air shortly. If it was a hit, it would hopefully prove to be a shot in the arm for superhero comics in general. (It was a huge hit, and sales of Batman comics almost doubled to nearly 900,000, overtaking Superman.)
Kirby was instructed by Stan Lee to come up with ideas for characters that could launch two new titles, and supposedly he came up with the Inhumans and the Black Panther over the course of a weekend.
Or at least, he came up with the character who would become the Black Panther but was then called the Coal Tiger:
Ultimately, Martin Goodman was unable to persuade his distributors, Independent News Company, to let him publish more titles. Marvel had a very restrictive deal with Independent because the company was owned by Marvel's main rival in the comic marketplace, National Periodical Publications, publisher of DC Comics.
So instead, the Inhumans were introduced in Fantastic Four #44, and then on April 12th 1966, the Black Panther debuted in Fantastic Four #52.
How the Coal Tiger developed into the Black Panther isn't really clear. Both Lee and Kirby have taken credit for the idea of introducing a Black character over the years:
It's likely that Kirby did the, ahem... lion's share of the work because it's pretty well known that by that time he was doing most of the plotting on the Fantastic Four as well as Thor. This fact was finally recognised a few months later in Fantastic Four #56, when the credits for that issue read "produced by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby" rather than stating that Lee was the writer and Kirby was just the artist.
What we do know is that up until the last minute, the Panther's mask didn't cover his whole face. Kirby's original cover shows his mask as just a cowl, which, once coloured of course, would have made it very obvious that the character was Black.
Whether the mask was revised because Stan Lee or Martin Goodman got cold feet about showing a Black character on the cover isn't clear. For context, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act had only been implemented the previous year, ending the Jim Crow Laws that enforced legal segregation in the southern States, so there may have been concern that featuring a Black character prominently on the cover would be controversial. On the other hand, a couple of months later, Marvel introduced a Black character in Modelling With Millie #48 called Jill Jerold, and she was given cover billing, so maybe it was just done to make the Panther seem more mysterious.
ORIGIN
What happens in Fantastic Four #52 is this; the Fantastic Four are invited to the African kingdom of Wakanda by the "Chieftain", the Black Panther. A guide escorts the team in a sophisticated flying car, and when they arrive in Wakanda, the FF are astonished to find a man-made jungle, full of glorious Jack Kirby technology.
The guide vanishes and they are attacked by the Black Panther. One by one, he bests them, using his technology as well as skills he gains by "eating certain herbs and undergoing rigorous rituals" to become the Black Panther. However, he reckons without the resourcefulness of Johnny Storm's friend, Wyatt Wingfoot, who had come along for the ride. Wyatt frees Johnny from his trap, who then frees the others. At that point, the Panther ends his attack, unmasks and starts to tell his tale.
Next issue, the Panther tells of the mountain of vibranium - a mysterious metal which is valuable due to its ability to absorb vibrations - which sits at the border of Wakanda. A group of white men led by Ulysses Klaw had invaded Wakanda when the Panther was a teenager, in search of the vibranium. Attacking the Panther's village, Klaw killed his father, T'chaka, and he swore revenge on Klaw.
The Panther invited the Fantastic Four to Wakanda to test himself, to make sure he was ready for a rematch with Klaw, which he was sure would happen soon. Sure enough, Klaw attacks and with the combined powers of the Panther and the FF, he is eventually defeated, presumed dead, having been caught in a collapsing cave. The Panther, having achieved vengeance, pledges his powers to the service of all mankind.
Those two issues are undoubtedly progressive for their time, but of course they're not without their problems, not least Ben Grimm, the Thing's frequent remarks which are downright offensive. At least Reed Richards has the decency to be embarrassed by them.
BLACK PANTHERS
Six months after the Black Panther's first appearance, two men from Oakland, California - Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton - adopted the panther logo of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization and created a political organisation called the Black Panther Party.
The party was seen as radical - if not militant - by the general public at large and J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the FBI, even described it as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country." (Hoover had a tendency to exaggerate the threat posed by perceived "subversives", and targeted everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to John Lennon. President Harry S. Truman likened the FBI to "Hoover's private Gestapo.")
Nonetheless, this public perception of the party gave Stan Lee pause over whether or not to use the Black Panther again; "I made up the name Black Panther before I was conscious that there is a militant group called the Black Panthers. And I didn't want to make it seem that we were espousing any particular cause. And because of that we're not able to push the Panther as much, although we're still using him."
The Black Panther made a couple of fleeting appearances on a monitor screen in Fantastic Four #56 & #60, but then disappeared for nearly a year, finally showing up again in Fantastic Four annual #5 and then teaming up with Captain America in Tales of Suspense #97 - #99 and Captain America #100 (Tales of Suspense was renamed "Captain America" with #100 and continued the numbering from that title.) In fact, it's in that issue that the Black Panther finally reveals his name - T'Challa. Prior to that he had only ever been known as the Black Panther.
The following year, he became a member of The Avengers. However, Stan Lee, still wary that a connection might be made to the Black Panther Party, insisted that he just be called "The Panther."
And later, in Fantastic Four #119, he was briefly renamed "The Black Leopard", with Roy Thomas having him explicitly disavow any connection to the Black Panther Party:
According to Roy Thomas, "I was not happy when Stan decreed that T'Challa just be called "The Panther" when he joined The Avengers (both things were Stan's idea, I believe), but I understood the reason. I was even less wild later about the "Black Leopard" thing, but a black panther is nothing but a black leopard, after all. I was glad when it could be swiftly changed back, though."
Indeed, the following year he was back to calling himself the Black Panther - no ham-fisted explanation given this time - and that's who he's been ever since.
In 1973, the Black Panther finally got his own series in the unfortunately titled Jungle Action, and would even be drawn by a Black artist for the first time, Billy Graham. That series deserves its own blog entry which I'll save for another time.
The character has been appearing in comics for 60 years now, and both he and Wakanda's history have been expanded and built upon by such people as film director Reginald Hudlin and award-winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates. And of course, courtesy of Oscar-winning writer and director, Ryan Coogler, the Black Panther is an important part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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For the writing of this article, I drew on a number of sources, as follows:
Kirby & Lee: Stuf' Said by John Morrow published by Twomorrows Publishing.
American Comic Book Chronicles 1965-69 by John Wells published by Twomorrows Publishing.
"Black Heroes, Silver Pages" by Barry Pearl from Alter-Ego #173 published by Twomorrows Publishing.
"Maestro of the Marvel Myths. An Interview with Stan Lee" by Bob Brodsky from Comic Book Marketplace #61 published by Gemstone Publishing.
"Jack FAQs" by Mark Evanier from The Jack Kirby Collector #44 published by Twomorrows Publishing.
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