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Black Panther: The Young Prince
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Issues 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Issue 1 Summary: “Fantastic Four #52, July 1966”
Mr. Fantastic, also known as Reed Richards, takes Ben Grimm and Sue Storm for a ride in a new flying vehicle. Ben is shocked by how technologically advanced the vehicle is, and Mr. Fantastic explains that it is a gift from the Wakandan chieftain, the Black Panther. Later, the Black Panther’s emissary tells Mr. Fantastic that the sky-craft is his to keep and asks that the Fantastic Four come to Wakanda for a great hunt.
In Wakanda, the Black Panther prepares for the hunt. A carved panther rises from the ground, and the chieftain opens it, turning on his many machines and retrieving his black panther costume. Elsewhere, Johnny Storm sits in his dorm room while his roommate, Wyatt Wingfoot sleeps. The rest of the Fantastic Four greet him and tell him that they are going to Wakanda. Johnny brings Wyatt.
At on outpost in Wakanda, a scout informs the Black Panther that the Fantastic Four have arrived. As they fly over the jungle, Sue comments on how underdeveloped the area is. However, the group flies through the foliage and sees a jungle of machines and advanced technology. The emissary explains that every mechanical branch and flower has a purpose. The emissary then disappears, and the Fantastic Four sense trouble. When Ben sees the emissary escaping on an elevator, he dives for it. Ben is met by an explosion, and the Black Panther appears. The Black Panther explains that the explosion was a trap and will weaken Ben for five minutes.
The Black Panther declares that the Fantastic Four will be hunted, and the team leaps into action. Ben, known as the Thing, is gifted with super strength and made of stone. Johnny, the Human Torch, engulfs himself in flame and flies. His sister, Sue, has the power of invisibility and can create forcefields. Mr. Fantastic can use his elastic limbs to stretch to any lengths. Johnny chases the Black Panther, only to be tricked into flying into a flame-resistant trap that the Black Panther lowers into the ground. Wyatt and the others strategize, and Wyatt proposes going to scout for a weakness in their opponent. After he leaves, some of the Black Panther’s men shoot Sue, Reed, and Ben with magnetic anti-polarity beams, which force them apart like opposing magnets to fight the Black Panther alone.
Sue turns invisible, but the Black Panther uses his heightened senses to hear her. She stands still next to a humming machine, but the Black Panther’s sense of smell helps him locate her. Just as she gives up invisibility to create a forcefield, the Black Panther sprays her with sleeping gas, knocking her out. Next, he finds Ben drinking devitalizing fluid that Ben believes is water. Weakened, Ben must fight the Black Panther. When Ben grabs a machine to hit the Black Panther with, he disrupts a refrigeration unit and freezes solid.
Outside of the mechanical jungle, Wyatt finds scouts with screens tracking the Fantastic Four’s movements for the Black Panther. Wyatt knocks them out and heads back to the team. On his way, he notices a warm spot on the ground and realizes it is Johnny. Mr. Fantastic faces the Black Panther, but as he attacks, the lights go out. The Black Panther can see in the dark, and Mr. Fantastic scrambles to find him. When the lights come on, Reed’s wrists are caught in titanium locks, neutralizing him. Just when it seems that the Black Panther has won, Johnny comes storming back, freeing Mr. Fantastic. Sue and Ben also return and force the Black Panther to surrender. The Black Panther agrees to take his mask off and tell the team his story.
Issue 2 Summary: “Fantastic Four #53, August 1966”
The Fantastic Four attend a heroes’ ceremony with the Black Panther, and Reed, or Mr. Fantastic, wonders how this society possesses such advanced technology while also honoring their forebearers’ culture. Meanwhile, out in the jungle, two members of the territorial patrol find an area destroyed. They encounter a gigantic red gorilla that is immune to their attacks. When they shoot it, it blasts them back with the same energy. A gigantic red elephant joins the gorilla.
The Black Panther, or T’Challa, explains to the Fantastic Four that his father, T’Chaka, was the previous chieftain and an accomplished hunter. The Black Panther explains that Wakanda is the only place in the world where vibranium is found. Vibranium absorbs sound, making it unique, and Reed understands its importance: If missiles are made of vibranium, they cannot miss their targets. Vibranium is found in the eternal peak of Wakanda, of which every chieftain must protect.
T’Challa explains that when he was a child, the villainous Klaw, Master of Sound, invaded Wakanda. Klaw possessed a sound transformer that converted sound into mass. Vibranium is the missing piece of Klaw’s invention to convert sound into living form. Klaw attacked T’Challa’s village, and when T’Chaka resisted Klaw, Klaw’s men killed him and attacked the village. As Klaw and his men moved on, T’Challa found a straggler with Klaw’s sound-blaster. T’Challa fought the man and took the weapon, firing it at Klaw. T’Challa shattered Klaw’s hand, forcing Klaw and his men to retreat, though Klaw vowed to return.
The Black Panther explains to the Fantastic Four that he wanted to beat them to prove that he is ready for Klaw’s return. Suddenly, alarms blare, and T’Challa believes Klaw has returned. The Fantastic Four tell the Black Panther that they will help him, though he insists this is his fight. They rush toward the fight as the red gorilla plunges into Wakandan territory, destroying defenses. Johnny reaches it first, but it absorbs his power and uses it to repel Ben as he attacks. As the remaining Fantastic Four move to a safe distance, Ben continues to fight, though the gorilla uses his strikes against him.
Meanwhile, the Black Panther realizes that Klaw must be nearby, using the technology to control the gorilla. He finds Klaw, with a new metal hand, in a cave. The two fight, but Klaw uses his technology to create a red energy panther from sound. As the Black Panther fights this beast, Ben faces the red elephant: It overpowers him by absorbing and using his energy. The Black Panther defeats the panther, and Klaw swears to kill T’Challa to get more vibranium. The Black Panther—educated at the world’s best universities—analyzes Klaw’s machine and flips a switch to overpower it. T’Challa uses his panther speed to escape as the machine explodes.
The red gorilla and elephant fade away. The Black Panther rejoins the Fantastic Four and tells them that with Klaw dead, his mission is over, and he can retire from being the Black Panther. The group encourages him to keep fighting to make the world a better place and T’Challa agrees, pledging himself to “the service of mankind” (44). Unbeknownst to the Black Panther, Klaw survives the explosion and finds his machine still working. He climbs into it, hoping it will give him powers to eventually defeat T’Challa.
Issues 1-2 Analysis
These first two issues mark the Black Panther’s introduction in Marvel Comics. They follow the Fantastic Four and first portray T’Challa as an antagonist before transforming him into a hero and ally. As the Fantastic Four grow to know him, they see him as the brave and responsible leader of the nation of Wakanda. However, before this understanding, the Fantastic Four have doubts about T’Challa and the technology he offers them, questioning his possession of the flying ship: “It’s so hard to believe that a ship such as this one could have come from a land with no sign of technology [...] of industrial development” (10). Sue’s doubts are echoed by other members of the team, and at the core of this curiosity rests the team’s prejudices. They find it hard to believe that T’Challa could possess, let alone design, such advanced technology given their preconceived notions about African nations. Ben cannot fathom that T’Challa could design the ship, instead wondering where he got it from. They do not believe that Wakanda could be technologically developed, despite never seeing or hearing of it. T’Challa frequently defies these expectations and racial prejudices, embodying the theme of Resistance Against Racist Society. As the Black Panther, he contradicts many foreigners’ expectations of who he and his people are, leading people to either underestimate him or identify him as a villain and outsider. In this context, Wakanda’s technological advancements represent a direct challenge to the harmful legacy of imperialist exploitation. By imagining a society untouched by colonization—but technologically advanced and rooted in deep cultural values—Wakanda disrupts Western assumptions about Africa’s technological and cultural capabilities, offering an alternative reality where Africa leads global progress. This retelling of the modern world offers a reclamation of beliefs and structures demolished by colonization, offering a sense of hope and empowerment.
As a collection of comic issues, this Black Panther collection depends heavily on the use of imagery and design to simulate action and plot. Specifically, it uses lines to show movement despite the illustrations only capturing one moment. On Page 12, a panel shows T’Challa fighting Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm. T’Challa kicks them both at the same time, and they fall away to either side of him. What makes this apparent as a scene of action are the lines that move out from the center, away from T’Challa and toward the other two. The lines simulate motion, depicting Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm falling away from T’Challa after his powerful kick. Lines are used in a similar way on Page 15 when Ben, Sue, and Reed are struck with a blast from polarity guns that propel them away from each other. The panel captures them the moment after they are struck, falling away from each other. In the middle of them is a small explosion, drawn in white to show the polarity gun’s effect, with white streaks reaching out from this explosion to each character in a different direction, following them as they fall. As on Page 12, the lines show movement by demonstrating the direction the characters are moving in instead of simply portraying the characters as static on the page. These scenes emphasize the power and advanced strategy of the Black Panther and Wakanda’s innovative technology.
As the Black Panther, T’Challa feels immense pressure to protect his nation and do his duty to protect justice. In these first two issues, this takes the form of defeating Klaw, the man who killed his father, T’Chaka, and attacked Wakanda when T’Challa was a child. This burden is representative of T’Challa’s struggle with The Weight of Leadership: He must balance tradition and progress, duty to his people, and his desire for justice, all while contending with external threats to his sovereignty. T’Challa’s need for justice against Klaw leads him to build Wakanda into a technological society, and he even brings the Fantastic Four to Wakanda to test his strength and strategy. This self-test demonstrates the seriousness with which T’Challa takes his role as leader of Wakanda and the Black Panther, and it ultimately gains him powerful allies who recognize his strength and sense of justice. After defeating Klaw, T’Challa contemplates stepping down from his role as the Black Panther, believing his duty fulfilled, but the Fantastic Four persuade him to continue fighting for justice beyond his personal vendettas. T’Challa agrees, The Weight of Leadership too heavy a burden for him to walk away from: “But somehow, I cannot believe it is over! I cannot believe that the Black Panther will stalk no more! [...] I shall do it! I pledge my fortune, my powers—my very life—to the service of all mankind!” (44). T’Challa’s duty to justice is too strong to limit him to only fighting for personal justice or even the justice of his people. He realizes that he has the means and the ability to use his leadership and skills to help others and pursues this course, following the Fantastic Four back to the US and joining the Avengers. He fights for justice everywhere, marking him as a true hero.
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