The History of the Black Panther: 1975-1976

For more than 50 years, the Black Panther has stood at the forefront on the Marvel Universe. With T’Challa appearing on the big screen again this year in both Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War,” take a look back at over five decades worth of comic book adventures for the King of Wakanda!

Still exiled to the Land of the Chilling Mists by his rival Erik Killmonger in JUNGLE ACTION #13, The Black Panther met and defeated a creature once thought to be only a Wakandan legend, the white gorilla. Exiting that area, he then pursued Killmonger into the dreaded Serpent Valley in JUNGLE ACTION #14, where the King of Wakanda avoided the jaws of a gigantic prehistoric dinosaur to stay on the track of his foe.

The trail next took T’Challa into the Forest of Thorns in JUNGLE ACTION #15, but Killmonger’s newest assassin, Salamander K’Ruel, and a curious pterodactyl made things hot for the Panther while he sought his opponent. Meanwhile, back in Central Wakanda, the wily assassin called Venomm escaped from his captivity there in JUNGLE ACTION #16.

After informing the Avengers that he couldn’t return to the States and continue his membership in AVENGERS #137, T’Challa witnessed a wholescale invasion of his capital city by Killmonger’s army of assassins and dinosaurs in JUNGLE ACTION #17. This led to a final confrontation between himself and the would-be usurper at Warrior Falls, but one of the Panther’s associates, Kantu, ended the clash by pushing Killmonger into the Falls, seemingly killing him.

Believing the threat of Killmonger to be over in JUNGLE ACTION #18, the Panther found himself the target of the fallen man’s mate, Madam Slay, who captured and tortured T’Challa for the incident at Warrior Falls.

The Black Panther jetted to the United States in JUNGLE ACTION #19 to visit his friend Monica Lynne’s parents at their home in Georgia, but received a rude welcome by the vicious Dragon’s Circle. The Ku Klux Klan added fuel to the fire in JUNGLE ACTION #20 when after a battle with T’Challa they captured him and tied him to a burning cross.

Once freed from the fiery trap, the Panther turned the tables on the Klan and the Dragon’s Circle in JUNGLE ACTION #21 by attacking their rally and bringing them to justice for their crimes in Georgia. Later, T’Challa and Monica listened to a story of the post-Civil War years told by Monica’s mother in JUNGLE ACTION #22, as Monica imagined the Black Panther mixed in with the historical details of the tale.

Still in the States in JUNGLE ACTION #24, the Panther held off an attack by Windeagle, a young man outfitted with Wakandan flight technology by the Dragon’s Circle. In DAREDEVIL ANNUAL #4, T’Challa made his way to New York City on the trail of criminals, but wound up in a battle between the Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Man Without Fear, and a new villain called the Mind Master.