T'Challa

A vibranium meteorite struck Africa millennia ago. A warrior named Bashenga ingested a heart-shaped herb mutated by the metal, gained enhanced strength, and became the first Black Panther, uniting four of the five local tribes into Wakanda. The fifth, the Jabari, withdrew to the mountains.

Wakanda then hid. It presented to the world as a poor agrarian nation while building the most technologically advanced society on Earth, refusing to share vibranium or aid — a policy of isolation that becomes the central moral question of Black Panther.

This is a genuine plot hole rather than a mystery. Black Panther (film) establishes that Ulysses Klaue stole a quarter-ton of raw vibranium from Wakanda in 1992 — decades after the shield was made. Marvel has never explained the earlier supply chain and has quietly left it alone.

If Wakanda was secret, how was T'Chaka at a UN signing? Because Wakanda was never hidden as a country. It had a seat at the UN, an ambassador, and a king who attended summits. What it hid was its technology and wealth — it presented as a poor agrarian state. So T'Chaka attending Vienna is ordinary diplomacy. What T'Challa reveals at the end of Black Panther is that the poverty was a front. Different secret.

At the signing in Vienna, a bomb kills King T'Chaka of Wakanda. Bucky Barnes is framed. T'Challa pursues him for vengeance. The real culprit is Helmut Zemo, a Sokovian intelligence officer whose family died in Ultron's attack, whose entire plan is to break the Avengers from the inside rather than beat them.

Team Stark: Stark, Rhodes (paralysed in the fight), Vision, Romanoff (who defects mid-battle), T'Challa, and a recruited 15-year-old Peter Parker. Team Rogers: Rogers, Barnes, Wilson, Wanda, Barton, Lang. The losers are imprisoned in the Raft; Rogers breaks them out. Barnes goes into voluntary cryosleep in Wakanda while T'Challa's scientists work on undoing his conditioning.

Set roughly a week after Civil War. T'Challa returns to be crowned. Erik "Killmonger" Stevens — son of T'Challa's uncle N'Jobu, who was killed by T'Chaka in Oakland in 1992 and whose child was abandoned there — arrives to claim the throne and use Wakandan weapons to arm oppressed people worldwide.

The moral force of the film is that Killmonger is not wrong about Wakanda's isolationism, only about the solution. T'Challa wins the fight and adopts half his argument: Wakanda reveals itself and opens outreach centres, beginning with Oakland.

Shuri, T'Challa's sister, is Wakanda's chief scientist. Okoye leads the Dora Milaje. Nakia, M'Baku, and Ramonda all matter later. Ulysses Klaue dies; Everett Ross of the CIA becomes an ally.

Thanos snaps his fingers. Half of all life in the universe disintegrates. Among the dead: Bucky, Wanda, T'Challa, Groot, Drax, Mantis, Quill, Strange, Sam Wilson, Peter Parker, Hank Pym, Janet van Dyne, Hope van Dyne, Nick Fury, Maria Hill.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (FILM, 2022) — Written around Chadwick Boseman's death. T'Challa dies of an undisclosed illness. A vibranium detector triggers conflict between the surface world and Talokan; Namor tries to force Wakanda into alliance against everyone else; Queen Ramonda is killed. Shuri takes the heart-shaped herb, becomes Black Panther, and ends the war by refusing to kill Namor. Introduces Riri Williams, an MIT student who built a working Iron Man suit.

Widely reported but unconfirmed for Phase 7: Black Panther 3, Blade, and an X-Men film.

Phase Three (2016–2019): Civil War · Doctor Strange · Guardians Vol. 2 · Spider-Man: Homecoming · Thor: Ragnarok · Black Panther · Infinity War · Ant-Man and the Wasp · Captain Marvel · Endgame · Far From Home