A Regal Kind of Comic: The Black Panther

About a year ago I fell into reading old issues of the "Black Panther" on my computer. For many, this title connotes a late 20th century Black civil revolutionist group, (or extremists depending on what your particular world view perceives). However, I am not referring to the “Black Panthers,” who were in fact an organization concerned with the education, safety, and prosperity of Black people in America (at times by any means necessary), nor the segregated, WW II, Black-American tank battalion.

The "Black Panther" was one of the first mainstream, Black comic book heroes. Premiering in Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966), he by himself dismantled the team previously mentioned. Why, one may ask, is a comic book so important that it for a long time trumped my completion of The Audacity of Hope, written by our President , Barack Obama? The Black Panther was not simply a Black hero, an occurrence for the most part previously unheard of in the mainstream comic book industry, but he was a brilliant, wealthy, Black man- the antithesis of the popular image of Black people in America... And he was a King.

In the African realm of "Wakanda," the Black Panther, T'Challa, was the benevolent ruler of all. He had been educated in Europe and in America, but not because schooling in these western countries was in any way better than that of his own isolationist nation, but rather, to gain a greater understanding of the outside world. Wakanda, a small nation, was also one of the wealthiest and most technologically advanced nations in the world; A nation which had never been colonized by Europe. The ability for a young Black child to pick up a comic book and read about an African King--wealthy, intelligent, caring, proud, and peaceful, was an image that could inspire.

When I was younger there were other hero's of color, though most on television played out racial stereotypes, as did many in comic books. By the time I was really into collecting Comics in the early 90's, the Black Panther was without his own title. Now decades later, through the inventiveness of Fiber optics and Intel processors, I am able to find and read scanned comics online. I've been catching up on this revolutionary character and the legacy he continues to create in his more contemporary titles (a lot of comic book reading since it has been many years since I could afford to spend my allowance on comics each week!)

The new edition comic is still an aberration from most of the industry (though Marvel has always lead pop culture in pushing forth progressive idealism), consistently dealing with political and social issues, including African disunity and White Euro-American-centricity (towards Black people and the continent of Africa in general). It has also continued a more general commentary on the state of the Human reality in the real world. From the Bush Doctrine and big business greed, to the racial and economic injustices of the Katrina response, to religious extremism, the Black Panther continues to go where many of us refuse: To the truths of the many injustices that plague the majority of people and places on this planet. A good resource for such a geographically illiterate people we Americans are!

Plus, what a role model! A true icon and image of what a Black man can be. I suppose in no small way is it a coincidence that my discovery of this Hero paralleled the historical election season Americans completed last November. The ascendancy of Barack Obama, the first Black Man, or non-white man, to the presidency of the Unites States of America, creates a more tangible representation of possibilities and hope and of the greatness that everyone can aspire to than a comic book. Yet, T'Challa came first. And with him came the question that Black folk in the Americas and the rest of the world have asked themselves for hundreds of years: “What if the white people had never come to Africa..?”

D.C.W

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_(comics)