We often assume Iron Man to be the first superhero to feature in MCU, however, a new Marvel comic points to the contrary.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for the Black Panther Prelude from Marvel, therefore, stop here if you don’t want any.
Continued to read? Fabulous, so we finally saw Black Panther debut in Captain America: Civil War and siding up with Iron Man in the superhero battle. However, this was not the first time that T’Challa became Black Panther, and that’s something we came to know in the Black Panther Prelude comic.
In an initial panel, we see T’Chaka’s office. He is the king of Wakanda and is watching a Stark Industries press conference where Tony Stark reveals to the press about being the Iron Man. T’Challa soon entered the room and then T’Chaka confirmed that he was already Black Panther.
“T’Challa — you’ve held the mantle of the Black Panther for merely a week, and already you walk as if you’d been at it for a lifetime,” T’Chaka says. In fact, he stated that he has already donned the costume for a mission and he said that T’Challa was seen by a U.N. Peacekeeper.
You can check that panel here.
Therefore, the Black Panther is keeping an eye throughout the entire time from his Wakanda office. The destruction of Iron Man 3 and the attack on New York as well as Sokovia being destroyed by Ultron and all other things have been seen by him. However, back then he wasn’t ruling Wakanda because he became the king only after T’Chaka’s death in Captain America: Civil War.
Therefore, it all points to the world having T’Challa as Black Panther even before Iron Man appeared on the scene, but, nobody knew about it.
Once Captain Marvel joins the fray, this club will become even more crowded as that film is based in the 1990s and this will mean that she was the world’s original superhero.
The official synopsis of the Black Panther Prelude comic can be read below, and it is available in stores already.
Wakanda. The most technologically advanced nation in the world—and protected by the mighty BLACK PANTHER! Learn how T’CHALLA became the legendary hero of Wakanda in this ALL-NEW, NEVER-BEFORE-TOLD tale set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe! See how the mantle was passed to the future king, in a time when superheroes were just emerging in the larger world before this fall’s BLACK PANTHER film hits theaters!
