Awesome / Black Panther

This was just his first appearance!

• His very first appearance has him inviting the Fantastic Four to Wakanda, kicking their asses in ritual combat, and then inviting them to dinner. What an introduction!
• Ross is alone with Mephisto, Lord of Hell, in Panther's apartment. Panther gets home.
  Ross: Should I call the Avengers?
  Panther: Why? *Panther proceeds to take down the Devil with one punch*
  • Of course, this being a Panther story, he was able to do that because of careful planning, preparation, and manipulation, which makes it better. When he encounters the Hulk without such preparation, he is much more open to assistance.
• Ross gets his own CMoA where he basically prevents World War III with quick-thinking and snark.
  • Which is what allowed him to stand up to the devil himself. And it was Ross's charm and decency that earned him the *loyalty* of Black Panther. Ross was so awesome, T'Challa fought the devil (partly) for him.
• Another one for Ross, when he attacks Wolf to save Panther.
• Another one for Panther when meeting Ross' girlfriend and boss Nikki who was an ex-girlfriend of T'Challa. T'Challa politely but viciously tears into Nikki verbally for using Ross as a pawn in her government's game to spy on him, not revealing to Ross her status as T'Challa's ex-lover, betraying his trust, and overall disrespecting Ross as his close friend.
  T'Challa: You dishonor me by deliberately making your lover my attache. As though your scent wouldn't be on him when I first met him at the airport— and many times after. You make him the fool, and you make me responsible. Which of we three are you trying to punish?
• Panther (kind of) vs. Iron Man (also kind of). One of the all-time coolest fight scenes in a comic ever, as two of the absolute smartest guys in Marvel fight as much with their brains as with their bodies.
• Killmonger's entrance, wherein he tackles an elephant, may count. Villains can have CMoAs, right?
• Monica Lynne, after repeated abductions, threats, unwanted adventures, and finally being ejected out of a speeding fighter jet by Panther's jealous bodyguard, is lying in the jungle when a leopard finds her. She's had enough, so she just stares it down, then goes to sleep. Doubles as a Heartwarming Moment when the leopard lies down and goes to sleep next to her.
• Iron Fist gets one when he leaps out of an airship and delivers a falling/flying Iron Fist to a giant evil dragon that was ravaging Wakanda.
• Posing as Secretary of Defense, Dell Rusk, the Red Skull has taken down Iron Man, Captain America and the Falcon and plans to frame Wakanda for spreading a deadly virus in the U.S., the Panther's country the first to fall to the Skull's "New America."
  Skull: Have you anything to say to that, animal?
  Panther: Yes.
  Takes off his gloves and cracks his knuckles
  Panther: I'm going to break your jaw.
  • Guess what? He does.
  • He didn't just break his jaw, he nearly punched it off
• Panther, beset on all sides by massively dangerous enemies and impending war/disaster, seems to finally pick up the Idiot Ball when he reluctantly accepts the White Wolf's allegiance... about twenty seconds before leading Wolf and all his henchmen into a trap. The dialogue in the scene just makes it better.
• Queen Divine Justice's CMoA comes when she talks down the Incredible Hulk. This is followed by many CMoFs as she leads the big green lug around New York.
• The entire early 2000s run was one for writer Christopher Priest (comics). An absolutely fantastic and unique story, an unbroken run (no other writers doing fill-in issues), and it remains to this day the longest Marvel or DC solo run starring a minority hero. That he managed to do all that with repeated artist changes, Executive Meddling (although not nearly as bad as in his other work, he was forced to do a dialogue-free issue in the middle of an exceedingly complicated story, and to shoehorn an Earth-wide alien invasion into an unrelated story) just makes it more impressive.
• During the Secret Invasion, the Skrulls tried to take Wakanda like they did most of the world, through stealth and subterfuge. They quickly found out how big a mistake that was when the first wave didn't report back in. T'Challa had known about them from the start, and taken the necessary precautions to do what Wakanda had always done with invaders in the past. Reinforcements arrived to find a vast forest of decapitated Skrull heads mounted on pikes, along with a sign that read, "See Wakanda and Die." Lesson learned here?: Don't fuck with Wakanda.
  • When that didn't seem to get the message across, what followed sure left an impression. The Skrull General of the Wakandan invasion forces responded to the aforementioned slaughter by dispatching a Super-Skrull to Wakanda to take out the Black Panther personally. This Super-Skrull possessed the skin of Luke Cage, the claws of Wolverine, Iron Fist's chi-enhanced strikes, Bullseye's superhuman aim, and the combined fighting styles of Elektra, Shang-Chi, Moon Knight, Daredevil, Captain America, and the Black Panther himself. However, T'Challa had used his encounter with the primary invasion force to study the weaknesses of Skrull biology, particularly their joints, pressure points, and physical composition. He proceeded to tear the Super-Skrull apart single-handedly, a feat that would normally require a team of super-heroes to accomplish.
  • Part of the Skrulls giving Wakanda a hard time includes them turning off their technology. The Proud Warrior Race of Wakandans simply pick up knives and spears and proceed to slaughter their foes.
  • In fact, in an issue of "What If" that centered around what would've happened if the Skrulls succeeded in subjugating Earth, Wakanda is still a free nation in a world run by the Skrull Empire, and the HQ of the Avengers Resistance.
• During the secret wars event , we get T'challa and Namor versus God Doom , keep in mind that T'challa is wearing the fricking INFINITY GUANTLET at the time!!!
• In issue 1 of Black Panther (2016), Aneka kills a chieftain who had been sexually abusing girls in his village. In a flashback, readers see her hurling a spear into the man's chest as his victims look on.
  Ayo: The chieftain's outrages upon the girls of his village were known. Yet his lechery was unopposed. Aneka spoke to him as fathers and brothers should have spoken long before. And when she was not heeded, she did as the honor of Wakandan fathers and brothers has always demanded.
• In issue 2 of Black Panther (2016), Aneka and Ayo (the Midnight Angels) discover the hideout of Wakandan militants who have kidnapped women and girls for use as sex slaves. They proceed to slaughter the militants and free the captives.
  Ayo: Vermin and vultures! Feeding amidst the decay of your own country!
• The ending of the story arc “A Nation Under Our Feet”. To take on the treasonous and destructive rebellion forces of Tetu and Zenzi, T’Challa uses his powers as King of the Dead in Wakanda to revive EVERY PAST BLACK PANTHER and go into battle. In addition, after their victory, T’Challa agrees to install a constitutional monarchy in the country, completing the transition of change mounting throughout the entire story.
• In the 2018 series, an amnesiac T’Challa becoming the spear of Maroons rebellion movement against the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, showing that wherever he is, the Black Panther is an unparalleled warrior.
• The last three issues of the 2018 series (and of Coates’ run) are full of these:
  • General Nakia’s Heroic Sacrifice, turning her entire ship into a missile to take out a huge chunk of the Galactic Empire’s fleet, ala The Last Jedi.
  • T’Challa, with Shuri’s guidance, making peace with the ancestral history of Wakanda and restoring the memories of all the slaves of the Galactic Empire as a result.
  • The final two issues, where Wakanda goes to battle with the Galactic Empire with virtually every major black superhero active in the Marvel universe at the moment (all the way from Luke Cage to Miles Morales to Monica Rambeau), as well as the Originators, the original residents of Wakanda who were the villains of the ‘Avengers of the New World’ story arc from earlier in the run.
  • The run ends with T’Challa, having vanquished a symbiote empowered Emperor N’Jaka fused with Erik Killmonger, and becoming not just King T’Challa of Wakanda, but EMPEROR T’Challa of the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, rivalling the Reign of X ascension of the mutant community as major players in the future of Marvel’s New Age of Space.