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Black Panther.

Article Excerpt
Black Panther. Comic book series. Reginald Hudlin (w); John Romita, Jr., et al. (a). New York: Marvel, [new series] 2005-ongoing.

One cannot help but notice retrospectively a certain uncanniness about the July 1966 issue of Marvel Comics' staple, The Fantastic Four. In the weeks just after Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer Stokely Carmichael's call for "Black Power" and a few months before the emergence of Huey Newton and Bobby Seale's Black Panther Party for Self Defense, Marvel's founder Stan Lee conjured an image of the Black Panther himself. In this particular issue, the Black Panther is a hastily defeated antagonist. Yet before long, the character--also known as T'Challa, the king of the independent African nation of Wakanda--will join forces with an estimable crew of international superhero operatives known as the Avengers. In 1973, the Black Panther gets his own series, giving texture and nuance to the history of...