Diversity has recently become the watch word for Marvel comics because, well, it makes good business sense. That's pretty much where all their more interesting decisions came from, and its how they came to create the first mainstream black superhero in comics back in 1966. A few years later they'd debut a raft of African American characters, thanks to the growing interest in blaxploitation cinema; Black Panther was a creation in a particular political climate. And an interesting creation he was, too. The masked alter ego of African king T'Challa, Black Panther got tangled in up adventures both high and realistic: he's been part of the Avengers, dealt with political intrigue in his own nation, and one of his earliest storylines saw him fighting the Ku Klux Klan. Thanks to his mystical connection with a Panther God he has superhumanly acute senses and increases his strength, speed, stamina, reflexes, and agility to Olympic-levels to go along with his PhD in Physics - in fact T'Challa is considered one of the eight smartest people on the planet.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
