BIOGRAPHY - page 2
The late king's most trusted advisor, N'Baza, wished to ensure T'Challa had the knowledge and context necessary to bring Wakanda into the world stage. N'Baza arranged for T'Challa to be educated in the finest schools of Europe and the Americas. B'Tumba, son of N'Baza, was sent along with T'Challa as his friend and companion throughout their time overseas. T'Challa proved to be incredibly gifted in both mind and body. He competed in swimming and track & field in school, while showing an aptitude for the sciences in addition to studying history, economics and other subjects he would use as king. [Avengers (1st series) #77, 87]
[Note: Sources vary as to whether T'Challa attended school abroad under his own name or using the Luke Charles alias to conceal his origins.]
While studying at college, T'Challa had a dalliance with Nicole Adams. By dating a white girl, T'Challa learned for the first time about racism in the outside world. A black student named Kamal 
Rakim violently objected to T'Challa and Nikki's relationship, forcing the future king to subdue Rakim and his friends with force. T'Challa's educational journey eventually carried him elsewhere. He parted with Nikki on good terms, but with the understanding that his throne would ever take importance in his life. [Black Panther (3rd series) #6] He also was once accosted by the Harlem Rivals, but parted peacefully with a young Carl Lucas. [Rise of the Black Panther #5]
Eventually, T'Challa returned home a man intent on claiming his crown. Wakanda held an annual tournament where the ruling Black Panther would face other challengers of the tribe in combat, and the winner could replace the Black Panther as king by proving their fitness. T'Challa disguised himself with a mask before confronting his Uncle S'Yan in the ring, to avoid favoritism. T'Challa defeated S'Yan and claimed the honor to begin the Rites of Ascension. [Black Panther (1st series) #8, Black Panther (4th series) #2] N'Baza articulated the trials that must be fulfilled by T'Challa in his rites. He won a hard-fought trial by combat against a half-dozen men, but N'Baza 
still had one more trial to present to the prince. Inside the sacred totem of the Panther God, T'Challa found the garments of the Black Panther. Suitably dressed, N'Baza informed T'Challa his final task was to retrieve the heart-shaped herb from the base of the Great Vibranium Mound. Once eaten, this herb would unlock his sacred Panther power, truly making him the Black Panther and a worthy king to Wakanda.
T'Challa acquired the herb with little effort, and soon felt the power of the Panther God coursing through his system. He overheard a commotion on the mound and discovered men from Advanced Idea Mechanics attempting to steal Vibranium for their criminal organization. Suspecting N'Baza of having betrayed the mound's location, T'Challa attacked the A.I.M. operatives but fell before the Sonatron weaponry they had taken from Ulysses Klaw. The new Black Panther was surprised to discover B'Tumba was squadron leader of this A.I.M. cell, having 
grown bitter over the years shackled to the prince who always proved his better. When A.I.M. insisted B'Tumba kill T'Challa, however, the traitorous Wakandan found he couldn't do it. B'Tumba freed T'Challa and they struck back at the terrorists. B'Tumba died in the fighting that followed, and asked T'Challa to keep his weakness a secret from his father, who was in the end nothing but a loyal servant to the throne. [Avengers (1st series) #87]
As the Black Panther, King T'Challa now officially ruled Wakanda. As regent, his Uncle S'Yan and Hunter of the Hatut Zeraze had kept many things from him. Wakanda's unbreachable borders were in question as a series of abductions had taken place over the past ten years, removing citizens from Wakanda. In pursuit of these Disappeared, the Black Panther had an initially hostile 
encounter with Prince Namor of Atlantis. Together, they learned Wakanda's neighbors Niganda and Azania had joined forces to steal Wakandan secrets from its citizens. An Atlantean rebel named Meranno was assisting with the abductions, always performed near Wakanda's waterways. Most of the Disappeared were located and recovered, and T'Challa found a tentative ally in Namor. [Rise of the Black Panther #2]
Feeling the need to prove himself in his new role, T'Challa made plans to confront the Fantastic Four of America. Reed Richards was one of the most intelligent men alive, and his family of super-beings worked like a closely-trained unit, a true challenge for the Black Panther. He dispatched an aide in one of Wakanda's Vibranium powered air-cars to Manhattan, where Richards indeed marveled at the technology Wakanda displayed. He accepted King T'Challa's invitation for an audience and brought his family to visit Wakanda.
When the Fantastic Four and their friend Wyatt Wingfoot arrived in the techno-jungle of Wakanda, their guide disappeared and the Black Panther began to stalk his prey. Using his wits and traps, T'Challa weakened the Thing, trapped the Human Torch in a fire-proof cage, manacled Mr. Fantastic and tracked even the Invisible Girl. However, he foolishly disregarded Wyatt Wingfoot, 
who commandeered a Wakandan observation post and began freeing the Fantastic Four from the traps. Out-maneuvered by what seemed to be the least of his opponents, T'Challa ended hostilities with the Fantastic Four and invited them to attend dinner with him and learn the true meaning of their visit. [Fantastic Four (1st series) #52]
After ten long years, T'Challa had learned that Klaw was preparing for a second attack on Wakanda. As he explained his history to the Fantastic Four, T'Challa requested their aid in defending the Wakandans against outside poachers. Klaw had been busy in the meantime, however, constructing a sonic converter capable of forming animated creatures out of solid sound. While Klaw's creations diverted the Fantastic Four, the Black Panther infiltrated his old enemy's outpost. T'Challa defeated the solid sound panther Klaw had sent against him and overloaded the equipment in Klaw's sonic converter. The Black Panther left his hated enemy for dead and escaped the outpost as Klaw's equipment exploded around him, finally taking revenge for the death of his father long ago. [Fantastic Four (1st series) #53]
T'Challa maintained the friendship between the nation of Wakanda and the Fantastic Four after that. He provided them with several vehicles of Wakandan design when they required it, and sent a sample of Vibranium to Reed Richards to oppose Klaw, who had returned as a being of solidified sound, transformed by exposure to his own sonic converter. The Black Panther also joined forces with the Fantastic Four and the royal family of the Inhumans in confrontation with the Psycho-Man and his minions. [Fantastic Four (1st series) #54, 56, 60, Annual #5]
His experiences abroad as a youth and the coming of the age of modern Marvels led T'Challa to question Wakanda's long held isolationist policies. Over the objections of S'Yan and many on the tribal council, King T'Challa intended to break Wakanda's secrecy. He sent out invitations to the five permanent member states of the U.N. Security Council, bringing ambassadors into Wakanda. The other nations were informed of Wakanda's peaceful intent, but also their superior technology and access to the unique metal Vibranium. They also saw the fighting prowess of the Black 
Panther first hand when the Winter Soldier and agents of the Red Room attempted to infiltrate Wakanda on behalf of Russia. The attack provided political pressure against the other nations when it came time for Wakanda's unveiling. If they wanted access to Wakanda's assets and to keep secret the embarrassment of the blatant spy mission, they would champion Wakanda's admission into the United Nations. [Rise of the Black Panther #3]
As he introduced Wakanda to the world, T'Challa was surprised when he was approached in New York by a Wakandan expatriate. The man named N'Jadaka explained how he was kidnapped as a boy by Klaw's mercenaries when they invaded Wakanda and killed the king. Driven out of Wakanda, N'Jadaka and the other slaves were forced to serve Klaw and his men as they traveled the globe. N'Jadaka eventually separated from his captors, but had no way of locating the secret valley of Wakanda, much less returning to it. King T'Challa took N'Jadaka's story at face value and was overjoyed at the opportunity to return one of his lost countrymen to his homeland. The next time he returned home, T'Challa ferried N'Jadaka from his Harlem tenement back to Wakanda. The Black Panther lost track of N'Jadaka once he re-entered Wakanda... to his everlasting peril. [Jungle Action (2nd series) #16, Rise of the Black Panther #3]
[Note: The original story of N'Jadaka's return to Wakanda took place after Black Panther joined the Avengers. Rise of the Black Panther told an alternate version of events where N'Jadaka was taken away by the traitor M'Denwe and not Klaw himself. In this article, we've chosen to place the story in T'Challa's chronology where Rise indicated, but retain N'Jadaka's stronger historical ties to Klaw.]