BIOGRAPHY - page 9
The Black Panther was in New York when Onslaught struck, unleashing an electromagnetic pulse that fried the entire island of Manhattan while putting it under siege from his Sentinel armada. T'Challa and Iron Man traveled to the Wakanda Embassy to gather Vibranium from storage and use it to their advantage. Because Onslaught was based in part on the mind of Charles Xavier, the 
Xavier Protocols contained blueprints for a psi-armor that could shield individuals from Onslaught's powers. At Four Freedom Plaza, Black Panther met with Reed Richards to finalize the designs and reunited with the Fantastic Force. He fought alongside the Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four in Central Park for the final battle against Onslaught, and sacrificed his life with the rest of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, drawn inside the pocket dimensional space that Onslaught embodied. [Iron Man (1st series) #332, Fantastic Four (1st series) #416, Onslaught: Marvel Universe]
Like the rest of the heroes, Black Panther was reincarnated into the Heroes Reborn universe, living out an eerily similar recreation of the early days of Marvels on Earth. This pocket dimension was eventually discovered and T'Challa and the heroes were returned to their home reality. [Fantastic Four (2nd series) #4-6, Heroes Reborn: The Return #4] The Black Panther joined the entire Avengers roster in reuniting shortly afterwards, to face the threat of Morgan le Fay. However, he chose not to remain with the active roster and returned to the governance of Wakanda. [Avengers (3rd series) #1-4]
The effect on Wakanda of their monarch's disappearance for months has never been chronicled.
Upon his return, however, T'Challa found unrest among the royal family. His cousin, Joshua Itobo, opposed the traditionalists and wanted to push Wakanda more into the international community with trade, technological development and resource allocation. T'Challa remained committed to keeping the balance between Wakanda's history and its future, which frustrated Joshua deeply. Itobo went so far as to make an ill-fated alliance with Klaw, who naturally betrayed him and destroyed his hearing with a sonic attack once Itobo had smuggled him into the country. Klaw was defeated by Black Panther and his guest, Cable, and T'Challa hoped his cousin's long recuperation would teach him a lesson in patience. [Cable (1st series) #54]
During the chaos of the Onslaught crisis and what followed, the Wakandan king's engagement to the American Monica Lynne had been largely forgotten. Indeed, T'Challa had dismissed Monica from Wakanda and called off their engagement after a troubling encounter. T'Challa met a version of himself from 10 years in the future, a man of bombastic temperament and outrageous style. T'Challa believed his future self had been summoned by the power of King Solomon's frogs, and discovered the man was dying of a brain aneurysm. The future T'Challa was placed in stasis until he could be cured or returned to his own time, and hidden away in the Crystal Forest palace of the outlawed Jabari Tribe, the last place anyone would connect to the Black Panther. Deeply troubled by this development, T'Challa felt he could no longer offer Monica the life he had promised her, but also refused to explain his decision when he asked her to leave. [Black Panther (3rd series) #48-49]
Perhaps in an effort to distance himself from Monica and those who knew her, T'Challa spent less time with W'Kabi, Mendinau and Taku after this. He reconnected with Zuri, his father's closest friend and greatest warrior of his age. Although considerably older now, Zuri was still every inch the warrior and chosen protector of the ceremonial Spear of Bashenga. Nakia and Okoye were not quite eighteen, but old enough to accompany T'Challa on his affairs and thus the order of the Dora Milaje was officially restored for the first time since T'Challa was a toddler. Under the rules of the order, the Dora Milaje were to speak only in Hausa and even then only to the King. To the Western world, Okoye was his driver and Nakia his secretary, but in reality they were bodyguards and concomitants who served him in all things. Tradition dictated they were also "wives-in-training," the first daughters of different tribes of Wakanda, learning statecraft and other skills and expertise by the king's side so that he might one day choose from among them a queen. The Black Panther respected the tradition of the Dora Milaje and loved Nakia and Okoye, but truthfully saw the teenaged concomitants more as daughters than potential partners.
A series of events took place which occupied T'Challa's time as the Black Panther. At T'Challa's insistence, Wakanda became host to refugees fleeing from a series of ethnic wars in their surrounding neighbors, particularly the feud between Ujanka and Ghudaza. Although the refugees were treated well, they retained past grudges with each other, making the refugee camps a hotbed for violence and tribal warfare. Deep-rooted resentment against the Wakandans also ran 
through the refugees, who thought the Wakandans believed themselves better than their neighbors. Indeed, many Wakandans pressed the king to close their borders and return the refugees to their own lands. Much of the controversy was stoked by the Reverend Doctor Michael Ibn al-Hajj Achebe, a Ghudazan refugee. Cunning but insane, Achebe had sold his soul to Mephisto and helped orchestrate the ethnic wars and the unrest in the refugee camps all in a bid to place himself near Wakanda's throne.
T'Challa was drawn away from Wakanda in this time of crisis by a scandal in America. The Wakandan Consulate had supported the Tomorrow Fund, a charity organization aimed towards underprivileged children in the district where T'Challa once taught school as Luke Charles. A young girl named Jamie Robins had been the literal poster child for the Fund, appearing in media promotions with the Black Panther. Jamie Robins was found murdered just as the news broke that 
the Tomorrow Fund was woefully corrupt from the top down. T'Challa brought Zuri and the Dora Milaje with his entourage to New York in order to investigate the situation. Almost as soon as they arrived, however, Queen Mother Ramonda called to warn T'Challa that Achebe had led a revolt from the refugee camps and seized the throne of Wakanda.
Undeterred for the moment, the Black Panther focused on his business in New York. He was aided in his efforts by Everett K. Ross, a representative of America's Office of the Chief of Protocol. Ross' boss and lover was Nicole Adams, T'Challa's girlfriend from college. The king's senses immediately detected Nikki's scent on Ross, but Ross knew nothing of their past relationship. T'Challa set up camp in the Leslie N. Hill Housing Project, the Brooklyn home of the Tomorrow Fund's activities. T'Challa and the Dora Milaje left Ross in the Project while turning over drug dealers and gang bangers to track the corruption in the Tomorrow Fund. The Black Panther located Delroy Richmond, corrupt businessman and child predator responsible for Jamie's death, and brought him to justice with the NYPD and his new ally, Sgt. Tork.
This only brought forth the next stage of the conspiracy. Mephisto had aided Achebe because he desired to claim T'Challa's soul. Physically and emotionally tired after the search for and confrontation with Richmond, the king was drawn into a psychic confrontation with Mephisto and 
his time slip illusions. These illusions drew him into his past with Monica Lynne, and inadvertently led T'Challa to kissing Nakia in real life. This was a cunning ploy by Mephisto, for such an act by T'Challa, if deliberately made, could be seen as a declaration of intent. Once a Dora Milaje was claimed by the king, she would be sworn to him forever and unable to marry another. And Nakia, of all the Dora Milaje, was most willing to believe that was the case.
As he left to clear his thoughts, the Black Panther was also confronted by the White Wolf and his Hatut Zeraze. Hunter had been active as a mercenary for the past decade, but returned after hearing of Achebe's coup in Wakanda. Hunter yearned to return to the service of Wakanda's throne (despite his jealous hatred of T'Challa) and confronted his adopted brother over his lack of action. Hunter informed T'Challa that Achebe was just the face of the coup, and that the real conspirators still waited in the shadows. The Black Panther gave no response to the White Wolf's probes, but still refused to allow Hunter back into his service, for he rejected the morality of the torture, kidnappings and assassination performed by the Hatut Zeraze under Hunter's guidance.
Black Panther returned to the Housing Project where Mephisto was keeping Ross company. Without breaking his stride, T'Challa leapt into the room and decked the Devil with one punch. He then cut out his heart and deposited it into the refrigerator. The Black Panther had known of Mephisto's involvement before leaving Wakanda, and so the entourage he brought to the housing 
project were actually technicians who devised a means of temporarily robbing the Devil of his power. Knowing Mephisto and his realm were as one, and that Mephisto weakened the longer he was physically away from it, T'Challa then separated Mephisto from some of his physicality to ensure the demon would remain on Earth and therefore experience a constantly ebbing level of power.
When Mephisto transported Black Panther and Ross to Hell, T'Challa was undaunted by Mephisto's illusions and trickery. He did, however, freely offer his soul to Mephisto in exchange for the demon removing his power and support from Achebe, and promising to never again covet the souls of the Wakandans. Mephisto gleefully accepted this deal, but found that T'Challa's soul was permanently linked to the previous Black Panthers, thanks to his connection with Bast. To claim one soul was to claim them all. The inherent nobility of T'Challa's soul was a feast for Mephisto that nearly satiated him in one gulp, but he had many generations of noble kings to swallow from 
there. Mephisto soon realized he would not be able to stomach the "goodness" of so many great souls at once. He was forced to abandon his claim on T'Challa's soul, walking away from their deal with nothing. In the absence of Mephisto's power, Achebe's forces were in a tenuous position. They agreed to a peaceful reign of Wakanda where the people would not be harmed, and Achebe would share power with Ramonda for now, but only if the Black Panther remained in exile in America. T'Challa, for the moment, agreed. [Black Panther (3rd series) #1-5]
A state dinner was held in Washington to welcome T'Challa to America and show support for his rule in exile. T'Challa was reunited with now-Senator Kamal Rakim from college, who balked at the fact that the White House held a gala for an African king and yet forgot to invite any black people (the senator and others only arrived after Everett Ross took initiative of his own). So, Senator Rakim made a few calls and had hundreds of African Americans come out to greet T'Challa as the king and hero he was. During the commotion, Ross was kidnapped by Kraven the Hunter, who had been hired to hunt T'Challa through intermediaries by the White Wolf in order to harass his brother. The Panther freed them both and disposed of Kraven, but the night's festivities drew out the attention of the Avengers. [Black Panther (3rd series) #6-7]
While Black Panther and the Avengers tried to prevent a crisis between the NYPD and Senator Rakim's crowd, T'Challa spotted a sniper. When he approached the individual, however, he found it was Monica Lynne with duct tape on her mouth, C4 on her back and an exoskeleton forcing her to move according to Achebe's commands. Achebe had intended to have Monica shoot T'Challa when he made a speech before the crowd, but had also used agents in the United States to conceal more explosives on an innocent on the streets. The Black Panther opened a radio link to the Avengers to inform them of the situation, while he tried to disarm the bomb attached to Monica. Achebe continued chatting with T'Challa during the exchange, and so T'Challa was on an 
open channel with the Avengers when he revealed he only joined the group originally to determine if they posed a threat to his country. The Black Panther's relationship with the Avengers was soured by this revelation. Monica, for her part, still wanted nothing more to do with T'Challa after her rescue, for the sting of him canceling their engagement was still with her. [Black Panther (3rd series) #8]
The Black Panther's investigation into the Tomorrow Fund scandal had continued despite these distractions. Achebe's men in America had been members of the Russian mob, covertly driving around in ice cream trucks filled with $30 million in surveillance equipment. His forces in Wakanda and Ghudaza were supported by el Ministerio de Asuntos Internacionales Armo Servicio de Vulcan Domuyo, known as Los Cuarenta Ladrones, "The Forty Thieves" or (mercifully) shortened to the LCL, the secret police of Vulcan Domuyo, a suspected terrorist state in Latin America. All these actors were being coordinated by Jack Taylor of Spectrum Dynamics, a corporation which was a cover for the Central Intelligence Agency's black ops actions. In short, the coup in Wakanda had been planned, orchestrated and paid for by factions within the United States government. After collecting Dzhokhar Gapon of the Russians and Jack Taylor, T'Challa presented their statements before the United Nations and declared the actions of the CIA to constitute an act of war against Wakanda. He stopped just short of declaring that Wakanda itself was now at war with the United States.
Indeed, all of this was almost exactly as T'Challa had planned for. The Black Panther was fully aware of Spectrum Dynamics and its confederates' role in the Ghudazi wars before he ever left Wakanda. He even positioned his step-mother Ramonda to act as a supposedly willing ally of Achebe to ensure reasonable rule in his absence, with the insurrectionists believing she was on their side. His intent throughout the Tomorrow Fund scandal and his subsequent exile was to draw out all the participants in the ordeal so that they could be eliminated in the light of day. However, deprived of Mephisto's power and steadying influence, Achebe had become increasingly erratic. His assassination attempt using Monica was outside the conspiracy's original purview and, back home, he attacked Ramonda to access the codes for the Prowlers, weapons of mass destruction which he turned on the Wakandan people. Achebe's unpredictability forced the Panther to act to retake his kingdom before he was ready.