BLACK PANTHER & STORM
Once upon a time, two young people met in the African veldt – one a future king on a walkabout, the other a future goddess – and they would travel together for a time, forming a strong bond that would last well into their adulthoods. The boy was T’Challa, king of Wakanda and chieftain of the Black Panther clan, whose father was killed in front of him, forcing the responsibilities of the crown onto him far too soon. He would become an Avenger. The girl was Ororo Munroe, the daughter of a Kenyan witch-priestess and an American photojournalist, born in New York City and raised in Cairo until the age of six, when she was orphaned as well. She lived as a street thief until her mutant weather-control powers manifested, and she began to be worshipped in the Serengeti (the place where MCs ain’t ready to take it). She would become the leader of the X-Men. Both of them had strong connections to Africa, both of them had tragedy befall their families at a young age, and both of them have experience with being leaders not just of teams, but of peoples. The potential for a love for the ages was definitely there.
Marvel Team-Up #100 and Christopher Priest’s Black Panther. The potential for greatness.
Christopher Priest had laid some groundwork for their relationship, building on what had been established in Marvel Team-Up #100 back in 1980, but when Reginald Hudlin took over Black Panther comics, it got all retconned and blown up into A Marvel Event, one that was very sudden and had little plan for it. Typical of Hudlin’s run, as it turned out, what with suddenly slinging a heretofore unseen little sister of T’Challa’s as well, so we could have a Lady Black Panther in Shuri. It COULD have been great, but it wound up feeling forced. Still, they endured for six years of actual time, including a stint together in the Fantastic Four, but it turned out that it was hard to make them work since their X and A worlds were so different – and some poor decisions with Black Panther (have him replace Daredevil? Why?) made it an even bigger stretch to force his wife out of his own book. Very poor planning all around.
Vanishing pupils are a Wakandan tradition.
So it fell to Jason Aaron to break them up in Avengers vs. X-Men #9, after which Marvel editor Tom Brevoort admitted that they never really figured out how to make them work as a couple beyond the initial stunt. The reason for it was that Storm was a part of Cyclops’ “Extinction Team,” and they stuck around with him even after his crew became The Phoenix Five and started to reshape the world. The Avengers kept fighting them, using Wakanda as a secret base of operations, until Namor destroyed the country with a tsunami (impressive, considering Wakanda is landlocked). Thus, T’Challa was forced by duty to annul his marriage to one of the war-criminal X-Men, and he did it quickly and without much in the way of outward sentiment. Because that’s what T’Challa does – his first duty is always to his people. Even though Ororo felt she shared that duty, he had to cut her off from it. She kept coming back to TRY to fulfill her responsibilities, and the result was a fight in Avengers vs. X-Men VS. #5 (also written by Aaron) that tried to delve into the pain of it a bit more. It’s not what T’Challa the man wants, but it’s what was required of T’Challa the king… even though that little sister of his is now the regent of Wakanda and chieftain of the clan, so he’s not really the king… it’s all kind of hazy. Silly Hudlin.
Maybe what ended in AvX can be repaired in A+X? Anybody? That title was practically made for them.
Now, T’Challa has become the Black Panther of the Dead and is stepping up to Avengers-level action and selling his soul to the Illuminati, thanks to Jonathan Hickman, while Storm has re-upped the mohawk she had in the 1980s and is working out her anger in Uncanny X-Force. And apparently making out with Wolverine. For some reason, Aaron added a recent scene in his Wolverine and the X-Men where Ororo and T’Challa are on friendly enough terms to play long-distance chess with each other, but twisted the knife-wound in by having T’Challa ask her specifically NOT to date Logan. And she is, apparently out of spite or something. Yeah, it’s a mess.
A vs. X VS. #5. Which I think means Avengers fight X-Men fight Short Circuit.
