The Impact of Toussaint T’Challa: Exploring T’Challa’s Lineage in the Comics and Potential MCU Futures

Well no. But also, in a way.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is an epic emotional tale of two worlds, Talokan and Wakanda, struggling to control their future kingdoms. However, amidst all the emotional moments in the highly anticipated Black Panther sequel, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s deepest reveal hits the scene mid-credit.

There, we meet T’Challa and Nakia’s son, Toussaint T’Challa (played by Divine Love Konadu-Sun). While Prince Wakandan’s future secret reign hasn’t been established, for those wondering if T’Challa ever had children in the comics, the answer is yes – and no.

The two things comic book lore always plays with are time and death, and T’Challa’s story in Marvel comics continuity is no different. Although in the main comics timeline (identified as “Earth-616”), T’Challa is alive and well, he has no heirs. However, T’Challa has had several children in alternate comic book timelines and they’ve been all types of beings, from mutants to zombies.

Almost all of T’Challa’s descendants have X-Men’s Storm as their mother. It’s a testament to the work of award-winning writer/director/producer Reginald Hudlin, who created T’Challa and Storm’s wedding in Black Panther Volume 4: #18 (2005)(opens in a new tab) – the marriage of millennials, even by Marvel standards. Unfortunately, their canonical nuptials didn’t last very long, but the impact of this epic team-up has lasted across multiple writers, timelines, and universes, and the characters still share a close relationship in the comics that is felt today. today. The only place Storm and T’Challa’s connection hasn’t been seen is on-screen in the MCU.

But what impact could the introduction of Toussaint T’Challa have on the MCU? If we take a closer look at the variations of T’Challa’s lineage in the comics, we can see plenty of lore to choose from if Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director and co-writer Ryan Coogler is looking for inspiration. for a third Black Panther movie. .

T’Chaka/Coal Tiger

In 1988, Tom DeFalco wrote a series for Marvel called A-Next, featuring the next generation of Avengers characters. In this universe, T’Challa is both the Black Panther and an Avenger. He and Storm’s son is T’Chaka. When the superhero Vibraxus is kidnapped, T’Chaka reveals that he can transform into the human/cat hybrid “Coal Tiger” to help the Avengers bring the Wakandan hero home. (Coincidentally, the name “Coal Tiger” is also an early iteration of T’Challa(opens in a new tab)).

t’charra

Towards the end of Christopher Priest’s definitive Black Panther run in 2001, the writer created the character of T’Charra in “The Once and Future King” storyline (Black Panther Vol. 3, #36). The story takes place in an alternate future universe, where an older, more jaded T’Challa has once again closed the borders of Wakanda, reverting to the country’s traditional isolationist ways.

T’Charra, the king’s only son, disrespects his father and plots his demise in a play for the throne by funding and quietly collaborating with T’Challa’s enemies. In a vicious plot to lure T’Challa to America to kill him on foreign soil, T’Charra has Killmonger kidnap Everett Ross. And when his adoptive sister Faida(opens in a new tab) and T’Challa’s adoptive brother Hunter are lured to the wrong place to rescue the aging agent, T’Charra kills them both and also murders Killmonger, leaving only Faida’s body exposed to be found by T’Charra. Challa, who is horrified. T’Challa saves Ross and defeats T’Charra with help from Luke Cage, Sam Wilson (Falcon), and Jericho Drumm (Doctor Voodoo).

Roi K’Shamba

Did you know that in 2004, a year after Robert Kirkman began writing The Walking Dead for Image Comics, he wrote a single Black Panther arc? In the Dark Race, Marvel Knights: Black Panther 2099, King T’Challa is dead, leaving a power vacuum in Wakanda.

Corrupt rulers hold the country together while lining their pockets, but they fail to convince T’Challa’s eldest son, K’Shamba, to become king. That is, until Victor Von Doom attacks and uses Doombots to take over the country. K’Shamba joins the rebellion and eventually dons his father’s costume, defeating Doom and becoming Wakanda’s protector, the Black Panther. But in the end, it’s just another control scheme, as Doom seems to be manipulating K’Shamba as well.

T’Channa/Colonel America

Kirkman also teamed up with Mark Millar (Old Man Logan, Kickass) on Marvel Zombies. Almost all of Marvel’s central characters are turned undead in this storyline after a zombie virus is released. In this universe, Millar created T’Channa, the son of King T’Challa and Lisa Hendriks, the mutant member of the Acolytes.(opens in a new tab).

Years apart, father and son die due to the zombie plague. But T’Channa’s body reanimates after her brain is swapped with the undead brain of Steve Rogers to create “Colonel America” ​​(Come out, anyone?).

Another version of this character exists outside of this storyline where T’Channa is actually T’Challa’s sister, who eventually becomes Latveria’s Doctor Doom.(opens in a new tab).

T’wari

In 2008, in Black Panther Annual Vol. 1, Hudlin wrote the standalone story Black to the Future, featuring the wedding of T’Challa and Storm’s eldest son. The couple have five children here; the groom, twin daughters and a young son are all unnamed. However, their middle child, T’wari, who does not wish to attend his brother’s wedding, is at the center of the story as Storm discusses Wakanda’s role on the world stage and his responsibilities as his son. . In the end, it is revealed that The Watcher observes a singular timeline. It’s a clever way to glimpse the future of a Wakanda that might have been.

T’Chaka II et Sh’ri

The following year, writer Jeff Parker revived a short-lived Exiles series featuring a new character: T’Chaka II, grandson of T’Chaka, son of T’Challa and Storm, and older brother of Sh’ laughed.(opens in a new tab).

In this scenario, T’Chaka II and his companion, the AI ​​robot lion L-10, are caught in an explosion created by Ulysses Klaw so huge that it knocks T’Chaka II out of his reality into that of the Exiles. Here he is renamed The Panther by the Time Broker, and along with Scarlet Witch, Beast, Forge, Polaris, and Blink, the team leaps across universes, patching “hiccups” through timelines. Her demise led to Sh’ri becoming a new and powerful Black Panther.

Azari T’Challa

In 2010, a year before Brian Michael Bendis cast Miles Morales in Spider-Man, he wrote about a universe ruled by Ultron. In this storyline, all of the Avengers and a number of the X-Men perish, including Storm and T’Challa.

They are survived by their son, Azari T’challa, who becomes the New Black Panther and joins the Next Avengers, a team made up of the descendants of the original Avengers who all died in the war. Azari inherited the powers and abilities of the heart-shaped grass from his father and has enhanced speed, strength, stamina, senses and healing, as well as electrokinesis and force field manipulation from his mother.

Azari T’Challa made his screen debut in the animated film Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow direct to DVD. The story was adapted from the comics to appeal to Age of Ultron and Young Avengers fans, but Marvel has never publicly stated that Next Avengers is part of the MCU. The film also does not appear on Disney+ where the other MCU titles reside.

sky panther

Sky Panther is an interesting character, who only made a brief appearance in Avengers Academy #12 (2010). Christos Gage briefly introduced her as the daughter of Storm and T’Challa in this time manipulation story where the students of Avengers Academy are aged to master new abilities. Finesse, a polymath and “imitator” with the ability to take on any power she sees, uses Sky Panther’s “electric nerve stabs” powers to battle the Korvac entity.

Kymera

In the 2013 10-issue crossover event “X-Men: Battle of the Atom”,(opens in a new tab) co-writer Jason Aaron introduced Kymera, Storm’s daughter, who is briefly seen as a member of a future team of mutants. Although his father is not named, it is speculated that a future version of T’Challa is his father, due to his strength and the literal large black panther that accompanies him.

A’Di (niece)

I’m including A’Di on this list simply because his name sounds like “Haiti” (which, if you’ve seen Wakanda Forever, is important). Created by Margaret Stohl, A’Di is an Alpha Aviation Cadet in Mighty Captain Marvel #5 (2017). Although she is considered T’Challa’s niece, Shuri is not his mother, and no other T’Challa children are mentioned.

Coogler has plenty of source material to choose from if we’re going to get a third Black Panther movie. Mixing a combination of Azari T’Challa’s script from New Avengers and T’Chaka II’s personality from Exiles makes the most sense in terms of inspiration, especially since the MCU seems to be gearing up for what a new generation of superheroes takes the reins.

We’ve already met Kate Bishop (Hawkeye), Cassie Lang (Stature), America Chavez (Ms. America), Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel), Kid Loki and Riri Williams (Ironheart), who was just introduced in Wakanda Forever . We also met Heimdall’s child (Axl), Wanda’s magical children Tommy and Billy (Wiccan and Speed), and Isaiah Bradley’s grandson Elijah, who goes by the alias Patriot, one of the Young Avengers leaders in the comics.

And as a new character, Toussaint T’Challa is completely freed from the constraints of the comic canon, much like his mom Nakia, because her character died in the comics. So the future Black Panther can be whatever Coogler – and Kevin Fiege – want it to be.