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Dora Milaje
In General
Alter Ego: The Adorned Ones
First Appearance: Black Panther Vol. 3, #1
The Adored Ones are the Wakandan all-female personal body guards of the King/Queen. They are highly skilled in the use of various weapons and styles of martial art.
- Amazon Brigade: The Dora Milaje is an all-female warrior society that protects the Wakandan king. Every member is a formidable warrior.
- Bald Head of Toughness: They are one of the most formidable and elite bodyguard forces in the world and historically they are all shaved completely bald, though more recent members like Nakia have kept their hair.
- Battle Harem: Subverted. In addition to bodyguards, The Dora Milaje also function as wives-in-training to the Black Panther as tradition dictates, but T'Challa considers them daughter-figures rather than love interests.
- Bodyguard Babes: Younger than most examples, however.
- Kid Sidekick: They are actually all teenagers, though its hard to tell since they look very tall and mature.
- La Résistance: In Black Panther (2016), several of the Dora Milaje join the Midnight Angels in their revolution against the king when it becomes clear that he cannot keep order in Wakanda.
- Multinational Team: Members of the Dora Milaje are Wakandan women drawn from all regions and tribes of the country.
- Praetorian Guard: The Dora Milaje have historically protected the Wakandan king.
- Stripperiffic: Their outfits are revealing.
- Younger Than They Look: Seriously, would you believe they're all teenagers?
Nakia
Nakia
Alter Ego: Malice
First Appearance: Jungle Action Vol. 3, #8
As a child, Nakia of the Q'Noma Valley marsh tribe was picked by her tribal elders to be a Dora Milaje, and spent three years training before presented to King T'Challa. She was one of the King's concomitants, and quicly became one of his deadliest bodyguards, where she was partnered to and befriended Okoye. At some point, Nakia fell in love with T'Challa.
Unfortunately, her love quickly turned to obsession, and after attempting to kill Monica Lynne out of jealousy was ousted from the Dora Milaje. Allying herself with Eric Killmonger, she took on the villainous persona of Malice to take revenge on her love, T'Challa, and her former sisters for abandoning her.
- Cosmic Plaything: Before she became Malice, the girl could not catch a break. Mephisto manipulated T'Challa into kissing her, and this is what sends her off the edge. When he discovers what she'd tried to do to Monica, he makes her leave, and she crashes her transport and is tortured by Achebe.
- Evil Counterpart: To every Dora Milaje ever, but especially to Okoye, who is a dutiful member of the Dora Milaje and completely understands her role and why T'Challa keeps her and Nakia around.
- Face–Heel Turn: After she is exiled by T'Challa.
- Love Makes You Evil: Well, unrequited love for your king, being disgraced and exiled and some torture from Achebe.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Tried to fake an "accident" with Monica..
- Stalker with a Crush: Once she becomes Malice, she is relentless when it comes hunting to T'Challa.
- Statuesque Stunner: Over six feet tall.
Okoye
Okoye
First Appearance: Black Panther Vol. 3, #1
Taken from an unknown tribe from Wakanda at the onset of puberty, Okoye was chosen by the Black Panther to serve as one of his Dora Milaje. Okoye stood out from an early stage and eventually became one of his personal aids along with Nakia. She served as T'Challa's chauffeur while Nakia was his personal aid. When Nakia developed romantic feelings for T’challa Okoye tried to reign in her fellow Dora Milaje to no avail.
Later when Kasper Cole became the Black Panther she engaged him at T’Challa’s behest to test his skills. Okoye later showed romantic feelings for Kasper.
- Cleavage Window: During Kasper's tenure as the Black Panther, her default outfit had this.
- Consummate Professional: While working under T'Challa. Not so much in her interactions with Kasper.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Her interactions with Kasper seemed to be leading to this, before she disappeared.
- Put on a Bus: After testing Kasper's resolve and deeming him worthing of the Panther moniker, she leaves to deal with her other duties. She hasn't been seen in a while. However...
- The Bus Came Back: She returns in Black Panther #171 (largely to tie-in with the movie).
- Ret-Canon: Okoye originally had long hair in the comics, but was given a shaved head and tattoos to resemble her movie counterpart.
- Spy Catsuit: Her default clothing.
- Statuesque Stunner: She's over six feet tall.
- We Used to Be Friends: With Nakia/Malice.
Queen Divine Justice
Queen Divine Justice
Alter Ego: Ce'Athauna Asira Davin
First Appearance: Black Panther Vol. 3, #13
A young woman born to the Jabari tribe. Her parents were murdered by anti-Jabari extremists when she was a baby. T'Challa sent her to America for her own safety, where she grew up unaware of her heritage.
- Damsel in Distress: Man-Ape kidnaps her so that the Jabari can reclaim their ancestral lands and honor.
- I Have Many Names: Her names include Ce'Athauna Asira Davin (her Wakandan birth name), Chanté Giovanni Brown (her American name), and Queen Divine Justice (her self-given nickname).
- Odd Friendship: With Hulk, who she talks down from a rampage.
- Queen Incognito: She spends the early years of her life unaware that she is the chieftainess of a Wakandan tribe.
- Royal Blood: She is the daughter of the late chieftain of the Jabari tribe.
- Soapbox Sadie: Her defining trait. She just doesn't shut up when it comes to her political views.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: With Vibraxas. He's a commoner and she's a member of the Dora Milaje.
Aneka
Aneka
First Appearance: Black Panther Vol. 5, #8
A former leader of the Dora Milaje and a formidable warrior.. She is arrested and put on trial after killing a corrupt tribal chieftain. She and Ayo later become the Midnight Angels and start a revolution in Wakanda.
- Arrested for Heroism: She is placed on trial after killing a depraved chieftain.Ayo: The chieftain's outrages upon the girls of his village were known. Yet his lechery was unopposed. Aneka spoke to him as fathers and brothers should have spoken long before. And when she was not heeded, she did as the honor of Wakandan fathers and brothers has always demanded.
- Badass Creed: "No One Man", meaning that no one man should rule Wakanda.
- Bald Head of Toughness: Like most Dora Milaje, she's bald and a powerful fighter.
- Conflicting Loyalty: She served her king faithfully as a leader of the Dora Milaje, but her devotion to the Wakandan people proves stronger than her loyalty to T'Challa. She eventually decides that the king can no longer protect his people and has become irrelevant.
- Good Versus Good: Both T'Challa and the Midnight Angels genuinely care about the Wakandan people. However, the Midnight Angels decide that "no one man" should rule Wakanda.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: She killed a predatory chieftain by hurling her spear into his chest.
- Javelin Thrower: While part of the Dora Milaje, her weapon of choice was a spear.
- Sympathetic Murderer: She killed a predator chieftain whom no one would hold accountable and who definitely had it coming.
- Vigilante Woman: After Ayo breaks her out of prison, the two women become the Midnight Angels, protecting the Wakandan people because the Black Panther cannot.
- Wife-Basher Basher:
- In flashbacks, she killed a tribal chieftain who was sexually abusing girls in his village. She flung a spear into his chest as his victims looked on.
- She and Ayo discover a militant group that is kidnapping women and girls for use as sex slaves. The two women slaughter the militants and free the captives.
Ayo
Ayo
First Appearance: The Ultimates Vol. 2, #1
A former member of the Dora Milaje and a fierce warrior. She and her lover Aneka become the Midnight Angels.
- Bald Head of Toughness: Like most Dora Milaje, she's bald and a powerful warrior.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center
- Her romantic moments with Aneka show that she can be very sweet off the battlefield.
- After she and Aneka slaughter a group of militants, she comforts a freed captive who had been sexually abused by the militants.
- Destination Defenestration: When she and Aneka attack a barbaric militant group, one militant refuses to stand down. Ayo hurls him from the window of the group's hideout (a fortress situated at the top of a massive tree), and he falls to his death.
- Good Versus Good: Like Aneka, she protects the Wakandan people, but no longer believes that one man should rule the country.
- Rescue Arc: She breaks Aneka out of prison and steals the Angel armor suits.
- Vigilante Woman: After Ayo breaks her out of prison, the two women become the Midnight Angels, protecting the Wakandan people because the Black Panther cannot.
- Wife-Basher Basher: She and Aneka slaughter a group of militants who were kidnapping women and children for use as sex slaves.
Allies
W'Kabi
W'Kabi
Alter Ego: Wakabi
First Appearance: The Avengers Vol. 1, #62
Wakanda's Chief of Security and commands the Black Panther armed forces.
- Killed Off for Real: He died in the line of duty, defending his queen.
- Legacy of Service: Served under both T'Challa and his father.
- Servile Snarker: Was not very supportive of Monica Lynne or Everett Ross, and while he would never openly defy his king's wishes, he made his irritation with them repeatedly know.
Monica Lynne
Monica Lynne
First Appearance: The Avengers Vol. 1, #73
Monica Lynne was the long time love interest of the Black Panther and became his fiance.
- Broken Pedestal: She is completely disillusioned with T'Challa and the romance of dating a superhero and royalty. She has nothing but contempt for it.
- Butt-Monkey: While it wasn't really commented on in the early comics, she retrospectively became one of these during Priest's run. And she hates it.
- The Chanteuse: She's a jazz singer.
- Damsel in Distress: It happens to her way too often.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: After Killmonger of all people saved her life, she and Killmonger bonded over the mutual distaste of T’Challa and even played basketball together at his hideout.
- Ms. Fanservice: She spent an entire arc with Killmonger dressed in a bikini top and a loincloth.
- Rescue Romance: She and T'Challa met when he rescued her from an attack by the hate-group the Sons of the Serpent.
- Satellite Love Interest: To T'Challa.
- The Scrappy: In-Universe, she is extremely disliked by T'Challa's court and guards because she's American. Even after she stops appearing in the comics they continue to badmouth her.
- The Topic of Cancer: Eventually she would succumb to cancer several years after the marriage between T'Challa and Storm.
- Trauma Conga Line: Gets nothing but grief for being T’Challa’s American girlfriend by the Wakandans, gets caught up in all sorts of danger with her as the main target, breaks up with T’Challa, gets put in more danger, gets derided as a White-Dwarf Starlet by everyone, finds out T’Challa marries Storm and eventually dies of cancer.
Princess Zanda
Princess Zanda
First Appearance: Black Panther Vol. 1, #1
Ruler of the fictional African country of Narobia. A vicious woman wanted in fifteen countries, she was the sometimes-love-interest of T'Challa during the Jack Kirby helmed run of the book. Their relationship was strained upon his subsequent marriage to Storm.
- Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Monica Lynne's Betty.
- Bling of War: Courtesy of her designer, Jack Kirby.
- Bulungi: Her nation of Narobia, a stand in for the real African nation of Kenya (whose capital is Nairobi).
- Dating Catwoman: Her actions often brought her into conflict with Black Panther, leading to this trope, as there was a very clear sexual chemistry between the two. She did not take it well when Black Panther chose Storm over her in the end.
- Mayincatec: Despite being from an African nation, she mirrors this in appearance. This is largely thanks to the design work of Jack Kirby, who was very fond of Olmec and Incan design.
- Most Common Superpower: She was modestly endowed in her initial appearance. Subsequent artists rectified that.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something
- Woman Scorned: She takes getting dumped pretty well.
- This happens again when T'Challa decides to marry Storm over her. In the end, however, she still turns up to the wedding.
Everett K. Ross
Everett K. Ross
First Appearance: Ka-Zar Vol. 4, #17
A U.S. State Department employee, whose job was to escort foreign diplomats on American soil. His world changed forever when he was assigned to T'Challa, the Black Panther. He is the boyfriend of Nikki Adams.
- Anachronic Order: Ross is terminally incapable of just telling a story without digression or mixing up the order in which events occurred, which invariably confuses the hell out of whoever he's talking to. Any issue where Ross is the narrator has a habit of feeling like a Tarantino movie. As of the 2018 Black Panther Annual, Ross is still doing it, much to the displeasure of an NYPD detective.
- This can also be read to some extent as Ross's creator Christopher Priest making fun of himself, as Priest got very fond of this kind of out-of-order storytelling during and after his Black Panther run. Later writers, when they used Ross in any capacity at all, usually didn't use him as a narrator.
- Audience Surrogate: In Priest's Black Panther, Ross is the reader's point of entry into what would otherwise be a somewhat impenetrable, near-total reinvention of Wakanda, its society, the factions within it, and T'Challa himself.
- Badass Bureaucrat: He actually manages to be this from time to time, but not very often.
- Butt-Monkey: Deconstructed Character Archetype. Everyone treats him like crap, even his girlfriend, and he becomes more and more ill-tempered with others until eventually he cuts all ties with T’Challa.
- Catchphrase: "But, I'm getting ahead of myself."
- Deal with the Devil: An unintentional one. He asked for a pair of pants.
- Insistent Terminology: T'Challa is almost always "the client" to Ross, even when he isn't.
- Let Me Tell You a Story: He does this constantly in his narration, to the annoyance of his boss/lover Nikki.
- Non-Action Snarker: He's not a skilled fighter, but he can sure bring the snark if he has to.
- Only Sane Man: When you're stuck in a room with Mephisto and Zuri it's hard not to be.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Or more specifically Iceland. It doesn't last though.
- Running Gag: In Ross's narration, whenever he's called upon to describe a superhuman character, he summarizes what he knows about their origin up to a point, then writes the rest off as "and then s/he fell into a vat of Cream of Wheat" and got powers.
- Token White: He's usually the only prominent white person who hangs around with Black Panther and his allies.
- Unfazed Everyman: Only after some Character Development. He's still the Butt-Monkey though.
Zuri
Zuri
First Appearance: Black Panther Vol. 3, #1
Wakandian Warrior, formerly a close friend to King T'Chaka. A trusted aid and member of T'Challa's inner circle.
- Old Retainer: He's essentially this to T'Challa, with a side of Battle Butler.
- Rambling Old Man Monologue: he's prone to these when it comes to matters of Wakandan history.
Storm
Storm
Alter Ego: Ororo Munroe
First Appearance: Giant-Size X-Men #1
Storm, a.k.a. Ororo Munroe, a weather-controlling mutant and one of the most famous members of the X-Men. She married Black Panther and taken on a new leadership role in Wakanda. The marriage lasted a long time, but came crashing during Avengers vs. X-Men in which Storm reluctantly took the mutants' side and caused Namor to flood Wakanda. This act enraged Black Panther that he, being both King AND High Priest of Wakanda, announced divorce even if Storm defected to the Avengers' side afterwards.
For tropes regarding Storm, see her page.
Zawavari
Zawavari
A Wakandan shaman who assists T'Challa in terms of magical and mystical affairs.- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: As T'Challa is more on the side of technology, his relationship with Zawavari is somewhat strained.
- He had a better relationship with Shuri when she took the title of Panther, as he was serving as mentor to her.
Changamire
Changamire
A Wakandan scholar who gave out revolutionary lectures for improving Wakanda.- Amicable Exes: He was once Ramonda's lover till she married T'Chaka. They remain good friends and acquaintances, and don't let politics compromise their bonds.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He inspired Tetu to become a revolutionary. Though he respects Tetu's stance, he makes a broadcast to Wakandan citizens to not indulge in terrorism and harm their land.
Beisa
Beisa
Matima, a Wakanda citizen, who took to donning a costume and vigilantism in order to aid people in need.
- Animal Motifs: Beisa is the oryx of Eastern Africa, and she bears a antelope-styled helmet.
- Phantom Thief: A female African variant.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She does not take kindly to being commanded by T'Challa.
