T'Challa's solo adventures had previously appeared in Jungle Action, with a different creative team. However, that series was Cut Short just before Black Panther launched, and Kirby immediately started an entirely new storyline in the first issue, without acknowledging the unfinished arc that ended the previous series.
Black Panther (1977) provides examples of the following tropes:
- Artistic License: Abner Little talks about Ali Baba as if he was Aladdin, but they're two completely different folk tales, and Ali Baba had no interactions with genies.
- Elixir of Life: The Ronin of the hidden Samurai City drink from a sacred waterskin, an Immortality Inducer that grants them extended life. They can still be killed, though, and losing access to the waterskin for too long leads to aging and death.
- Human Resources: Kiber's machinery transforms his captives from flesh to pure energy, which is stored in an Energy Tube. He then uses them as a Living Battery, consuming them to keep him alive and boost his power.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Alfred Queely, whose death launches the series, is stabbed through the chest while sitting in an armchair. The murder and the wound aren't shown, but the blade evidently tore through the back of the chair after skewering Queely.
- Meaningful Name: Abner Little, introduced in the first issue as simply "Mister Little", is a man with dwarfism.
- No Immortal Inertia: The Ronin of Samurai City are immortal as long as they keep drinking the Elixir of Life from their sacred waterskin. Without access to it, they age into withered corpses.
- Plot-Triggering Death: The first arc begins with the murder of Alfred Queely, who accidentally activated the Brass Frog (aka "King Solomon's Frog") and summoned his killer. This sends T'Challa and Abner Little on a quest to find King Solomon's tomb, then further entangles them with Abner's fellow collectors.
- Professor Guinea Pig: Kiber the Cruel was a scientist carrying out matter teleportation experiments. He used himself a test subject, which is how he gained his powers. Which also left his real body enlarged, mutated and fused with the floor of his base. The Kiber who interacts with others is just a projection.
- Stock Ness Monster: Abner Little claims that the Loch Ness monster was summoned from the past by someone tampering with King Solomon's Frog in the 20th century.
- Time Travel: The ancient artefact known as King Solomon's Frog is able to summon beings from the past and the future. Dismissing them again is more complicated.
