T'Challa, king of Wakanda and the hero known as Black Panther, is targeted by a hired gun, only for Captain America to intervene. After the incident is thwarted T'Challa takes Cap's shield and returns home.
With Cap and the Avengers following him, they discover that Wakanda is dealing with a string of Vibranium theft and joins in the search.
Tropes:
- Beneath the Mask: Appropriately, T'Challa is much more pleasant when his mask is off.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: The Dora Milaje are the guards of the Black Panther, though he doesn't really need them.
- Broken Pedestal: T'Challa assumes Howard Stark must have stolen the vibranium for Cap's shield, and is momentarily taken aback when Steve reveals his father, King T'Chaka, gave Howard it as a gift, trying to brush it off as his father being "too trusting". He gets better about it.
- The Chains of Commanding: It's Thor who pegs the reason for T'Challa's apparent aloofness, since as a royal himself he understands that sometimes a king must do what he feels is best for his country, regardless of how he personally feels.
- Compliment Backfire: Iron Man tries to compliment Wakandan tech by saying it's on par with his own. T'Challa acknowledges he's trying to be polite, but tells him he still finds the comparison insulting.
- Defrosting Ice Queen:
- Aneka, leader of the Dora Milaje, is initially aloof and stand-offish to the Avengers, but she warms up to Hawkeye after he saves her life in the fight with Klaue.
- T'Challa begins the story dedicated to maintaining Wakanda's isolationist ways, but time with the Avengers makes him ease up.
- Hidden Elf Village: Wakanda, as standard, is quite firm on protecting its borders. "Shoot down any intruders with hundreds of missiles" sort of firm.
- So Much for Stealth: Tony proudly declares his stealth tech means the Wakandans won't be able to detect the quinjet entering their airspace. Immediately after he says this, they're pinged by Wakandan Air Defense and told to leave. Immediately.
- Superdickery: King T'Challa wants to lure Klaue into the open, so he attacks Captain America and takes his shield back on the grounds the vibranium used to make it belongs to Wakanda. Once Klaue turns up, he mellows out a little.
- Unexplained Recovery: When last seen, Klaue had exploded into a thousand pieces. No-one seems terribly surprised by his return, and Klaue doesn't explain how he managed it. There's also the fact he'd merged with Baron Zemo, which we'll get to in another episode...
