Black Panther (2010 TV Series) is an American motion comic and television series by Marvel Knights Animation, based on the popular Marvel Comics superhero of the same name. It was the first animated television series produced by BET since Hey Monie!. Each of the six episodes of the series was 20 minutes in length.
The series was broadcast on the Australian children's channel ABC Me in January 2010 and in the United States on BET in November 2011. On March 16, 2018, the entire series was released through Marvel's YouTube channel for free as Marvel Knights Animation - Black Panther.
Voice Cast:
Djimon Hounsou – T'Challa / Black Panther
Stan Lee – General Wallace
Kerry Washington – Princess Shuri
Alfre Woodard – Dondi Reese, Queen Mother, Dora Milaje
Carl Lumbly – Uncle S'Yan
Jill Scott – Storm
Stephen Stanton – Klaw
Additional voices
Jonathan Adams – T'Chaka
JB Blanc – Black Knight, Male Cannibal, Batroc the Leaper
David Busch – Everett K. Ross
Taye Diggs – Historical Black Panther 2
Phil LaMarr – T'Shan
Peter Lurie – Juggernaut
Phil Morris – W'Kabi
Vanessa Marshall – Dora Milaje, Female Cannibal
Nolan North – Cyclops, Nightcrawler
Adrian Pasdar – Captain America
Kevin Michael Richardson – Wolverine, Historical Black Panther 1
Rick D. Wasserman – Radioactive Man
Upon becoming the new Black Panther after the assassination of his father T'Chaka, T'Challa deals with the jealousy in the Wakandan royal court while looking for the man who killed his father. Unbeknownst to Black Panther, Klaw (the man who assassinated T'Chaka) has assembled a group of villains consisting of Batroc the Leaper, Juggernaut, Cannibal, the Vatican Black Knight, and the Russian Radioactive Man to help him take over Wakanda.
Jonathan Adams – T'Chaka
JB Blanc – Black Knight, Male Cannibal, Batroc the Leaper
David Busch – Everett K. Ross
Taye Diggs – Historical Black Panther 2
Phil LaMarr – T'Shan
Peter Lurie – Juggernaut
Phil Morris – W'Kabi
Vanessa Marshall – Dora Milaje, Female Cannibal
Nolan North – Cyclops, Nightcrawler
Adrian Pasdar – Captain America
Kevin Michael Richardson – Wolverine, Historical Black Panther 1
Rick D. Wasserman – Radioactive Man
Plot:
Upon becoming the new Black Panther after the assassination of his father T'Chaka, T'Challa deals with the jealousy in the Wakandan royal court while looking for the man who killed his father. Unbeknownst to Black Panther, Klaw (the man who assassinated T'Chaka) has assembled a group of villains consisting of Batroc the Leaper, Juggernaut, Cannibal, the Vatican Black Knight, and the Russian Radioactive Man to help him take over Wakanda.
Episode List:
1 "Pilot"
In a top-secret Washington meeting, Intelligence Agent Everett Ross briefs the government on the history of the Black Panther, the warrior king of the African nation, Wakanda. Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Prince T'Challa wins an annual Wakanda tournament, and becomes the Black Panther. Meanwhile, a disastrous man/machine hybrid is built.2 "Black Panther"
Having been crowned the new Black Panther, T'Challa must contend with jealousy in the royal court while searching for the man who murdered his father. Unknown to him, a deadly assassin named Klaw is assembling a team of super-villains to attack Wakanda.3 "Revenge of the Evil"
A young T'Challa travels to Egypt and encounters Storm of the X-Men. While preparing to attack Wakanda, Klaw recalls how he assassinated T'Chaka.4 "Death of Father"
Juggernaut and the Vatican Black Knight spearhead the attack on Wakanda, and the Black Panther learns the truth about his father's murder.5 "Black Panther vs. Juggernaut and Black Knight"
With Wakanda under siege from Klaw's team of super-villains, the Black Panther confronts the Black Knight in aerial combat. Princess Shuri must defend herself against the deadly Radioactive Man.6 "To the End"
Klaw has taken control of Wakanda and the Black Panther races against time to save his nation from destruction by an invading army of Deathloks.
The Verdict:
(** Spoilers Discussion **)
I don't know if it's common knowledge or not, but the entire series is up for FREE (and better, yet legally) on the BETNetworks channel on YouTube that I have linked below.
This is one of the very few properties that's not available on Disney+ from Marvel Comics' wealth of animated endeavors from over the years. I wanted to cover this for Black History Month as I talked about it briefly in my review of the live-action Black Panther film and never really got into it on why I favored this iteration of T'Challa over his live-action counterpart. To be fair though, this show was free from the restrictions that Marvel Studios were saddled with since they don't have access to all of their characters, so it gave them a lot more creative freedom and they even had the actual writers and artists from the comics at the time helping with this.
The show is based off of the "Who Is The Black Panther" mini-series of Black Panther comics of the same name with little to no changes in the narrative for this adaptation outside of the fact that they swapped out Rhino for the Juggernaut on Klaw's team of supervillains.
Each episode is roughly 19-20 minutes of run time with an easy to digest narrative for it's surprisingly short run of six episodes.
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| Black Panther vs. Captain America |
The first episode starts off with one hell of a flashback as Captain America faces off against T'Chaka in his fateful visit to Wakanda that was chronicled by an agent, Everett Ross (not to be confused with Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross and his daughter, Betty Ross, of The Incredible Hulk fame), working for the United States' Intelligence Bureau. The battle doesn't end well for the rookie Steve Rogers at time and royally gets his ass handed to him. The action doesn't stop there as the contest for the throne of Wakanda takes place in the tail end of the episode, with a masked fighter besting the current Black Panther (T'Chaka's brother) before Shuri could have a chance to participate. The masked fighter is revealed to be T'Challa, much to Shuri's chagrin that she wasn't able to challenge for the throne before him.
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| T'Challa and Shuri. |
Shuri's underlying jealousy is something that is criminally absent in the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Shuri and I thought it would have been great to play up in future sequels of that character's narrative on film, which would lead to Shuri taking up the mantle down the road. That decision to merely regard her as T'Challa's tech expert without any depth outside of that in the films is why I prefer this iteration of the character above her live-action counterpart. It's one of the rare decisions by Marvel Studios that shows that they had not a single shred of foresight in terms of both casting and narrative direction with these characters.
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| A young Klaw bursting through the floorboards upon his original assignment to assassinate King T'Chaka. |
Episode Two chronicles Klaw's efforts to assemble a team of super-villains to invade Wakanda. The choices here are definitely worth the watch alone as we're treated to the Juggernaut making short work of the X-Men in a hilarious manner followed by Klaw's recruitment of Batroc the Leaper, Cannibal (a damn Marvel Comics villain that I rarely hear people talk about much period...), Radioactive Man, and the Black Knight. The latter being one of the most interesting choices as he's flip-flopped on his allegiances in the comics continuity that I honestly haven't kept track. I remember him being one of the Avengers (former villain turned hero like Hawkeye) back when I was growing up in the '80s and '90s, only to see him revert to being a villain in most modern iterations. My biggest gripe with Black Panther's solo film debut in the MCU was how criminally under-utilized Klaw was mishandled here. They killed him off after two appearances - the first you can't even really say much about given his short screen time in Avengers: Age of Ultron. In this series, we get to see exactly how sick and twisted of a man this villain is and why he is regarded as the Panther's primary antagonist for the majority of the character's history.
To follow up with Shuri's jealousy in the previous episode, T'Challa straight up asks her if she can be trusted. Shuri complies (reluctantly after a threat to tell their mother... LOL) and "settles" to being one of T'Challa's aids and advisers, given her expertise in her studies outside of the country.
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| A young Ororo Monroe (Storm) and T'Challa. |
Episode Three chronicles T'Challa's time in Egypt during his youth (narrated by his mother as she tells the story to Shuri), where he befriends the young female mutant who would become known as the X-Man, Storm. It's not mentioned here, but in the comics canon they would eventually get married. This series has a knack for not rushing it, but they lay enough breadcrumbs for viewers to figure out that there's still a fire burning between them, despite all of their time apart and the different paths that their lives have taken over the years. The second half of this episode has Klaw recounting his original mission to assassinate T'Chaka, the previous Black Panther, along with the events that led to him receiving his various cybernetic enhancements.
Episode Four kicks the attack on Wakanda into full gear as the Juggernaut made the first attack, . Meanwhile, Shuri is investigating the strange disturbances in their vibranium mines with a small team under her watch. Shuri and her team find themselves quickly in over their heads as a missile crashes into the mines, containing the Radioactive Man. Storm decides to lend a hand in the ongoing situation in Wakanda- alone, much to the surprise of her fellow X-Men.
Episode Five follows Shuri as the lone survivor of Radioactive Man's attack on the vibranium mine as she hides from detection until an opportunity presents itself. Cannibal (masquerading as Radioactive Man's "wife") finds another means to infiltrate Wakanda from it's Embassy in the United States while the Black Knight continues to run amok, causing T'Challa to personally enter the battlefield on the frontlines. He defeats the Black Knight, causing him to drop his fabled "Ebony Blade" in the process, which falls into the very same vibranium mine that Shuri is trapped in with the Radioactive Man.
If I had any complaint about this series, they didn't offer any shred of information about this weapon and why it was so pivotal to the defeat of the Radioactive Man in the following episode. I know about it since I'm Marvel Comics fanboy, but I don't expect everyone else to know that the Ebony Blade is indestructible and can cut through any substance.
Episode Six picks up from the climax of the previous episode where Klaw is holding T'Challa's mother at gunpoint. T'Challa and Klaw's battle come to a fateful end while the Dora Milaje dealt with Batroc the Leaper. The United States sent back-up in the form of several reanimated soldiers in the form of Deathlok cyborgs but they proved to be unwelcome as T'Challa issued a formal request for them to leave his country or be removed forcefully. Storm and T'Challa share a moment together after peace is restored to the country.
The series ends with a few unresolved issues or rather unanswered questions:
- The President is in league with Wakanda, as per his "clean up" call after Dondi Reese's report of the situation. Was he planted there or just happens to be a friend of the king from his travels?
- Cannibal is still inhabiting the body of the lone survivor of the crashed aircraft that made it's way back to Wakanda, unknown to the Wakandan doctors in their infirmary. This villain is as forgotten as he is in the comic book continuity. Couldn't he just break all of his allies out of the Wakandan prisons to run amok over the country all over again?
- T'Challa killed Klaw, but even though he imprisoned the other villains in league with him, T'Challa has no idea who put him up to invading his country for the vibranium and provided his "enhancements" and kept him hidden from detection until now.
- Shuri is in possession of Black Knight's Ebony Blade. According to Marvel lore, if the blade has been used for evil, it could potentially corrupt the user. Shuri didn't show any signs of that, but it's still a possibility given the fact that she was forced to kill Radioactive Man.
- What is to come of Storm and T'Challa's relationship? Comic book savvy fans can easily answer that question, but this series left a lot of questions on the table to say that this didn't get a continuation.
My only assumption (really a guess at this point) was that this series served as a gateway platform to get fans of the character to pick up this run of the comics at the time to continue following T'Challa's adventures. I kind of wish that more comics would do similar adaptations like this where it's almost a direct adaptation of the source medium with little changes made to get potential readers engaged.
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| The X-Men have a very minor appearance in this series. |
I'm sure the motion comic style may be turn off for some people, but I think it works for this series. I personally own a few other Marvel Knights animated properties that use this particular style and I'll admit that it can be an acquired taste if you're looking for your standard high quality animation from your action shows, but this show is literally like watching the pages of the comics come to life before your eyes.
To this day, I'm surprised that this show is underneath a lot of people's radar from the wealth of star power voicing the characters in this. Kerry Washington and Jill Scott voice Shuri and Storm respectively. Alfre Woodard voices three characters in this, years before she would be known for her portrayal as Mariah Dillard (Stokes) in Luke Cage. Surprising to see her and Djimon Hounsou (four years before his MCU debut in Guardians of the Galaxy) showing some love for Marvel Comics well before they were cast for live-action roles. It's a darn shame too as I had Hounsou pegged to play T'Challa years before Chadwick Boseman came into the picture. Taye Diggs even voices one of the previous Black Panthers in one of the several flashbacks while Carl Lumbly voices T'Challa's uncle S'Yan. For as much praise people gave the cinematic debut of this character in terms of representation, the same courtesy should be extended to this animated series for doing the same. The amount of black star power that was attached to this show to merely provide voices to these characters still blows me away.
Black Panther was created under the first "season" of content under the Marvel Knights Animation label, which is part of Marvel Animation that is still active today actually. The only animated series in the first season to get another season was Astonishing X-Men that saw not one, but three more seasons in the second batch of animation created under that Marvel Knights Animation label which was straight-to-DVD content. Over the years, I've seen majority of that stuff in Dollar Tree and other miscellaneous discount DVD outlets/retailers, so take that what you will. I think the biggest uphill battle that Marvel would face doing more with this series would be getting the rights to it back from BET (especially after the Fox buyout), which would be more trouble than it's worth given the fact that Disney would probably want it for their own networks and streaming platforms. It's sad too, given the fact that there's a lot of universal praise for this series online from those who have managed to stumble across it over the years.
I was fortunate enough to find a copy on DVD to own that I didn't have to break the bank for, shortly after it aired on BET in reruns. I haven't seen it go more than $10 online from most retailers and that's definitely a fair price for the length of this series. I have seen anime series that are the same length go for triple that pricing. You can order the series as a box set with most of the other Marvel Knights Animation properties over on Shout Factory!'s website, but I personally wouldn't pay that much for all of these series when they are pretty cheap individually, especially if you just want to see this series over the others. Just remember that the entire series is free to watch over on YouTube in its entirety (legally) but if you can opt to purchase it on DVD as well.
I cannot rave about this series enough. It manages to capture the magic of this character while simultaneously shedding ample light upon his corner of the Marvel Comics universe and providing some excellent moments for this character. The one that sticks out in my mind the most is the young child, Keyshawn, asking to pay his respects to the Black Panther due to his parents wishes for saving his life. The child regards T'Challa as God himself, where T'Challa, in his humbleness in his role as both the King of Wakanda and the Black Panther, removes his mask in front of the child and says the following:
Keyshawn: "Oh, hello, God."
T'Challa: "Keyshawn, I am a man."
Keyshawn: "You're the Black Panther! When we ran to the city I never dreamed to be blessed in your holy presence."
T'Challa: "God works through me the same as he does through you. There is no feat I can achieve that you are not capable of."
A simple conversation but full of spiritual metaphors, something that this character is rich of in terms of his place in Africa-American culture. I was glad to see that represented firmly here. For that reason alone, I made it my sole objective for this year to cover this series for Black History Month, especially for it's ten year anniversary.
Watch It or Don't Bother?
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| Seeing this scene animated is worth the viewing alone of this six episode series. |
Are you insane? What the hell are you waiting for? Definitely watch this. This series is worth the watch alone for that spectacular beating Captain America gets in the first episode. This series gives you a great "who's who" refresher on every major player in his end of Marvel Comics' lore while providing a lot of content that both fans old and new to enjoy, despite the fact that this series spans only six episodes.
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