Black Panther Didn't Survive Age of Ultron in the Comics

Black Panther Didn’t Survive Age of Ultron in the Comics

Black Panther is one of the most versatile Avengers, with the genius, fighting skills, and resources to solve almost any problems. But while fans of the MCU may think that his presence during the Age of Ultron would help firmly tip the balance in the heroes’ favor, Marvel actually totally wasted T’Challa’s presence, taking him off the board in a borderline unbelievable way.

Brian Michael Bendis spared no hero when he wrote Age of Ultron (with art by Bryan Hitch and others), flinging the Marvel universe into chaos as Ultron set about wiping out humanity. Hank Pym’s creation has been pounded by the Avengers multiple times, but Ultron is a learning machine and sent his forces back in time while the artificial intelligence sat comfortably in the future as a robot despot. The first wave of death killed off all but a few heroes and drove the rest underground to hide out from Ultron’s patrols.

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Black Panther survives the initial purge and quickly sets about a plan to defeat the diabolical machine. He teams up with Taskmaster and Red Hulk to try and gain some intel from one of the Ultron patrol robots, each of which could easily vaporize a normal superhero. Red Hulk decapitates an Ultrabot but, on his way back to his comrades, a patrol blows apart the building they were stationed in, and Taskmaster and Black Panther plummet down a stairwell. Black Panther lands ungracefully… and breaks his neck.

That’s right – the Marvel character perhaps best known for his acrobatic skill, with his advanced armor a close second, is killed because he lands wrong. Never mind the decades of adventuring in which Black Panther’s agility has saved him countless times, or even the fact that Taskmaster is only ever as good as the people whose moves he copies – which in this case would be Black Panther – Black Panther survives a robot apocalypse only to be taken out as if he didn’t have any powers, training, or armor whatsoever.

Of all the deaths in Age of Ultron (and there’s a graveyard’s worth) Black Panther’s was the silliest and most disappointing. The king of Wakanda has enhanced physical abilities and some of the best combat training in the Marvel canon. But he’s killed by a short tumble. Sure he had some laser beams to dodge, but the comic made it appear like the stairwell wasn’t more than two or three stories. Taskmaster landed poorly, but he bounced right back up (only to be decapitated later on by Red Hulk). Compared to T’Challa’s exploits nearly everywhere else, this is a particularly embarrassing send-off that seems intended to establish an ‘anyone can die’ mentality but just comes off as cheap narrative convenience – especially since the Wakandan king’s expertise would make the later time travel plot involving Wolverine go just a little too smooth.

All in all, the comic version of Age of Ultron revealed how difficult it can be to tell specific types of story in a world full of the Avengers‘ divergent abilities and power sets, as well as how overlooked Black Panther’s potential was at the time. Preceding the movie adaptation by two years, Black Panther wasn’t yet a household name, and it’s shocking to look back and see that he was once a character who writers would throw away to demonstrate the sheer danger of an alternate reality.

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