TITLE: Fantastic Four vol. 1, Issue #53
YEAR: August 1966
COMPANY: Marvel Comics
Written by Stan Lee
Illustrated by Jack Kirby
Inker: Joe Sinnott
Letterer: Art Simek
With the success of the “Black Panther” live-action film, there is a lot of interest from people trying to read or acquire Black Panther’s first and early appearances.
I personally have not been able to purchase Black Panther’s first appearance in issue #52, but I do own issue #53 which features T’Challa bringing the Fantastic Four to Wakanda and the group surprised about how wealthy T’Challa is.
And of course, T’Challa explains why and that is because of his land having the vast resource of vibranium which is a metal that absorbs vibrations and is worth a fortune to America’s missile program as rockets made of vibranium would never go off course due to vibrations.
Meanwhile, there is a red beast attacking Wakanda… What is it?
Meanwhile, T’Challa explains how his father, T’Chaka, Guardian of the Eternal Peak was killed by a greedy ivory hunter known as Klaw, the Master of Sound. And when Klaw came to Wakanda with his soldiers, he tried to take the Vibranium by force but when T’Chaka tried to speak for Wakanda, Klaw had his men kill his father and the numerous, innocent people from Wakanda.
T’Challa was able to take the Sound Blaster weapon that Klaw had brought and he used it to scare Klaw’s men and shattered Klaw’s hand.
Klaw vowed to return and now he has returned and has created a red monster.
Now, the Black Panther and the Fantastic Four must join forces to defeat Klaw and his new creation.
Overall, this issue gave great history on T’Challa and how his father died and how he became leader of Wakanda. But also a storyline of of Wakanda created by Stan Lee.
Stan Lee was no doubt a creator who used comics to showcase strong female characters but now showcasing an Black superhero who would become Marvel Comics awesome superhero, entrepreneur and coolest characters ever created. But doing it in during a time when race relations in America was at its worse.