Having recently watched Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
I felt inspired to keep writing posts in that vein. So, today let us take a
look at Prince T’Chaka aka Coal Tiger, the son of the Black
Panther.
The moniker of Coal Tiger was originally one
considered during the creation of the Black
Panther, and it seems Tom Defalco and Ron Frenz elected
to pay tribute to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby when they introduced T’Chaka’s
alias in A-Next #4. While visiting America for a trade agreement,
T'Chaka was attacked by the hate group Soldiers of the Serpent.
It is at this point we learn that T'Chaka has the ability to transform
into a humanoid cat-like being resembling a Black Panther.
Alongside the Avengers
original line-up, Coal Tiger rescues N’Kano (aka the Wakandan
ambassador and super hero Vibraxas) and notes the new team of heroes seem
more like a family. N’Kano tells T’Chaka his father would be
proud. T’Chaka tells the Avengers he will tell his father about
all of them and that he considers them friends.
T’Chaka next appears when, upon returning from an
alternate reality ruled by Doctor Doom, the entire Avengers team
are captured by the Red
Queen
aka Hope
Pym and her Revengers. With Mainframe’s
consciousness transmitted
to another
body, he recruits Earth Senty, Argo,
Blacklight
and Coal Tiger to rescue the Avengers (A-Next #12).
At some point, Coal Tiger is pulled into the massive Destiny
War
alongside the Avengers’ American
Dream
and Freebooter
and the Fantastic
Five’sd Kristoff Vernard (Avengers Forever #12).
Coal Tiger is not seen again until a large assembly of
the MC2’s super heroes gather at Avengers Headquarters in
preparation for battle with Seth the Serpent God of Death. Despite this,
the assembled heroes end up trapped within an impenetrable barrier until Spider-Girl
weakens Seth enough to free them (Spider-Girl #58).
Alongside fellow reserve Avengers members Spider-Girl,
Blacklight and Earth Sentry, Coal Tiger was called upon to
join the Avengers team due to a large number of team members being sidelined
for various reasons following the events of Last Hero Standing. This line-up
of Avengers is briefed about someone posing as the mutant master of
magnetism; Magneto. Spider-Girl and trainee member of the X-People
known as Push
would ultimately apprehend the poser (Spider-Girl #92).
In his last appearance to date, Coal Tiger again joins a large assembly of super heroes who show up to help Spider-Girl when she is captured by the Hobgoblin aka Roderick Kingsley (Amazing Spider-Girl #15).
It’s a great missed opportunity that T’Chaka as the Coal
Tiger never got more than a few brief appearances after his debut, as there
is a huge amount of potential left unexplored and stories left untold.
Until I develop the ability to transform into a Wakandan
werecat, I remain
frogoat