Marvel Gave Batman’s Greatest Weakness To Black Panther – & It Destroyed Him

Batman and Black Panther tend to run in similar circles. They’re both extremely rich, extremely skilled, stoic characters that put their love for their home above all else, and stand beside literal demigods to save the world. They both predominantly wear black and combine futuristic technology with next-level fighting skills and genius-level intellect. These two are often compared, especially in their pragmatic personalities, given that both tend to push their emotions aside in any given situation. Of course, while their self-reliance is usually a strength, it is also the source of one of Batman’s biggest weaknesses. Now, Black Panther has it, too.

Even though he works in the Justice League and has the largest superhero family out there, Batman has a reputation for being a loner. One of the biggest contributors to this idea is his tendency to push his loved ones and allies away and try to handle everything himself. He refuses to trust others, and even though he always comes around in the end, Batman’s paranoia has led to more problems than it’s solved. Black Panther developed this unfortunate weakness, too, and it had far more drastic consequences for the King of Wakanda. 

A Kingdom Propped Up By Lies

John Ridley’s run on Black Panther (2021) began by revealing one of T’Challa’s darkest secrets. When he stepped down as king and opened Wakanda to the world as a democracy, he laid plans to ensure that nobody could ever threaten it. He faked the deaths of ten of Wakanda’s elite soldiers and sent them out to the world as sleeper agents in strategic locations. Their mission was to lie low, but if any nation would become a threat to Wakanda, they were to assassinate the world leaders responsible. Not only did T’Challa have these agents prepare to assassinate heads of governments from all over the world, but he also secretly devised plans to take down the Avengers, which he provided them with.

Of course, any setup that mixes sleeper agent assassins and “Tower of Babel” can only explode in everyone’s faces, and it did. T’Challa’s best friend and best assassin, Jhai, was seemingly killed, which caused his plans to leak to the rest of the world. The terrorists responsible took down Black Panther and the rest of the Avengers using his plans. This destroyed the trust that T’Challa’s people and friends had in him, leaving him more alone than ever before. What’s worse, Jhai was actually the one behind it all, and he planned to destabilize the entire world so that T’Challa could extend Wakanda to the entire Earth, and eventually, the universe. 

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Even though he pretended to open his arms and heart, giving up control of Wakanda so it could grow, this revelation destroyed T’Challa. The people of Wakanda felt betrayed like nothing else, and when Jhai tried to overthrow their democracy along with the rest of the world, they made a deal with the devil to make up for T’Challa’s mistakes. They allied with Namor, one of Wakanda’s staunchest enemies, who provided aid with the condition of exiling T’Challa. The run ended with Jhai stopped, but T’Challa exiled from his home and team, and hated by those he loved.

A Lack of Trust Equals a Bleak Future

T’Challa’s refusal to trust his friends, country, and the rest of the world ruined him in every way imaginable. Ultimately, this decision to take everything onto himself for the sake of Wakandaa is entirely in character, but he’s never gone to these lengths before. T’Challa has famously broken relationships with others if it meant ensuring the safety of his home, such as in Christopher Priest’s foundational Black Panther run, where the King of Wakanda revealed he joined the Avengers to keep an eye on them in case they became a threat. Black Panther has always been pragmatic and ready to make horrible choices to save his home, but this is a level that we’ve never seen before, and it brought him to his lowest point.

As of Imperial #1, T’Challa returned to Wakanda and was declared king once again, but that doesn’t negate the horrible consequences he faced for his actions here. He was taken to a low that he’s never experienced before, left totally alone as almost the entire world turned against him. This is a plot thread that Batman is constantly dealing with himself, as he continuously pushes those he loves aside when things get dicey. For everyone’s sake, let’s hope that this style of thinking doesn’t become a standard for Black Panther, as the last thing anyone needs is another reason to tear down our heroes. They suffer enough without being their own worst enemies.

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