Marvel Comics has had numerous power couples over the years, from Cyclops and Jean Grey to Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman. However, few relationships were as world-changing and fantastical as the romance between Wakanda’s King T’Challa, aka the Black Panther, and the longtime X-Man Ororo Munroe, aka Storm. The romance and marriage of a superhero king from a secret African nation and a mutant with the powers of a god necessitated and delivered an emotional rollercoaster. Their love story is one filled with happiness and tragedy, and while they may never reunite, their dynamic remains one of the most captivating in Marvel. In honor of 45 years of relationship drama, it’s time to look back and see the beginnings and end of Marvel’s royal couple.
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On September 23, 1980, with the publication of Marvel Team-Up #100, fans of both X-Men and Avengers comics discovered the complex and intricate background that intertwined Marvel’s most popular Black superheroes.
Black Panther Had an Unorthodox First Meeting
The story “Cry…For Vengeance!” in Marvel Team-Up #100 revealed that T’Challa and Ororo met long before either of them became the recognizable heroes that they are today. After the deaths of her parents when she was just six years old, Ororo lived on the streets of Cairo, Egypt. By the time she turned 12, her mutant abilities began to manifest and she used her powers to fly across Africa. During her travels, Ororo encountered a young prince named T’Challa in Kenya. T’Challa was fending off the South African mercenary Andreas de Ruyter and his goons. Andreas’s employers wanted to kidnap T’Challa and force the prince into becoming a puppet ruler of Wakanda. With T’Challa under their control, Andreas’s employers could take all Wakanda’s resources for themselves. Ororo swooped in and helped T’Challa defeat Andreas. Afterwards, the pair travelled together for a time before T’Challa left Ororo to pursue his responsibilities as the future king of Wakanda, breaking her heart.
Years later, after T’Challa had become a king and Ororo had become a member of the X-Men, the two reunited. While in New York, Ororo was wounded by a sniper before she struck the would-be assassin with a lightning bolt. When she interrogates the sniper, she discovers that he was hired by Andreas de Ruyter. Desperate to track the villain down, Ororo sought help from T’Challa. Together, the superhero duo broke into Andreas’s mansion and were attacked by the villain’s giant robot. After defeating the robot and Andreas, T’Challa and Ororo reveal their latent feelings for one another. Storm says that while there was a time when they could have been together, time and distance have extinguished her feelings for him. The two go their separate ways, wondering about what could have been. However, this wasn’t the end of Ororo and T’Challa’s relationship; it was only the beginning.
Black Panther and Storm Had One of the Most Successful Marriages in Marvel Comics
Although T’Challa and Ororo had reconciled themselves to just being friends, one person wasn’t: T’Challa’s mother, Queen Ramonda. In the 2006 four-part story arc “Bride of the Panther”, Ramonda sent T’Challa out on a quest to find a wife to ensure Wakanda’s future stability. She also wanted T’Challa to have a lifetime partner who would love and support him through his many duties as king. When T’Challa left for his quest, he had only one person he wanted to be his bride: Ororo. His mission had a bit of a rocky start. Ororo was still miffed about how their relationship had ended before. Despite her rebuffing him, T’Challa got on one knee and asked her if she would marry him. Although Ororo was hesitant at first, she accepted the proposal by the next issue. Ramonda had secretly hoped that T’Challa would pick Ororo because of the mutant’s strong will and heroic exploits across the galaxy. With T’Challa and Ororo officially engaged, it was time for the marriage of the century!
The marriage of T’Challa and Ororo in Black Panther #18 was one of the biggest events in recent Marvel history. The Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Inhumans, and other heroes all made appearances. This gathering of heroes was especially significant because the wedding took place during the events of Civil War, when the superhero community was in a war over the Superhuman Registration Act. This conflict saw Iron Man and his followers attempt to arrest Captain America and his resistance group for refusing to reveal their secret identities. Despite their deep differences, Iron Man and Captain America agreed to a ceasefire so that everyone could attend T’Challa and Ororo’s wedding. Even Doctor Doom sent a message congratulating the pair. To put a fine point on how noteworthy T’Challa and Ororo’s marriage was, the all-powerful alien known as the Watcher made an appearance at the wedding. The Watcher only appears to observe the most monumental events in history.
The marriage of T’Challa and Ororo was momentous from its beginning. As the very first mutant queen, Ororo was regarded as the most important mutant in the world. With her new position, Ororo became a diplomat and representative for both the people of Wakanda and all mutantkind. Together, they helped to enforce Wakanda’s international relations. The two had great chemistry together, and it was interesting to see how they balanced their duties as leaders to their married life. The fact that Ororo is a mutant while T’Challa is a human was a great source of drama and character exploration. Their marriage was also incredibly significant for the readers. T’Challa and Ororo were two of the most popular and respected Black superheroes in Marvel Comics, and their coming together was an essential event, especially for many African American readers. It was also a union between two of the most iconic members of the Avengers and X-Men. For six years, T’Challa and Ororo ruled and fought side-by-side to protect Wakanda and the world. However, like many relationships in the Marvel universe, it eventually failed.
The Messy Divorce and Legacy of Marvel’s Royal Couple
Wakanda’s royal couple may have been deeply in love with each other, but they faced great conflicting pressures and had disparate loyalties. T’Challa’s loyalty to his kingdom and Ororo’s loyalty to mutantkind eventually tore them apart. During the events of Avengers vs. X-Men, the pair fought on opposite sides of the conflict. When the X-Men members Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik, and Namor obtained the power of the Phoenix Force, they used it to create a “utopia” for mutants at the expense of the rest of humanity. In one of the most horrific atrocities, Namor flooded Wakanda, killing thousands of people. In response, T’Challa declared the X-Men to be enemies of Wakanda. Still loyal to the X-Men, Ororo fought her husband and threw away her wedding ring. After the conflict ended, T’Challa was heartbroken that Ororo had chosen mutantkind over him and the people of Wakanda. T’Challa then annulled their marriage, thus ending the most iconic Black couple in comic book history.
After their falling out, T’Challa and Ororo had a strained relationship, with both prioritizing their roles as leaders. They have teamed up occasionally to fight common threats like Hydra, but for the most part, they keep their distance from each other. What little relationship they had with one another after their divorce was further damaged when Storm stole a sacred Wakandan weapon called a Skybreaker Sword. She used it to participate in a tournament called the X of Swords. The tournament was designed to determine which of the rival mutant nations, Krakoa and Arrako, would reign supreme. Although Storm’s nation of Krakoa won the tournament, the Skybreaker Sword was severely damaged in the event. Disgusted by how Ororo could commit such an act of sacrilege, T’Challa severed ties between Wakanda and Krakoa and made it clear that his ex-wife was no longer welcome in his kingdom.
Many readers were distraught to see their fan-favorite couple meet such a tragic end. Given the hostility between the two and their priorities in life, it’s doubtful that the Avenger and the X-Man will ever get back together again. Still, for the time that it existed, the romance between T’Challa and Ororo was one of the most impactful and memorable superhero relationships in recent comic book history.
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