How Black Panther taught 50 years of fans to 'walk like a Wakandan prince'

Comic books don't look the way they used to.

To be clear, they look better, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the New York Comic Con panel celebrating 50 years of Black Panther, the genius African prince who also happens to fight evil in a sleek black suit.

In 1966, Marvel made a power move, introducing T'Challa, prince of Wakanda, the first Black superhero. He had — has — the charm and intelligence of Tony Stark, the loyalty of Captain America and the fierce conviction of Batman. So yeah, he kind of does it all.

Panther revolutionized comics at the time simply by existing, but as the character grew, he came to represent a reflection of every child and adult who sought refuge in the Marvel Universe ("I was disappointed to learn he wasn't Mexican," said Marvel Editor-In-Chief Axel Alonso, speaking to the universality of T'Challa as a character).

Looking around, the room at the Javits Center is brilliantly, overwhelmingly non-white — a rarity in most sci-fi/fantasy conventions — and so is the panel, which includes Black Panther writers Christopher Priest and Ta-Nehisi Coates, illustrators Brian Stelfreeze and Aletha Martinez, Run DMC's Darryl McDaniels (who runs a comic publisher), Marvel editorial's Axel Alonso and Don McGregor, and a certain superfan named James Monroe Iglehart, who plays the Genie in Broadway's Aladdin.

McGregor, in the minority as Caucasian on the panel, works as a proofreader, and was reading comics that he described as wildly racist well into the '70s and '80s. He faced opposition at every stage with Black Panther, including with editors who insisted on asking "Where are all the white people?"

This was when editors didn't want black villains on covers in case it was racist, when an uphill battle led to the first interracial kiss in comics in Killraven in 1975.

It's no wonder, then, that Panther resonated so deeply with readers. Seeing someone with his power and prowess motivated everyone currently working on Black Panther.

"I want to write a letter to 16-year-old Brian and tell him who I’m hanging out with today," Stelfreeze said. "It would absolutely blow his mind on so many levels... I’m actually in a position today where I have to come up with new dreams, cause I’m like knocking 'em down left and right.”

Panther is largely responsible for what several fans in the later part of the panel described as "Black science fiction" — something the panelists hope will one day just be science fiction. But to erase Panther's blackness is to ignore a crucial part of his importance. He represents the underdog, this room full of fans, many of whom also aren't black, but felt invisible until they saw T'Challa fighting on the page.

"Comic books always show me something through the book that exists in the real world," Coates said.

"Being on Broadway, I find that it's escapism for fans," Iglehart added. "There's crazy things happening in the world, but you can go into a theater and escape it for about two hours. There are crazy things happening in the world but you can go up to — this is right around the corner for me — I can go up to Midtown Comics, and pick up a comic just like 'I'm not gonna watch the news, I am just gonna focus on what is happening in the Marvel Universe, and everything is perfect here even though the world's about to end.'"

Beyond escapism, Iglehart finds inspiration to walk tall and work for a better future.

"Once you look at the comic books and you see someone who looks like you, and this person is fighting the system and winning, there's a part of you that says 'Even though the system in real life is bad, maybe If I model myself after this person, it will get better,'" he said.