Today find out why Captain America didn’t tell T’Challa how he met T’Challa’s grandfather (also known as Black Panther) when Cap first met T’Challa .
In Comic Book Questions Answered, I answer any comic book questions you might have (feel free to email me questions at brianc@cbr.com).
Recently I posted about why Captain America’s shield was round and noted that there was a Captain America/Black Panther miniseries that offered an explanation.
HOW CAPTAIN AMERICA MET BLACK PANTHER’S GRANDFATHER
The miniseries Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers saw Captain America and Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos travel to Wakanda during World War II to stop the Nazis from taking over the country and taking over its supply of vibranium. Captain America befriended the WWII Black Panther (T’Challa’s grandfather) and they fought against Red Skull and some super-Nazis as seen here in Flags of Our Fathers #4 (by Reginald Hudlin, Denys Cowan, Tom Palmer, Sandu Florea and Peter Pantazis)….
Captain America’s original shield is destroyed in battle…
Black Panther gives him a round Vibranium shield and Cap likes it very much…
In the end, Black Panther offers Cap the shield, but Cap refuses it, but suggests that it gave him a good idea for a new shield…
We then learn that, under the direction of Nick Fury, Captain America has stolen a piece of Vibranium…
And with Cap’s suggestion for a round shield, Vibranium was used to craft the special shield…
Evan Narcisse, Paul Renaud and Stéphane Paitreau then resumed this comeback in The Rise of the Black Panther #1, where it was revealed that Black Panther was GIVING Captain America the piece of Vibranium as a gift…
However, here comes the tricky part. Captain America met T’Challa, the modern-day Black Panther, in tales of suspense #97 (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Joe Sinnott)…
The two quickly became very close friends (and Captain America even asked Black Panther to take his place as a member of the Avengers), but as you can see, the two clearly don’t know each other…
So reader Samuel P. wrote in asking why Captain America wouldn’t mention to T’Challa that he knew his grandfather and had been to Wakanda before.
Obviously the “real” answer is that the story of Captain America and T’Challa’s grandfather took place many years later, so obviously the previous story was unrelated to this one ( heck, the idea of there even BEing a black panther before T’Challa was a retcon, in and of itself). However, amusingly enough, there was actually an explanation why Captain America wouldn’t remember Black Panther’s grandfather (or being in Wakanda before).
WHY WON’T CAPTAIN AMERICA REMEMBER SOMETHING LIKE THIS?
The first clue came tales of suspense #75 (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Dick Ayers, and John Tartaglione), where we first meet Sharon Carter, who reminds Captain America of his WWII sweetheart, Peggy Carter. Here’s the thing, however, Jack and Stan needed an explanation as to why Cap had never thought of his girlfriend before this point, so they kicked off a sequence where Captain America relaxes in Avengers Mansion and reflects on the fact that he does not remember the past. so good….
So if, you know, Jack and Stan were to, say, introduce a character from Cap’s past, it wouldn’t be strange if Cap didn’t remember that until then. This segues into Cap remembering Peggy two issues later and having a flashback to their last meeting, where Cap believed she was killed (she’s not actually called Peggy Carter in the issue, it only comes when we learn the name of his child sister, Sharon Carter, which takes time).
In 1986, Marvel debuted The saga of wonders, an ambitious retelling of the Marvel era of comics by historian Peter Sanderson, using actual Marvel comics to tell the story of the Marvel Universe in chronological order. Sanderson would edit the stories together into a cohesive narrative and he would then add little extra elements to make everything fit.
In The saga of wonders #12 we learn the story of how Captain America joined the Avengers and after Sanderson gives us the background of Captain America’s adventures during World War II, the writer shows us the battles of Captain America and Namor and Sanderson use the aforementioned memory issues to explain why Captain America couldn’t recognize Namor…
For the most part, Marvel Saga just followed the established stories of the Marvel Universe, but every once in a while Sanderson would come up with something new to make everything feel more cohesive and this was an example of that impulse.
Anyway, that would be why Captain America didn’t mention T’Challa’s grandfather or visiting Wakanda when he first met T’Challa, he just couldn’t remember. not as part of his Swiss cheese memoir (a similar approach was used years later in the TV series, quantum leapwhere Sam Beckett, the time-hopping star of the show, only remembers bits and pieces of his past so the show can introduce new bits of his past whenever it sees fit).
Now, as to why T’Challa’s grandfather never mentioned hanging out with Captain America, I have no idea. I guess you could suggest that in the world of Wakanda, meeting a star-studded superhero really isn’t all that remarkable as a story to tell his grandson. But yeah I’ll concede there’s no specific explanation for that one like there is for Cap and I’m sure in modern history T’Challa HAS BEEN told about his great -father meeting Cap and thus, T’Challa and Steve Rogers’ first meeting would probably have to be rewritten if he was shown in a story again.
Thanks for the question, Samuel! If anyone else has a question about the comic, email me at brianc@cbr.com!
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