No the character is bullshyt. He's basically perfect and never loses, so his triumphs don't feel like any kind of payoff. Under Christopher Priest (who's also a black writer ftr) he was a troubled, but brilliant tactical leader who pulled his people through the colonial ages into greatness and prosperity (there was an optimistic theme of overcoming oppression like in real Africa), whereas the Hudlin run made him a perfect, untouchable Gary Stu (boring), and all of Wakanda a perfect, untouchable utopia from its inception. Wakanda was also far from perfect, and the prosperity came with problems.
As an African I kind of find that utopian depiction of Wakanda offensive, as it's the antithesis of the last 500 years of African history. Rather it's just a corny "feel good" story for non-African black people (Coli militant's wet dream). There's not a damn thing African about Hudlin's Panther. Imagine a sanitized story about America which never had slavery (or Jim Crow) or some shyt. Would you really be impressed by that? Wakanda doesn't explore any real African themes or address anything approaching contemporary African realities, and often disrespects the real Africa by unfavorably juxtaposing the neutered utopian Wakanda with real impoverished African countries. The rise to power story is a lot better.
The character wasn't perfect. As far as "never losing". He lost to Doom and was placed into a Coma.
Also if we want to get into "themes" of overcoming through seemingly impossible odds we have the very first arc we can reference. T'Challa and Wakanda being infiltrated by the very man who killed T'Challa's father, Klaw. Klaw had eluded T'Challa for years, haunting his thoughts and becoming a constant source of the trauma that he had dealt with as a child. Part of this very trauma and passion for vengeance separated him from the love of his life, Ororoe, when they were children. Klaw showed up, more powerful than ever, with an army of super powered individuals, kidnapped Ramonda, and placed Shuri in mortal danger. T'Challa, with the help of his fellow Wakandans and Storm, was able to defeat Klaw and bring his minions to justice. How does this NOT fit into "overcoming oppression like in real Africa"?
As far as Wakanda being "perfect" From the beginning of Wakanda's inception it was imagined as country that was completely untouched by the oppression, corruption, and pillage that Africa suffered through for the past 500 years, that is not a concept that originated with Mr Hudlin. It is a comic book and not to be taken literally. If there were indeed an Americanized Panther story where say, Texas, had somehow been unaffected by slavery and white supremacy, it again would be simply a fairy tale, not to be taken too literally. If you are African as you claim, I respect you having strong feelings towards the continents history of oppression, but again this a comic book about a man who has unlimited access to a rare alien mineral who dresses up as a panther and gains super natural strength through consumption of a magic plant. We're not talking about reality or even historical fiction here, we're talking about pure fantasy.
What I feel many people's issue with the Hudlin's run is that he went "old school" in the way that he depicted T'Challa, the hero, as an actual HERO. Who DOES save the day more so than he fails, and is does so in a manner that doesn't infer a pyrich victory. I enjoy and respect the Priest run immensely but it's not without its flaws. Priest was afraid of alienating Cacs and introduced Everett K. Ross as the mouth piece for T'Challa's adventures, which neutered the character of his own voice (some will argue this as a good thing as it contributed to the "mysteriousness" of the character but I was never impressed) he also introduced the token "White Stepbrother" into Wakanda as another ways of forcing unnecessary "diversity" into Wakanda. Neither of these tactics worked as the Priest run never sold particularly well while Hudlin's run was the best selling BP series until Coates stepped in. And while I understand that sales don't always equal quality, it certainly does mean something that a Black hero can actually be allowed to be THE Hero in his own book without the need to introduce random Cacs into his world who don't fit and make no sense being there.
Da fukk were they thinking when they wrote that.
