Wakanda (Marvel Comics)

Wakanda
Map of Wakanda from Marvel Universe #12. Art by Don McGregor.
Type	African country
Race(s)	Wakandans
Notable characters	Black Panther Man-Ape Vibraxas Storm Gentle
First appearance	Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966)
Publisher	Marvel Comics

Wakanda is a fictional nation appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It is the most prominent of several fictional African nations in the Marvel Universe, and it is home to the superhero Black Panther. Wakanda first appeared in Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966), and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Wakanda is located in Northeastern Africa, although its exact location has varied throughout the nation's publication history: some sources place Wakanda in East Africa, just north of Tanzania, while others - such as Marvel Atlas #2 - show it bordering Lake Turkana, near Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia (and surrounded by fictional countries like Azania, Canaan, and Narobia). In the Captain America: Civil War movie, Wakanda was shown on a map at the northern end of Lake Turkhana, at a fictional point bordering Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya.

The Wakandan royal line began with Bashenga, an ancient Wakandan whose first and only appearance was in Black Panther vol. 1 #7 (Jan 1978). Bashenga was supposedly the first king of unified Wakanda, and the first Black Panther some 10,000 years ago.

In the distant past, a massive meteorite made up of the sound-absorbing mineral vibranium crashed in Wakanda, and is unearthed a generation before the events of the present-day. T'Challa, the current Black Panther, is the son of T'Chaka, the Black Panther before him and a descendant of Bashenga. Knowing that others would attempt to manipulate and dominate Wakanda for this rare and valuable resource, T'Chaka conceals his country from the outside world. He sells off minute amounts of the valuable vibranium while surreptitiously sending the country's best scholars to study abroad, consequently turning Wakanda into one of the world's most technologically advanced nations. Eventually, however, the explorer Ulysses Klaw finds his way to Wakanda, and covers up his work on a vibranium-powered, sound-based weapon. When exposed, Klaw kills T'Chaka, only to see his "sound blaster" turned on him by a grieving teenaged T'Challa. Klaw's right hand is destroyed, and he and his men flee.