Im going to concede here because your knowledge of the other characters historically is way beyond mine. I always viewed Panther as a blend of Cap and IM. Able to hold his own with both of them. Able to override Stark's systems or encryptions and battling Cap move for move. He even defeated mephisto, which is a big deal.
Well yeah, that's what he was supposed to be. A Good-Guy version of Doom crossed over with the strategist/champion of his people angle of Cap, and the tech-wizard aspect of Iron Man. But between "he's supposed to be that", he can't really hang with Iron Man. All of his tech and feats, even if you go to Respect Threads, are nothing special. An average EMP, a flying bike, such things. Nothing to write home about. That and general "here he is doing science **** with other science-guys". He has better combat showings tbh (See Wakanda & Die & the Karnak fight).
His best science feat includes him boasting about Shadow Physics, and calling it a mix between Alchemy and Quantum Physics... So basic Marvel science as usual. His fights with Iron Man included that thing with Kleenex, and another time he stopped Tony's heart when he was wearing his Post-Heroes Reborn armor. Plus that CW fight. And all of them happened in his own book, so... He also has some PIS stuff like being faster than Spider-Man, which... is bullcrap of the highest degree.
The Mephisto thing was mostly "trickery". Mephisto was working with Achebe, and T'Challa managed to stall him for a bit. And that was done with tons of prep by Wakandan scientists, not just him. Good showing, but nothing extraordinary, especially when you have Doom & Strange going up against Mephisto in his realm, with no prep and surviving.
T'challa has gotten the better of Namor, whom is a great strategist as well. But I see where you're coming from. The way I always looked at it was: the comics say Panther is this smart or this fast or this wealthy--but he didn't get the stories to display it because he's always been, what, tier 3 at best? I've always enjoyed his part as a complimentary character more than his standalone (except the first two volumes of Priest's run--which then even declined for me) because I don't tho k he gets the stories he deserves.
Namor ain't really the best strategist. He has better strength feats, but the Wakanda/Atlantis Wars were always off-panel "tell don't show" types, so I don't put much stock in them. Atlantis gets destroyed every other week if we're being honest.
Panther's been a mainstay Avengers and has had many volumes. It's not really an excuse for his lack of feats. Doom is a villain who appears once in a while and has infinitely better ones.
To be quite honest, most of T'Challa's "feats" are PIS and hype. PIS instances include that time he defeated Black Dwarf off-panel, and hype are stuff like Shadow Physics. He's a "look how bad-*** I am" type of character thatrarely does anything extraordinary. Back in the day, before I actually read his stuff I used to think he was this super-duper dangerous guy, but the more I read, the more I found out that it was mostly fanboys trying to build him up.
He's not a bad character, far from it, but he's written in such a way that it's very Gary Stu-ish. He never makes mistakes, he never is in the wrong, he's never portayed as the "bad guy" even though he can be an *******, and he has little to no regular feats that build up on another another, a couple of WTF ones. It's like having Doom never be wrong, never be defeated, never be the *******, etc, etc.
I mean, compare him with Tony, who like I said has infinitely better feats. All of his have to do with the one area he's great at, his tech. And all of them came one after the other and build up on them. But between those times, he's been the villain, he's been an alcoholic, he's lost his company, etc, etc. He's had low-shows as a contrast to his high end feats, when the Panther has virtually none. And that makes him kind of a hard figure to like, unless you identify with him.
I liked how he was portrayed in what I consider to be the best comic book cartoon ever in Earth's Mightiest Heroes. I thought that was perfect black Panther--clearly one of the top members of the Avengers. Dangerous, cunning, advanced tech, great warrior, and self-sacrificing. And so far I live him in the MCU way more than Hawkeye, Widow, Quicksilver, SW, etc. In fact I think he's up there with Cap and Iron Man as far as being best portrayed.
Yeah, EMH was darn great.
But I will always, always believe he's smarter and more powerful than Batman.
Back in the BatGod days I'd have agreed just out of spite, but nowadays... Not really. Batman has some pretty crazy feats, and they're all widespread. From remaking a Lazarus Pit, to creating Brother Eye and overloading Cyborg, Bruce has the upper hand. Not to mention creating the Watchtower defense system, the backdoors and designing the whole thing.
Now I want to read more Iron Man.
The older stories are dated, but I like them due to Tony's personality. Really, everything from his first solo up until 2012 is worth reading.
