Erik Killmonger
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Erik Killmonger is a supervillain in the Marvel Universe, and one of the major enemies of T'Challa the Black Panther. His first appearance was in the story Panther's Rage by Don McGregor in Jungle Action. Through vigorous training, he is an expert fighter and a physical match against the Black Panther in battle.
[edit] History
A native of Wakanda, he was born under the name N'Jadaka. When Ulysses Klaw and his mercenaries attacked Wakanda, they pressganged N'Jadaka's father into helping them; when Klaw was defeated, the father died and his family was exiled. N'Jadaka ended up in Harlem, New York, nursing a hatred against the supervillain and T'Challa, the king who'd exiled him. He changed his name to Erik Killmonger and studied at MIT, desperate to avenge his father's death.
He eventually contacted King T'Challa and was repatriated back to Wakanda, settling in a village that would later change its name to N'Jadaka Village in his honour. He then took advantage of the Black Panther's frequent absences in America with the Avengers to stage a coup d'etat. He was defeated and killed, but Killmonger's followers resurrected him and he would clash with T'Challa on several other occasions.
In the wake of the sorcerer Reverend Achebe's attempt takeover of Wakanda, with T'Challa absent and control of the country left with his regent Everett Ross, Killmonger tried to gain control of the country via its economy, forcing T'Challa to stop him by nationalising all foreign companies in Wakanda and cause a run on the stock market. The two foes fought in a vicious ritual combat over the right to rule the country, and Killmonger was finally able to defeat his foe and gain the status of Black Panther for his own. He maintained control of Wakanda for a while and even attempted to inherit T'Challa's Avengers status, but when he underwent the ascension rite needed to cement his position, his body had a severe reaction to the heart-shaped herb that he was required to consume - it was poisonous to all but the royal bloodline. Although it would have been convenient to allow him to die, and be unquestionably entitled to the position of the Black Panther, T'Challa preserved his rival's life.
Killmonger eventually came out of his coma, thus reclaiming his position as chieftan over Wakanda. He went to New York and contacted Kasper Cole, an inner-city police officer masquerading as the Black Panther to help him with cases, and attempted to gain him as an ally (and one-up T'Challa) by offering him a synthetic version of the Panther's heart-shaped herb and help finding his supervisor's kidnapped son. In exchange, he had to drop the Panther identity and take up that of a White Tiger acolyte of the Panther cult, and would owe Killmonger a favour. While Kasper agreed to this, he then used his new herb-enhanced abilities to track down the boy on his own to avoid owing Killmonger an unpayable debt.
Killmonger has not yet been seen in the fourth Black Panther solo series and T'Challa is once again the solo ruler of Wakanda; presumably he was able to successfully challenge Killmonger's right to rule between the third and fourth volumes.
