Black Panther

Black Panther
The Black Panther was created in 1966, just a little while before the more famous (or infamous) political association. He has obviously always been closesly associated with the civil rights movement. It's hard to get fill his backstory with any more racial empowerment than it already has. His true identity, T'Challa, is a righteous African king that is loved by all his people. His country, Wakanda, is a technological and political powerhouse that controls the fictional element Vibranium, a metal more valuable and useful than every other element combined. To top it all off, the national deity, the Panther God, has chosen him as its sole representative on Earth. The guy is Batman if Batman happened to be a much more socially adjusted king of a world superpower.

1960s to 1970s
The Black Panther started out as a rather cliché villain in his first appearance, and was quickly swapped over to the heroic side after that. He was a fairly run-of-the-mill superhero. He joined The Avengers for a while, and never really did anything obviously tied to racial issues. He was just another member of team that happened to be black. Despite this, he fell out of comics by the 1980s when the Black Power movement had died down. Even though he wasn't out marching with Huey Newton in the pages of his comic, he was obviously a character targeted toward a certain demographic. When that demographic went away, so did T'Challa.

The New Millenium
Marvel brought the Black Panther back in his own series around 2005, with the president of BET holding the writer's pen for his first few adventures. Based solely on the author's identity, most people would assume that this new Panther is more of the same, more pandering to a small group of people in an attempt at reaching new markets. This is somewhat true. After all, it's hard to escape the trappings of a blaxploitation background. T'Challa's status as a capable African superhero is never really glossed over, but, however, it's also never brought to the fore. He is once again just another superhero, but he doesn't feel like fan service thrown into the background of Captain America or Spider-Man's adventures. His comic is a quality periodical that would stand on its own if he were the Black, White, Yellow, Red, or Purple (but not pink) Panther. Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, and the rest of the heavy hitters of the Marvel universe now go to the Black Panther when they need advice. He even managed to woo Storm of the X-Men, cementing his status as an A-lister. His comic hasn't stopped publication as of 2010, and it has featured a 6-issue crossover with Doctor Doom, the villain of the Marvel universe. The Black Panther won't ever completely escape his origins as civil rights fanservice, but his growth in the modern era is a testament to just how much comic books as a medium have matured.