T’Challa first appears as a mystery, a man whose purpose and importance are, to other heroes, largely unknown.1 By the time they meet him, he knows who he is. He always has more to discover even about himself because he has great curiosity. He will weigh alternatives and reevaluate his actions because he is a master strategist whose analytical mind plans for everything and thinks through alternatives for every plan.² A strong sense of self, it can be healthy, adaptive, and even heroic when it helps the person stand strong in new situations, stay true to values, and look out for others related to those values and to the individual’s own identity.³ Wisdom includes the ability to know who you are, and sense of self can walk together with sense of others.⁴

NOTES

1. Fantastic Four #52 (1966); Captain America: Civil War (2016 motion picture).

2. According to Queen Ramonda in Black Panther #168 (2017).

3. De las Cuevas (2014); Palombo (2017).

4. Berggrat et al. (2014); Ickes et al. (2012); Sinigaglia & Rizzolatti (2011).