Online pop-culture trivia gallery
Marvel's Black Panther film was amazing, without question. However, it deviated from its comic book source material in many ways (mostly for the better, to be honest). These samples are taken from an article I wrote on the subject. Sadly, the original article has been lost to time. I've done my best to recreate portions of it here.
Gallery: 40 Differences Between The Black Panther Movie and Comics
#14: T'Challa's interesting love life
Both the film and comic versions of Nakia are kick-ass women, but they each have their own way of dealing with lost love. Movie Nakia is at peace with her break-up, which she seems to have initiated, and is still a close friend of T'Challa.
The original comic book Nakia (introduced in "Black Panther vol 3") doesn't handle things quite as gracefully. Which is to say, she never actually dates T'Challa ... but she does develop a psychotic obsession with him so intense that she attempts to murder his girlfriend, Monica.
#19: Klaue's mechanical hand has different abilities
Movie Klaue is a reasonable, grounded villain, so he replaces his ruined hand with a simple sonic cannon (of Wakandan design, apparently).
Comic Klaue, on the other hand (pun absolutely intended), goes by "Klaw" and is a full-bore mad scientist. He replaces his lost limb with a device that can create anything he can imagine—even if that thing is a giant red gorilla—out of NOTHING BUT SOUND. Which is quite a bit different.
#28: Killmonger does not destroy the heart-shaped herbs
In the film, Killmonger eats the heart-shaped herb, then orders his minions to incinerate every last bit that remains—which you have to admit is a pretty savvy way to eliminate potential competition. It would have worked, too, if not for that meddling Nakia.
Comic book Killmonger doesn't have time to order anything incinerated after he eats the herb. He's far too busy very nearly dying from heart-shaped-herb poisoning.
#36: The Dora Milaje are the king's bodyguards, but not his future wives
Yeah, you read that right. The original Dora Milaje from "Black Panther: Volume 3" were actually "concomitants," which is a fancy way to say they were teenage wives-in-training and T'Challa was expected to one day choose one to marry.
The film wisely discards this detail (as does the current comic series), which feels uncomfortably exploitative by today's—if not ANY day's—standards.
#41: BONUS DIFFERENCE: T'Challa does not lead a zombie army
Having been around since 1966, comic Black Panther has had quite a few more adventures than his silver screen counterpart. And some of them have been downright trippy.
Case in point: In one storyline, he became "King of the Dead," ruled over an underground necropolis, and gained the power to command zombies to do his bidding.
Maybe in the sequel?