Power of the Heart-Shaped Herb Revealed in Avengers 2:
We love the way Marvel sets up everything in the MCU. The seeds for Black Panther were planted in Phase 1 itself as we got a Wakanda Easter Egg in Iron Man 2. Vibranium itself is largely related to Wakanda. Then, another major Black Panther set up came in Avengers 2 where Wakanda wasn’t just name dropped, but we also got to see the Black Panther villain, Ulysses Klaue. Captain America: Civil War then gave us our first look at Black Panther & Wakanda before we finally got to see the Black Panther movie.
Black Panther didn’t just bring in tons of Vibranium and the technological advancements that come with it, but it also brought in other important elements of the Black Panther lore such as the Panther Goddess Bast, the Astral Plane in Wakanda & the Heart Shaped Herb that gave the Black Panther his enhanced powers & abilities.
We’ve seen what the Heart Shaped Herb does to a human. One could say that it is nature’s very own super soldier serum. In fact, we’ve even discussed a theory that the herb could’ve been used to create the original super serum. But it is arguable that the herb actually allots a human something more than the Serum because we may have found the proof for that. Steve Rogers didn’t age as fast as others, but even with the Super Serum in his body, he turned old. Avengers: Endgame script revealed the age of Old Captain America as 112 years.
The heart shaped herb grants its user enhanced strength, speed, endurance, healing powers (possibly) & increased metabolism. But it also grants one more key power, i.e. the person who has consumed the herb will not age. This has been confirmed by the MCU in Avengers: Age of Ultron. New Rockstars recently did a rerun on Age of Ultron and pointed out the history of Ulysses Klaue.
Here’s a bit of his MCU history from MCU Wiki and also in the above photo:
“Born in the Netherlands, Ulysses Klaue began his criminal activities by operating as an arms dealer and assassin-for-hire primarily in South Africa. Throughout the course of his life, Klaue had an increasingly unstable hatred for Wakanda, as his great-grandfather was killed by the Black Panther in the 19th century. At one time, he was working as an enforcer for the Intelligencia. In his criminal operations, Klaue had encountered Wolfgang von Strucker and Tony Stark at a weapons convention. However, Stark ultimately didn’t sell any of his weapons to Klaue.
Klaue was paid ten million dollars to assassinate T’Chaka at the Bilderberg Conference when he refused to negotiate about Wakanda’s resources. When the attack failed, Klaue was then placed on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar as a potential threat to world security.”
Klaue had a personal vendetta for Wakanda and Black Panther since the Panther had killed his great grandfather in the 19th century. We know that there have been Black Panthers in the past protecting Wakanda from the outside world. But it is entirely possible that T’Chaka was actually the Black Panther that killed Klaue’s great grandfather. It means T’Chaka was over a 100 years because of the Heart-Shaped Herb and when he was stripped away of the powers of the herb, he started to age normally & grew older by the time we saw him in Captain America: Civil War. Why would Klaue have a hatred specifically for T’Chaka if a previous Black Panther had killed his great ancestor? It’s a crazy theory to believe whereas we could believe that T’Chaka was possibly active from the 19th century.
But the counter to this argument would be that even the people around T’Chaka seemed accurately aged. His brother N’Jobu wouldn’t have looked as young as he did in the 90s if he was also around from the 19th century. So, perhaps it was a different Black Panther that killed Klaue’s great grandfather? Even if it was, it’s a cool detail to link Klaue’s past with Wakanda. His motivations to harm Wakanda become quite strong.
What do you guys think? Is it right to assume that the heart-shaped herb stops aging the body of the Black Panther? Tell us in the comments.
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