History
Early Life[]
In the early 1990s, Zuri was a War Dog for King T'Chaka of Wakanda. Posing as an American named "James," Zuri spied on T'Chaka's younger brother Prince N'Jobu while he was on duty in Oakland, California. While Zuri was on assignment, Wakanda was attacked by black market arms dealer Ulysses Klaue, who stole the precious Vibranium from the country. King T'Chaka suspected N'Jobu of supplying Klaue with the information needed to attack Wakanda, and when he went to confront N'Jobu, Zuri confirmed his suspicions. N'Jobu, enraged, attempted to shoot Zuri, but T'Chaka swiftly stabbed him before he had the chance. T'Chaka told Zuri not to tell anyone what happened, before the two returned to Wakanda.
The New King[]
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After the murder of King T'Chaka over two decades later, Prince T'Challa was to be crowned king. Zuri presided over T'Challa's coronation ceremony at Warrior Falls, and officially crowned T'Challa as king after he had defeated M'Baku, leader of the Jabari Tribe, in ritual combat.
Sometime later, T'Challa confronted Zuri over the fact that he saw an unknown man wearing one of the two rings of his grandfather Azzuri that were passed down to T'Chaka and N'Jobu. Zuri then revealed that T'Chaka killed N'Jobu and that the two were forced to cover it up. He also revealed that N'Jobu had an American lover and that they had a child together, Erik Stevens, whom they left behind without any explanation as to why his father was killed.
T'Challa chastised Zuri on how uncaring. To make matters worse, Erik Stevens, who now adopted the alias "Killmonger", showed up at Wakanda's border and challenged T'Challa for the throne. Zuri once again presided over the ritual combat. However, when Killmonger was about to deal the killing blow to T'Challa, Zuri intervened. Zuri told Killmonger that he was to blame for his father's death, which was why he deserved the punishment. Killmonger said that he'd kill them both, before fatally stabbing Zuri.[1]Notes
- Forest Whitaker portrayed Zuri in the film Black Panther, while Denzel Whitaker portrayed the character in a flashback scene.
Trivia
- To either's knowledge, Forest and Denzel have no relation to each other. The two previously acted together as father and son in the film The Great Debaters.
See Also
- 1 appearance(s) of Zuri (Earth-199999)
- 2 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Zuri (Earth-199999)
- 9 image(s) of Zuri (Earth-199999)