A'Kurru U'mbaya

A'Kurru U'mbaya, also known as Icon, was a Wakandan bio-chemist who gave himself the ability to turn his body into wood and attempted to usurp T'Challa as King of Wakanda. This attempt failed as T'Challa as the Black Panther defeated U'mbaya and set him on fire in his wooden form which killed him.

Biography
A'Kurru U'mbaya was born somewhere in Wakanda and became a Wakandan bio-chemist. In 2017, U'mbaya began experiments that would allow humans to shapeshift. A'Kurru began experimenting on himself and was successful in giving him the power to turn himself into wood at his will. The experiment had a side effect of turning him insane, and A'Kurru decided to kill the king of Wakanda T'Challa and take his place on the throne. A'Kurru then took the name Icon as his face looked like a religious mask. Icon then broke into the throne room and killed several royal guards and began searching for T'Challa. Icon was then confronted by the Black Panther, who bested him in combat. Icon transformed back to his human form attempted to flee. Panther then spent an hour searching for him, and in that time A'Kurru transformed once again however the Panther grabbed a plank of wood and set it on fire and threw it at him. Icon was then set on fire and due to being in a wooden form the fire spread quickly and he died.

Legacy
A'Kurru was listed as one of noted attempted usurpers of the Wakandan throne and his research was discarded off due to being to dangerous.

Personality
A'Kurru was an ambitious man, although his transformation caused this ambition to spiral out of control into complete insanity. This caused him to not things through and formulate half baked plans.

Goals

 * Create a serum that causes shapeshifting (succeeded)
 * Kill T'Challa (failed)
 * Escape Black Panther and live (failed)

Appearance
A'Kurru wore a lab coat, black pants, and brown dress shoes. As Icon, his skin became hardened wood and tore through his clothes. Icon's head transformed to match religious masks and he grew spikes on back and wrists.

Powers, Skills, Abilities
Shape-shifting (2017)


 * A'Kurru could transform his body into a wooden form. This form could deflect bullets, and had spikes that could cut through body armor. A'Kurru could also throw his back spikes into the ground to form clones of himself.

Weaknesses
Time-limit


 * A'Kurru had a time limit on his transformation as he could only maintain it for an hour and he needed to wait one hour before being able to transform again.

Fire


 * Due to being wooden, A'Kurru was weak to fire and Black Panther utilized this to kill him.

Related deaths
5 royal guardsman


 * When: 2017


 * How: Stabbed them to death
 * Why: He was searching for T'Challa and they were in his way