ourchair said:That reminds me of an interesting point of compound's: he wants to see more characters from the 616 get incarnated into the Ultimates but not necessarily with the same powers or abilities they had in 616, but rather take non-superpowered elements of their character and use that as the basis for their Ultimate incarnations.
Case in point: Scott Lang, as a petty thief turned superhero Ant-Man II, there's no real way to write him into Ultimates that I can imagine and "stealing Pym's tech" doesn't seem to be such a good idea in the UU. So instead reincarnate him as either a thief or an amateur scientist of some sort. In this light, it makes your idea of a T'Challa as "foil" for Tony seem even more of an exciting and palatable idea.
Its something that could balance out Tony in a way. Stark has really turned to his superhero life. What if he'd gone the other way? What if he'd become a more political or corporate oriented figure in the Ultimate U? Black Panther could be written to show what could have happened if Stark went in that direction, being in a similar situation. Plus, you can still involve the villains like Klaw without dragging him into full time super-herodom. I think Ellis would be able to draw a fascinating series of parrallels.