Marvel Comics' ongoing Black Panther series returns after a five-month hiatus with a new volume, a new creative team, and a new take on the Wakandan warrior. Black Panther #1 debuts November 24, with writer John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) and artist Juann Cabal (Guardians of the Galaxy). telling a "hybrid espionage-superhero thriller" that's also "a love story."
"First of all, Black Panther is just a great character in and of himself," Ridley tells the New York Times. "But being a young Black kid growing up, every time you saw a hero that looked like you, even if their background didn't reflect my lived experience, it was just something that made you feel closer to the wish-fulfillment that is intrinsic in graphic novel writing."
Ridley and Cabal's Black Panther run will kick off when the hero receives a panicked message for help from a Wakandan operative.
"We're coming out of a summer where we saw Black people fighting for our rights, standing up, fighting in ways that we haven't had to do in years," Ridley says. "And it was really important to me after the year we had where we can have these conversations with Black people and we can use words like love and caring and hope and regret and all these really fundamental emotions that everybody has."
Check out this preview of Black Panther #1:
Alex Ross has painted the primary cover for Black Panther #1, with variants planned by Simone Bianchi, Todd Nauck, NetEase, John Romita Jr. (two versions), Skottie Young, Sam Spratt, Ron Lim (a hustl. exclusive), David Nakayama (three versions), Junggeon Yoon (a Devil Dog Comics exclusive, two versions), Mike Mayhew (two versions), and Zu Orzu (a Things From Another World exclusive, two versions). Check them out here:
Black Panther #1 goes on sale on November 24. A collection of the first six issues, titled Black Panther Vol. 1: Long Shadow Part 1, is scheduled for May 17, 2022.
Newsarama looks at the best Black Panther stories of all time.
