T'Challa leads the Avengers into battle in Black Panther #1 preview

Black Panther #1 excerpt
Black Panther #1 excerpt (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

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."

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

"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.

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)