Everything You Need To Know About Marvel's New Black Panther Comic Series
After five years at the helm of Marvel's "Black Panther" comic series, celebrated writer Ta-Nehisi Coates will be ending his time telling King T'Challa's story with the run's final issue, set to debut on May 26, 2021. But the Marvel machine always keeps chugging: We already know who will be taking over the King of Wakanda's story next.
According to a report from Bleeding Cool, John Ridley, best known for his Academy Award-winning screenplay for the 2013 film "12 Years a Slave," will be the next person to write "Black Panther."
2021 has been busy for Ridley: He wrote DC Comics series "Future State: The Next Batman" and "The Other History of the DC Universe," and made his Marvel Comics debut in "Wolverine: Black, White & Blood." Now he's taking on an A-list series in "Black Panther."
John Ridley will pen the new series, with Juann Cabal illustrating
Ridley's "Black Panther" will be drawn by artist Juann Cabal. Cabal's excellent work can be seen in many other Marvel series, including "Guardians of the Galaxy," "X-23," and "All-New Wolverine."
The cover of the run's first issue, courtesy of legendary superhero illustrator Alex Ross, has already been released. The artwork offers some hints as to what we might expect from the upcoming story, with familiar faces such as Captain America, Captain Marvel, Thor, and Storm making appearances. Spaceships are also visible, suggesting interstellar action beyond Wakanda's terrestrial borders.
"It's a hybrid espionage-superhero thriller, but at its core, it's a love story," Ridley told The New York Times in an interview confirming the project. "And I don't mean just romantic love, although there's some of that as well. It's love between friends."
Ridley also spoke about how 2020's widespread protests against racial injustice affected him, and how that might affect the tone of his upcoming series. "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 said. "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."
John Ridley's first "Black Panther" issue will be released this August.