Marvel Announces Free Black Panther In-Store Sampler

Marvel is set to release a free Black Panther comic book to prep long-time fans and newcomers alike for the hero's Marvel Studios blockbuster releasing in February.

Black Panther — Start Here celebrates Black Panther stories across the Marvel Universe, introducing brand new readers to T'Challa's expansive 50-year history, while long-time fans will be able to relive some of the king's most epic adventures.

The sampler collects excerpts from Marvel Comics' current Black Panther ongoing series, as well as World of Wakanda, Black Panther and the Crew, and selections from Reginald Hudlin and John Romita Jr.'s Black Panther run.

Start Here will be available to retailers on January 31 in local comic stores.

Marvel's recent run of the title, Volume 6, teamed MacArthur Genius and National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates and artist Brian Stelfreeze for an acclaimed run that included the 12-part "A Nation Under Our Feet" and the six-part "Avengers of the New World."

Black Panther and the Crew, also scripted by Coates, saw the Wakandan king team with other prominent Black heroes — including ex-wife and member of the X-Men Storm, Hero-for-Hire-slash Avenger Luke Cage, and Hero-for-Hire-slash-Defender Misty Knight — to take on a new wave of street-level threats.

Marvel comics will next release two limited series, Black Panther: Long Live the King and Rise of the Black Panther, beginning in February.

Marvel Studios' Black Panther, starring Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Martin Freeman, and Andy Serkis, opens February 16.