Black Panther Gets a New Costume Ahead of Marvel Series Relaunch
T'Challa will be sporting a brand new costume when Marvel's Black Panther series relaunches this summer. The creative team of writer Eve L. Ewing (Monica Rambeau: Photon, Ironheart) and Marvel's Stormbreaker artist Chris Allen are taking over Black Panther, setting a new path for the former king of Wakanda. They follow John Ridley's run on Black Panther, which is set to end in March with Issue #15. A new direction for Black Panther calls for a change in his look, and Marvel has revealed the first look at T'Challa's redesigned look on Taurin Clarke's cover of Black Panther #1, along with a design sheet by Chris Allen.
NBC's TODAY Show got to debut the Black Panther #1 cover, as well as an interview with incoming writer Eve L. Ewing. The series finds T'Challa a fugitive in Wakanda, though he still lurks on the streets as its protector in a sleek new outfit. Chris Allen's design sheet gives a better look at the Black Panther costume, which features extra utility belts, a spear, and a shoulder shield for protection.
"I am so excited for people to see this character design! T'Challa is going to be looking really different. It's much more edgy and kind of homespun. It's not so sleek and slick. Not giving too much away from the story, he's trying not to be seen. He's kind of working incognito," Ewing told TODAY. "What I can say, honestly, is that we will be seeing Wakanda in a way that we have not seen it ever before."
Eve L. Ewing Talks Black Panther
ComicBook.com exclusively revealed the new Black Panther creative team, and got to ask Eve L. Ewing how it felt to be the first Black woman to write Marvel's main Black Panther series.
"It's pretty unreal. I mean, there haven't been that many women who've had the opportunity to take on an Avenger solo title, period. But I've actually been thinking about it less in terms of those qualifiers, just because the Wakandan space is an arena where there have been several Black women writers – from Yona Harvey to Roxane Gay to Nnedi Okorafor – and also because I'm so excited that some really awesome Black women, Black non-binary writers, and just dope people of color, in general, have come on board at Marvel even since I was first writing Ironheart in 2018. It's been awesome to see," she said.
"More than anything, I'm bowled over at the opportunity to write such a marquee character. I see it as a big responsibility. Black Panther is a tremendously important legacy character for Marvel fans, but moreover, the character has become one of the most important icons in pop culture for people of the African diaspora all over the world. And on a personal note, the title was so indelibly shaped by my friend and mentor, Ta-Nehisi Coates, who is a big part of why I'm even in comics. There are a lot of talented creators working right now and I feel very awed that the editorial team asked me to take this on. It makes me feel really seen as a comics writer, very humbled, and very grateful. It's a big role for me and I take it extremely seriously."
Black Panther #1 goes on sale in June from Marvel Comics.