Bryan Hill Takes Readers Inside the World of Wakanda in Ultimate Black Panther (Exclusive)

The dawn of a new Ultimate Universe will bring with it a new take on Black Panther. Marvel is rebooting the Ultimate Universe under the helm of Jonathan Hickman, who together with Bryan Hitch, collaborated on the lead-in to the new universe, Ultimate Invasion. The first set of titles debuting in 2024 have already been announced, and joining a married Spider-Man is Black Panther. Readers will get to experience the Ultimate Universe’s new World of Wakanda, which introduces different versions of Black Panther characters that fans are familiar with. Penning Ultimate Black Panther is Bryan Hill (Blade, Killmonger), and he gave some details about what readers can look forward to.

ComicBook.com spoke to Bryan Hill about Ultimate Black Panther and some of the drama set to unfold in Wakanda. Hill spoke about balancing new ideas in a Black Panther comic compared to older, familiar concepts, similarities and differences in the 616 Black Panther and Ultimate Black Panther, T’Challa’s upcoming war with Moon Knight, what he has cooking for Ultimate Storm and Ultimate Killmonger, working with artist Stefano Caselli, and more. We can also reveal the first look at interior pages from Ultimate Black Panther #1 with art by Stefano Caselli and colors by David Curiel.

New World of Wakanda

ComicBook.com: What’s it like getting a blank slate to help mold this new world of Wakanda, and how do you balance introducing new ideas while also keeping some of the familiar concepts around?

Bryan Hill: Well, I approach IP work kind of the same way. I try to understand what are the essential qualities of the IP I’m working on, and then I see what I can do with it specifically within those essential qualities. I get frustrated when people come into something and just hit it with a sledgehammer, and it seems like they don’t even understand why people like the thing in the first place. And even though this is the Ultimate Universe as it were, I still think there are some essential qualities of Black Panther, of Wakanda that need to be carried through. So for me, it’s interesting because there’s always that balance of what would you do if this was simply your sand in the sandbox, and then what would you do when you’re sort of honoring the spirit of the thing, but you also want to take some of the rules away. And I think it’s a combination of the minor rules and the major rules and the major rules I tend to leave alone, but the minor rules I tend to play with a little bit.

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Black Panther in Ultimate Universe vs. 616 Universe

From some of the information that’s already been released, we know at least that T’Challa is still Black Panther and the King of Wakanda. Can you talk about some of the similarities and differences between the T’Challa that fans know and the 616 Universe and the one they’re going to meet in the new Ultimate Universe?

I think the biggest difference is tonally, this is very much an epic story in a lot of ways. It’s about responsibility of the kingdom lineage. It’s about when to enter a war and what’s the cost of war. It’s about prophecy and the price of serving prophecy. So I think the difference between what’s going on now in the 616 and what’s going on in Ultimate Black Panther is I’m using a broader philosophical canvas. And I think that Wakanda and the world of the Black Panther is vast and extends into history up until now, headed towards the future. It’s a lot. I’ve been using Frank Herbert’s Dune as an analog to what I’m doing in the sense that you have a rich world with varying philosophical ideas and the sort of conflict and synergy between ancient spiritualism and modern practical politics. That’s very much what Dune is about.

You think about the Bene Gesserits versus the House Atreides and the ideas around Paul and what he either could be or shouldn’t be and all of that stuff. So I’m not engaging any of those things directly, but that kind of feeling. And so I think that’s probably the biggest difference because I don’t look at Black Panther the same way that I would look at Daredevil, the same way I would look at a superhero as it were. I think that Black Panther does fight evil for the benefit of the innocent, but that’s more part and parcel of this multi-generational legacy than it is his parents were killed in the alleyway, and so he dressed up like a bat.

So a little bit of a different thing. And I will admit, I feel like sometimes the character gets dragged into too much of our current day-to-day issues. And I feel like there’s just so much more to explore than dealing with the current sociopolitical things that we’re going through. I just think there are bigger, broader, philosophical ideas that I’d like to engage. So I guess that’s the biggest difference.

Yeah, there’s a balancing act with Black Panther. Yes, he is a hero, but he also has the responsibilities of being a king and watching over this land of his that, like you said, had been passed down through all the different kings and all the hierarchy that comes with that.

Well, you have a person that’s in charge of what is largely an isolationist kingdom. And the questions that all isolationist kingdoms have had is when do we join the conflict that’s happening outside of our walls? When is it our problem? And in joining that conflict, what cost do the citizens of our kingdom have to pay for it? And so that’s a big question, I think, within the first issues of the story, considering what Jonathan Hickman’s doing writ large with Moon Knight and Ra and all of that stuff, I really wanted to explore just the vagaries and the dramatics of deciding when you’re going to enter the fray, when are you going to make the problems of the world my problem? And it felt like an interesting place to start when you’re thinking about leadership and legacy and royalty and all that stuff.

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Black Panther vs. Moon Knight

The upcoming war between Black Panther and Moon Knight took me back to the rivalry between T’Challa and Namor and Atlantis. What can you say about what brings these two sides into conflict?

Well, without getting into plot specifics, I think there’s a limited amount of time that you can see people suffer without wanting to get involved. And who Black Panther is in Wakanda is different than who Black Panther is outside of Wakanda. I mean, outside of Wakanda, the Black Panther, I think, takes on a near spiritual aspect. It is almost a faith for a lot of people not often seen but believed in when seen. And within Wakanda, they have their own ecosystem. They have their own political system, they have their own economic system. They are fully functioning and largely protected from this stuff. But outside of that geographical territory, people are suffering. So, I think it’s what moves any king to join a cause that is not necessarily theirs. It is to see suffering out there in the world that you could stop. So that’s kind of where it all sort of begins.

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Ultimate Storm and Ultimate Killmonger

I love the idea of introducing Killmonger and Storm as a couple compared to individual characters that just pop up by themselves. And in my mind, I started thinking, “Oh, there could be a future love triangle between them and T’Challa.” What kind of trouble do they stir up for Black Panther?

Well, what I will confirm is that they are a pair. I have not confirmed that they are a couple.

I have not denied that they are a couple, but I haven’t confirmed it. Obviously Killmonger and T’Challa, that is the reflective opposite relationship of that micro universe within the macro of the Marvel universe. And it’s really about isolationism versus intervention. And so Killmonger and Ororo, they are intervening in these events opposite to the kind of isolationism that you see Wakanda is posturing at in the beginning of the story. And what they bring is an equally passionate and kind of equally justified perspective on how things should be and what should be done here and what are the responsibilities of Wakanda, of Black Panther, and how does T’Challa fail to live up to what Killmonger believes his responsibilities are and all these things.

So yeah, it is a bit like that. Thinking about all the kind of various conflicts with different factions and looking at history, looking at the conflicts in Northern Ireland, for instance, in the sixties, seventies and the eighties, looking at Sinn Féin and Gerry Adams and what was going on. Those that wanted to find synergy with Parliament and those that wanted to strike back at an oppressive government. And so they bring revolution of their own sword. And I think that’s a necessary disruptive force in what is more of a traditionalist, more of a considered measured response kind of thing that comes from Wakanda. You have just kind of pure rage against the villainy in them. But then you have to also see the other side of that coin is sometimes warriors fight for the war, not for the peace.

One of the things that I consider is a soldier’s ultimate goal is to be unnecessary. That’s really what a soldier should want. You want a Secretary of War to want to be forced to retire because there’s nothing to do. But certain people, they like the battle itself and they kind of want the battle to keep going. So even if they’re doing things for ostensibly righteous reasons, you can quickly realize “Oh, you don’t want the conflict to end. You just want to win the conflict, which is a different thing.” So it’s like everything else, it’s competitive ideas and a bunch of stuff blows up and there’s some cool vehicles and people look cool.

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Ultimate Universe Collaboration

How closely are you working with the other creators on the Ultimate line? I imagine you have your own section to tell the stories you want to do.

Well, I’m aware of what everyone else is doing. Hickman is aware of what everyone is doing, but I’m not really judging my choices against other people’s choices or measuring that stuff. But also the nature of the story I’m telling, I have very little to do with Peter Parker at the moment. The concentric circles of my narrative, it takes a long time for them to reach the shores of the Baxter Building. So I think if I was doing something that was a bit more centered in that stuff, I’d be more willfully aware of it. But because I’m on the other side of the world, literally, I don’t really have to consider the day-to-day of it all in that way. But look, I trust that Marvel will let me know when I can’t do this and I can’t do that. I mean, that’s sort of what they’re there for. And I trust my editors implicitly. So I just kind of create and let them guardrail me if, “Oh, we don’t know about that,” they’ll just tell me and then I’ll just shift it.

Working With Stefano Caselli

I’m a big Stefano Caselli supporter, so I have to hear what that collaboration has been like on Ultimate Black Panther?

He’s great. So it is really just loving the stuff that he generates. And a lot of attaboy. You don’t really give notes to it. He’s a really, really good artist. So that’s really just been the experience. I’ll tell you what, knowing that Caselli is working on something, it makes me a little bolder in how I’m writing. It makes me a little bolder in terms of imagery because I know he can land that. And that’s really the best benefit of working with someone whose work you love, whose artistic ability you trust. It opens you up to take more, not even risks, but to just be bolder in imagery because the images are going to be there.

I mean, I’ve worked on things where I didn’t have that faith, and because of that, I was a little more muted in what I would want to do. I would make things a little less visual, a little more talking heavy, putting things more in the writer’s control because I didn’t feel like the splash page was going to be the image I needed to carry the story forward. But with Stefano, there’s no worry about that at all. So yeah, it’s just more freeing than anything else.

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Coming Up in Ultimate Black Panther

To wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to let fans know about what you have coming up in Ultimate Black Panther?

I tend to be a little heady when I answer questions, but if fans are worried, this is still a rollicking, epic action adventure story. I’m still 13 years old. I just read a lot. Look, my goal right now across the board as a storyteller, whatever medium, whether it’s film, television, comics, what have you, is to create Big 10 experiences that thoughtfully entertain people. So if people are just looking for a good ride of a book that plays in a broad canvas with a character they have an affinity for, or a character they’re curious about and have never really gotten into, I think they’re going to find that this book is a really good experience in that way.