John Ridley Ends His Run on Marvel’s Black Panther in 2023 (Exclusive)

December 21, 2022, 2:30pm

The March 2023 issue of Black Panther will mark the end of Academy Award-winning screenwriter John Ridley’s (12 Years a Slave) tenure on the Marvel Comics series. Ridley and Juann Cabal (Guardians of the Galaxy) launched a new volume of Black Panther in November 2021, taking over for acclaimed author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates. The Black Panther comic penned by John Ridley has seen some of T’Challa’s darkest secrets exposed, Wakanda tossed into a civil war, a new Wakandan hero introduced, and Black Panther kicked out of the Avengers. It all leads to a climactic conclusion in March.

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ComicBook.com can exclusively reveal the cover and solicitation to John Ridley’s final issue in March’s Black Panther #15 by Ridley and Germán Peralta, along with the first look at the interiors of Black Panther #13 by Ridley, Peralta, and Sebastian Cheng. The cover of Black Panther #15 is by celebrated artist Alex Ross and shows T’Challa in the mouth of an oversized black panther, his costumed tattered and torn. The current story arc of Black Panther, titled “All This and The World, Too,” revealed that T’Challa’s childhood best friend, Jhai, is the person behind his sleeper agents being exposed, which led to his exile from Wakanda and the country’s civil war. Interiors for Black Panther #13 feature T’Challa throwing down against his former Avengers teammates Thor and Captain America.

Marvel Comics will have an announcement about what’s next for Black Panther’s solo series early next year. You can read John Ridley’s statement to ComicBook.com about ending his Black Panther run below, as well as the cover to Issue #15 and the first look at Issue #13.

The last fifteen months working on BP have been “nuts” in the best sense. Comic books remain some of the most valuable real estate in all of storytelling. To have the chance to work that real estate, link T’Challa’s past with the present, while building out Wakanda’s future – particularly with Tosin… The feeling that comes with that opportunity is hard to describe. I know I was fortunate to be able to experience it.
A thank you to the editors and artisans on the book. They respectively kept me on track, and lifted the visuals way over the words.
A deep thank you to Alex Ross for his fifteen instant classic covers.
And of course thank you to the readers. Especially for the unexpected love of Buffalo Soldier. Who knew?
What I do know: I’m looking forward to doing it all again.

Black Panther #15 Cover

BLACK PANTHER #15

JOHN RIDLEY (W) • GERMÁN PERALTA (A) • Cover by ALEX ROSS
THE EPIC FINALE OF JOHN RIDLEY’S GAME-CHANGING RUN!
Finally, all things must come to a head! Jhai, T’Challa’s best friend and the sleeper agent whose assassination served as the catalyst for all of T’Challa’s recent troubles…is alive. Not only is he alive, but he seeks to seize control of the entire world, all in the name of Wakanda! Still injured, Black Panther rushes forward to take down the man who was once his closest comrade. But T’Challa knows he must still pay his pound of flesh for his role in bringing so much strife to fruition…