Marvel Cancels Black Panther: World Of Wakanda

Just two days after the Black Panther trailer premiered during the Game 4 of the 2017 NBA Finals, the writer of Marvel Comics’ spinoff revealed some bad news for the series’ future.

Roxane Gay said Black Panther: World Of Wakanda has been cancelled. Her last issue on the title came in March with #5, but she was replaced in April’s #6 with Rembert Browne. That was the last issue of the series, and nothing new has been solicited since.

Black Panther: World of Wakanda was initially announced during last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, hailed for prominently featuring LGBTQ characters and notable for being the first Marvel Comic written by black women in the company’s publishing history. It was written by Gay and Yona Harvey with art by Alitha Martinez and Afua Richardson.

The comic featured a pair of Dora Milaje named Aneka and Ayo, telling the story of their journey through events like the flooding of Wakanda by Namor during Avengers vs. X-Men as well as the siege of their city by Thanos in Infinity. It served as a companion book to Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Black Panther title, fleshing out the backstories for some of the supporting cast members.

Marvel has not yet solicited new issues of the series since Issue #6, leaving many to doubt its status going forward. This confirmation from Gay is the first official word about its future.

The publisher also announced the cancellation of Black Panther & The Crew just after the second issue released.

Sales of the issues were low, and as anyone with knowledge of the industry’s operations practices know pre-orders justify a comic’s longevity. But with buzz building around the movie and neither series having a trade paperback volume in stores, it’s a surprising move that’s indicative of Marvel’s faith in the line.

Black Panther is still being solicited and is currently in its second year. We’ll see how Marvel feels about that moving forward, if they decided to cancel and reboot with another #1 ahead of the movie’s premiere in February 2018.

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