You’re going to have to wait a little bit to read the latest issue of Black Panther. Instead of debuting in a matter of weeks, John Ridley and Juann Cabal’s Black Panther debut has been pushed back to November 3rd. It was originally expected to hit comic shelves on August 4th. Should it keep its current release schedule, that means Black Panther #2 will release right before the holidays on December 1st.
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GamesRadar reports Marvel revealed the decision to delay in a letter sent directly to retailers, but a reason wasn’t provided for the delay.
“First of all, Black Panther is just a great character in and of himself,” Ridley told The New York Times when the book was first announced. “But being a young Black kid growing up, every time you saw a hero that looked like you, even if their background didn’t reflect my lived experience, it was just something that made you feel closer to the wish fulfillment that is intrinsic in graphic novel writing.”
“We’re coming out of a summer where we saw Black people fighting for our rights, standing up, fighting in ways that we haven’t had to do in years,” he added. “And it was really important to me after the year we had where we can have these conversations with Black people and we can use words like love and caring and hope and regret and all these really fundamental emotions that everybody has.”
A trade for the first six issues is currently on the release schedule for March 2022, another thing that will likely be delayed with the new schedule. As of now, Ridley and Cabal’s Black Panther #6 isn’t expected to be released until April now.
Ridley and Cabal are taking over the title from Ta-Nehisi Coates and an ensemble of artists. All in all, Coates’ run with the character lasted five years before wrapping up this April.
“Ta-Nehisi has come up with a truly special finale here, one that not only wraps up the current story of T’Challa’s attempt to stop Emperor N’Jadaka’s conquest of Wakanda, but also deals with elements that reach all the way back to the beginning of Ta-Nehisi’s run. And to that end, we’re so thrilled to have Brian Stelfreeze, the artist who helped launch this run, return to draw this issue’s epilogue,” Marvel editor Wil Moss previously said of Coates. “BLACK PANTHER #25 is an immensely satisfying conclusion, with twists you won’t see coming and repercussions that will be felt for years to come.”
