Marvel Announces 'Black Panther' Prequel
Marvel is going back to T'Challa's beginning in a new Black Panther prequel series.Rise of the [...]
Marvel is going back to T'Challa's beginning in a new Black Panther prequel series.
Rise of the Black Panther will look back at what made T'Challa the hero he is today. The series will be co-written by newcomer Evan Narcisse and main Black Panther series writer Ta-Nehisi Coates.
"Most of the major plot beats are coming from me," Narcisse tells io9, the site he has been writing about comics for years. "Once we all agreed on the shape of the story arc, I've been in constant contact with Ta-Nehisi about ways for this series to reflect who T'Challa is in the present day. There's a bit of thematic irony here because Ta-Nehisi's first story arc involved an instance of change where he represented the historical status quo. In Rise of the Black Panther, he's the one rebelling against what's always been done. He goes from being a rebel of sorts to being the establishment."
Narcisse admits that calling this series Black Panther: Year One wouldn't be inappropriate.
"[T]his is essentially the story of T'Challa's first year as king, where he makes the decision to end centuries of secrecy and let the world know about Wakanda," Narcisse says. "It's a choice that angers many in Wakanda and attracts the attention of the global community on Earth-616."
With Rise of the Black Panther, Narcisse hopes to deal with an issue facing many persons of color in the comic book community.
"One of the questions that faces black comics fans, critics, creators—or those from other marginalized groups—is this quandary of what to do with what we've inherited," he says. "The characters with messy, contradictory, well-meaning executions and fondly remembered embarrassments. How do you pull that into the future so that it's something that's enjoyable, something that can survive and thrive? It's a question I dealt with in my career and T'Challa faces it, too, in a different way."
Rise of the Black Panther #1 goes on sale in January 2018, just one month before the Black Panther movie opens in theaters.
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