With Ta-Nehisi Coates’ long run on Black Panther coming to a close next week, Marvel has announced plans to relaunch the title with a new first issue by John Ridley and Juann Cabal.
Following the Panther’s adventures in space, Ridley and Cabal will offer a more grounded take on the character, one filled with action, espionage and love.
“It’s a hybrid espionage-Super Hero thriller, but at its core, it’s a love story,” Ridley told The New York Times. “And I don’t mean just romantic love, although there’s some of that as well. It’s love between friends.”
A certain “friend”/ex-wife does show up on the cover:
Here’s the description from Marvel: In this new ongoing series, secrets from T’Challa’s past have come back to haunt him. Fresh from returning from his adventures in space, Black Panther receives an unexpected and urgent message from a Wakandan secret agent. T’Challa must race the clock not only to save his agent, but also to keep his true agenda under wraps. Because if the truth comes out, it could cost T’Challa everything…
“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,” Ridley said. “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.”
Black Panther #1 arrives in August.
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