Female Black Panther to Debut in February
The Washington Post, this morning, broke the news that Marvel intends to cancel Black Panther and reboot the series with someone new in the totemic Panther outfit. This time, though, it will be a woman.
The timing of the relaunch is clearly tied to Black History Month, February 2009, and current writer, Reginald Hudlin, will be back. No artist was named.
Hudlin told the Post, "Over the course of 40 issues [over three years], we … really defined the character in a way that hadn’t been done before. … Having done that, you go: "How do we up the stakes?" Marvel is great about doing really shocking changes to their character — they don’t believe in just keeping everything as status quo."
Introduced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Fantastic Four #52 in 1966, T’Challa was the first prominent black character in the Marvel Universe and was a popular supporting player until he received his own series in Jungle Tales in the 1970s. The current title was first written for the Marvel Knights imprint by Christopher Priest before Hudlin took over.
Under Hudlin, the Panther married Storm from the X-Men and has defended his country of Wakanda from foreign and intergalactic invaders.
He has been challenged to be the Panther in the past but this time the change appears more than cosmetic. "There will be another after him," Hudlin said of T’Challa. "In the same way that he became the Black Panther because his father was assassinated and died before his time, the same could happen to T’Challa."
Marvel’s editor-in-chief, Joe Quesada, told the paper, "It was a very cool idea. Especially thinking about the legacy of the character," he says. "The fact that this is sort of a part of the Wakandan religion, and their royal family. It was a neat approach to the Black Panther, and I think it will add a wonderful twist to everything."
"Honestly, my entire run on the series has been controversial. Which is great," Hudlin added. "All the writers I admire are hotly debated online, and I feel like I’m always in great company in that situation. But more importantly, it means that people care about the book."
"That’s one of the goals I set: to broaden and diversify the comic book audience," Quesada said. "We’re breaking that gender barrier." Of course, this is far from the first time a prominent hero has been replaced by a female version dating back to the 1980s.
T’Challa will live on in animated form as his series remains scheduled to air on BET, where Hudlin recently resigned as head, in 2009
So Marvel is celebrating Black History Month by canceling the Black Panther's monthly and possibly assassinating him? I must be misreading this.
"Over the course of 40 issues [over three years], we … really defined the character in a way that hadn't been done before. … Having done that, you go: "How do we up the stakes?"By getting rid of the character and replacing him with someone new. Good plan. Also, let's get some mainstream exposure for a character, and as soon as it happens, change the comic so it's not remotely similar to the character people just saw on TV. Egad, Brain, brilliant!This is, alas, change for change's sake. There's two possibilities who could be under tha mask; Storm, or T'Challa's sister (right?) that's been in the book recently. Good character and might be interesting, but it just screams of publicity event.I've been enjoying the book as it was, shame they feel the need to dick with it.
Bummer. I'm getting very bored of this "established male character with new female twist" mumbo jumbo. Lady Bullseye, Lady Kraven, Miss Sinister, Loki… and now Black Pantheress. As Vinnie says, it's weird timing considering the upcoming TV show. Also a letdown because "See Wakanda and Die!" was so awesome, it really reinvigorated my enjoyment of the character. It's bad enough that Aaron can't continue on the book, but now they're getting rid of T'Challa? Weaksauce.
My guess is that they are not getting rid of Black Panther. Instead, they are building a Black Panther Corps. A super-team of Wakandan Royalty! Just a guess.
Question if in the latest marvel movie Black panther was givern a succecer Azari son of him and Storm and he has some awsome powers and already has a connectionto T'Challa, then why the sex change and why the randomness of her very presence? Azari would be a kick ass hero and sence his backstory has already been established, it just seems like a better story plus it would give marvel a chance to try something totaly different. You put together natures electric fury and the african panther prince and you have one of the most Influential and Powerful heros in marvel history.
I love T'Challa but I will hold off any judgment until I see how this all flushes out. For me, if T'Challa is killed off then I would like to see Storm under that mask. It would love to see her take on the BP identity as Queen and to honor her husband. Storm is my favorite character and I have been waiting for an important storyline to come her way, plus I love seeing Storm kick ass. I like Russ Rogers thought of a Black Panther royal army. That would be cool too! Well I hope T'Challa doesn’t die cause I want to see who their kids will be in the Marvel U.
I don't think it's going to be Storm, which is sad. The biggest role she's had in a long time was getting married. Big deal. I know it was a political thing for her and that's why it made it such a big thing – that and now she really is a queen, but I just don't see them giving it over to her. Besides, isn't the new BP actually a white woman? Which I'm so confused over because I've now seen two images of the new female BP – one with obvious white hair & another with her mask off and she's obviously white with dark brown hair. Besides, it's freaking April now, why haven't they just said who she is yet?! I can't find the answer anywhere.