Black Panther

Works in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Black Panther
Illustrations by Brian Stelfreeze
2016–ongoing; published in New York by Marvel Worldwide
Warren M. Robbins Library, National Museum of African Art

Until the current moment, in the once narrow world of comic book publishing, Marvel’s King T’Challa from Black Panther appeared to stand alone as the only widely recognized African superhero in the industry. Today, however, while T’Challa has been reinvigorated by a new set of stories written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and by global film releases, he also has an increasing number of continental compatriots, as African comics and graphic novels flourish.
Black Panther and many of the additional stories that follow assemble African protagonists, settings, values, and aesthetics through the realm of fiction and graphic design in order to help us imagine a new and improved, Africa-centered future—and present.