Move over, T’Challa, there’s a new ruler in town. Marvel Comics has just revealed that it will launch a new standalone comic book series centered around the Black Panther’s little sister and tech genius, Shuri.
Bustle has confirmed that the series will be available in October 2018 and will center around Shuri grappling with the absence of her brother, who is lost in a mission in space, in a twist that leaves Wakandans questioning who should take the throne.
Of course, if you’ve seen the last Avengers movies (which still has some of us shook) you know that Shuri doesn’t really care for the monarchy but loves being in her lab inventing new things (#blackgirlmagic #blackgirlsinSTEM). However, in the comic, she will be pulled from that happy space.
“Shuri is happiest in a lab, surrounded by gadgets of her own creation. She’d rather be testing gauntlets than throwing them,” the synopsis given by Marvel reads. “But a nation without a leader is a vulnerable one — and Shuri may have to choose between Wakanda’s welfare and her own.”
Nnedi Okorafor, an award-winning novelist of African-based science fiction and fantasy, will be working on the Shuri comics, alongside artist Leonardo Romero. This will not be Okorafor’s first plunge into the Black Panther universe, having already contributed to the storyline with her issues of Black Panther: Long Live the King following a storyline written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and her work on the Wakanda Forever series, which follows the Dora Milaje as they team up with other heroes from the Marvel Comic Universe.
“[Shuri is] an African, young woman of genius level intelligence who is obsessed with technology and has traveled spiritually so far into the past that she’s seen Wakanda before it was Wakanda. The Ancestors call her Ancient Future. And she’s super ambitious. What do I love about her? Alllll that and more,” Okorafor told Bustle. “She’s a character in the Marvel Universe who really sings to me.”
And who doesn’t Shuri sing to? Her role portrayed by Letitia Wright in Black Panther delighted many, her quips and quirks.
Needless to say, we can’t wait to see what twists and turns the comics will bring.