It’s news that should come as no surprise to either people who saw Black Panther earlier this year or were aware of the conclusion of Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos’s run on Jessica Jones, but two beloved Marvel heroines are getting all-new comic series. And you can actually start reading one of them right now!

Yes, Marvel is a huge comics publisher more than capable of making its own comic books aimed at younger kids. Hell, they have a good bunch of them going right now! But a new deal between Disney and IDW Publishing is not the first time the House of Mouse has looked beyond Marvel to target younger comic readers.

The current arc of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Daniel Acuña and Joe Sabino's space-bound Black Panther comic has thrust readers into the far future, where a wildly different group of Wakandans who have colonised the cosmos are in a, well... star war. A group of rebels are fighting the Wakandan space empire, and they have just recruited a mysterious new character who happens to be named T'Challa.

Black Panther's Wakanda is the kind of Afrofuturist fantasy that's been largely missing from the mainstream pop cultural canon. Unlike most other genre fiction that could scarcely imagine black people living in the future, Black Panther envisions a world in which an entire nation of uncolonised Africans became the definition of the future.

Once you've seen Avengers: Infinity War and processed your emotions, the questions begin to sink in. Did that really happen? What's next for them? And then you look at the bigger picture and think, what about next year?

Those scars don't apply themselves.

T'Challa's father T'Chaka (played by father and son, John and Atandwa Kani) casts a long shadow over the events of Black Panther. Decisions the former Black Panther made have long-reaching repercussions for T'Challa's ascent to the throne - and two new deleted scenes from the home release show his role was nearly a little bigger.

This past March, a Black Panther statue was destroyed in South Korea by an inebriated passerby. Now, another statue has been wrecked, also by someone who had too much to drink.

Ominous, metaphorical storm clouds have been gathering over Black Panther's Wakanda for some time now as the ancient Orisha have seemingly abandoned T'Challa and his people. But just as the old deities have disappeared, a new(ish) goddess is coming into her powers in Marvel's comics, and it's long overdue.

A same-sex relationship may have been left on the cutting room floor of Marvel's Black Panther film, but the comic that showed how two Wakandan women fell in love has been recognised as a standout graphic novel for LGBTQ representation by GLAAD.

I've spent most of my professional career writing about comics (and video games), putting forth what I understand about the art form's mechanics and creators in essays, reviews, and interviews. I thought I got comics, at the very least the superhero genre aspect of the medium. They have always been part of my life. But then I started writing a superhero comic book myself, and suddenly I realised how much I didn't know.

Black Panther was good! It also looked good, so I figured I'd showcase the work of a number of artists involved with the film's production, giving us a look at how the costumes and environments of Wakanda went from the drawing board to the big screen.

To commemorate the filming of Black Panther in South Korea's Busan, Disney had sent a pair of statues to be displayed in the country. One of the statues has been vandalised. The incident has made Korean news.

In 2011, Marvel, in co-production with BET, produced a six episode animated/motion comic hybrid series starring the Black Panther. Now, that entire series is streaming on Marvel's YouTube channel.

In time-honoured Marvel tradition, the breakout stars of the studio's most recent blockbuster success - Black Panther's Dora Milaje - are getting their own spin-off comic book. Oh, and Peter Parker's tagging along.

Straight out of Austin, we're bringing you a bonus episode of Kotaku Splitscreen to talk Black Panther and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Genre films still have a long way to go when it comes to representing people beyond the straight, white, male audience Hollywood has long catered to. But two superheroic events recently have more than just fans excited for more diverse offerings - theatre owners are psyched, too.

This week, every movie studio is likely scrambling to figure out how to replicate Black Panther's success. As Marvel's main rival in the realms of comics and movies, all eyes are on Warner Bros, home of the live-action DC superhero movies, in particular. Here's a pro tip: The answer is not Cyborg. Nor is it John Stewart, the Green Lantern best known from the Justice League animated series. What the WB needs is an Icon.

Seeing as how Black Panther is the 18th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the fact it ends with two credits scenes is hardly a surprise. What is a surprise, though, is that while these scenes seem relatively self-explanatory, there's a lot more going on in them than you'd think - especially in the second scene.