Over the past decade, bits and bobs of the Marvel movieverse have found their way back into the comics. Sometimes it works, sometimes it feels like an awkward mandate. But Shuri’s new comic manages to marry the best of both movie and comic worlds while making that blending a core arc for the Wakandan princess.

The best Batman artists always do something cool with the Dark Knight’s cape. It’s a given. Norm Breyfogle did that and so much more, re-inventing almost every visual aspect of Batman’s mythos.

Following in the industry trend of releasing a slew of limited series comics designed to capitalise on the box office success of live-action movies, Marvel’s just announced an all-new miniseries about the early life of Black Panther’s central villain.

As a kid, Gifu City artist Dakota Alexander developed a lifelong love for ukiyo-e, a style of traditional Japanese woodblock painting that became popular during the Edo period. Like many young people, Alexander also happened to have a fondness for comic books and superheroes.

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.