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Cover: Mark Texeira

Black Panther #3

Name: Black Panther #3
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Jan 1999 · Marvel · 2.50 USD; 3.75 CAD

📊 ~75,037 copies sold its debut month

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“Original Sin”

★ 1st appearance — White Wolf★ 1st appearance — Achebe

About this Issue

Black Panther (Vol. 3) #3 — cover-titled 'Original Sin' — is the debut issue of Reverend Doctor Michael Ibn al-Hajj Achebe, the most formidable villain Christopher Priest created for T'Challa's rogues gallery and widely regarded as the character's definitive arch-nemesis, conceived by Priest as the 'Joker to Panther's Batman.' The issue also contains the first (cameo) appearance of Hunter, the White Wolf — T'Challa's adopted white brother and exiled leader of Wakanda's brutal secret police, the Hatut Zeraze — whose full debut came one issue later in #4. Together, the seeds planted here launched the multi-part 'Client' arc's central conflict: an unhinged, Mephisto-backed usurper seizing Wakanda while a distracted T'Challa is held hostage to chaos in New York, a politically charged storyline that repositioned Black Panther as one of Marvel's most sophisticated ongoing titles of the late 1990s.

In "Original Sin," Black Panther is reeling from the aftermath of his investigation into the Tomorrow Fund, his focus strained by the looming threat of a coup in Wakanda. As his resolve wavers, the cunning presence of Mephisto begins to test him in ways he never anticipated. Written by Christopher Priest and Joe Quesada, with art by Mark Texeira and cover by Mark Texeira, this 1999 issue captures a pivotal moment in the Panther’s journey—where loyalty and temptation collide.

writer Christopher Priest · writer Joe Quesada · artist, inker Mark Texeira · inker Alitha Martinez · colorist Brian Haberlin · letterer Comicraft's Siobhan Hanna · letterer Rich S. · cover Mark Texeira

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CGC 9.4 $20*

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History

The series was the flagship launch title of Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti's Marvel Knights imprint, which gave Priest and artist Mark Texeira unusual creative latitude within the Marvel line. Priest, already the first African American writer-editor in mainstream comics, brought a deliberately fractured, non-linear narrative structure to the opening arc — filtered through the deadpan perspective of State Department attache Everett K. Ross — that was strikingly different from conventional superhero storytelling of the era. Issue #3 carried a January 1999 cover date and was plotted and scripted by Priest with art and cover by Texeira; Joe Quesada received a co-writer credit on the issue per retailer records, consistent with his hands-on editorial involvement across the early Marvel Knights books.

Trivia · 8 facts

First full appearance of Reverend Doctor Michael Ibn al-Hajj Achebe (a.k.a. 'Achebe'), created by Christopher Priest and Mark Texeira; the character was foreshadowed by name in #2 and debuted in full here in #3.
First cameo appearance of Hunter / White Wolf, T'Challa's adopted white brother and former head of the Wakandan secret police, the Hatut Zeraze; his full debut and the Hatut Zeraze's first full appearance occurred in #4 (February 1999).
Story title: 'Original Sin' — third chapter of the 'Client' opening arc of Christopher Priest's landmark Black Panther run (Vol. 3, #1–62, 1998–2003).
Published January 1999 under the Marvel Knights imprint; written by Christopher Priest (with Joe Quesada co-writing credit), art and cover by Mark Texeira; editor-in-chief Bob Harras.
Achebe's backstory is revealed here in flashback: a Ghudazan farmer driven to murderous insanity after being betrayed and left for dead, he sold his soul to Mephisto and systematically murdered everyone connected to his wife before engineering a Wakandan coup.
Priest explicitly modeled Achebe on three fictional archetypes: the Joker (chaos and theatricality), Hannibal Lecter (cultured menace), and Hans Gruber from Die Hard (brilliant, calculating villainy).
The Fantastic Four (Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm) appear in the issue, primarily as visions or hallucinations experienced by Everett K. Ross, alongside vision/cameo appearances by Captain America, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Goliath, and Hawkeye.
Reprinted in: Black Panther by Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 TPB (Marvel, 2015) and the Marvel Knights Black Panther by Priest & Texeira: The Client hardcover collection.