Black Panther #50
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeBlack Panther #50 marks the most radical creative pivot in Christopher Priest's celebrated 1998 run: with T'Challa sidelined by a brain aneurysm, the issue introduces Kevin "Kasper" Cole — a multiracial, Jewish-identified New York cop who stumbles into heroism by borrowing a Black Panther costume for entirely self-serving reasons — as a new character wearing the mantle. That premise, a street-level impostor whose motivations are aggressively mundane, reframed the Black Panther identity as something that could be interrogated rather than simply inherited, and Cole's arc remains one of the more structurally unusual legacy-hero experiments Marvel published in the early 2000s. The issue also serves as the opening chapter of the 'Black and White' arc, which Priest himself described as a war between T'Challa and Hunter over the soul of a young outsider — a thematic engine that drew out the full complexity of White Wolf as a villain-mentor figure. Cole later graduated to his own identity as the third White Tiger, seeding the short-lived but critically noted team book The Crew (2003).
In "Black and White: A Crime Novel Prologue: Tin Men in the Garden of Good & Evil," former NYPD officer Kevin "Kasper" Cole dons the legacy of the Black Panther—using an old suit left behind in Harlem—to take on the ruthless 66 Bridges gang. Written by Christopher Priest and illustrated by Dan Fraga, with inks by Lary Stucker and colors by Jennifer Schellinger, this pivotal issue blends gritty urban crime with the mythos of Wakanda. The cover by Andy Kubert captures the tension of a man stepping into a mantle far larger than himself.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 18 grades ▾
This exact issue on ebay
Raw / ungraded ▾ $10–$49.95 7 listings
More listings for this title
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Writer Christopher Priest and penciller Dan Fraga created Kevin 'Kasper' Cole as a deliberate response to declining sales on the third volume of Black Panther; the editorial decision was made to retool the series at issue #50 by replacing T'Challa with an ordinary cop who had no royal claim on the costume. Priest's stated creative intent — to follow someone who starts the gig 'essentially as a scam' but grows into the heritage of the Black Panther — gave the 'Black and White' arc a crime-fiction sensibility distinct from the geopolitical intrigue of his earlier issues. Inker Larry Stucker, colorist Jennifer Schellinger, and letterer Paul Tutrone rounded out the production team, with Schellinger notably redesigning Hunter's visual appearance in this issue, giving him greying, silvery hair that distinguished his look from Mark Texeira's original portrayal.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Kevin 'Kasper' Cole, the NYPD officer who assumes the Black Panther identity and later becomes the third White Tiger — created by Christopher Priest and Dan Fraga.
- Cole's debut is framed as the prologue to the 'Black and White' story arc, in which he uses an old Black Panther costume left in Harlem to battle the 66 Bridges gang and expose corrupt police in his precinct.
- The issue establishes Cole's central motivation as entirely pragmatic: he wants a promotion to detective so he can afford to marry his pregnant girlfriend and move out of Harlem — a deliberately anti-heroic origin Priest described in his own words.
- Cole secretly obtains the costume from the home of Sgt. Francis Tork, a long-running supporting character and ally of T'Challa who had been safeguarding it — making Tork structurally central to Cole's origin.
- Hunter / White Wolf appears as a villain antagonist, confronting Cole and identifying him by name; this issue features Dan Fraga and colorist Jennifer Schellinger's redesign of Hunter with greying, silvery hair, a visual update from Mark Texeira's original dark-haired depiction in Black Panther vol. 3 #4 (1999).
- Several supporting characters receive their first appearances here alongside Cole, including Detective Bernie Scruggs, Ruth Cole, Gwen, Jonathan Payton 'Black Jack' Cole, and the 66 Bridges gang.
- The issue was published under Marvel's Marvel Knights imprint in December 2002, written by Christopher Priest with pencils by Dan Fraga, inks by Larry Stucker, colors by Jennifer Schellinger, and letters by Paul Tutrone.
- The 'Black and White' arc initiated here — collected in Black Panther by Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection Vol. 4 (issues #50–56 and #59–62, along with The Crew #1–7) — directly set up Cole as a founding member of The Crew, Priest's short-lived follow-up team book.
Cast · 3 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Black Panther by Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection #4 (2016), Black Panther by Christopher Priest Omnibus #2 (2024)
Key issues in Black Panther
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.