Ultimate Black Panther #23
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAs the penultimate chapter of Bryan Hill's 24-issue run on Earth-6160's Ultimate Black Panther, issue #23 functions as the narrative crescendo that nearly two years of careful setup had been building toward — a full-scale battle for Wakanda's survival against the Child of Light and the Vodu-Khan's Progenitor-driven conspiracy. The issue is notable for delivering the apparent death of Inan, the Ultimate Universe's original Sorceress Supreme and one of the freshest new characters Hill introduced to the imprint, a figure who had no predecessor in the old Ultimate line. It also caps the long-running question of whether Erik Killmonger — reimagined in this universe as a freedom fighter rather than a villain — could truly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with T'Challa, and Shuri's arc of betrayal and partial redemption reaches a pivotal moment when she reveals a Vibranium-powered weapon she secretly built for her brother.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Ultimate Black Panther launched in February 2024 as the second ongoing series of Marvel's relaunched Ultimate Universe (Earth-6160), developed by writer Bryan Edward Hill and series artist Stefano Caselli, with editors Wil Moss and Michelle Marchese overseeing the line. Hill publicly cited Frank Herbert's Dune and George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire as touchstones for his world-building approach, and that political-mythology framework — visible in the mystic Vodu-Khan sisterhood and the sentient Vibranium mythology — shaped the entire arc leading to issue #23. By the time the series reached its penultimate chapter, interior art duties had been shared with Carlos Nieto, who handled the linework for #23 while Caselli provided the cover with colorist David Curiel; letterer Cory Petit completed the creative team.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Released December 10, 2025, with a cover date of February 2026; it is the penultimate issue (#23 of 24) of the Ultimate Black Panther (2024) series set on Earth-6160.
- Written by Bryan Hill with interior art by Carlos Nieto, cover art by Stefano Caselli and David Curiel, and lettering by Cory Petit — editor Wil Moss oversaw the title throughout its run.
- Inan, the Ultimate Universe's Sorceress Supreme (an original character with no counterpart in prior Marvel continuity), suffers an apparent death in this issue at the hands of the Child of Light — later revealed in issue #24 to be a consciousness-separation rather than a true end.
- The issue brings together nearly the full cast Hill assembled over the series — T'Challa, Storm, Killmonger, Shuri, Okoye, the Dora Milaje, Bast, and Inan — for the climactic battle against the Child of Light and the Vodu-Khan/Progenitor forces.
- Shuri partially redeems her earlier duplicitous arc by presenting T'Challa with a weapon she secretly constructed for him — referred to in the issue as the 'Fists of Wakanda' — which becomes the turning point of the battle.
- The Child of Light, a being born of the forced union of T'Challa and Storm and revealed to be a pure force of chaos seeking Wakanda's Vibranium, serves as the primary antagonist; the issue ends with an explosion of the Panther Mech that causes both T'Challa and the Child of Light to vanish.
- Issue #23 is collected in the trade paperback Ultimate Black Panther By Bryan Hill Vol. 4: Destiny and Destruction, which gathers issues #19–24 along with the Black Panther chapter of Ultimate Universe: Finale (2026) #1.
- Two variant covers were published alongside the standard edition: a 1:25 incentive variant by Meghan Hetrick and an open-order variant by Ernanda Souza.
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