Ultimate Black Panther #7

History

The series was announced at New York Comic Con 2023 and launched February 7, 2024, as one of the founding titles of Marvel's revived Ultimate Universe — a line overseen by Jonathan Hickman and set on the newly created Earth-6160, growing directly from the events of Ultimate Invasion. Writer Bryan Edward Hill, whose prior Wakanda-adjacent work included the critically received Killmonger miniseries (2019), was selected to build Wakanda's role in this altered world from the ground up alongside artist Stefano Caselli, who had co-illustrated the line's foundational Ultimate Universe #1 one-shot with Hickman. In interviews timed to the launch, Hill described Caselli's ability to move between intimate character scenes and large-scale cosmic imagery as a key reason he felt emboldened to write more ambitiously; issue #7, with its theological turn on Vibranium's nature, is a direct product of that creative confidence. Editor Wilson Moss shepherded the book throughout this run.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Released August 7, 2024 (cover-dated October 2024), written by Bryan Edward Hill, pencilled and inked by Stefano Caselli, colored by David Curiel, lettered by VC's Cory Petit, edited by Wilson Moss.
• First appearance of the Garden of Bast as a named story location within the Ultimate Universe (Earth-6160), where T'Challa meets with Matron Imala of the Vodu-Khan.
• Opens the 'War of the Kingdoms' story arc — the series' second arc, later collected as Volume 2: 'Gods and Kings' (issues #7–12).
• Introduces the concept that Anti-Vibranium (the resource powering Ra and Khonshu's Moon Knight forces) may be a living organism, not simply a mineral — a revelation delivered through Matron Imala that fundamentally shifts T'Challa's understanding of the ongoing war.
• Features Killmonger (Erik Killmonger, Earth-6160) and Storm (Ororo Munroe, Earth-6160) in their supporting roles as guerrilla fighters allied with Wakanda against Moon Knight; in this Ultimate continuity, they operate independently of Wakandan politics.
• Lord Khonshu and Lord Ra appear as the primary antagonists — reimagined not as a lunar deity and his avatar but as two power-hungry rulers of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms seeking godhood through conquest of the African continent.
• T'Challa dispatches Okoye, Killmonger, and Storm to seek out a mystical figure who can help explain the nature of Anti-Vibranium, setting up the arc's central quest.
• The issue carries a T+ (13 and up) rating and is part of the first-ever Black Panther solo series published within any iteration of Marvel's Ultimate Universe imprint.

Cast · 8 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Ultimate Black Panther

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#9 1st appearance — Sorcerer Supreme

Variants (2)