Preview: Black Panther And The Crew #1 From Marvel

Marvel Comics has released a preview of the first issue of Black Panther and the Crew, the third ongoing series starring Black Panther.

I’ll hand it to Marvel Comics. When they decide to get behind a character or concept, they go all in with complete abandon.

First it was the Inhumans. Marvel decided that they wanted to raise the profile of the Inhumans in a effort to have them replace the X-Men and mutants in general and the “feared and hated” group in the Marvel Universe.

Much of this had to do with 20th Century Fox having the film rights to the X-Men and how much money Marvel can make and things like that. But for whatever reason, rather suddenly there were Inhumans everywhere. Hell, the whole Infinity event was a way to dramatically increase the number of Inhumans in the Marvel Universe.

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We had Uncanny Inhumans, All-New Inhumans and what seemed like an endless stream of one-shots and miniseries. You couldn’t peruse the shelves of your local comic shop without getting beaten over the head with the Inhumans.

The result? To this day most readers still don’t care about the Inhumans.

Oh well.

Now Marvel has decided that the next character they really, really want you to care about is Black Panther. Much of this has to do with the movie coming to a theater near you very soon, but it also has to do with Marvel wanting to add some diversity to their lineup.

First we had the excellent Black Panther, which has been an incredible read. Then we had a second ongoing, Black Panther: World of Wakanda which was also very good but not quite as good as Black Panther.

And now we’re getting a third ongoing Black Panther title, Black Panther And The Crew.

Written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Yona Harvey with artwork by the legendary Butch Guice, Black Panther And The Crew is essentially the Avengers featuring all African American characters. It promises to be much more “street” than other team books Marvel publishes and considering the lineup, could be very good if done right.

From the Marvel solicitation:

"Prepare for a whole new team to take on the vile underbelly of the Marvel Universe. It’s time to meet THE CREW – Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage, Misty Knight and Manifold. The death of a Harlem activist kicks off a surprising mystery that will unravel new secrets about the Marvel Universe’s past…and set the stage for its future! Fear, hate and violence loom. But don’t worry – The Crew’s got this!"

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Black Panther and the Crew #1 goes on sale April 12 with a cover by John Cassaday with variant covers by Damion Scott, Rich Buckler, Jim Cheung and John Typer Christopher.