Marvel Introduces White Black Panther… Kind Of
Did Marvel turn a meme mocking their penchant for race-swapping their characters into a reality? No, but the way people are going on about it, you’d think they did. Marvel recently released the first issue of a new miniseries under the Marvel Knights banner called The World to Come. (If you’ve never heard of it, Marvel Knights was a line of comics that told more mature, adult-themed stories – meaning they had a lot of graphic violence and cursing; characters like the Punisher, Daredevil, and Wolverine flourished in this imprint.) Set in a hypothetical future in the mainline Marvel 616 universe and thus removed from continuity, The World to Come sees T’Challa, the Black Panther, fight a challenger to his Wakandan throne in ritual combat like that depicted in Black Panther, the movie. However, this time, T’Challa holds back because the challenger is his son, Ketema, a new character for this story who is decked out in an alternate Black Panther costume and mask. As described by Bounding Into Comics, while T’Challa is the better fighter, Katema refuses to surrender and is determined to fight to the death, but T’Challa won’t kill his son and, ultimately, is defeated. This means Ketema is the new Black Panther and ruler of Wakanda, and after his victory is assured, Ketema removes his mask to reveal that he is a blond-haired, blue-eyed white guy. Unsurprisingly, it reminded many of this:
Marvel Makes The Black Panther A White Man
How Triggered Are You On A Scale From 1-10? pic.twitter.com/JtvOCK20Jz
— New Black Street (@NewBlackStreet) June 4, 2025
Now, I can see the humor in hyping this up, considering how obsessed Marvel is with racial politics right now, but ultimately, this is nothing. Granted, beyond the pages Bounding Into Comics shared, I haven’t read The World to Come, but it seems pretty clear to me that Katema is the villain, or at least an antagonist that T’Challa will have to overcome and maybe knock some sense into. The situation is hardly what I’d call replacing Black Panther with a white man; in fact, it reminds me of the plot of the movie in which the villain, Killmonger, defeats T’Challa in combat, takes over as the new Black Panther, and rules Wakanda, necessitating T’Challa to regroup and reclaim his throne and title from the usurper. It’s not exactly an original story, and it’s not all that difficult to predict how it will go. That it’s not in the main Marvel continuity only adds to its insignificance. This is just an isolated story involving Black Panther, not a replacement for the character. It’s also an opportunity to tell an interesting story about T’Challa and how he faces a new challenge – having to fight his wayward, angry, misguided son without killing him, especially when his refusal to do so has allowed the wrong person to take the throne. There’s plenty of fertile ground to mine with that premise, and if Marvel plays this right, The World to Come could be a good miniseries.
And yes, I get the elephant in the room: Ketema is white, and Wakanda is an African nation where only black people have ruled, with Black Panther always having been a black man (or woman, I suppose). I would guess that Ketema being white is a visual representation of his unsuitability to rule Wakanda, the signal to the reader that something has gone wrong, and T’Challa will have to put it right. That’s perfectly fine (if executed well), and beyond the laughs, I don’t think it’s anything to get up in arms about. The hardest part to accept is that T’Challa somehow had a son with light white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. At first, I figured Ketema was adopted or at least taken in as a foundling, but in one panel, T’Challa tells him that he “gave [him] life,” suggesting he’s Ketema’s biological father. I don’t know if Marvel will explain this beyond Ketema having a white mother, but it’s a bigger leap than a white man defeating T’Challa and taking his kingdom from him. Still and all, it mostly depends on how good the story is. I don’t exactly trust Marvel to treat something like this with much thought and nuance, but it’s possible they’ll make something good of it. We’ll see how The World to Come shakes out in the coming months.
Let us know what you think of a white man becoming Black Panther in the comments!
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Comments (2)
That Laura Ingraham thing pissed me off, but unfortunately, it’s par for the course for most right-wing influencers and other figures, who, despite all their bellyaching about being opposed to feminism, are just as bad as the feminists they pretend to hate. They just come at it from a different angle. And right now, while the Democrats are losing men in massive numbers, it’s particularly idiotic for them to do this.
This is like a Capt. America HYDRA moment. Also, I’ve noticed the agents of social turbulence out there causing strife and quarreling. I’ve seen it along gender lines with the trans stuff and Tomi Lahren belittling men with Laura Ingraham, that wacko. We must keep in mind that the media is the sellout privileged payola taking class that would sacrifice their own loved ones for career, money and fame. The media has been trolling us before the internet came along and people started talking back, which exposed the issue of free speech as being a fake one. Always punch up and remember, coporate America is a front. A lot of these companies are front operations to grift you and to cause you to fight among yourselves. It’s in the bible. Story of Gideon. Cram all peoples together, turn out the lights, blow the horns, and make them kill each other fighting while you sit back on your media perch. Yes, our enemy is not necessarily overseas, for sure.