Shuri returns to the throne in her own Marvel comic by Nnedi Okorafor
According to Marvel, Shuri, the technological wizard behind much of T’Challa’s weaponry and the suits he dons as Black Panther and protector of Wakanda, will be getting her own comic book title soon. Penned by science fiction phenomenon Nnedi Okorafor, who was recently named one of the best science fiction writers of the past 150 years, the series will focus on Shuri’s return to the throne after T’Challa’s space expedition unexpectedly leaves Wakanda without a protector.
As Marvel summarizes: “Shuri is happiest in a lab, surrounded by gadgets of her own creation. She’d rather be testing gauntlets than throwing them. But a nation without a leader is a vulnerable one — and Shuri may have to choose between Wakanda’s welfare and her own.”
Releasing in October of 2018, the title will be illustrated by Eisner nominee Leonardo Romero. As previously reported, Okorafor has been tapped by Marvel before for both Long Live the King, an offshoot of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Black Panther run, and Wakanda Forever, which follows the exploits of Okoye and members of the Dora Milaje.
Okorafor tells Bustle via email: “”[Shuri is] an African young woman of genius level intelligence who is obsessed with technology and has traveled spiritually so far into the past that she’s seen Wakanda before it was Wakanda. The Ancestors call her Ancient Future. And she’s super ambitious. What do I love about her? Alllll that and more… She’s a character in the Marvel Universe who really sings to me.”
Cover Art for Shuri: