New Marvel Miniseries Presents an Alternate Future Where Black Panther's Son is White

Marvel is turning heads with the introduction of Ketema, the heir to T'Challa.

This story is doing the rounds on social media, but with the usual colorful interpretations of Internet talking heads. Let's dive into Marvel Knights: The World to Come #1, which just hit comic book stands today and is made by the team of legendary Black Panther scribe Christopher Priest, and the equally legendary artistic duo of illustrator Joe Quesada and colorist Richard Isanove. First off, this five-issue miniseries is actually pretty old—according to Priest, the story began gestating around 2017 and was created in equal parts between himself and Quesada. It's been sitting and waiting to be completed for years, owing to Quesda's previously stuffed schedule as Executive Vice President and Creative Director for Marvel.

Quesada has retired from those roles, however, and that gave him the time he needed to finally finish drawing the series. It was written in part as an anniversary celebration of the Marvel Knights line, the imprint which helped to land Quesada the Marvel Editor-in-Chief position and introduced the world to Priest's reimagining of Black Panther, T'Challa, and the nation of Wakanda. The project was also made in anticipation of the first Black Panther film coming out. Still, no matter what the impetus for its creation was, the timing simply didn't work out—until now. But with the first issue on stands, one of the biggest plot points that anyone is talking about is a certain character that is introduced.

SPOILERS FOR MARVEL KNIGHTS: THE WORLD TO COME #1 BELOW

The issue revolves around a battle between T'Challa and a combatant who is challenging him for the throne. That combatant's name is Ketema, T'Challa's son, who doffs his mask at the end of the battle... revealing a white face underneath. It's this detail that has fans in a flurry, with many perplexed how T'Challa could have a blonde-haired, blue-eyed son, and others outraged that a white man could be the ruler of Wakanda. Let's go through some of these points together.

For starters, no one seems all that confused by the original Nick Fury producing a son that is a dead ringer for Samuel L. Jackson. Yes, Nick Fury, Jr., who has been running around in Marvel Comics for years now, is a black man born from a white father. The reverse shouldn't be that big of a deal if people are willing to buy into it the other way around. Plus, let's also not ignore that we don't know what Ketema's origin is. The dialogue suggests he's the blood son of T'Challa, but all may not be as it seems in this first issue.

Another point, the more perplexing, arguably, is this outrage over Black Panther being white. Either on purpose or by accident, Marvel has essentially made the Ryan Gosling Black Panther meme (where Gosling is depicted as Black Panther in an effort to show how ridiculous race swapping characters is). It's entirely possible to envision a scenario where a white African, likely from South Africa, could be put in a position to rule Wakanda or some other African nation. Now, I'm someone who isn't a fan of race swaps, but that's not what this is. Ketema is a new character, he's T'Challa's son, and I'm fine with someone like Priest, who is frankly the reason fans even have Black Panther in the MCU as they know him, finding a way to make this work. But perhaps more to the point is that people can't have it both ways; diversity doesn't run in one direction, so if you're fine with black Nick Fury, then white Black Panther should be fair game.

The last point isn't meant to dismiss what Priest and Quesada are doing with this story, but it's also worth noting that The World to Come is an alternate future. It's not set in stone, it isn't the future of the 616 Marvel Universe—it's just one of a million different "what if?"-style takes on what's ahead for the Marvel pantheon. Priest himself said in an interview with AIPT "Our Black Panther is our world to come. It’s completely our own vision of the near future. It is not tied into any other bit of Marvel continuity, which gives us enormous freedom to do things like have Lockjaw show up, so we’re very happy about that."

So, if anyone is still in a tizzy after reading all that, I don't know what to tell you. But I do suggest just reading the comic and formulating your own take versus reading clickbait on social media. Heck, why not use social media to give your own ideas about Ketema and T'Challa online—I'd love to read it.