Marvel Comics Introduces T’Challa’s White Son Ketema As Future Black Panther And King Of Wakanda
In a move that is sure to cause the exact explosion of discourse it was intended to, Marvel Comics has kicked off their latest visit to their Marvel Knights imprint with the revelation that at some point in the near future of Earth-616, T’Challa will find himself challenged for both Wakandan Throne and the Black Panther by its heir apparent – his blonde-haired, white-skinned son, Ketema.
Unbelievable as it may seem, this twist to Wakanda’s canon was confirmed in the debut issue of Christopher Priest and Joe Quesada’s new Marvel Knights: The World To Come miniseries.
The latest title in the Marvel Knights imprint, as originally created by Quesada to denote those books that were a bit too ‘edgy’ for the publisher’s general audience, The World To Come flings readers into the near future of the Marvel Universe to find a Wakanda embroiled in political unrest as a new resistance group known as the Aquamarines wages an ongoing coup attempt against the country’s traditional ruling regime.
As to how the world’s most advanced nation found itself in such a state of disarray, it is soon revealed that the heart-shaped dominoes began to fall when its current king, T’Challa, is met with a formal combat challenge for the throne by his son Ketema, a formidable masked warrior who has found himself fed up with his father’s indifference towards his people’s autonomy.
Though he easily proves himself the more competent warrior, T’Challa finds himself unable to bring the challenge to an end, as thanks to his son’s adamant refusal to voluntarily surrender, the only way to do so would require him to outright kill Ketema.
Mistaking his father’s mercy as patronization, Ketema ultimately brings things to a close after he flies into a rage, in doing so taking his father by surprise and dropping him with a brutal three-hit combo.
With T’Challa unable to stand, Ketema turns to the elders of Wakanda and formally declares himself the country’s new top cat.
Proclaiming “I am king now. Wakanda is MINE!”, the new Black Panther proceeds to remove his mask and reveal himself to his new subjects.
And much to their surprise, rather than a black-skinned African, T’Challa’s son sports far paler skin and blonder hair than his fellow countrymen.
At current, outside of his existence, physical appearance, and hatred of his father, no further details have been presented regarding Ketema’s background.
Notably, the issue reveals that at some point following his divorce from X-Men mainstay Storm, T’Challa reunited with his first fiancé, Monica Lynne, and the two eventually became pregnant.
Given Ketema’s complexion, it seems unlikely that Monica, a Black woman, is his actual mother.
Thus, current speculation suggests that the new King of Wakanda may by T’Challa’s son by another, yet-to-be-introduced woman, or an orphan he adopted and brought into his legacy à la Batman and his various Robins.
It should also be noted that, in regards to the canon status of Ketema and his time ruling over Wakanda, the exact classification of Marvel Knights: A World To Come is a bit complicated.
While every book that has thus far released under the Marvel Knights banner has been set firmly in Earth-616, the fact that A World To Come takes place at a vague point in the future invites confusion around whether or not the book is considered full-on mainstream canon.
To this end, as explained by Priest himself in an interview with AIPT Comics, “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.”
Ultimately, more information regarding Ketema’s history, canon status, and tenure as Black Panther will come to light when Marvel Knights: The World To Com Vol. 1 #2 hits shelves on July 9th.
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