AUSTIN, Texas — Black Panther, Marvel’s first Black superhero, is celebrating the 60th anniversary of his comic debut this month — a milestone that perfectly coincides with 100 years of Black History Month. To celebrate, Marvel is releasing a 60th anniversary one-shot issue featuring T’Challa and his legacy, written by Austin-based comics writer Evan Narcisse.

Narcisse has previously worked on Black Panther, who first appeared in Fantastic Four #52 in 1966, along with other projects for Marvel and DC. A fan of Black Panther since his youth, Narcisse said he was honored to helm the project alongside several other writers. 

“I probably first encountered Black Panther as a teenager or a pre-teen… as a team member of the Avengers, not in a solo book,” Narcisse said. “That was enough to get me hooked. The way he spoke, the kind of remote, exotic nature of Wakanda when compared to other locations and comic books, really pulled me in. I wasn’t able to articulate it then, but it felt like there was a cultural connection for me.”

Narcisse said T’Challa acted as “a little bit of like a side dish or seasoning for a story” until the 1970s book “Jungle Action” by Don McGregor, where he and his homeland took center stage.

“What happens in that run is that you see more insight into what kind of politics and culture they have; the idea that they’re kind of xenophobic really takes off there,” Narcisse said. “It was a little bit of subtext in previous stories, but during this era, they really start to show up.”

Narcisse’s love for the character further continued throughout the years with runs written by Jack Kirby, Christopher Priest and Reginald Huldin. However, it wasn’t until a blossoming friendship with author Ta-Nehisi Coates that his connection to the character felt closer. It also opened the door to Narcisse’s first Black Panther project.

“His editor at Marvel said, ‘Hey, Evan really seems to know his Black Panther stuff. Do you think he’d be interested in writing a project for us?’” Narcisse said. “That turned into ‘Rise of the Black Panther.’ My comics career would not have happened without my friendship with Ta-Nehisi. I had to prove myself, my own merits, but he consulted on ‘Rise of the Black Panther.’”

Narcisse said that having a Black character who is an immigrant seeing what life is like in the United States, along with famous stories of him fighting racist hate groups, made him connect with the character, since his family has a Haitian background. 

“The idea that a character like that could be shown in the spotlight was really important to me growing up, back in the day, comics were exceedingly white, the main characters and the creators,” Narcisse said. “This is like a little bit of light that lets me understand that stories from my culture and background can be told through this medium.”

Narcisse further elaborated on the cultural significance of the character and how he has impacted popular culture and the approach of Black characters.

“As Black creators started to become more of a professional class in comics, you saw a deeper understanding and expression of Black history and the Black diaspora across the world,” Narcisse said. “T’Challa is a character that serves as a nexus for all these different characters and cultures and people from different walks of life who share an ancestral background to kind of talk about what it means to exist in the world as a Black person. You can talk about deeper themes, and I think that’s one of the reasons the character has lasted for 60 years.”

After working on “Rise of the Black Panther” and other projects for Marvel, Narcisse was curious to see what Marvel had in mind for Black Panther’s 60th anniversary, also describing his role as the writer of this story.

“I was a little bit proactive and emailed an editor I knew over there to see if they were going to be working anything up to celebrate T’Challa’s anniversary,” Narcisse said. “So, this is kind of an anthology, but there’s a framing story that ties everything together. My job on this issue was to do the framing story that ties various individual chapters together.”

Narcisse described more of what to expect with the upcoming release, saying that the celebration is going to be worthy.

“There’s a framing story by me and there are other chapters done by different creative teams that are going to focus on T’Challa’s relationships with different characters across the Marvel Universe,” Narcisse said. “Different stories that explore different themes, and it’s a great celebration of the character. There are a few other Black comic characters that predate him, but in the modern era, he’s a super important character, and this special makes a point to celebrate that.”

The Black Panther 60th Anniversary Special is scheduled to hit the shelves on Feb. 18, 2026.