Jesse Holland grew up devouring Marvel comic books about Black Panther King T’Challa, who ruled the mythical African kingdom of Wakanda.
So when Marvel called the 46-year-old journalist and author to write the companion novel to the studio’s blockbuster movie, The Black Panther, Holland was thrilled.
“It was the culmination of a lifelong dream for me,” Holland said.
“I’ve always wanted a chance to help mould some of the great Marvel superheroes and to do that with the Black Panther, one of the first comic book characters I ever read, was incredible.”
Holland, who works by day as a reporter covering race and ethnicity for the Associated Press, wrote the novel, Who is the Black Panther? at night, in the basement of his house.
The Black Panther characters, whom Holland knew so well, seemed to write themselves.
Jesse Holland, a journalist and author, wrote the companion novel to Marvel’s “Black Panther” movie. Picture: Washington Post/ Toni L. Sandys
“The characters would speak,” Holland recalled.
“I’d say, ‘I’m putting you in the scene. What would you say? What would you do?’ “
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The book was released in September, just as publicity for the movie was ramping up. The book, which is an adaptation of the 2005 Black Panther graphic novel by Reginald Hudlin and John Romita Jr., sold out fast on Amazon. The paperback is due on book shelves in April.
The original Black Panther character T’Challa, a black superhero with super intelligence, super strength, super wealth and super technology, was created in 1966, at the height of the black power movement, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
The Black Panther film, directed by Ryan Coogler, has been a huge box-office success and Holland is enjoying being part of a black cultural watershed.
He had already written four books, including The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African American Slaves in the White House, when Marvel approached him.
They’d seen his companion novel for another blockbuster movie: Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He’d written about Finn, a former First Order stormtrooper.
After Finn’s Story was published in 2016, an editor at Marvel called Holland.
“She says, ‘We have this character, the Black Panther,’ “ Holland recalled. “There’s never been a novel about the Black Panther.”
Marvel wanted to recount the origin of the Black Panther in novel form, update the story and introduce the superhero to new readers.
“Most of the world didn’t know the character until last year,” Holland said.
“If you want a succinct origin story to tell you who he is, my novel is a good place to start. You’ll see a lot of characters in the movie in the novel. We are drawing from the same wellspring.”
“Who is the Black Panther?” tells the story of the warrior king who defends the mythical African nation of Wakanda from colonialism.
Holland opened the novel with a fast-paced action scene outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, where the Black Panther races to protect a 10-year-old boy and his mother.
When villains threaten the Mall, the Black Panther, disguised behind a cat mask, with his sharp metal claws extended and his white eyes glowing, pounces on gunmen whose bullets bounce off the superhero.
Invaders, described as “a powerful army of super-powered mercenaries,” try to steal Wakanda’s wealth. “Even with the assembled might of Wakanda,” the book asks, “can the Black Panther prevail against such a massive invading force?”
People have been waiting a very long time to see a major black hero on the screen and on the page, Holland said.
“For years, people of colour have had very few of these modern mythological heroes that look like us,” Holland said.
“Now we can go to the movies and pick up books and have these major protagonists who we can see ourselves in.
“Our children will see these heroes and be able to say: ‘He looks like me. I can be him.’ And that is so very important.”
The success of the movie and the book, Holland said, “destroys forever the Hollywood myth that people won’t watch movies about heroes who are black, written by black people and directed by black people.”