WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Miles Morales: Spider-Man #36, now on sale from Marvel Comics
The Marvel multiverse is full of impressive and shocking figures, including surprising variants of classic heroes that can take on different forms. That extends to plenty of fan-favorite takes on classic heroes, including one that combines one of Marvel’s most important heroes with an unlikely but surprisingly fitting cowboy aesthetic.
Miles Morales and Shifts’ adventures across the multiverse in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #36 by Saladin Ahmed, Christopher Allen, Victor Olazaba, Scott Hanna, David Curiel, VC’s Cory Petit, and VC’s Ariana Maher reintroduced readers to King — the cowboy variant of Black Panther who debuted in Exiles.
While chasing his uncle across the multiverse, Miles Morales and his clone/adopted brother Shift found themselves hopping between various realities in quick succession. This included a grim zombie-infested cityscape as well as the animal-filled world of Spider-Ham. Along the way, however, Miles and Shift ended up in the old west-inspired reality of Earth-18136. After facing off with the Rhino of this timeline, they encountered one of the world’s most important heroes — T’Challa, aka King. Considering their shared multiversal experience, King was quick to accept the pair as heroes and with their help took down the Tombstone of his reality before venturing off through another interdimensional gate.
King was introduced in Exiles #6 by Saladin Ahmed and Rod Reis, which was the same title that helped bring Captain Carter to comics. King hails from a reality where the Marvel heroes and villains were born over a century earlier than they were in the core-Marvel timeline of Earth-616. In this world, like in many others, T’Challa and Shuri were the Prince and Princess of Wakanda. However, their father was eventually murdered by this world’s Magneto, who’d come seeking Vibranium. Forsaking his princely duty and destiny, T’Challa ventured across the world to hunt down Magneto. With the help of the Exiles, King was able to exact his revenge, eventually slaying Magneto. Unable to return to Wakanda, King seemingly elected to remain in the United States after working alongside the Exiles against the Watchers.
King was a surprising addition to the Exiles. Before the 2018 relaunch of the series, the roster had largely been defined by mutant members — although one version of Black Panther, the son of his world’s T’Challa and Storm, did become a member of the group briefly. But King was an instant hero within the group, forming a close bond with the cartoonish Wolverine variant known as Wolvie. He remained perpetually cool and collected, even as the absurdities of the multiverse came blaring into his world. It’s nice to see King again, who hasn’t appeared since the ending of Exiles presumably returned everyone to their respective realities.
King was one of the best variants of Black Panther that’s been introduced yet in the multiverse. He is a fun take on the Wakandan king who remained an impressive hero while also carrying a softer edge than most incarnations of T’Challa. Given his experience with the multiverse and time spent working with Captain Carter, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him step into the ongoing conflict between Avenger Prime and their multiverse forces against the Council of Red and the Masters of Evil. If so, then Miles’ brief encounter with King might just be a portent of team-ups yet to come — setting the stage for one of the most exciting variants of Black Panther to formally return in a big way.
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