Modern Black Panther Key Issues: Priest, Hudlin, Coates

Black Panther is a character born in 1966 — a genuine Silver Age grail with Fantastic Four #52. But T'Challa found a second life from 1998 onward: Christopher Priest, then Reginald Hudlin, then Ta-Nehisi Coates each built a richer, more densely populated Wakanda that now sits at the heart of the MCU. These are the modern era issues that define current collections.

This guide sticks to the verifiable: real-time eBay medians (via our estimator) and documented sale records. When a precise figure cannot be verified, we state it qualitatively rather than inventing it.

Modern Black Panther key issues (real values, June 2026)

Values = median of active eBay listings, all editions and all grades combined (our estimator, eBay.fr + eBay.com). Record sales are the best documented public transactions.

Record sources: GoCollect, Bleeding Cool (documented eBay sales).

Black Panther #1 (1998): Priest rebuilds the mythology

In November 1998, Christopher Priest and Mark Texeira relaunched T'Challa under the Marvel Knights imprint. This first issue packs multiple first appearances of characters now firmly established in the MCU:

• Okoye, General of the Dora Milaje (Danai Gurira on screen), makes her comics debut here.
• Nakia, a member of the Dora Milaje (Lupita Nyong'o in the film), also appears for the first time in this issue.
• Zuri and the Dora Milaje as an elite protective force round out this cluster of firsts.

The eBay median sits at €17 across 91 active listings (June 2026), all editions and grades combined, with a range of €7 to €37. It is the most liquid and highest-median issue in the Priest run. GoCollect recorded a CGC 9.8 FMV of approximately $170 in 2021 — dated data, but a useful ballpark for the high-grade market.

Black Panther #2 (2005): Shuri's first appearance

Reginald Hudlin and John Romita Jr. relaunched the character in February 2005 with a critically praised series. Shuri's debut — the younger sister of T'Challa who would eventually take the Black Panther mantle herself — is in issue #2, not #1, a confusion that trips up many collectors. In that founding scene, the young Shuri tries to enter the ritual to claim the title, only to be knocked aside at the last second when a thrown challenger lands on top of her.

The eBay median for issue #2 is €9 across 102 active listings (June 2026). That all-grades median is heavily weighted by reading copies. High-grade slabs tell a different story: documented CGC 9.8 sales reached $800 and above in autumn 2020, when MCU speculation around Letitia Wright's future in the franchise drove demand (source: Bleeding Cool, September 2020). The gap between raw and graded is substantial here.

The Coates run (2016): a culturally landmark first issue

In April 2016, Ta-Nehisi Coates — a National Book Award-winning author with no prior comics credit — launched "A Nation Under Our Feet" with artist Brian Stelfreeze. Issue #1 sold 253,259 physical copies in its month of release, the top-selling comic in the US market at that moment. The series earned a Hugo Award nomination. This is not a scarcity grail, but it is a prestige piece for any Coates-run collection.

Our estimator does not return a reliable isolated value for this issue (the aggregated listing pool covers too many variant editions). For a current price check, consult GoCollect or filter eBay completed sales by CGC grade directly.

Collector strategy (grounded in real data)

• Priest #1 (1998) = the most accessible MCU key. At a €17 median, it is the most credible entry point into the modern era, with genuine MCU firsts (Okoye, Nakia, Dora Milaje) at a reasonable price.
• Hudlin #2 (2005) = the Shuri key. The raw median (€9) hides a well-documented CGC market. In CGC 9.8 the upside potential is real. Worth watching if Shuri takes a larger MCU role.
• Grade is everything. On these issues the spread between a reading copy and a high-grade CGC slab can be enormous. Always verify the live value before buying — the medians above are from June 2026 and prices move.