Princess Shuri starts her black panther costume

Throughout Shuri's solo comic book series, her mother and the rest of Wakanda pressured her to take over from Black Panther after T'Challa disappeared on a space mission. The first issue addressed Shuri about the consequences of T'Challa's disappearance. Although since then she has merged with Groot and teamed up with Tony Stark to reduce a black hole, Shuri refused to take his brother's place.

Part of the reason, she insisted in the first issue, is that she is more concerned with finding it than replacing it.

[EdRemarque:[Ednote:[EdRemarque:[Ednote:This post contains spoilers for Shuri # 5]

But the events of Shuri # 5, in which Shuri and Tony manage to evacuate Timbuktu and save the city from a black hole and oversee Moses Magnum, have put Shuri in the limelight on the international stage. Journalists wonder why she was not named Wakada's Black Panther.

At first, Shuri refuses, telling the spirits of her ancestors who hold her that she herself, her mother or the Wakanda women's council (which she needs) will not tell her to become the new black panther. T'Challa's secret pan-African council, the Egungun, also commits him to assume the title. She resists at first, but eventually realizes that it may be she who is wrong. She does not need to do this just for Wakanda, but for the entire African continent.

Shuri decides that the time has come – but she will do things her way. She creates a new Black Panther costume, incorporating the wings that she designed in the first issue. The Shuri Black Panther is ready to deploy its wings and to face alien invaders.

Nnedi Okorafor, Leonardo Romero / Marvel Comics

Becoming the black panther is a big problem for Shuri. This version of Princess Wakandan has more difficulty living in the shadow of her brother than her MCU counterpart, which partly explains her reluctance to completely fill her shoes. Taking up the torch shows that she is going beyond this insecurity. To give one's costume in costume indicates that it does not only replace one's brother; she will be his own hero.