Rider professor pens new Black Panther comic, her first for Marvel

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When Marvel Comics returns with the first edition of its MARVEL’S VOICES anthology series on Feb. 15, it will feature a story conceived and written by a Rider University communications professor. 

Dr. Sheena Howard, a professor in the Department of Communication, Journalism and Media, is the author of “The Illusion of Fairness,” one of five new stories about the heroes of Wakanda in MARVEL’S VOICES: WAKANDA FOREVER #1. The release will celebrate Black History Month through the subject of Black Panther but also the Black writers and illustrators bringing his world to life. 

Howard’s eight-page story centers on a new trainee of the Dora Milaje, the women warriors who protect their African nation of Wakanda. While a competent fighter, the trainee is taught a lesson about the need to outsmart as well as outpower opponents. To convey the point, Howard integrates the telling of a traditional African folktale featuring a character that originated in Ghana named Anansi, who is commonly depicted as a spider. 

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“Over the years, people have been telling me they want more African mythology in the comics they were seeing,” says Howard, who is a scholar of Black comics in addition to being a creator. “I knew they wanted that, so I always thought, ‘When I get the opportunity at the highest level, I am going to take that into consideration.’”

For her previous byline, in DC Comics’ Wonder Woman Black & Gold #6, Howard dipped into Greek mythology, a common comics trope, she says. “There’s always Greek mythology. One reason I’m so proud of this new story is that I was able to sprinkle in a great folk story told in African mythology into a Marvel story.”

Howard is no stranger to the Black Panther universe or Black comics more broadly. She previously served as the editor of a 2021 book-length collection of essays about the 2018 movie Black Panther called Why Wakanda Matters, in which she also contributed a chapter. In 2014, she became the first Black woman to win an Eisner Award, which is considered the Oscars of comics, for her first book, Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation. Howard is the author of 2017's Encyclopedia of Black Comics, which features a foreword written by Henry Louis Gates Jr. 

Her other comic book writing credits include co-writing Superb, one of the first comics to ever feature a superhero with Down syndrome. This May, she will also be credited as an author in Originate, Motivate, Innovate: 7 Steps for Building a Billion Dollar Network by the entrepreneur Shelly Omilade Bell, published by Wiley Press.

“I’ve been putting in the work,” Howard says. “I’m super happy and grateful and I want to do more. I’m hoping to write more Wonder Woman. I would love to write more for Marvel. Right now I’m focused on building myself up as a creative writer in general.”

For all of her knowledge and insight about comics, Howard never read comics until she was an adult. She first encountered them when she began looking for a topic for her doctoral dissertation as a student at Howard University and landed on Aaron McGruder’s Boondocks comic strip.

Coming relatively late to comics, and then viewing them primarily through an academic lens, has made Howard feel like she has a unique perspective as a creator. “I study comics from a historical and political perspective, so when it comes to writing them, one of the things I do is try to put in the things that I believe have been missing,” she says.