The recent release of Marvel’s Avengers War for Wakanda DLC has players rushing back to the RPG en masse and a lot of the outfits that released for T’Challa take inspiration from his many iterations in the comic book world. My favorite comes by way of writer David Liss and artist Francesco Francavilla’s gritty Black Panther run, The Man Without Fear, where T’Challa dons the cowl as Hell’s Kitchen’s sole protector in place of Matt Murdock.

In the DLC, the outfit is called “The Strategist,” with all the trappings of an elite tactician and an imposing color scheme to match. The dozens of other quality outfits, nameplates, emotes, and more for Black Panther round out a stunning expansion that has players explore Wakanda in new ways. Writer David Liss introduced me to one of my favorite runs of the king of Wakanda: The Man Without Fear. T’Challa is crestfallen after the events of Doomwar and exiles himself to one of the comic book world’s most tenacious environments: Hell’s Kitchen. In typical Black Panther fashion, he seeks help from no one, stubbornly embarks on this journey alone, and ultimately learns more about himself through a series of life-threatening battles with several antagonists.

In an interview with CBR News back in 2010, Liss said about the new journey for T’Challa that “It’s a great setting. The Marvel version of Hell’s Kitchen is such a great place to set this story because there’s always something awful going on somewhere, usually in multiple places.” TMWF isn’t the only superhero work under Liss’ belt; he’s also written Spider-Man: Hostile Takeover, which was the official prequel to the wildly successful Marvel’s Spider-Man title by Insomniac Games in 2018, and Mystery Men: The Golden Age.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Liss to talk comics, Marvel’s Avengers, and his new book The Peculiarities. You can find our conversation in full below!