10 Insane Alternate Versions Of Black Panther You Won't Believe Exist
3. Shuri As The Black Panther
The mantle of the Black Panther typically goes to whoever is sitting on the throne of Wakanda at the time, so if T'Challa isn't the ruler of Wakanda, they would just hand it off to the next in line for the crown. And at one point, that meant Shuri.
There are many different universes in which T'Challa is incapacitated, the most famous of these alternate takes being the most recent version of Exiles where Shuri must take the throne when her brother T'Chaka mysteriously disappears (joins the Exiles).
But in terms of the 616 universe, there was a time when Shuri was the actual Black Panther. While she wasn't on the throne for long before the Incursion event caused her to be put into a coma by The Cabal. This would of course lead straight into the excellent 2018 run on Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates where Shuri found herself between life and death wandering the Djalia, the transcendent plane made from Wakanda's collective memory.
While T'Challa did take back up his mantle during this time, Shuri returned from her journey in the Djalia more powerful than ever before, so if she ever becomes Black Panther again, the bad guys will definitely be in trouble.