The company has hired Mark Bailey , who hails from the documentary film world, to pen a take on the character, the king of a resource-rich fictional African country who becomes a super hero. Marvel's Kevin Feige is producing. The Black Panther first appeared in the pages of the Fantastic Four comic in 1966 and is considered the first black hero in mainstream comics. A movie version was in development at Columbia in the early 1990s with Wesley Snipes on board to star in an Indiana Jones-style adventure. Snipes remained attached to Panther even when the property transferred to Artisan Entertainment, best known for making The Blair Witch Project. At the time it had several Marvel films in development. Marvel reacquired the rights to Panther in 2005 when it absorbed a host of character licenses from Lionsgate, which bought Artisan in 2003. Back in 2010 BET was set to release an animated version of The Black Panther on it's channel but it never made it. Of all places