Okoye to the People

Ibi Zoboi, a National Book Award Finalist and New York Times best-selling author, joins Marvel Universe storytelling with this heartfelt novel that takes Okoye to America for the very first time.

Before she became a multifaceted warrior and the confident leader of the Dora Milaje, Okoye was adjusting to her new life and attempting to find her place in Wakanda's royal guard. Initially excited to receive an assignment for her very first mission and trip outside Wakanda, Okoye discovers that her status as a Dora Milaje means nothing to New Yorkers.

When she meets teenagers not much younger than herself struggling with the gentrification of their beloved Brooklyn neighborhood, her expectations for the world outside her own quickly fall apart. As she gets to know the young people of Brownsville, Okoye uncovers the truth about the plans of a manipulative real-estate mogul pulling all the strings--and how far-reaching those secret plans really are.

Caught between fulfilling her duty to her country and listening to her own heart urging her to stand up for Brownsville, Okoye must determine the type of Dora Milaje--and woman--she wants to be.

In this fish-out-of-water story, New York Times best-selling author and National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi combines the high-stakes adventure of the world of the Black Panther with the grounded and real-world challenges that bring her work to life.

Complete your Marvel collection with these best-selling fan-favorite novels:

• Black Panther: The Young Prince (Book 1)by Ronald L. Smith
• Black Panther: Spellbound (Book 2) by Ronald L. Smith
• Loki: Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee
• Gamora and Nebula: Sisters in Arms by Mackenzi Lee
• Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds
• Unstoppable Wasp by Sam Maggs
• Black Widow: Red Vengeance by Margaret Stohl
• Black Widow: Forever Red by Margaret Stohl
• Captain Marvel: Higher, Further, Faster by Liza Palmer

“In the latest Black Panther novel, Zoboi takes the reader to the U.S. with the Dora Milaje. Okoye, a Dora Milaje warrior and protector of Wakandan King T'Chaka, goes on a special diplomatic and humanitarian assignment, accompanying the king and Capt. Aneka to New York. King T'Chaka is invited as a guest of Stella Adams, a wealthy, powerful real estate mogul and leader of an organization called No Nation Left Behind. Though ostensibly friendly, Adams seems sinister, raising Okoye's alarm bells. Later Okoye meets councilwoman Lucinda Tate, who represents Brownsville, a district of Brooklyn whose population is primarily poor people of color. Tate warns her about Adams and invites King T'Chaka to the opening of the Brownsville community center. Infested with a drug called PyroBliss that is imported by Adams and NNLB, the Brownsville community is under constant assault after users take the drug and set fires that burn the community down, and gentrification pushes residents out. Okoye makes it her personal mission to help the young people in Brownsville rid their community of PyroBliss--and Adams. Multiple social problems plaguing Black and urban spaces are consolidated into this one blond villainess. Rather than being an action-packed superhero story, this novel explores problems rooted in inequities in race, power, and economics and forces readers to confront real and complex social constructs in a semi-imagined world. Thoughtfully takes on issues facing real Black communities. (Fiction. 12-18) -- --Kirkus Reviews”

n her compelling story, Zoboi effectively underlines the resilience of Black people and the ability to find joy in times of strife . . . The popularity of Black Panther in the hands of such a skilled, sharp writer as best-selling, award-winning Zoboi means this one's liable to fly off the shelf.----Booklist
In the latest Black Panther novel, Zoboi takes the reader to the U.S. with the Dora Milaje . . . this novel explores problems rooted in inequities in race, power, and economics and forces readers to confront real and complex social constructs in a semi-imagined world. Thoughtfully takes on issues facing real Black communities.----Kirkus Reviews

Ibi Zoboi was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and holds an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her YA novel American Street was a National Book Award finalist, and her debut middle grade novel, My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich, was a New York Times best seller. She is the author of Pride, a contemporary YA remix of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and editor of the anthology Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America. Her most recent best seller, Punching the Air, is a YA novel-in-verse coauthored by prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five. Raised in New York City, Ibi now lives in New Jersey with her husband and their three children. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter @ibizoboi or visit her website at

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