Marvel just hit it out of the park!

See that guy above? That’s T’Challa, aka the Black Panther. He’s a fictional superhero/monarch residing in the Marvel Universe. He’s the king of a Wakanda, a scientifically advanced African nation, a member of the Avengers, a scientific genius, and the first black superhero in mainstream USAmerican comics. In 2018, he’ll be the first major black Marvel Comics superhero (Blade is neither major nor a superhero) to receive his own theatrical film.

See that guy? That’s Ta-Nehisi Coates, a USAmerican writer, journalist, and educator. He is the National Correspondent for The Atlantic, where he writes about cultural, social, and political issues, particularly where those issues intersect the lives of African-Americans.

Know what Black Panther and Ta-Nehisi Coates have in common? In a tremendous win for the company, Coates will soon be writing the adventures of the Black Panther in an all-new ongoing series from Marvel Comics:

A new “Black Panther” series is official at Marvel, with the creative team announced by the New York Times. The book is set to debut this spring, to be written by acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates — making his comic book debut — and illustrated by veteran comics artist Brian Stelfreeze.

“I don’t experience the stuff I write about as weighty,” Coates, National Correspondent for The Atlantic and the author of National Book Award nominee “Between the World and Me,” told the New York Times. “I feel a strong need to express something. The writing usually lifts the weight. I expect to be doing the same thing for Marvel.”

In his journalism career, Coates is distinguished for significant work on the topic of diversity and the Black American experience, with lauded articles including “The Case for Reparations” and “Fear of a Black President.” He’s also made his love for comic books clear on several occasions, in articles such as “The Broad, Inclusive Canvas of Comics,” published earlier this year.

Coates cites current Marvel event “Secret Wars” and its writer Jonathan Hickman as an inspiration for his comics work. “You don’t come in off the board and come in at that level. But it helps to want it to be great. I want to make a great comic. I really, really do.”

The initial “Black Panther” arc is described as a “yearlong storyline,” and is titled “A Nation Under Our Feet,” a deliberate reference to the 2003 Steven Hahn book of the same name. The Marvel story is said to “find the hero dealing with a violent uprising in his country set off by a superhuman terrorist group called the People.”

“It’s going to be a story that repositions the Black Panther in the minds of readers,” Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso told the NYT. “It really moves him forward.”

Marvel’s new “Black Panther” series is scheduled to debut next spring.

I’ll probably write more about this in the future, but for now all I can say is WOO-FUCKING-HOO! This news is awesome!

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Marvel just hit it out of the park!
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13 thoughts on “Marvel just hit it out of the park!

  1. YOB
    1

    Sweeeeeeeeetttttt!!!!!!

    Really looking forward to this one. Especially because of Ta-Nehisi. He’s going to bring some great stuff to Wakanda.

    *also, Spawn doesn’t count either. Neither superhero nor Marvel. “Major” being debatable.

  2. 4

    AlexanderZ:
    By the standards of the comic book industry, Blade is not a superhero. I should have specified about BP’s status as a major hero. He’s a major one from a historical perspective as the first black superhero in mainstream USAmerican comics.

  3. 5

    Tony
    Got it about BP.
    But I disagree about Blade – he, in his later adventures, has more superpowers than, say, BP or Tony Stark, so he’s definitely super. You can say he’s not a superhero because he’s more of an anti-hero, but the same is true for almost every superhero at one point or another.

  4. YOB
    6

    Tony
    I was just poking at you on the movie angle with my Spawn comment. 🙂

    Although, I might have to dispute your assessment of the “majorness” of Spawn*. Black Panther is indisputably the first major black comic superhero ( also the only superhero from the African continent?) But he doesn’t get his movie until 2018. Spawn, on the other hand, already has his. I contend that Spawn’s majorness comes from the fact that he was popular enough to flagship Image Comics (founded in 1992!), who although not as big as DC or Marvel is, after all, now 3rd. That’s pretty impressive (ergo major) in my book.

    *Spawn, BTW, is one of my bestest most favoritist comic “hero” EVER!

  5. YOB
    10

    I realized last night that I hadn’t watched Spawn: The Movie in a really long time. So I did.

    Now I’m wondering about it’s portrayal of black men. I didn’t really notice it at first (privilege check!) but I’m thinking, now, that it is not actually all that positive.

  6. YOB
    11

    Didn’t Storm move to Africa and lived there as a leader at some point. I can’t remember, but I seem to think that she did that in Ultimate X-Men (maybe?) I definitely remember she seemed to identify more as African than American in the story line I’m thinking of. I’m not sure if that would count, though. If I am remembering correctly, I would totally count her as being an African superhero (though not necessarily in every continuum like BP).

  7. 12

    YOB, Tony
    Storm was only born in USA, but her entire childhood was in Cairo and she matured in various parts of Africa.

    YOB
    I haven’t seen Spawn in a long time. What was the problem with the portrayal of black men?

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