Who would’ve thought that Ta-Nehisi Coates — award winning journalist and writer, MacArthur Genius Grant awardee, and civil rights campaigner — would also be responsible for the year’s best selling comic book? Well it’s maybe less surprising when the comic book in question features the first black superhero, Marvel’s Black Panther.
The first issue featuring the revamped eponymous Black Panther, ruler of the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda, features a revolutionary plot being hatched by an evil alien terrorist cell. For a writer whose work has largely dealt with issue of race in modern America, and the history of racism in the country, the comic obviously provides another platform for him. Speaking to the New York Times, Coates explained that growing up, he was attracted to minority characters he found while reading comics. “I’m sure it meant something to see people who looked like me in comic books,” he says. “It was this beautiful place that I felt pop culture should look like.”
It’s a big year for the Black Panther and comic book diversity. The character stars in the current Marvel film Captain America: Civil War, and also has a solo film in development for 2018, where he’s played by Chadwick Boseman.
READ: The illustrator recasting your favorite superheroes as kick ass black women
Credits
Text Felix Petty
Image courtesy Marvel