Marvel Comics tapped Coates followed his interview with Amanat and paired the actor with an editor, leading to their conversation on comic books, particularly Black Panther.
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But Laura Hudson argued in WIRED this July that such public strides aside, much more still stands to be accomplished where minority representation behind the comics scenes is concerned.
That has to provide one level of pleasure to Jonathan Gayles, professor of African-American Studies at Georgia State University and the director of the documentary “White Scripts and Black Supermen: Black Masculinities In Comic Books.”
It should have been obvious that the next writer of Black Panther wasn’t going to come from the inside.
“I don’t experience the stuff I write about as weighty”, he told the New York Times.
In his interview with the publication, Coates also mentioned that while the Atlantic was seen as a rich place with regard to interest, there were no comic-book nerds.
Gayles said Black Panther is at the top of the Marvel power pyramid, “second only to Captain America in terms of the importance to the Marvel Universe”.
Black Panther is set to team up with Iron Man’s team, which reportedly includes Black Widow, The Vision, and War Machine.
The book will focus on Black Panther dealing with an uprising in the fictional African country, Wakanda. The first live-action appearance of Black Panther is scheduled for next May in the upcoming film Captain America: Civil War, and Marvel has already announced a solo Black Panther film is scheduled to be released in 2017. With comics in my hand, I grabbed sheets of paper and pens, eager to duplicate what I saw on the page. “And yet it’s a system of governance that has not advanced beyond the idea of blood-rule”, says Coates.
It’s not that Marvel’s moving backwards, but I’m more thinking about the way that Marvel has listened to criticism and perhaps been a little abrasive about it. And I’m also thinking about whether this movement towards diversity is something that they’re genuinely interested in because it’s socially important and responsible, or if it’s just a thing that will make them money.
The “Black Panther” series will center on masked hero T’Challa, an African chief from the fictional nation of Wakanda. The writing usually lifts the weight. Here’s cover art and artwork by Brian Stelfreeze.
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The only bitter thing about it is that I look at the announcement and I say to myself, Okay, is this what it takes for Marvel to hire a black writer? The result is the year long series titled A Nation Under Our Feet based on the book of the same name. “Look for some fun and unexpected Marvel villains to show up in this story, as well as an appearance or two by T’Challa’s new teammates, The Ultimates”. Let’s hope the leaky dam holding back fresh, culturally and gender diverse talent soon breaks and more ideas and voices are allowed to flow into the mainstream of both the big comic publishers and cinematic realms.
