http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/m...helps-a-new-panther-leave-its-print.html?_r=1
Ta-Nehisi Coates Helps a New Panther Leave Its Print
The Black Panther, played by Chadwick Boseman, left, makes his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe next month in “Captain America: Civil War.” Credit Marvel
The Black Panther may not be the mightiest superhero on the planet, but he’s certainly among the coolest. Created in 1966, he was the first black superhero in mainstream comics. While his cape-wearing peers spend their off hours slogging away at mundane day jobs — reporter at a major metropolitan newspaper, say — the Panther is a king, the sovereign ruler of Wakanda, the fictional, technologically advanced African nation. And then there’s his costume: skintight and jet black from head to toe. His former wife, Ororo Munroe (Storm of the X-Men), can summon hurricanes.
Even so, the Panther has never enjoyed the popularity of many of his superpowered colleagues. That looks to change, however, thanks to a confluence of events that begin with the much-anticipated release, on Wednesday, April 6, of the new Marvel comic book series “Black Panther.”
Most comics don’t generate that much buzz, but then again, most comics aren’t written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a
national correspondent for The Atlantic and the best-selling author of “
Between the World and Me,” which won the
National Book Award last year. One of the most celebrated authors about race in America writing about a black superhero who has pummeled Captain America and members of the Ku Klux Klan? The collective response from fans of comics and Mr. Coates alike: I’d read that.
The book arrives during the 50th anniversary of the
Black Panther, who first appeared in issue No. 52 of the Fantastic Four (and yes, he beat them up, too). Next month, the superhero will make his big-screen debut in Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War,” with
Chadwick Boseman (“42,” “Get On Up”) as the Wakandan royal. And in 2018, Mr. Boseman will reprise his role in the feature film “Black Panther,” to be directed by Ryan Coogler (“Creed”).
The Coates/Marvel collaboration stems from a 2015 conference hosted by The Atlantic, where the author interviewed the Marvel editor Sana Amanat in a seminar titled “What if Captain America Were Muslim and Female?” Soon after, another Marvel editor, Tom Brevoort, asked Mr. Coates if there were any characters that he might like to write for them. A lifelong fan of Spider-Man and the X-Men, Mr. Coates sent them some favorites. “Black Panther was not on my list,” he said with a laugh.
A cover from Marvel’s new Black Panther comic, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze. Credit Marvel Comics
But when he learned that Marvel was looking to feature the character in his own book once again (his last one ended in 2012), Mr. Coates was immediately intrigued. When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby first dreamed up the Black Panther for Marvel, he was at the top of his game. Descended from a long line of kings, the Panther, a.k.a. T’Challa, had protected his country from everyone from neighboring tribes to alien shape-shifters. In recent times, however, Wakanda had taken it on the chin — flooded by Namor the Sub-Mariner and ravaged by a team of supervillains.
When Mr. Coates’s book opens, this latest version of the Panther is still reeling from these defeats. “As we get deeper into the book, there’s this whole question: Is T’Challa actually a good king?,” Mr. Coates said, speaking by telephone from his home in Paris. Throughout his history, the author noted, the Panther has spent much more time hanging out with guys like Iron Man and Captain America than handling affairs of state. “I’m not sure he actually likes being king,” Mr. Coates said. “This dude is showing up in New York all the time. It’s like, he always had something else to do besides being king.”
“And there’s a bigger question,” Mr. Coates continued. “Wakanda’s the most advanced country in the world, with a really educated population. Why would they even accept a monarchy?”
Although race is an issue in the comic — “race is always there,” Mr. Coates said — it won’t be at the forefront early on. “The book is probably much more concerned with gender than it is with race,” he said. In the first issue, Mr. Coates created a plotline about the Dora Milaje, an elite, all-female cadre of personal bodyguards who first appeared in 1998. They were enlisted to protect the king and serve as “wives in training.”
“I always thought there was something creepy about it,” he said. “Women who were taken from various tribes who
may become the Panther’s wives? They don’t actually have sex with him, they’re just scantily clad and are always just sort of around him? It defied all logic of what I knew about men, of what a man would be like in an absolute monarchy.” His first impulse, he said, was to eliminate the Dora Milaje altogether. But instead of cutting them out, Mr. Coates positions them as perhaps the embattled Wakanda’s last, best hope for salvation.
Illustrating the book is the longtime comic artist Brian Stelfreeze, who was offered the job in September. Someone really good was going to write the series, he recalled being told, but he wouldn’t learn who until he signed on. “When they dropped the name on me,” Mr. Stelfreeze said, “it blew my brains out.”
Asked by Marvel if there were any characters he’d like to write for, Ta-Nehisi Coates, the best-selling author of “Between the World and Me,” sent some favorites: “Black Panther was not on my list.” Credit Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times
Even after taking the job, Mr. Stelfreeze wasn’t sure what to expect from Mr. Coates. Would he be aloof? Was he just going to phone it in? Instead of handling it as an amusing side gig, Mr. Coates hit Mr. Stelfreeze with questions and notes, and notes on notes. “I probably communicate with him more than any other writer I’ve ever worked with,” Mr. Stelfreeze said. “He gives me comments on every page.”
According to Jonathan Hickman, the most recent author of the Panther’s adventures, “the thing that people should understand about Ta-Nehisi is that he’s a comic-book superfan. He knows his stuff.”
The film director and producer Reginald Hudlin (“House Party,” “Django Unchained”) wrote a series of Black Panther comics starting in 2005, continuing even while serving as the BET network’s president of entertainment. He said he was “absolutely looking forward” to Mr. Coates’s version. “I love when people like that go into comics. It’s like, what, you love this too?”
As for the film treatments, Mr. Boseman, the actor, has to contend with creating a character within the intricate confines of the so-called Marvel Cinematic Universe. “There are a lot of moving parts here,” he acknowledged. “You have to constantly be aware of how it all fits together, not just for this movie but for the ones to come.”
And then there’s the challenge of playing a leader of a country that doesn’t actually exist. Wakanda is “the Mutapa empire of 15th-century Zimbabwe,” he said in an email interview. “Wakanda is the stargazing kingdom of the Dogon. There are many things you can fuse together here, many rulers and warriors throughout world history that your imagination can draw from at any given moment.”
Perhaps not surprisingly in a world dominated by superhero movies, Marvel’s editor in chief, Axel Alonso, uses film terms to describe the comic book. “This is grand entertainment, wide-screen action,” he said. “But it goes without saying that some of the themes that Ta-Nehisi’s going to draw upon will be familiar to anyone who has read his prose.”
Of course, comics aren’t the same as essays — as Mr. Coates will be the first to tell you. The biggest rule in superhero stories? “People need to hit each other,” he said.
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Good article but hold up.....
Coates contemplated removing the Dora Milaje?
![dwillhuh :dwillhuh: :dwillhuh:](https://www.thecoli.com/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/dwill.png)
![why :why: :why:](https://www.thecoli.com/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/why.png)
![dahell :dahell: :dahell:](https://www.thecoli.com/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/dahell2.png)
Good thing he changed his mind, cuz he trippin with that shyt