Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Blackest Black Panther Ever

The artistic image is not intended to represent the thing itself, but, rather, the reality of the force the thing contains.

– James Baldwin Marvel has tapped noted journalist/author Ta-Nehisi Coates to write a year-long arc of Black Panther. I’m going to assume you know enough of the words in that sentence to realize how awesome a development this is. This pairing was inevitable. Maybe not many years before this moment, but certainly in 2015. In 2015, you don’t get to hold the copyright on the first ever mainstream Black superhero and not find a way to make this marriage happen, and Marvel has tried before. Earlier this year film director Ava DuVernay confirmed that she had been in discussions to direct a Black Panther film. The deal fell through, but just the idea that we might see Black images handled with the intellect, craftsmanship, and political heft that such an artist might bring to the table was almost more than my little Black heart could bear. Can you imagine the political nuance the director of Selma might have brought to a film led by African superhero royalty? And now Sweet Black Baby Jesus has seen fit to bestow upon us a Coates-written Black Panther.

[divider type=”space_thin”] Props to Marvel, but at the same time, who couldn’t have come up with this idea right now? Even if you were a publisher that was just about the money, it doesn’t take a genius to come up with the following equation: Black New York Times bestselling author + Historical Black superhero …