The Carcosa Interview: Ta-Nehisi Coates Discusses The Black Panther

***Some spoilers for Black Panther #1 are included in this interview*** If you are Black, a nerd, and especially a Marvel comic book fan, you have unquestionably stated at one time or another that you were from Wakanda. Whether by way of Philadelphia or Paris, at some point you’ve probably claimed Wakanda, the fictional City on the Hill and home nation of Black Panther, in your origin story. And why wouldn’t you? Since, the introduction of Black Panther and Wakanda almost 50 years ago, the fabled city has always been regarded as the most advanced nation in Marvel’s lore, one that just happened to be an African country. When I ask Ta-Nehisi Coates, the writer for the Black Panther series about the treatment of Wakanda as a character in the book, he’s very much aware of the importance of its portrayal to comic book fans. “You have to feel like you want to live there. It has to function like a country you can be proud of.” By the time I’m speaking with Coates, the book has only been out for a couple of days, but anyone who reads comics seems to have read it already. Before the first release week has finished, Black Panther #1 has already gone into a reprint while Coates teases images from issue #2 on Twitter. If you call yourself a Wakandan, what a time to be alive. You might figure that a new #1 of the most recognized Black superhero comic book character, who is also a major part of the next Marvel movie and has his own solo movie on the way, had to go through a lot of intrica…