Ta-Nehisi Coates Attended His First NYCC Panel and Lord I Hope He’ll Come Back

Last night Ta-Nehisi Coates attended his first Comic Con panel at NYCC 2016 and, judging by his facial expressions, it might be his last. The panel, titled in the program Race & Gender: a Conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates & Steve Orlando, was to feature him, DC writer Steve Orlando (Midnighter, Virgil), and be moderated by Professor Jonathan Gray, but as you might have noticed and raised an eyebrow at the all-male panel, a late addition was added and Miz Caramel Vixen, creator of #BlackComicsMonth, joined the writers and professor onstage. And it wasn’t long until things got weird. And then weird turned awkward. And then awkward turned into Coates eventually hailing a cab in front of me on 37th and 11th avenue having left the Javits Center and running for freedom with the Chariots of Fire theme music playing softly from nowhere. But I’m getting ahead, let’s back up here. Why was it weird? The panel brought up topics of contention in the nerd community — “diversity” as a buzzword, the “big 2” of Marvel and DC versus independent publishers, who’s allowed to write what types of characters — but what made it awkwardly hilarious was the increasing demand for answers from audience members from a place where answers would not be found. From the first 10 minutes Ta-Nehisi seemed to realize that he, as a powerful voice and a writer for Marvel, was being seen as a powerful voice within Marvel with the ability to storm corporate conference rooms to change Romani representatio…