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I think a lot of people who’ve never read comic books might be surprised by how political it is. I think that Black Panther is one more step toward that goal.Ĭoates’ version of Black Panther deals explicitly with issues of race, gender and sexuality. We have a really diverse array of superheroes right now, and we’ve diversified with our talent as well. The characters we’ve had from Miles Morales, the African-American-Hispanic Spider-Man, to Kamala Khan, a female Muslim superhero, to the Korean Hulk and the fact that Thor’s a woman. We pride ourselves recently on the diversity of our offerings. And they originally called him The Coal Tiger, but they thought the name Black Panther sounded a lot cooler. To my understanding Jack Kirby and Stan Lee actually came up with the name before the Black Panther existence.

But that’s true of all characters: You do the same thing for Captain America, a character dressed in red, white and blue.

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If you’re going to be writing a book or producing a movie in which you have a black character dressed head-to-toe in black whose name is Black Panther, people will come with an expectation. Obviously the name Black Panther holds a lot of political importance. This is very much about a homegrown revolution that’s taking place in the kingdom that the Black Panther presides over, and that will cause him to question everything he stands for. He knows that the things that concern him will manifest in his writing, but first and foremost it’s a big adventure. But he’s been the first to explain that there’s a world of difference between his book and his comic book. Obviously when you hire someone like Ta-Nehisi you expect that he’s going to bring a point of view to the table. It’s almost like you started this season of television show: you jump in and slowly start to understand the world in which you’re being placed and the character himself. If you pick up Black Panther #1, it’s an easy jumping on point for someone who doesn’t know the Black Panther.

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Did you have any concerns as to how to give those people access to the world of comic books? There are going to be non-comic book fans reading this comic because they’re fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates. Now, this was before Between the World and Me was published and became the National Book Award winner-also before he won the MacArthur Genius Grant. He said look, would Wakanda, such a technologically and spiritually advanced society, abide a monarchy. He wrote a wonderful pitch that really hit us in the gut. That’s the point at which my editor Wil Moss, who was casting for Black Panther, said, “Look I’m interested in Ta-Nehisi, how do you feel about that?” And I said, “Absolutely, go for it.” We reached out to him and talked to him about what characters he liked. So at that point, we swooped.Īnd we didn’t go to him specifically about Black Panther. And it was at that meeting that we learned that he read comics regularly, and they influenced his writing. We had cast a wide net for a writer when Ta-Nehisi interviewed one of my editors, Sana Amanat, at Atlantic Talks. How did Ta-Nehisi Coates come to write this series? But they’re technologically lightyears above everyone else and T’Challa himself is a genius. It has a resource called Vibranium, which is a metal, the same metal Captain America’s shield is made out of. In the Marvel Universe, it’s the most advanced society, technologically speaking. In a sense, they’re a dream of an Africa that was unfettered by colonials and just prospered in its own way.

He presides over a kingdom called Wakanda, which is a fictional African kingdom. He’s just smarter, stronger and better than everyone else.

And he is a superhero who has no superpowers. He’s had his own title throughout the years since the 70s. He was introduced in 1966 in Fantastic Four, and he promptly kicked all four of their butts. TIME: How does Black Panther fit into the history of Marvel?Īxel Alonso: Black Panther is the first black superhero. Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso spoke with TIME about what Coates’ fans who are new to comic books need to know about the character, how the comic will tackle race and gender and what we can expect from the Black Panther movie, helmed by Creed director Ryan Coogler. Soon everyone will know the name T’Challa-African king, brilliant scientist and superhero who goes by Black Panther. (To put that number into context, Marvel’s best-selling “event series” usually sell around 100,000, and its controversial female Thor first issues sold 200,000.) The character makes his big screen debut in Captain America: Civil War next month before getting his own picture-the first Marvel Studios film with a black superhero at its center-in 2018. Marvel says the first issue of Black Panther has already sold 300,000 copies.

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