'The Atlantic' Previews Ta-Nehisi Coates's 'Return of the Black Panther'

Marvel Comics and The Atlantic have teamed up to release a preview of the first issue of the Return of the Black Panther, a much anticipated revival of the iconic comics character, written by National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates and drawn by Brian Stelfreeze.

Fresh from winning the 2015 National Book Award for his acclaimed memoir Between the World and Me, Coates, who is also a national correspondent for The Atlantic, was named writer for the Black Panther, a black African superhero named T’Challa who rules over the fictional African nation of Wakanda.  The character was created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee for Marvel comics in 1966 and will be featured in a forthcoming series of Marvel feature films.

The Atlantic offers a 6-page excerpt of The Nation Under Our Feet, the forthcoming Marvel comic book and graphic novel, and Coates discusses the influence of the Black Panther and comics in general on his personal development. There’s also a video interview with the NBA winner discussing his work on the Black Panther. He also takes fans behind the scenes and discusses how he works with the artist Brian Stelfreeze to write and develop the script, design drawings and arrive at the final narrative.

The first issue of The Return of the Black Panther goes on sale April 6.

Coates described his work on The Nation Under Our Feet: “The Black Panther I offer pulls from the archives of Marvel and the character’s own long history. But it also pulls from the very real history of society -- from the pre-colonial era of Africa, the peasant rebellions that wracked Europe toward the end of the Middle Ages, the American Civil War, the Arab Spring, and the rise of ISIS.”