Posted in: Comics | Tagged: captain america, Comics, HRL

Can We Expect the Ta-Nehisi Coates Captain America News Next Week?

Published Thu, 22 Feb 2018 17:31:01 -0600

Last July, Bleeding Cool heard the word that Ta-Nehisi Coates would be the new writer on the Captain America ongoing comic book. Same with Nick Spencer on Amazing Spider-Man. Though we only learnt that Ryan Ottley would be joining him as an artist in January.

None of these stories have been confirmed. None of them were in the Marvel May solicits. And none were mentioned by Marvel at ComicsPRO today.

However, I get the nod that we might be hearing more about Coates writing Captain America next week. Both these runs start in the Free Comic Book Day titles out on May 5th, so they will probably want to say something soon as the books his the printing presses.

That's unless Marvel's C.B. Cebulski or John Nee throw caution to the wind and blurt it out at ComicsPRO today or tomorrow. It might happen. If it was DC, you know Dan DiDio would already have done it.

Coates will be the bigger mainstream news. An American author, journalist, comic book writer, and educator, Coates is a national correspondent for The Atlantic, where he writes about cultural, social and political issues, particularly regarding African Americans. It is likely this aspect that will inform much of the coverage when the news goes official.

For Coates, it might be just one more notch. He's written for The Village Voice, Washington City Paper, and Time. He has contributed to The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Washington Monthly, O, and other publications. In 2008 he published a memoir, The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and Unlikely Road to Manhood. His second book, Between the World and Me, was released in July 2015. It won the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction, and was a nominee for the Phi Beta Kappa 2016 Book Awards. He was the recipient of a "Genius Grant" from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 2015. And he has been the writer of the Black Panther series for Marvel Comics drawn by Brian Stelfreeze for two years now.

But the man who wrote The Case for Reparations writing Captain America could make for a very interesting comic book indeed. Indeed, I am told that there have been plenty of scripts already banked.

But comics folk will likely have a lot to say about the author of Secret Empire writing Amazing Spider-Man as well.

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