In what is likely to be the most high-profile announcement of its Fresh Start initiative, Marvel Entertainment has revealed that Ta-Nehisi Coates will write a new Captain America comic, launching this July.
The announcement was made by Coates himself in an essay for The Atlantic, “Why I’m Writing Captain America.” In it, he explained, “Captain America, the embodiment of a kind of Lincolnesque optimism, poses a direct question for me: Why would anyone believe in The Dream? What is exciting here is not some didactic act of putting my words in Captain America’s head, but attempting to put Captain America’s words in my head. What is exciting is the possibility of exploration, of avoiding the repetition of a voice I’ve tired of.”
The series will be illustrated by Leinil Yu, with covers by Alex Ross. “Both Leinil and Alex are legends. Even if you don’t consider yourself a comics-head, you should check out their work to see what the best of the form has to offer,” Coates notes.
Captain America will mark the first opportunity for Coates at Marvel outside of the Black Panther family, which he took on with artist Brian Stelfreeze in 2016 and turned into a franchise, co-writing spinoff titles including World of Wakanda and Black Panther and the Crew. In addition to his journalism with The Atlantica and books including Between the World and Me and We Were Eight Years in Power, he is writing the screenplay for the next project by Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, the drama Wrong Answer.
The title will launch with Captain America No. 1 on, appropriately, July 4.
