Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author of “Between the World and Me” and one of the country’s best-known public intellectuals, announced Wednesday he would begin writing the Captain America title for Marvel Comics in July.

Mr. Coates, a longtime comics fan who began creating them a little more than two years ago, announced the news in The Atlantic, for which he is a national correspondent. He described his vision of the character and laid out his plans for addressing what he confessed he saw as an artistic challenge.

“Nothing should really scare a writer more than the moment when they are no longer scared,” he wrote. "I’m not convinced I can tell a great Captain America story — which is precisely why I want so bad to try.”

The writer has previously worked on Black Panther, reinvigorating the title two years before the movie based on the character became a blockbuster success. The comic sold briskly while in his hands, and one collection, Black Panther, Volume 1: A Nation Under Our Feet, was nominated for a Hugo Award in 2017. But Mr. Coates has not had unbridled success in comics: His spinoff series, Black Panther & the Crew, was canceled in May after it failed to sell as well as expected.