When Marvel Comics announced in September 2015 that Ta-Nehisi Coates would be writing a new Black Panther series, the timing could not have been more fortuitous. That same month, Mr. Coates, who writes regularly for The Atlantic, was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “genius grant,” and, two months later, a National Book Award for nonfiction for “Between the World and Me,” his passionate letter to his son about being black in America.

The momentum for the hero was also tremendous. Issue No. 1 of Black Panther hit stores last April and went on to sell more than 300,000 copies, according to Marvel. He then made his big screen debut in May, with “Captain America: Civil War,” and was played by Chadwick Boseman, who will reprise the role in a solo film next year. In July came “Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet,” a collected edition of the first four issues of the comic. It was followed, in November, by World of Wakanda, a companion series in which Mr. Coates introduced two more newcomers to the roster of comic-book scribes: the feminist writer Roxane Gay and the poet Yona Harvey. This April comes a new series, Black Panther and the Crew, a team comprising only black heroes, written by Mr. Coates and Ms. Harvey.

Mr. Coates answered questions about the success of Black Panther, his approach to writing, the members of the Crew and what’s next. (The interview has been edited and condensed.)

Q. Does the response to the Black Panther series surprise you?

A. I guess I am in awe of the response a little bit, but I don’t know, man. I’m in the zone of writing, and that place is still really, really hard and really, really challenging. What I’m trying to do is to learn more. I’m reading a lot more, and reading as a fan is very, very different to reading as a creator. Maybe reading as a critic is close to it, but actually trying to figure out what people are doing and why it has certain effects on me is a very, very different way of looking at stuff. Selling is important because I want the book to continue, but when I’m done, I want people to say: “This was a classic run. This is one of the best things Marvel ever did.”