When The Atlantic’s national correspondent Ta-Nehisi Coates was pegged to write the next installment of Black Panther, he was predictably nervous to venture into a new and different type of writing project. “I took it on for the same reason I take on new stories—to grow intellectually and artistically,” he wrote. Yet, Coates has been a Marvel fan and a consumer of comic books for most of his life. In this short video, we hear how comics had an impact on his childhood, his thoughts on black superheroes, and his expectations for the series.

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