Marvel: Announces Ta-Nehisi Coates as Next Captain America Writer

[Milchshake]

I like what he did for Black Panther. Having a serious writer and essayist drew me to his run on the comics. Hopefully they give other serious writers a try.

Although it’s been widely rumored for months, Marvel only lately announced that the next writer of Captain America will be Ta-Nehisi Coates. This is excellent news for a couple reasons: first, because after Nick Spencer’s disastrous run where Captain America became a Nazi, the book and the character badly need not so much a “Fresh Start” as a bold new direction – and Ta-Nehisi Coates is a writer who is not afraid of taking established characters in bold new directions, as readers of his continuing run on Black Panther can attest to. Second, more than almost any hero, Captain America is a character who is about political ideas, and as a top-flight political essayist, Coates is better suited than most comics writers to do just that.

In Coates own words, people often misread Steve Rogers, either thinking of him as a political or cultural reactionary, following a Whiggish view of history in which the past is conservative and the future is an uninterrupted march of progress.

Those of you who’ve never read a Captain America comic book or seen him in the Marvel movies would be forgiven for thinking of Captain America as an unblinking mascot for American nationalism. In fact, the best thing about the story of Captain America is the implicit irony. Captain America begins as Steve Rogers—a man with the heart of a god and the body of a wimp. The heart and body are brought into alignment through the Super Soldier Serum, which transforms Rogers into a peak human physical specimen. Dubbed Captain America, Rogers becomes the personification of his country’s egalitarian ideals—an anatomical Horatio Alger who through sheer grit and the wonders of science rises to become a national hero.

Rogers’s transformation into Captain America is underwritten by the military. But, perhaps haunted by his own roots in powerlessness, he is a dissident just as likely to be feuding with his superiors in civilian and military governance as he is to be fighting with the supervillain Red Skull. Conspirators against him rank all the way up to the White House, causing Rogers to, at one point, reject the very title of Captain America. At the end of World War II, Captain America is frozen in ice and awakens in our time—and this, too, distances him from his country and its ideals. He is “a man out of time,” a walking emblem of greatest-generation propaganda brought to life in this splintered postmodern time. Thus, Captain America is not so much tied to America as it is, but to an America of the imagined past. In one famous scene, flattered by a treacherous general for his “loyalty,” Rogers—grasping the American flag—retorts, “I’m loyal to nothing, general … except the dream.”

[eschatological]

Wait, I only know Taa-Nehisi Coates for his essays and books. He's been writing comics?

[Super Kami Dende]

"first, because after Nick Spencer’s disastrous run where Captain America became a Nazi, the book and the character badly need not so much a “Fresh Start”"

But he didn't become a Nazi? What the fuck did they even read the Comic or just see the picture of Steve saying Hail Hydra and leave it at that?

"Second, more than almost any hero, Captain America is a character who is about political ideas, and as a top-flight political essayist, Coates is better suited than most comics writers to do just that."

Oh boy, just what we all want, more Political agendas written into Comicbook Heroes.

[Jotaux]

"first, because after Nick Spencer’s disastrous run where Captain America became a Nazi, the book and the character badly need not so much a “Fresh Start”"

But he didn't become a Nazi? What the fuck did they even read the Comic or just see the picture of Steve saying Hail Hydra and leave it at that?

They probably still consider Germans to be Nazis too.

Nick Spencer's Captain America run was amazing! I admit I was not satisfied with the conclusion to secret empire but the build up was so good it took something unreadable like civil war 2 and turned it into gold. Its the first thing I've read written by Nick Spencer and I'm now a fan of his work.

[Berndorf]

"first, because after Nick Spencer’s disastrous run where Captain America became a Nazi, the book and the character badly need not so much a “Fresh Start”"

But he didn't become a Nazi? What the fuck did they even read the Comic or just see the picture of Steve saying Hail Hydra and leave it at that?

"Second, more than almost any hero, Captain America is a character who is about political ideas, and as a top-flight political essayist, Coates is better suited than most comics writers to do just that."

Oh boy, just what we all want, more Political agendas written into Comicbook Heroes.

Regarding the political aspect, I don't have an innate problem with writers including a degree of commentary into them. Marvel's willingness to do that is part of what set it apart from dc back in the 60's and 70's. Also with Cap its easier to do that than with many other characters. Its just a matter of incorporating ideas and using them in a story rather than as you said trying to ram a political agenda down the reader's collective throats. Though I'd agree most of marvel's writers in recent years had no idea where that line was and instead did make the comics a vehicle for their own political and social agendas. I'd even argue that some of them were writing comics solely for that purpose.

[Stormcall]

Its the first thing I've read written by Nick Spencer and I'm now a fan of his work.

Read Morning Glories. I'm still fucking pissed that the series didn't get a proper ending(I hear periodically that Spencer and Eisma have been "in talks" about getting back to it, but so far nothing has come of it), though the 50 issues it did have pretty much guaranteed I'll read anything he works on(and yes, I keep holding out hope that him and Eisma will finish it). And yes, his Cap run was great, and I firmly believe most people shitting on it didn't actually READ it, just heard that "Cap is a Nazi, FUCK YOU MARVEL".

- - - Updated - - -

Those of you who’ve never read a Captain America comic book or seen him in the Marvel movies would be forgiven for thinking of Captain America as an unblinking mascot for American nationalism.”

Yes, if you've never read the comics, or seen the movies, you may think that. At this point in time...do these people exist? I mean, outside of like, lost tribes in the rainforest, or poor villagers in Africa, or religious orders who have remained in their monasteries for decades?

Why are they talking like Coates bring politics to Cap is gonna be some bold new direction? The book has fucking ALWAYS had a political slant, and as Coates himself says, Cap hasn't been full on "Rah rah 'MERICA" since fucking WW2.

[Voidwielder]

Where is that image of human body and a bullet flying at it?

Yeah, this is ''Marvel comic sales'' and ''Marvel writers''.

[Deleted]

Wait, I only know Taa-Nehisi Coates for his essays and books. He's been writing comics?

He's been writing the current Black Panther series since 2016, it's pretty solid.

Far better than the film.

[Stormcall]

He's been writing the current Black Panther series since 2016, it's pretty solid.
.

I've found it...decent, but pretty unremarkable. Some books, a new volume comes out and I want to read them right away-Detective Comics, Aquaman, Cap(during Spencer's run), Moon Knight, Harbinger, Punisher, Kill or Be Killed...then other books, I mainly read when I don't have anything else lined up, stuff like Titans, Batgirl, and yes, Black Panther falls solidly into this category. These books are okay to pass the time, but they just don't get me excited, at least in their current incarnations.

[Deleted]

I've found it...decent, but pretty unremarkable. Some books, a new volume comes out and I want to read them right away-Detective Comics, Aquaman, Cap(during Spencer's run), Moon Knight, Harbinger, Punisher, Kill or Be Killed...then other books, I mainly read when I don't have anything else lined up, stuff like Titans, Batgirl, and yes, Black Panther falls solidly into this category. These books are okay to pass the time, but they just don't get me excited, at least in their current incarnations.

Yeah that's what I meant by solid, it's good, but it's not great.