How long of a run will writer Ta-Nehisi Coates have on "Black Panther"? According to Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso, as long as the National Book Award-winner wants. While Coates has planned a 12-issue opening arc for his and artist Brian Stelfreeze's "Black Panther" series, Alonso has clarified to CBR News that doesn't mean Coates is done with the book after that point, with the intention on both sides to do more.

"Another site reported that we've announced "Black Panther" as an ongoing despite the fact that Ta-Nehisi said he only has a 12-issue story arc," Alonso said in this week's edition of CBR's weekly Q&A column AXEL-IN-CHARGE. "That is incorrect. What Ta-Nehisi has said is that he only knows the details of his first year-long story arc; he has not said he is done after that. Far from it. He's made it clear he'd like to continue, and we are, in fact, planning our next editorial retreat, keeping his schedule conflicts in mind. I'll let Ta-Nehisi speak to this matter himself, but 'Black Panther' is not a limited series; it is an ongoing series."

Coates and Stelfreeze were announced as the team of a new "Black Panther" ongoing series this past September. The announcement made mainstream news given Coates' profile as national correspondent for The Atlantic, and the writer of "The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood" and "Between the World and Me," which won the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction.

"Black Panther" #1 is slated for release in April 2016, and Alonso has disclosed that the first issue is already fully drawn.