What Makes Coates' Black Panther So Good?

Back in early 2016, a little movie titled Captain America: Civil War was about to hit our screens. Excitement for the movie was incredibly high; movie fans, like Baron Zemo, couldn't wait to see the Avengers come apart at the seams and wage war against each other. Some Marvel fans, however, were just excited to see one of their favorite characters finally hit the big screen: Black Panther. To coincide with the movie's release, Marvel Comics saw it fit to publish a new book starring the King of the fictitious African nation of Wakanda, a new number one issue that was easy to find for anyone looking to learn more about the character, and a new volume for longtime readers to sink their teeth into. But while it would have been incredibly easy to go the safe route and hire an experienced comic book writer to deliver the Black Panther goods, Marvel instead hired renowned journalist and author Ta-Nehisi Coates -- an experienced writer, for sure, but one wholly unfamiliar with the world of comic books.

In 2015, Coates was the winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction for his second book, the socially-charged and thought-provoking Between the World and Me. He has written for many reputable outlets like The Washington Post, The New York Times Magazine, TIME, and many others. For three years, he worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as one of its Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professors in writing. And if all that weren't enough, you can also add “MacArthur Genius Grant recipient” to his already impressive list of achievements. Ta-Nehisi Coates isn't necessarily the first name that comes to mind when talking about who could write your favorite comic book, but thankfully Marvel was thoughtful enough to entrust one of their most beloved black characters to a writer as meticulous, smart and passionate as Ta-Nehisi Coates.

A few weeks ago, the first twelve issues of Coates' Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet run were collected in hardcover format. The collection is a year's worth of single issues that most readers had to wait month in and month out to get to the following chapter. Collected, read from start to finish like any book you would sit down to read, this hardcover forms a complete whole, a full story with a beginning, a middle and an end. It collects a story that can not only already stand with any of the most classic and masterful Black Panther works in Marvel's library, but also one that can – and should – stand tall next to any essential political reading, fiction or nonfiction.

Obviously, A Nation Under Our Feet is a work of fiction, but its message, its soul, and what it ultimately teaches is very real. Even if you had previously read the monthly issues of Coates' Black Panther, you would do yourself a favor by reading it once again, this time in one sitting. So dense and layered is the writing, so thought-out is the plotting, that you may have forgotten some early details. You may have even forgotten the ideas behind it all, the fires that burn inside the characters, old and new.

Page 2: Why Some Fans Were Disappointed - And Why They're Wrong

Why Some Fans Were Disappointed - And Why They're Wrong

While praised by critics from its release, some comic book fans have become vocal about their disappointment with the Black Panther title, fans who have come to lament the fact that this series wasn't your usual or typical superhero fair. Gone were the multitudes of standard action scenes, replaced by talking heads discussing politics and philosophy. Gone were quickly-read and glossed-over pages; in their place were long and meaningful scenes, dialogues between characters with opposing views, disputes that nourished both sides of a conflict. The truth is, these fans were right; this really isn't your stereotypical superhero comic book, and it's all the better for it. Why? Because this is a book that wants to educate as much as it wants to entertain.

A Nation Under Our Feet is strong. It's scary and it's inspiring. It dives head first into a conflict without any preparation or introductions, much like any great work of fiction should - and much like any devastating event would. It comes when you are unprepared, and it comes out of nowhere. It comes when you think you are safe. It's a book about calamity and oncoming war, about boiling revolutions, and a quest for peace. It's a book about a nation and about a culture we are unfamiliar with, one that Coates spends a great deal of time detailing and adding new layers to. Under his pen, Wakanda has never felt so real a place, its world and its history fully realized, its customs and its people born from a world that feels palpable. The Wakandans have hopes and dreams marred by fears and horrors. They are a people at the mercy of forces beyond their control, struggling to keep a strong foot on the soil of their nation -- as individuals, and as countrymen.

At the center of all of this, there is a throne, where sits a man with the heaviest of crowns on his head. King T'Challa, the Black Panther, the Orphan King. Wakandan, son, brother, and shepherd of the people. But his troubles lie in political and social dissonance. His people is growing restless of his fragile rule, and instead they are turning to those who would overthrow his house and give the country back to the people. And therein lies the real heart of the conflict of A Nation Under Our Feet: the idea of revolution, and the prospect of war.

Here, war, while constantly approaching the Wakandan borders, is mainly not fought on the front lines, but behind closed doors. These closed-room sessions examine war in a much different manner than we are used to in the comic book medium, with constant talking and debating, with assimilating what the enemy is doing and what he is trying to accomplish. The decision-making is an ever-evolving process with no right answers, because at every turn there lies a more difficult question. As a King fighting a battle on two fronts, T'Challa makes mistakes, and they can cost him dearly. War is a beaten path filled with unforeseen and escalating consequences. But Coates doesn't stop there, because he knows and understands that there are two sides to every battle. He doesn't just show us what it's like to be on the receiving end of an uprising. He also goes to great lengths to humanize his antagonists, and show us the exact same talks that they have on their own side. They might employ lesser methods and condone terrible acts, but they too are hurt, and they too started off with the best of intentions. “The road to hell...” and all that.

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How Black Panther Explores the Devastating Aftermath of Political Upheaval

And yet, Coates takes it all even further, by exploring the philosophical aspects of this brewing conflict. It's one thing to talk about what one would do, but another entirely to act. War and revolution are their own entities, but what comes after? How does one plan to rebuild once the smoke clears and the dust settles? To the antagonists, the book poses that very question. It's one thing to want to overthrow the government, but what will you replace it with? Ideals aren't enough. As tensions grow and actions escalate, it's possible for the forces of rebellion to realize they have become no better than what they were fighting against. In wanting something different, they have somehow become the same. It's a very Ouroboros-esque examination that pain only creates more pain.

There is a message, throughout A Nation Under Our Feet, a message that begins as an idea and that ultimately ends as a foundation: “No one man.” The idea that an entire country shouldn't, and couldn't, depend on only one man, but the totality of its people. The consolidation of power is dangerous and while King T'Challa fights against this idea, even he can come to realize that the respect and love of his people is dependent not just on faith and belief but actual trust. A country is not for just one man, after all, but for all.

As characters in the book state many times, “Wakanda was supposed to be better.” It was a nation meant to be different than all the others in the Marvel universe, a view that can easily be extrapolated into our very own world. There are no perfect countries or nations, only people with goals, hopes and dreams. Ta-Nehisi Coate's Black Panther comic book is one that all of us should read. All of us who look at the news every day, uncertain of the ever-shifting geo-political landscape. All of us who wish to leave behind a better world for our children, and for the generations to come. It's a book that is worth putting time and effort into, a book where we can all learn a little something more.

A Nation Under Our Feet doesn't end by giving us answers, but by showing us the only way we will ever get on the right track to finding them: by putting egos aside and finding some common ground. Division and condemnation can only take you so far. At the end of the day, it's only by working together that we can forego the past and build something new. With everyone, no matter the race or creed, standing together, proudly, with the nation they love resting under their feet.