Roxane Gay is set to become the first-ever black woman to pen a Marvel comic book. An announcement at Comic-Con revealed that the “Bad Feminist” essayist will co-write a new Black Panther series, “Black Panther: World of Wakanda,” with Ta-Nehisi Coates featuring art by Alitha Martinez.
Comics Alliance writes that the anthology series’ lead story “features Ayo and Aneka, two lovers who defected from Wakanda’s all-woman security force to form the vigilante Midnight Angels… The first issue of ‘World of Wakanda’ will also feature a 10-page backup story written by poet Yona Harvey, with art by Afua Richardson. Harvey’s story stars Zenzi, a female revolutionary who has also been introduced in Coates’ Black Panther.”
“World of Wakanda” will also go down history books as the first Marvel series with “unambiguously queer characters in the lead roles,” a fact which drew Gay to the project. “The opportunity to write black women and queer black women into the Marvel universe, there’s no saying no to that,” Gay told The New York Times.
Gay is poised to make her debut in another medium as well. The Purdue professor will co-write an adaptation of her first novel, “An Untamed State,” for Fox Searchlight. She’ll share writing duties with the film’s director, Gina Prince-Bythewood (“The Secret Life of Bees”). Prince-Bythewood is re-teaming with her leading lady from 2014’s “Beyond the Lights” Gugu Mbatha-Raw (“Concussion,” “Belle”) for the drama.
The novel centers on Mireille Duval Jameson, a rich, happily married Haitian-American with an infant son. Mireille’s fairy tale life is shattered when she’s kidnapped by a gang and held for ransom. This new-found sense of fear and vulnerability leads Mireille to confront her privilege and consider just what kind of person she’s become — and who she wants to be if she can make it out alive.
Gay has two upcoming books in the works: “Difficult Women,” a short story collection, and “Hunger,” a memoir. The former will hit shelves January 3, 2017, and the latter is expected for release June 2017.
The big-screen adaptation of “Black Panther,” directed by “Creed” and “Fruitvale Station” helmer Ryan Coogler, will open in theaters in June 6, 2018. The film stars Chadwick Boseman (“Draft Day”), Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years a Slave”), Danai Gurira (“The Walking Dead”), and Michael B. Jordan (“Creed”).
Check out a TED Talk from Gay below.
