Marvel recruited journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates to write the 'Black Panther' comic book

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

A big name is coming to Marvel comics. 

The Atlantic's national correspondent and author Ta-Nehisi Coates will write a new Black Panther comic series for the publisher, The New York Times reports. Created in 1966, Black Panther is the first mainstream African American superhero.

Coates wrote 2015 best-seller "Between the World and Me," written as a letter to his son about what it's like growing up black in America. His June 2014 Atlantic cover story, "The Case for Reparations," won Coates the George Polk Award for Commentary earlier this year.

According to the NYT, Coates, a self-proclaimed Marvel superfan, spoke with Marvel back in May when he was interviewing Marvel editor Sana Amanat about diversity. Amanat recently helped bring the new Ms. Marvel, a Muslim Pakistani-American teenager, to fruition. 

The year-long series, "A Nation Under Our Feet," will be inspired by Steven Hahn's 2003 book of the same name and "will find the hero dealing with a violent uprising in his country set off by a superhuman terrorist group called the People."

It will be part of Marvel's All-New All Different Marvel" initiative kicking off this October, which will include new comics for Marvel's superhero characters like Iron Man and the Avengers. 

Coates' series will launch in April and will be illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze. 

Here's the cover of the premiere issue.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Here's the variant, also by Stelfreeze.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

We'll be seeing a lot more of Black Panther in the coming year, as Chadwick Boseman will bring the character to life on the big screen in next year's "Captain America: Civil War." 

Response to the news has been very positive.

SEE ALSO: Our season 2 review of "Gotham"

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We just got our first teaser for Netflix's next Marvel show 'Jessica Jones'