Roxane Gay Becomes 1st Black Woman to Write Marvel Comic Book

Roxane Gay is set to write a new Marvel comic book, the World of Wakanda, which will delve into the lives of the women of the Black Panther comic-book-series universe. It will be released in November, the New York Times reports.

The feminist scribe will team up with writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, who has written his own Black Panther series set in the fictional African nation.

Complex reports that the new series will involve several black women as writers and illustrators in addition to Gay. Alitha Martinez is the illustrator, and Yona Harvey and Afua Richardson will co-write and illustrate, respectively, a special "backup" story that will appear in the series' debut issue.

Gay’s story will feature two members of Black Panther's all-female security team—Ayo and Aneka—who fall in love. Harvey’s first story will revolve around Zenzi, a female revolutionary introduced in the first issue of Coates’ Black Panther series.

“It’s the most bizarre thing I’ve ever done, and I mean that in the best possible way,” said Gay to the Times.

Coates recruited both writers because he thought it important to have a woman’s perspective. “The women in Black Panther’s life are very, very important,” he said.

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