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I've loved Marvel all my life.
As a young person, it was basically
one of the first places that I really learned
to think about writing.
So, any opportunity to write for Marvel,
I just couldn't turn it down.
I think if you're like a young man in West Baltimore
and all around you is a considerable amount
of powerlessness
you probably have an attraction to people with power.
I could lose myself for long periods of time
with comic books.
I never had enough money to buy enough.
That's what I remember.
Just not being able to buy enough.
I didn't just collect the issues as they came out.
I collected back issues.
I used to keep an inventory of all my comic books.
I had an inventory. I put them in the plastic bags
with the backboards and everything.
The Black Panther is T'Challa,
who is the King of the mythical kingdom
of Wakanda.
T'Challa is supposed to be this genius
who can do everything.
You know, fighter/genius/warrior.
Basically the dream of nerds everywhere.
And he's African to be clear, but there had
not been a black superhero in comic books
quite like him before.
So, yes. It was tremendously radical.
I always perceived Marvel and comic books in general
as incredibly diverse,
as compared to when you cut on the television
or when you went to the movies.
When I came of age, there were black superheroes,
there just were, in the comic books.
Very rarely did they spend much time
discussing what their presence meant.
They just sort of existed.
That was tremendously radical for me as a young boy.
But, as a creator you can only tell yourself
so many times, "It's so cool
to have this black dude doing x, y, and z."
In fact, you really shouldn't be telling yourself that at all.
It's so irrelevant as to whether it works or not.
When you're writing, you don't really think too much--
I don't think too much about diversity.
Again, it has to be good.
It's a very backwards -- in my mind -- process of writing.
I mean, it's the process of writing screenplays,
of writing comic books, but
it's not the process of writing journalism.
I've had to totally rethink certain things.
If I want to introduce somebody, say a villain in a scene
or even T'Challa in a scene
that's tough to do.
Because, in fact before I even thought of the words
I had to think of what actually happened in the scene.
So, what was going on?
What is T'Challa doing? Where is T'Challa?
Then you can put the words in afterwards.
So, it's different.
Comic books work on action.
Comic books work on violence and
people punching people.
And that sounds like the obvious thing,
but it's not something I immediately
thought about when I signed up.
I don't know.
I want this to be
the best Black Panther run that there's been,
I want this to be one of best
runs that Marvel has ever done,
and I want to elevate the stature of the character.