Ta-Nehisi Coates has signed on to write a new Captain America comic book series, with the first issue to be released on the Fourth of July this year. "Writing is about questions for me — not answers," Coates explains. "And Captain America, the embodiment of a kind of Lincolnesque optimism, poses a direct question for me: Why would anyone believe in The Dream?"
Captain America was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in 1941, and the character has been portrayed in a number of recent Marvel films. "There has long been a complaint among black comic creators that they are restricted to black characters," notes Coates. "I don't know what it means to live in a world where people restrict what you write, and the reason I don't know is largely because of the sacrifices of all those who were forced to know before me."
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