Ta-Nehisi Coates started writing comics two years ago. He says writing them, though a childhood dream, has been more difficult than it looks. For two years he’s lived in the world of Wakanda, writing the title Black Panther. And now, he’s entering a new world, the world of Captain America. In a new piece for The Atlantic, the author talks about why he decided to write the movie. Coates says that those people who don’t know much about the comic might think that the character is an unblinking mascot for American nationalism. But “the best thing about the story of Captain America is the implicit irony,” writes Coates. Captain America is instead the “personification of his country’s egalitarian ideals—an anatomical Horatio Alger who through sheer grit and the wonders of science rises to become a national hero.” Coates writes that Captain America is not so much tied to America as it is, but to an America of the imagined past. Coates has had conflicted past with this type of statement, but he writes that is precisely the reason he is so excited to write Captain America. Coates says that for him, writing is not about answers, but about questions. And this movie provides him with a direct question: Why would anyone believe in The Dream? Coates has his doubts, but isn’t going to let that stop him. He writes, “I’m not convinced I can tell a great Captain America story—which is precisely why I want so bad to try.”
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