Black Panther #1, written by The Atlantic national correspondent and National Book Award winner, Ta-Nehisi Coates, accompanied with outstanding art by Brian Stelfreeze, garnered international buzz and attention upon the announcement of this series in 2015 and debuted as the best-selling comic for the month of April. Marvel continues the excitement surrounding Marvel’s celebrated Super Hero T’Challa, the Black Panther, through a groundbreaking hip-hop inspired video series entitled “Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet”.

The monthly video series, narrated by Coates, explains his inspiration for his version of T’challa, Wakanda and his comic book influences. Marvel’s goal of the series is to educate old and new fans about this new verse from the creators themselves. Coates pays homage to the creators who came before him on the series, (Reginald Hudlin, Christopher Priest, etc.) while building on that foundation and taking the series in a new direction. He describes his world-building techniques and T’challa’s new kingdom after DoomWar and the threats to Wakanda as a result.

 

Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet (Intro)

Marvel is also including famous musical acts in the series. (Could this be what all of those hip-hop covers of Marvel characters last year was all about?) The first episode of the multi-artist hip-hop-inspired video series samples the unmistakable beat of Run The Jewel’s “Oh My Darling.”

 

 Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet (Ep 1)

 Each month, a new “Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet” video will be released to coincide with the latest issue of Marvel Comics’ Black Panther. The videos will continue to feature commentary from Mr. Coates, motion graphics, as well as an hip-hop score from what Marvel claims as “some of the world’s largest hip-hop acts”. It’s no surprise that Marvel dropped the series the same week as Captain America: Civil War was released, as Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther character was introduced to the world. Marvel seems to be serious about putting effort behind this series and as a fan of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brian Stelfreze and Chadwick Boseman they have my attention.

You can view the monthly series here or on Youtube.