From the beginning, says Jeph Loeb, head of Marvel’s television division, the company was looking for someone who could not only entertain but also address issues of race: “What is going on in this country for blacks and whites, and how can we tell that story through the eyes of a superhero?” Marvel was in the midst of expanding its roster of nonwhite superheroes, including introducing a Muslim Ms. Marvel and a Latino Spider-Man. The company has since hired Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of the best-selling Between the World and Me, to pen the newest adventures of Black Panther, the supergenius ruler of a fictional African nation. (That character will soon appear in a film directed by Ryan Coogler, who helmed Fruitvale Station, about a victim of police violence, and Creed, the heroic saga of Apollo Creed’s son.) Still, this was Marvel’s first attempt to create a series or film with a black protagonist at its center, a responsibility that Loeb took very seriously. “If we can get one person to watch the show and to think differently about what it is to be a hero in the present day, and what it is to be a black hero, then that’s a victory,” he says.
Coker developed a story about a prison escapee living anonymously in Harlem—until he’s unable to resist the responsibility to help his community.
