Random Nerdery: A Silver Surfer Movie, Ta-Nehisi Coates & Captain America

Black Panther is making money hand-over-fist while bringing a welcome new level of diversity and representation to superhero movies. Marvel recently announced that the highly anticipated Avengers: Infinity War, which brings the last decade of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a head, is coming out a week earlier than expected. We’re living in a golden age of comic book movies, and yet, the Silver Surfer still doesn’t have a good movie.

But that may be changing with the news that Twentieth Century Fox is fast-tracking several new projects, including a Silver Surfer movie being written by Brian K. Vaughn. Vaughn is one of today’s most acclaimed comic book creators, thanks to titles like Y: The Last Man, Runaways, and Saga. That last title, a galaxy-spanning sci-fi drama filled with fantastical alien civilizations and intriguing characters, is what makes me particularly excited about Vaughn’s involvement.

Of course, this is still early on. Even though one studio executive said they’re moving quickly on the project, I’m very cautiously optimistic about the endeavor. Furthermore, it’s highly unlikely that the Surfer will be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe anytime soon (which is a shame because Thanos, the big bad in Avengers: Infinity War, is such a prominent Surfer foe).

But waiting for the Silver Surfer to appear on the silver screen does give you plenty of time to read Dan Slott and Mike Allred’s excellent Silver Surfer series, which just wrapped up last year.

For the last two years, noted author and columnist Ta-Nehisi Coates has been writing the acclaimed Black Panther comic book. This summer, however, he’ll be jumping to another iconic superhero: Captain America. Given Coates’ frequent and powerful writing about America’s troubled history with slavery and race relations, it might seem a bit odd that he’s going to be writing for one of the whitest superheroes of all time.

But in his recent announcement, Coates gives a detailed and thought-provoking explanation for why he’s both excited and scared to write about Cap: “Captain America, the embodiment of a kind of Lincolnesque optimism, poses a direct question for me: Why would anyone believe in The Dream? What is exciting here is not some didactic act of putting my words in Captain America’s head, but attempting to put Captain America’s words in my head.”

Joining Coates will be artists Leinil Yu and Alex Ross. Yu has drawn Superman: Birthright, Avenging Spider-Man, and Fantastic Four, while Ross has gained considerable acclaim for his extremely detailed and realistic artwork. The first issue of Coates’ Captain America will arrive, appropriately enough, on the Fourth of July.