Feminist author and academic Roxane Gay is set to pen the Marvel’s new Black Panther series

Roxane Gay will be joining Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of Between the World and Me, and poet Yona Harvey on the comic series.

Coates, current writer of the Black Panther, oecruited Gay for the series companion, World of Wakanda (which will be released in November), saying she was “the perfect person to begin the literary excavations [into the] deep, rich world” of Wakanda.

“It’s the most bizarre thing I’ve ever done, and I mean that in the best possible way,” Gay told the New York Times at the weekend. “The opportunity to write black women and queer black women into the Marvel universe – there’s no saying no to that.”

Gay’s story will chronicle the relationship between Ayo and Aneka, two lovers who are former members of the Dora Milaje, the Black Panther’s female security force.

Coates’ run on Black Panther, which follows the adventures of titular Black Panther T’Challa, has been an enormous success, selling more than 250,000 copies in the first month after its release in the US, and selling out completely in the UK.