At some point someone should probably talk about Far Sector vs. Coates Black Panther as examples of how and how not to bring prose writers into comics. I think as we move forward and attempt to bring in more voices, that conversation needs to be had.

I'm very in favor of bringing people in from outside comics, provided they don't take opportunities away from people who've always been in comics. I think that's not really a risk as long as publishers are willing to invest in both. So that's on them.

But there's a better way to do this. Coates' Black Panther was pretty bad, I have to say. Tons of interesting ideas, but he still doesn't quite get how to write comics imo. And that's fine. There's a learning curve to this and he should be allowed to work that out.

But where do we want that to happen. Coates' comics work covers two Black Panther ongoings, Captain America, and two Black Panther miniseries. That's a lot of high profile titles. Very prominent. He got to work out those issues on a very important set of books.

Compare this to Jemisin on Far Sector. All new characters, all new setting. Still a marketing push. But she's not working on "important" books as far as continuity and the line are concerned. If it fails (it's not) then it's of no real consequence to DC overall.

Now Far Sector is just a lot better for a whole host of reasons, and that proves another thing. She's proved she can write comics well and on time and the book sells well and is a critical darling. So success never hinged on the profile of Black Panther.

If Coates had written something smaller, and it had been great, it would have done well anyway. So lower risk, but the same potential for reward. That's important too.

Now onto one of the reasons I think Far Sector is better. It's all new stuff. She made a world and characters that we've never seen before. It takes a certain eye and experience to drop into these worlds that already exist and most novelists don't do that regularly.

So giving them a place to not have to try out completely new skills is good. Let them invent worlds like they're used to, and learn and develop comics writing skills there. That seems to have gone well for the most part.

I don't think there's a concrete right or wrong here, but I think that given the frequency of this phenomenon, there should be some talk about the different ways to set it up