Roxane Gay

2016 has been quite a year, and we can only imagine what 2017 will bring. As I look back at what superhero comics have been in the past year, I can't help but think about what the future holds. DC Rebirth, I admit as someone who was skeptical going in, has overall led to some great comics. Civil War II has been less encouraging, although there have still been some very good Marvel comics this year. DC and Marvel comics seem simultaneously to always be relaunching and never changing. But there are changes creeping in around the edges if you pay attention. With that in mind, I've put together five hopes --- five suggested resolutions if you will --- for what I'd like to see from mainstream superhero comics in 2017.

Of the most anticipated superhero comics of this year has to be the upcoming Black Panther: World of Wakanda, which spins out of the ongoing title by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze and brings with it a host of new talent to Marvel. Although co-written by Coates, it marks the comics debut of celebrated writer Roxane Gay, who alongside artist Alitha E. Martinez is set to tell a story about two of 2016's most popular new characters. Marvel has provided an unlettered preview of the first issue.

At San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, Marvel plans to announce a new series spinning out of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze's Black Panther series, Black Panther: World of Wakanda. An anthology series, the lead story features Ayo and Aneka, two lovers who defected from Wakanda's all-woman security force to form the Midnight Angels, and it's co-written by Coates and feminist essayist and critic Roxane Gay, with art by Alitha Martinez. The first issue of World of Wakanda also features a 10-page backup story written by poet Yona Harvey, with art by Afua Richardson. Harvey's story stars Zenzi, a female revolutionary who has also been introduced in Coates' Black Panther.