“Can you believe that? A kid from Oakland running around believing in fairytales.”
Erik Stevens, Black Panther, 2018
Marvel’s latest movie adapts the comic book character, which first emerged in 1966 and was first introduced in Captain America: Civil War (2016), to present the feature film, Black Panther. The film is majorly set in the fictional African nation of Wakanda, the home of super-metal vibranium which has allowed extensive technological advancements and prosperity to be achieved in the country. However, Wakanda is hidden “in plain sight” from the rest of the world, believed to be a poor third world country, striving to keep its people, and its vibranium, hidden and safe behind a force field.
Therein lies the basis of the film’s conflict and the political question that occupies the main characters, T’Challa, the king of Wakanda, (played by Chadwick Boseman) and Erik “Killmonger” Stevens, the would-be usurper of the throne (portrayed by Michael B. Jordan).
Erik “Killmonger” Stevens, of Wakandan royal blood but was brought up in America, believes that Wakanda’s powerful resources could help aid oppressed people against their oppressors. Killmonger’s life has been filled with strife and violence, filling him with anger at the oppression of African Americans and Africans worldwide. To him, Wakanda represents potential. Potential to right the wrongs of oppression. It is not only Wakanda that is the fantasy he believed in, but similarly the possibility of African freedom from unjust oppression. A fantasy he wants to be reality.
It is through this undertaking that we come to realize how relevant Killmonger is as a character. While he believes that arming the oppressed world with vibranium weapons will bring forth salvation, the problem is that this ideology is essentially along the lines of “fighting fire with fire”, stemming from a place of violence and anger that would in turn breed more violence and anger. The thing is, though, that Killmonger has a point. The fury and anger he feels mirrors that of so many Black people globally. He cannot comprehend how Wakanda can just stand by while minorities worldwide continue to be oppressed.
The question is how to tackle such a long and unjust history of oppression? T’Challa’s viewpoint stems from the nation he rules over which is predominantly focused on self-preservation. While his attempt to avoid violence, or put the safety of his people in jeopardy is commendable, we found ourselves agreeing with Killmonger, breaking the conventional image of supervillains. At the end of the day, Killmonger is not really a villain at all.
In the ten years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the seventeen movies, there has been a depressing lack of POC heroes. While the world of superheroes is obviously fictional, the world of comics and films are meant for audiences to see aspects of themselves in these heroes. As children, we would play make-believe and believe ourselves to be superheroes with powers enough to make a difference. While admittedly, the difference we strove to bring about as children had more to do with defeating the ant hill in our backyard, it is nevertheless indicative of the correlation of visibility and confidence in one’s powers.
The problem begins to lie, then, in the underrepresentation of minorities in these worlds. How are people of all backgrounds supposed to fully relate to these characters if they’re not seeing any diversity in films dominated by non-POC actors? Until the introduction of T’Challa in Captain America: Civil War, the world of Marvel has primarily consisted of non-POC heroes, the only other exceptions being the Falcon, Nick Fury, War Machine, Valkyrie, and Gamora. However, in the films they mostly act as sidekicks and/or an alien.
The concept of visibility in Black Panther was brought up by a close friend, who we’ll further refer to as L.[1] L stated that “Wakanda was hidden [both in] the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and in the real world up until this point, so black people weren’t seeing themselves in that universe. This is a mirror to how black people, and especially black youth, haven’t been seeing themselves as heroes in real life. By its creation, Black Panther is inherently political.”
L is absolutely correct, as the film’s significance goes way beyond the role of T’Challa and Wakanda in the Marvel Universe. Through the unveiling of Wakanda in the MCU, it is simultaneously revealed to the audience and the real world and showcases a film with a cast and crew predominantly made up of powerhouse POCs, including women of colour, another category sorely missing in the MCU. Black Panther is the film we desperately needed to show us some much-awaited diversity in the superhero world.
We see a film where black beauty is celebrated wholly. Director and co-screenwriter Ryan Coogler used multiple African influences in his creation of Wakanda, which the Washington Post describes as a “Pan-African pastiche; viewers of “Black Panther” can point to Ghanaian fabrics and Zulu headdresses, Ethiopian tribal body markings and a prominent Bantu tongue.” Seeing this amalgamation of continental cultures is imperative to representing a world unaffected by Westernization.
Ben Child rightly identifies the film’s importance by asking, in his Guardian article, “which other superhero flick has dared to imagine a future where the achievements of African scientists dwarf those of their western counterparts, or the denizens of troubled American ghettos turn their eyes to the land of their ancestors for foreign aid?” Child once again reminds us that the film is wholly political, where our need for radicalism and resistance to oppression in the light of modern day racism and violence is acknowledged.
It is through this very literal battle of opinions between T’Challa and Killmonger that T’Challa realizes Wakanda cannot continue hiding from the world. He comes to a compromise, and builds an outreach centre in the U.S. in the building his uncle died in, and prepares to discuss Wakanda in front of the United Nations. As Killmonger lays dying at the film’s end, he asks one thing of T’Challa: “Just bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jumped from the ships, because they knew death was better than bondage.”
~ S & Z ~
Interested in more Marvel related posts? Check out this post on Thor!
Citations:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/20/why-wakanda-matters/?utm_term=.54ae21fe82bd
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/14/black-panther-superhero-film-discuss-with-spoilers-ryan-coogler
Images:
https://www.verdict.co.uk/black-panther-already-turning-huge-profits-marvel/
https://www.geek.com/comics/11-must-read-black-panther-comics-1726239/
[1] Credit to Lammii Baker for the wonderful insight.
