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On Captain America: Civil War’s Black Panther


I was ten years old the first time I got to see a black superhero star in a movie. Todd MacFarlane’s Spawn, starring Michael Jai White, was a dark, brutal film that I probably had no business watching at that age. Spawn, of course, is the quintessential anti-hero. An assassin literally raised from the pits of Hell to wreak unholy vengeance on those that had wronged him in life and any and all bad guys who got in the way. Spawn was more monster than man, and satisfies that primal urge to see those who would prey on innocents be in turn preyed on themselves.

The very next year, Marvel’s oft forgotten first box office success, Blade, was released. Blade as a part-vampire who made it his business to eradicate dangerous blood suckers with extreme prejudice, occupied the same anti-hero, monster’s monster niche as Spawn. These aren’t characters that are made to be looked up to. These are adult characters largely written for adult readers and viewers. Unlike Superman, Batman, or Spider-Man, there’s no overriding code of justice or honorability. Spawn and Blade occupy an area of violent wish fulfillment. They’re bad ass in the extreme, but you’re not about to see kids running around dressed as them on Halloween.

When Marvel released Iron Man in 2008 it was the jumping off point for an incredible and on-going run of superhero movies that have come to dominate Hollywood and popular culture. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is quickly becoming what Star Wars was (and maybe is again) for the last generation of lovers of all things nerdy.  And like Star Wars, it was largely devoid of men and women of color.

When we did appear it was inevitably as a token sidekick. James Rhodes’ War Machine, in the Iron Man films; Idris Elba as the criminally underutilized Heimdall, and Hogun in the Thor films; Falcon in the three Captain America movies; Nick Fury in the Avengers films; and Zoe Saldana and Vin Diesel in Guardians of the Galaxy. You may be noticing a pattern.

And, lest we focus too narrowly, Fox and Sony have been similarly guilty of all but erasing darker-complected men and women from leading roles in their superhero films. When they do feature, it’s inevitably as the token member of a team, an afterthought to the white, male main characters. Captain America: Civil War stood to continue this storied tradition -- but then it didn’t. Because Black Panther happened.

Let me be unequivocally clear, Chadwick Boseman owned this role. His rendition of the King of Wakanda is everything I’d not dared hope for. He, Ryan Coogler (the director of the upcoming Black Panther film and creative consultant on the Panther in Civil War), the Russo brothers, and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely flipped the script. T’Challa stands in leonine defiance to the stereotypes that have so long plagued black men in popular media. Consider:

  1. T’Challa’s relationship with his father is deep and meaningful, wonderfully shown in a pair of scenes that introduce us to the King and Prince of Wakanda. 
  2. T’Challa is warm, charming, and clever without the greasy undertones of predatory sexualization we so often see in cinema (looking at you, Lando). He manages to be spiritual without abandoning reason; skillful without relying on power tendered to him by others. 
  3. T’Challa is the rightful, lawful leader of the richest, most technologically advanced nation on the planet. Other characters, powerful politically and literally, defer to him as royalty, and it never seems forced. T’Challa is 
  4. But most of all, T’Challa is intelligent, diplomatic, relentless, willful, highly skilled, and wise. This is not a comedic relief sidekick there to act as a staging point for the growth of a white, male protagonist. 

T’Challa is a force of nature in his own right, unbeholden, unlike the rest of the Avengers, to the cults of character attached to Iron Man and Captain America. But let’s face facts, none of that would matter if Black Panther was weak. He’d be just another Hawkeye who, for all of Jeremy Renner’s boyish charm and the character’s amusing self-awareness, is not putting butts in seats.

Thankfully, Black Panther is a heavy hitter. Easily in the same league as the primary heroes, Iron Man and Captain America. In his implacable pursuit of the Winter Soldier it takes multiple Avengers just to slow him down. He oozes a primal ferocity and grace that does justice to the feline namesake in every scene. The martial arts employed by the Panther are agile and powerful, and stand in stark contrast to those of the other punching, kicking heroes. King T’Challa is a certified, card carrying Bad Ass.

But the thing that most sets apart Boseman’s T’Challa from his forebears, besides not being a merciless anti-hero or charming side kick, is that he grows over the course of the movie. Save Tony Stark, Thor, and Captain America, every other hero in the MCU is essentially the same person as they were when first introduced. We don’t exactly watch superhero movies for the deeply nuanced character development, but the entire premise of the MCU, and especially Civil War, has been the characters’ evolving conceptions of what it means to be a hero and the resulting clashes. This simply wouldn’t be possible without Tony Stark’s change from merchant of death “billionaire, playboy, philanthropist” to a man shouldering the responsibility for the safety of the world. Likewise, Steve Roger’s continuing willingness to put people over process in spite of his loyalty to justice and the rule of law sets up the titular conflict with Tony.

Aside from those three, there has been only marginal character development for the supporting heroes, and this is the strength of the Russo brother’s film: the majority of the characters go through (or are in the process of going through) personal change and growth. Everything doesn’t return to the status quo as it seemed to have in both of Joss Whedon’s films, and the changes have both macro and micro consequences for the character.

This is nowhere more apparent than the final scenes featuring the Black Panther, who is at enough of a remove from the situation, despite his very personal stake, to reexamine and choose a different path than his more heralded counterparts.

At nearly thirty years old, I’m far removed from that little boy who watched Spawn and Blade and saw, not heroes, but bogeymen. I thought myself far beyond the need to see a hero who looked like me standing toe to toe with the modern mythology dominating our media.
But then Black Panther happened.

1 Comments

  1. Black Panther has always occupied that space in my heart that most comic book fans reserve for Batman. Still, I never thought I'd get to see a Black Panther movie, much less one that so many people are genuinely excited about. For me, Chadwick Boseman stole the show in Civil War, and I won't be surprised at all if Black Panther instantly becomes my favorite Marvel movie. Only two years and one month to go! LOL!

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