I lived my entire life waiting for this moment. I trained, I lied, I killed just to get here. I killed in America, Afghanistan, Iraq... I took life from my own brothers and sisters right here on this continent! And all this death just so I could kill you.
~ Erik Killmonger.
It's truly heartbreaking that Chadwick Bossman had to die. But I'm glad he became a hero not only in fiction but also in real life to young black kids around the world. And even to me. Rest in peace Chadwick Bossman, The Black panther.
But no hero is ever complete without a villain, no story is ever complete without an altercation, a disagreement, or a reason to fight to either change or be changed....Enter killMonger. Being the greatest superhero doesn't just come by having a weak villain, it doesn't come by having a villain whose ideal of power struggle, revenge, or dominance is to take over the world. Such ideas are not just only outdated but also stupid because it's unrealistic. It's far much better to have a villain whose goal is to cause harm to the hero, the reason for such can be attributed to something minor like the hero accidentally stepping on the villain's shoe, or the hero accidentally eating the villain's freshly baked bread, it can even simply be just an outfit clash, Where the hero wears the same outfit as the villain. Using ideas like this, the movie can quickly resonate with the audience, allowing them to feel what the villain feels, and know only what the villain knows. And that's what I feel killMonger did perfectly.
Normally I would guess that the black panther movie would start by introducing me to a young T'chala(Chadwick Bossman) showing us his touching life story of how his parents sent him to earth to become a man with the power of a God, only for him to grow into a man with Godlike powers but controlled by a woman......Thank God that storyline was never made. Instead, we were given the view of a man who lost it all in a blink of an eye, a man who watched his father get killed by his brother. We saw his hate and explored every bit of it. Joining him on an emotional rollercoaster as he made his way to the hero, to exert his vengeance for the sins of his father. We understood his pain and then we became the judge.
Honestly, I haven't seen a movie that explored adequate proportions of the hero and villain's story without dragging us to just one side. The balance and chemistry between the hero and the villain were just outstanding, I could feel the hate, I could feel the Vengeance. ... Never have I ever rooted for a villain to survive an encounter with the hero as much as I did for killMonger. I wanted him to survive, I wanted him to forgive, I wanted him to be the hero and not the villain, I wanted them to become brothers...I wanted them to realize that the sins of their fathers shouldn't rest on their shoulders. But what was meant to happen happened, and killMonger opened his eyes a little too late.
Having an idea of what the character's goal is to be, and perfectly scripting each word out is not enough when writing a villain story. Why? Because it's not real yet. Thank God for Micheal B. Jordan who outperformed himself. I know the role of killMonger could have easily been given to any other actor but I doubt any other actor would have made an impact with the role like how Jordan did. Taking into consideration that the Black Panther movie is built on the culture of Africa and black people as a whole, I would say that Micheal B.Jordan is a star, delivering his raw, classy but ghetto take on the Erik killMonger in a more than satisfactory manner.
To conclude my article, I would like to point out that villains have come and villains have gone but none did it better than Michael B. Jordan aka Erik killMonger. And that's why Erik killMonger is my favorite movie villain.
