With the home release less than two weeks away, I thought it's time to write up my thoughts about the best reviewed and incredibly successful Black Panther, with full spoilers ahoy. I will be focusing on the ways it seeks to redeem the problematic aspects of the Black Panther comics over the years.
All images credit Marvel Studios and Marvel Comics
The film delves straight into what has always been the essential problem with Wakanda, as created by two white dudes. Wakanda is a technological, powerful, and advanced nation in the heart of Africa. Moreover, it was all of those things, hidden from sight, throughout slavery, and colonization. It is that essential problem with the original texts, and its repercussions that is at the heart of the film.
The Villain
Let's face it, the MCU has long had a villain problem. None of the Iron Man films has a decent villain. Red Skull is just cartoonishly evil, as is Ultron. And Zemo is basically a non-entity, there only to create the friction between Tony and Steve. Loki is great, of course - which is why he's in so many movies. And Hela is awesome, though much of that is due to Cate Blanchett being amazing. But whatisname the Dark Elf from The Dark World... what even WAS that?
Killmonger is, I would argue, the best Marvel villain ever. He is what a truly great villain should be: A dark mirror of the hero. He is a man of conviction, principles, and skill. Casting Michael B. Jordan - Ryan Coogler's go-to actor, who has been in each of his feature films and was the lead in the all of the rest - was brilliant, because Jordan is both a great actor and a raging ball of charisma. In another life, he could absolutely be a great king.
Malice and... ahem... Man-Ape
All of the film's prominent characters appear in the comics, but some of them appear in very different roles. Nakia, T'Challa's love interest and conscience, was Malice, a member of the Dora Milaje whose obsession with the young king led her down a dark path, and ended with her as an accomplice of Erik Killmonger. The gender politics of that are deeply fucked up, and the way Coogler turned that around was absolutely brilliant.
But as bad as that was, it ain't nothing when compared to the Racist bullcrap that is Man-Ape. In the film, M'Baku is an honorable man, an enemy turned friend. In the comics... well... I mean... he kills a sacred white gorilla, eats its flesh, bathes in its blood and gains powers and abilities making him the supervillain called Man-Ape. I wish I was making this shit up (don't read the bit about Infinity War near the end if you don't want to be super spoilered).
The Women
So let's talk about the Dora Milaje, the king's guard. So awesome, right? Well... here's the thing. Originally? In the comics? They were... ooof... They were wives in training for the king. And this wasn't in the sixties. This was in the 1990s.
Black Panther is a film that celebrates women. They are powerful, complex, brilliant. They move the plot. It is as much about Nakia and Okoye and Shuri (Shuri, it should be noted, was - as far as I can tell - always awesome) as it is about T'Challa and Killmonger. And it is glorious.
To sum up
Ryan Coogler has done an incredible thing in this film. And I hope the comics get retconned to this version of Wakanda as soon as possible. It is a better, smarter, more modern and relevant version. It is a version stripped of the racism (well intentioned as it usually was) and mysoginy of the comics. In the film, Black Panther is reborn after being an inch from death. I hope it leads to the same rebirth for the comicbook as well.