Why Black Panther Shouldn't Have Worked
This is a day late and a dollar short. Sue me. Plenty has already been written about the Black Panther movie. I'm half white, half Asian-American, so I barely count as a person of color and I am very much not qualified to talk about the impact the movie Black Panther had for African-Americans even if I thought I had anything to say on that point that hasn't already been said better by others.
I want to talk about the immense juggling act Ryan Coogler pulled off in making the this movie from the point of view of a comic book nerd.
Black Excellence
There was a large number of narratives Coogler was trying to change with this movie: He wanted to change the narrative in Hollywood about what movies are and aren't viable for big budget productions (e.g. big budget movies told from a black perspective with black leads and a black director and and and), he wanted to change how America sees African-Americans, how the African diaspora sees Africa, how Africa sees the African diaspora, how black children see their potential futures, and even to some extent how the West looks back on colonialism (something Taika Waititi also tackled in Thor: Ragnarok).
It's hard to overstate just how many sociopolitical ideas Coogler was trying to inject into the public consciousness with this movie, I also cannot stress enough how important those ideas are to the African diaspora, and well, to anyone who gives a crap about morality. However, talking about the impact of this movie for people of African descent is something I'm not qualified to talk about. Thankfully, plenty of others who are qualified have already said quite a bit about this topic.
Whiny Marvel Comic Book Fans
Comic book nerds are notorious for having hissy fits all over the Internet whenever our expectations aren't met.
One of the things that distinguishes Marvel comic books from DC comic books is how heroes are presented. DC heroes are like Greek gods: idealized heroic examples of one virtue or another. That's not to say that DC heroes don't have flaws, just that it is their virtues that define them and make them interesting. Marvel heroes are defined by their flaws as much as DC heroes are defined by their virtues, and if Marvel fanboys don't get those flaws, we can get all bent out of shape.
I don't mind that movie Hawkeye has a very different backstory from comic book Hawkeye, but making him less of an asshole was unforgivable and I will rage about that fact to anyone who will listen.
Hope van Dyne from Ant-Man is obviously a Hollywood creation rather than something from the comic books, because she doesn't have enough flaws. Yes, she has a complicated relationship with her father that can cause her to get angry and lash out at people, but beyond that she doesn't feel like a proper Marvel hero yet. The movie version of Janet van Dyne is even worse. She is so lacking in flaws that she feels like a Marvel girlfriend character rather than a Marvel hero. (For a long time, Marvel girlfriend characters were poorly fleshed-out and lacking in flaws.)
Some of the most interesting Marvel heroes are not merely flawed, but actual assholes (e.g. Tony Stark, Wolverine, and I would argue that Northstar [Marvel's premier gay hero] qualifies under this heading). My point is, when Marvel heroes don't have enough flaws, Marvel fans complain. A lot.
Black Excellence vs Flawed Marvel Heroes
If I had been the one in charge of making the Black Panther movie, I would have seen black excellence and the Marvel flawed hero thing as being in conflict with each other. I would also have decided that the sociopolitical narrative ambitions of the movie were so important that I would have simply thrown the concept of flawed Marvel heroes under the bus.
Thank goodness Ryan Coogler was making this movie instead of some idiot like myself.
Somehow, Coogler managed to give us proper flawed Marvel heroes without sacrificing an ounce of black excellence. I don't understand literary analysis, I don't understand the mechanics of storytelling, I don't understand film criticism works nor how movies are made. As far as I can tell, Coogler managed to juggle the flawed Marvel heroes thing with black excellence by casting magic spells or something, and nothing exemplifies this like Coogler's version of T'Chaka.
In the comic books, the worst thing T'Chaka ever did was decide to not get involved in World War 2. I always imagined that this decision weight heavily on T'Chaka and that T'Challa opened Wakanda to the world in part to make up for his father's regrets. But movie T'Chaka? Nearly everything that happened in the Black Panther movie was driven by past mistakes made by T'Chaka, including some shocking past decisions, and yet he still felt regal, he still felt like a heroic figure who was trying to do the best for Wakanda and tried his best to be a loving father.
Choosing to abandon his own nephew in a racist shithole like Oakland was genuinely shocking and it made comic book T'Chaka seem like a Mary Sue character by comparison, never mind that someone with a vibranium suit could have easily saved that spy without killing his own (however treasonous) brother.
As a comic book dork, it warms my heart to know that mainstream audiences now know why Okoye is a wonderful badass, but let's not forget that the movie version of Okoye was prepared to plunge the world into darkness, turn her back on T'Challa's memory and bathe most of the world in blood largely because she couldn't bear to violate her precious traditions.
I don't mind the major changes made to Shuri (she's a Disney princess now, I don't care what anyone else says), especially given that the movie version of Shuri was so brazen and so irreverent that she created diplomatic headaches for her brother just by existing.
Comic book Ramonda always gave me the feeling that if push ever came to shove, she would happily choose her children over the well-being of Wakanda, and movie-Ramonda left me with the same vibe.
These characters were every bit as flawed as any Marvel fan could hope for, and yet oozed black excellence in ways that we just haven't seen in any Hollywood movie before. For all their flaws, T'Chaka was regal and fatherly, Okoye commanding, Shuri brilliant, etc., and that's before we consider the amazing re-imagining of Killmonger into a perfect blend of Magneto and Batman.
Hopefully, the next time you watch this movie again, you can appreciate the incredible juggling act Ryan Coogler pulled off in making this movie.
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