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| Marvel's Black Panther: is this the big break for a black superhero? | Marvel's Black Panther: is this the big break for a black superhero? |
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| Marvel’s film universe continues to steadily expand outwards – now that core comic-book characters like the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America have gone supernova, new stars are filling up the firmament, presumably until there isn’t a single month of the year that isn’t glowing with a Marvel release. | Marvel’s film universe continues to steadily expand outwards – now that core comic-book characters like the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America have gone supernova, new stars are filling up the firmament, presumably until there isn’t a single month of the year that isn’t glowing with a Marvel release. |
| The newly announced films are two-part Avengers sequel Infinity War and a Captain America movie called Civil War, alongside new film outings for Doctor Strange and – most interestingly – Black Panther. | The newly announced films are two-part Avengers sequel Infinity War and a Captain America movie called Civil War, alongside new film outings for Doctor Strange and – most interestingly – Black Panther. |
| The latter will be Marvel’s first lead black superhero, and it’s a breakthrough moment. The positioning of this ethnic minority as heroic – however tortured that heroism may likely be – is a valuable statement in this most high profile of US pop cultural products, in a year when the dominant media image of black men has been as subordinated to (often white) police. | The latter will be Marvel’s first lead black superhero, and it’s a breakthrough moment. The positioning of this ethnic minority as heroic – however tortured that heroism may likely be – is a valuable statement in this most high profile of US pop cultural products, in a year when the dominant media image of black men has been as subordinated to (often white) police. |
| There’s a crucial difference between Black Panther and the other black superheroes of late, in that the character carries the picture, rather than supports white heroes. Nick Fury of the Avengers has something impotent and pen-pushing about him; Idris Elba’s Heimdall in Thor may have angered fanboys, but wasn’t given a tremendous amount to do; Michael B Jordan’s forthcoming take on the Human Torch in a new Fantastic Four movie will likely be in hock to a white Mr Fantastic; and even The Incredibles’ Frozone was your classic black wisecracker sidekick. | |
| Black Panther could well be very different. The first major black superhero ever, he first dropped in to help out the Avengers in the 1960s comic books, in the aforementioned supporting-man style. But he was then given an epic canvas with Panther’s Rage, a 200-page tale across multiple issues that dealt with his struggle against violent antagonists in the fictional African nation of Wakanda. The next story arc saw him travel to the US to fight the Ku Klux Klan. This strong heritage, combined with Marvel’s renewed zest for allegory as shown in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, means that a film with as politically resonant a title as Black Panther could address afrocentricity as well as ass-kicking. Chadwick Boseman, whose upcoming performance in James Brown biopic Get On Up brilliantly manages to avoid bland impersonation, is excellent casting. | Black Panther could well be very different. The first major black superhero ever, he first dropped in to help out the Avengers in the 1960s comic books, in the aforementioned supporting-man style. But he was then given an epic canvas with Panther’s Rage, a 200-page tale across multiple issues that dealt with his struggle against violent antagonists in the fictional African nation of Wakanda. The next story arc saw him travel to the US to fight the Ku Klux Klan. This strong heritage, combined with Marvel’s renewed zest for allegory as shown in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, means that a film with as politically resonant a title as Black Panther could address afrocentricity as well as ass-kicking. Chadwick Boseman, whose upcoming performance in James Brown biopic Get On Up brilliantly manages to avoid bland impersonation, is excellent casting. |
| The challenge is not to exoticise. Black Panther sports tribal jewellery atop the usual skin-tight leotard – likely a nightmare when jiggling around in combat – that isn’t too clunkingly African. More problematic could be his rooting in a comic called Jungle Action, and his claws in the concept art. Comparing black people to animals, or characterising them as primitive jungle creatures, are classic racist tropes, and ones made by Marvel’s writers even as they sought to empower their character. Can this film avoid being the Um Bongo of cinema? | The challenge is not to exoticise. Black Panther sports tribal jewellery atop the usual skin-tight leotard – likely a nightmare when jiggling around in combat – that isn’t too clunkingly African. More problematic could be his rooting in a comic called Jungle Action, and his claws in the concept art. Comparing black people to animals, or characterising them as primitive jungle creatures, are classic racist tropes, and ones made by Marvel’s writers even as they sought to empower their character. Can this film avoid being the Um Bongo of cinema? |
| To be absolutely fair to them, Marvel is making very deliberate steps to make itself an equal opportunities universe, in its comic books as well as its films. As well as creating a female Thor, its new Captain America comics will see the black character of the Falcon take on the mantle of the leading man, after Cap has his superpowers drained by supervillain Iron Nail. Anthony Mackie, who plays the Falcon on film, could similarly end up taking on the lead character in future instalments. | To be absolutely fair to them, Marvel is making very deliberate steps to make itself an equal opportunities universe, in its comic books as well as its films. As well as creating a female Thor, its new Captain America comics will see the black character of the Falcon take on the mantle of the leading man, after Cap has his superpowers drained by supervillain Iron Nail. Anthony Mackie, who plays the Falcon on film, could similarly end up taking on the lead character in future instalments. |
| A black Captain America is as dizzying and dissonant an image as a black president, and would be truly revolutionary in a country still ravaged by racism – but nevertheless, Black Panther is still an evolutionary leap in Marvel’s universe. | A black Captain America is as dizzying and dissonant an image as a black president, and would be truly revolutionary in a country still ravaged by racism – but nevertheless, Black Panther is still an evolutionary leap in Marvel’s universe. |