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'Black Panther' Spoiler Review: Representing a Monochrome
BY Christian Adwell
Published 7 years ago
There were a lot of preparations I did that led to this. Mastering the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a Christmas vacation was a challenge. But I did it anyway. From “Iron Man,” to the latest film “Thor: Ragnarok,” Christmas never felt any stronger than this. Then it came. February took a little longer than expected since January felt longer than it should be. On Valentine’s day, I dated myself to the cinema. I saw Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest installation, “Black Panther.”
Black Panther: what it meant to the people of ‘Wakanda.’
The film starts with a brief and simple explanation of what a Black Panther is. In a made-up nation called Wakanda, the Black Panther is the current king of the nation. His powers come from Vibranium. The element was a gift from the gods. It also happens to be the strongest metal on Earth. No wonder Howard Stark made Captain America’s shield from it. The Black Panther is a warrior that protected its nation from outside danger.
But it then transitions to a time where T’Chaka (John Kani) was king and the warrior himself. You might remember him from “Captain America: Civil War” where he died from a bombing in Sokovia. He gave a speech to United Nations when a bomb detonated, which killed him. T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), his firstborn, is next in line to the throne.
Disney/Marvel Studios
T’Chaka visits an apartment in Oakland. There lived a Wakandan named N’Jobu (Sterling K. Brown), who happens to be his younger brother. He informs him of the recent intrusion in Wakanda. T’Chaka mentioned that he was not sure, but an outsider might’ve led the intruders in their nation. Take note that Wakanda is a place hidden to the human eye by technology. It nests in a forest but protected by a force field. This makes the area hidden and safe from the outside world. The scene then shows a young boy playing basketball outside the apartment. He and his friends see a spaceship drive off above the clouds.
Cut to present day when T’Chaka is dead, and T’Challa replaces him as king. T’Challa goes home to Wakanda in a spaceship drove by Okoye (Danai Gurira), a General of the Dora Milaje. They are like the Valkyries of the Norse Mythology. Wakanda is the priority of their service. They are all women.
Disney/Marvel Studios
But before T’Challa goes home, he ransacks a save-the-citizens mission led by Wakandan spy Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), who also happens to be T’Challa’s ex-lover. When the mission is over, T’Challa asked Nakia to come home with him in celebration of his acceptance of the throne. Of course, he wants her to be there. They come back and do the rituals for the ceremony.
Fast forward to T’Challa as king and Killmonger enter the story. He is the son of T’Chaka’s brother in Oakland. The truth is, T’Chaka killed his N’Jobu that night. He didn’t take him back to Wakanda as what I thought as an audience at first. T’Chaka abused his power as king to mask his decision. Killmonger is T’Challa’s cousin. They then fight for the crown, and Killmonger defeats T’Challa for the throne and throws him off a waterfall. People of Wakanda assumed T’Challa is dead and decided to obey Killmonger as their new king.
Disney/Marvel Studios
Killmonger grew up in Oakland and became a US soldier. His views as a citizen out of Wakanda is different from living in it. He believes that it is time to reclaim what is theirs. But as Wakanda teaches its people–only fight if necessary. The contradiction between beliefs angered Killmonger. This made him strict among his governing people.
But T’Challa isn’t over yet. His mother Ramonda (Angela Bassett), and little sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) recovered him from M’Baku (Winston Duke), a warrior of the Wakandan mountain Tribe Jabari. One of the tribesmen found him in the frozen lakes in Wakanda. He was then brought to the area of the Jabaris to save him from death. M’Baku claims that only a second outside the ice sheeting he’s in and T’Challa dies. Ramonda and Shuri saved T’Challa by burying him and asking the prophets to bring him back to them. The prophets responded and gave T’Challa another chance to live.
Disney/Marvel Studios
T’Challa returns as the Black Panther. He battles Killmonger and kills him. He tried to save his impaled cousin by carrying him outside the cave they fought. Killmonger thought of seeing the sunset in Wakanda. His father told him that the evening there is beautiful. T’Challa took him to see it, but upon seeing the majestic view, Killmonger performed harakiri on himself.
Black Panther, its representation of color
It was a dream to have a superhero film not dominated by whites. The film alone was 26 years in the making. Actor Wesley Snipes had an interest in producing the Black Panther in 1992. The plan was to highlight the majesty of Africa. Through the fictional nation of Wakanda, the beauty lives forever.
My friend, who’s a person of color, mentioned to me how the film represented her as an ethnicity. Representation in the sense that she finally has a figure of the same race to revere. Although she was okay with what she saw growing up, she can now identify with a superhero. She now has a counterpart in the universe that all the superheroes she loved and grew up seeing.
Disney/Marvel Studios
Children have always looked up to familiar (and not to mention white) Marvel superheroes like Iron Man or Captain America. They grew up idolizing these heroes they thought they’d want to become one day. But for the first time, some superheroes look like them. This implies that the dreams they have could come true–finally, there is someone out there who became the representation of it.
This eliminates mental gaps with people of color who want to become something, but don’t look like that. It evens out the dreams for people of color. They now have a closer link to identifying themselves as an actual Black superhero. Throughout the years, there were little to no characters of color in superhero films. This is the breakthrough that every person of color has been waiting for.
Black Panther, a first of its kind
Recently, Marvel Studios celebrated their 10th anniversary. They started the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008 with “Iron Man.” But Marvel studios only ever had a predominantly-Black lead cast this year. My friend is proud of how the filmed portrayed Black people. It’s the first time that a Black film does not represent its people as a group in a ghetto. It does not promote violence in Black people. This is also the first time a Black person is not presented as a stereotypical angry person, referencing Tyler Perry’s Madea films.
Disney/Marvel Studios
The film becomes a stimulus to what Africa and its people are. Africa is a diverse continent. Let’s point that out. But there are instances in the film that hit close to home. But Wakanda, a fictional country, would pass as an African country. That is something that you can’t take away from the made-up world. There are scenes in the film where a memory from home would spike. You could remember your aunts talking in the same accent. The marketplace scene in the movie would be a memory of a place you shopped in. There are tiny details in the film that makes you think of home. In some parts, even the landscapes of Wakanda felt like what landscapes in Africa look like in real life. That is how this film connects its audience, the people of color, to where they came from.
T’Challa vs. Killmonger, what their contrast is all about
T’Challa believes in peace and fighting when it’s needed. But Killmonger believes in taking what is for the people of Wakanda. T’Challa grew up in Wakanda. Killmonger and grew up in Oakland. Both have different beliefs on how they should present their nation to the world. T’Challa believes in peace negotiations between countries. Killmonger, a US soldier, believes in a violent return to the world. Could this be a mirror to how Black people have different behaviors to what they fight for as people of color?
My friend says it is a matter of preference. Not all black people have the same struggles. On her part, it was different since she’s African while others are African American. The fact that Killmonger’s uncle killed his father and he never found justice fueled his hatred. She referenced Captain America and Bucky Barnes as an example. Hydra brainwashed Bucky. They made him think that Captain America is an opponent needed to take down. There are different priorities other than choosing which battles to fight.
Disney/Marvel Studios
“Black Panther” is a film that broke boundaries in the media even if it was impossible in the past. It presented people of color the way it should be done and proved how important it is in today’s modern world. We made it past the time when representations are of one color—although it took us some time. Today, as this film nears a billion dollars in sales, more people are starting to understand.
After all, we only want to have people to look up to who look like us. Today, we begin. But tomorrow, we represent a monochrome.
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