I collected Marvel comics for more than 20 years, buying almost all the titles they released, and collecting back issues and trade paperbacks. And through all of that, my absolute favourite run was the first 60 or so issues of Black Panther volume 3, when it was written by Christopher Priest.
This launched in 1998, as part of a new imprint, Marvel Knights. It featured some big names writing street level characters, such as Kevin Smith doing Daredevil and Garth Ennis on Punisher. Black Panther, at the time, hadn't been a particularly popular or prolific superhero in the Marvel universe since the 70s, and there was less buzz about it than the others.
But I picked it up anyway, and each month I found myself enjoying it more than anything else (and the other ones were great). It was unique, clever, original, exciting, and hilarious. And it could switch to serious and moving with great dexterity. It was the first time a black writer had been given the reins for Black Panther, and it was an unbridled success in every conceivable way.
So I don't want you to think that this review comes from a place of disliking Black Panther or the whole concept of Wakanda. It is very much the opposite. I have great love and nostalgia for this world, and I write this because I care about it.
I shouldn't even have to say this, but nor do I have an issue with black women being the leads in superhero films. I have mentioned before that Monica Rambeau should have been Captain Marvel instead of Carol Danvers, and I think it would have worked here, had they chosen the right one. But more on that later.
By the way, if you play the song I included in the YouTube link, make sure you listen to the whole thing or you'll get exactly the wrong message.
This is the last entry in my MCU catch up. And there are some things it does well. The commemoration of T’Challah and by extension Chadwick Boseman was tasteful and impactful. And I had concerns about Shuri, since I found her to be annoying and obnoxious in the first film, but she is far more likable here, and does actually have an emotional arc. Her final scene is genuinely heartbreaking.
But there are far more things that this film does badly. First of all, Angela Bassett gave an impressive performance, but as far as Queen Ramonda goes, what the hell? She honours the death of her son by completely reversing his decision to share Wakandan technology with the rest of the world, and dressing down the entire United Nations for expecting Wakanda to honour its commitments.
Then fiendish nations including France and the USA decide they want to find vibranium themselves, and develop their own technology based upon it. The film plays this as though they are the bad guys for doing this, and that Wakanda are virtuous for jealously hoarding their military capabilities.
I don't know, maybe they have a slight concern that a totalitarian regime which decides supreme executive decision making power through trial by combat could somehow end up with the throne being occupied by a genocidal maniac who wishes to start World War 3?
There is also the possibility that if an alien invasion were to happen in Wakanda, their isolationist policies would preclude them from involving other nations in any official capacity, resulting in said invasion achieving its goals and half the human race being wiped out.
Since those were the events that transpired in Black Panther and Infinity War, respectively, I would say that the concerns held by the United Nations, and USA and France in particular, make perfect sense within the MCU timeline. And it kinda makes Wakanda look like the bad guys, not to mention completely invalidating the lessons of the first Black Panther film.
Enter Namor. I'll be honest, the mistreatment of his character didn't bother me all that much since I'm not the biggest fan of Namor from the comics. Frankly, I've always found him to be a bit ridiculous, what with his Olympics swimmer costume, elf ears, and winged ankles. Sorry to any Namor fans out there, but he was never going to come off well in live action.
That said, he didn't need to be this bad. His whole motivation is apparently to keep Atlantis (I mean Talocan) hidden from the surface world, and yet every action he takes seems specifically targeted to draw attention to himself and his kingdom. Either it's terrible writing, or Namor is the least intelligent character in the entire MCU. You decide.
Riri Williams, however, is one of the most intelligent characters in the MCU. I know this, because every other character talks about how intelligent she is. Constantly. That way they don't need to show her struggles, experimentation, failures, or insights that form the journey to her remarkable inventiveness.
And thank goodness, because remember how boring the first Iron Man film was? It would have been so much more interesting if instead, Tony Stark just created everything off screen, and it was simply explained by everyone just gushing about how smart he is, right?
Watching the way Williams was portrayed in this film, a thought struck me. Many of us have been suspicious that these bland, supposedly perfect female characters are the creation of a misguided political agenda. But I now get the feeling that it's an awkward grafting of a feminine archetype onto a masculine archetype.
Essentially, they are writing superheroes as though they were fairytale princesses. Your typical fairytale princess is basically a passive actor carried along by the plot, and one whose arc is external rather than internal. I might need to explain this a bit.
It's not about them learning and growing and becoming a better person, it's about people around them realising how great they are, and the obstacles that they need to overcome are simply the people holding them back. See Snow White, Rapunzel, and especially Cinderella.
I'm not trying to put these classic tales or characters down, it's a valid form of storytelling. But it's also a different form of storytelling to superhero stories, which are a modern form of the hero’s journey. The hero is called to action, and though he has villains to defeat, his internal struggles with his own demons form the crux of the drama.
The fairytale princess doesn't have to change, the world around her needs to change to recognise that she's perfect just the way she is. The hero has to work on the imperfections within himself in order to prove his worth, and that's what makes him heroic. I'm using gendered language here, because these stories divide over masculine and feminine lines.
And that is due to social and biological reasons. Women have intrinsic worth in a way that men don't (see my reviews of The Red Pill and What is a Woman for details). This is not a claim of superiority or inferiority for either sex, merely a recognition of differences that exist, whether we want them to or not.
The point is that this type of storytelling doesn't work with superheroes. They are supposed to inspire us to be better people in a variety of ways, not to tell us we're awesome and everyone else just needs to recognise it. So we end up with these sad hybrid characters like Williams that don't work as either wish fulfillment or inspiration, they are just incredibly boring.
There are surface level callbacks to Iron Man with the suit falling and coming back at the last moment, and of course, the hammering. But there is absolutely no understanding of what made those scenes work in the first place. It's cheap, derivative, and it makes her seem even more like an inferior knock-off than if they hadn't done them at all.
Then there's the fact that the first time we see Williams use her Ironheart suit, she straight up murders several police officers after saying “I've got a special delivery!” like it's no big deal. What the f*ck? Is she used to killing? Does she not care at all about the lives of these people who are just doing their jobs? Or is the audience just supposed to think, “That's ok, all cops are bastards.”
I'm sorry, but that is not a character whom I can regard as a hero in any way, and I don't think I'm alone there. If Iron Man had done this in his first outing, there would never have been an MCU. It's bad writing, sure, but it also reflects a twisted moral relativism that says it's ok if certain people commit heinous acts but not others.
No. Your actions are what matter, not your identity. Anyone who says otherwise is at best misguided, and at worst evil.
Anyway, back to Shuri. As I said, they did a great deal to rehabilitate her character in this, but the simple fact is that she's a supporting character that they have unsuccessfully tried to turn into a lead. And I wonder why, when they have Lupita Nyong'o right there, already playing a major secondary character in the series.
You already have someone who has such immense screen presence and acting ability, and her character is already set up as a warrior and an espionage expert. Not to mention she is more attractive and fills out a skintight costume more impressively. And if you think I'm being sexist for thinking such things matter, just imagine switching the roles for Happy and Tony in Iron Man. See what I mean?
It seems the writers didn't really know what to do with Nakia in this, and it's a real waste of Nyong'o, who even though she doesn't have much to work with, is still utterly magnetic whenever she's on screen. She has more charisma than the rest of the cast combined (with the exception of Winston Duke, who is awesome), and it's a real missed opportunity.
If Nakia became Black Panther and Shuri became Queen, whilst also remaining the Q of the films, it could have created an interesting dynamic with characters whose abilities complement each other. Instead, we have a whole lot of warrior women who may as well all be the same person.
So how do we fix this mess? Ok, here we go. Start the same way with the tribute to Boseman. That was good. His cause of death, however, was the strain on his heart from taking the heart shaped herb and its antidote too many times. This has led to Shuri abandoning her research into creating a synthetic version of it.
Then we go to the United Nations, where Wakanda is honouring the promise made by King T’Challah of sharing vibranium based technology with the rest of the world. They will soon be sending some of their top scientists out to several of the leading research units around the world.
Then there is a private conversation between Ramonda and Shuri, where Ramonda expresses her concerns over these changes. See, Ramonda believes in tradition, whereas Shuri wants to modernise the nation of Wakanda. Ramonda wants Shuri to bring back the Black Panther most of all. This sets up a nice tension between the two characters, and allows space for them to have growth as they come to appreciate each other's points of view.
It's at this moment that Namor and his Atlantean (yes, Atlantean) army attack Wakanda. We don't have Namor turn up in the middle of the night to weirdly threaten them. He just attacks, and at this point, they don't know why. The battle can be quite similar to what we saw, but instead of dying, Queen Ramonda is kidnapped by Namor.
Namor tells Shuri that she is not to share vibranium technology with other nations, or tell them about the existence of Atlantis, or her mother will die. In desperation, Shuri turns to the only two people she is sure she can trust - Nakia and Everett Ross.
Nakia is asked by Shuri to lead an operation with the Dora Milaje to rescue Queen Ramonda. Shuri tells Ross all about Atlantis, but warns him of the risky situation and the need for secrecy. Ross puts preparations in place for when they are needed.
The rescue operation starts off well, but Namor and the Atlanteans are too powerful. After a protracted battle, Nakia and Okoye barely escape with their lives, but Ramonda and the other Dora Milaje are killed, and the Atlanteans take heavy damage.
The pair return to Wakanda and throw themselves upon the mercy of now Queen Shuri. To their surprise, she doesn't blame them but herself. She had thought that Wakanda didn't need the Black Panther anymore, but she now realises she was wrong.
Most of what I'm writing in this paragraph and the next should be achieved through subtext alone. The argument between Shuri and Ramonda is about tradition versus modernisation. The conclusion Shuri comes to after Ramonda’s death is that some traditions are necessary, and some are not.
Wakanda needs a Black Panther to inspire and lead them, but it need not be the same role as that of executive leader. And the trial by combat is an outdated concept that needs to go. Isolationism is also a fundamentally flawed concept that has helped neither Wakanda nor anyone else.
She furiously works on finishing her synthetic heart shaped herb whilst also sending out her top scientists to work with the military of allied nations such as the USA, UK, and France. Meanwhile, Namor is regrouping and planning a full scale invasion and destruction of Wakanda. Ross appears at the Pentagon, explaining the whole situation about Atlantis.
Once the synthetic heart shaped herb is finalised, Nakia becomes the new Black Panther. But Okoye, M’Baku and all of the Wakandan military also ingest the herb to gain its power. Why should they limit it to one person? Tradition?
Namor and the Atlanteans attack Wakanda, and are surprised by the strength of their defence this time. The first time they attacked, it was easy. Nevertheless, it is still clear that the Wakandans are outmatched. Until...
Wakanda’s allies turn up to assist them with jets, destroyers, aircraft carriers, and submarines. Namor realises that not only is defeat inevitable, but the rest of the world is now very much aware of their existence. Not being the complete moron he was in the actual film, he orders a strategic retreat.
This could be wrapped up in two hours and not make you feel like the film is purposely trying to draw itself out as much as possible in contrived ways. Even without Chadwick Boseman, this could have been a good movie. All they needed was a good script. Too bad they didn't have one.
