Decided to put this here rather than the Movies thread because of minor spoilers.
Black Panther: Black Excellence vs Flawed Heroes
Let me talk for a moment about some of the competing expectations Ryan Coogler was juggling in making Black Panther.
First, this film had incredibly ambitious sociopolitical goals about changing narratives. It wanted to change the narrative in Hollywood about black directors and predominantly black casts in big budget movies making money overseas. They wanted to change the narrative in America and other former colonial powers or slave powers about the identity of the African diaspora, who they are, and what they can be in the future. They wanted to change the narrative about how Africans see themselves. They wanted to talk about the relationship between Africans and the African diaspora.
The concept of
black excellence was critical in selling many of these attempted narrative changes in society, in politics, and in the entertainment industry.
Competing with the needs and desires of the African-descended audience is the expectations of comic book nerds, who are also part of the target audience.
Marvel heroes are flawed.
That’s been part of the Marvel identity since back when Marvel comics was called Timely comics. Marvel fans expect this and we complain when this expectation is not met (movie Hawkeye is less of an asshole than comic book Hawkeye, and that’s unforgivable).
Wolverine, Tony Stark, Jessica Jones, even some more obscure characters like Quicksilver, Northstar (the premiere gay character in Marvel) and many others are straight up assholes. Tony Stark, Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel), Banshee, Jessica Jones and others have drinking problems. Punisher and Moon Knight are mass murderers. Scarlet Witch, Punisher, Legion, Moon Knight, Jean Grey and others are probably at least a little insane. Peter Parker is basically an adult version of Charlie Brown. Cyclops is cold and a control freak. Charles Xavier is manipulative and tends to sabotage his own romantic relationships with incredibly intelligent, strong, politically connected women.
DC heroes are often perfect idealizations of something. Superman is truth, justice and the American way. Wonder Woman is compassion and feminine strength. Batman is the vengeful side of justice. DC characters are often idealized archetypes, but Marvel heroes are generally more screwed up, and thus (for Marvel fans) more relatable.
If you had asked me to make the Black Panther movie, I would have seen these goals as conflicting. Giving more to one would take away from the other. And so I would have come down on the side of black excellence and sacrificed the flawed heroes thing because I would have reasoned that the social goals of the movie were important enough to simply ignore the expectations of comic book nerds like myself.
And I would have been wrong.
Thank goodness Coogler was the one doing this and not some idiot like me.
The movie Wakandans are as xenophobic as I ever remember them being in the comic books. Several prominent Wakandans take traditionalism too far. T’Chaka (father of T’Challa) was far more flawed than he is in the comic books. In fact most of the conflicts in the movie are driven by mistakes he made in the past. T’Challa himself starts out siding with the Wakdnan isolationists and only changes his mind as a result of his conflict with the antagonist of the movie.
There was no shortage of flaws in the hero and the ones closest to him, and yet it doesn’t feel like black excellence was sacrificed at all to give us wonderfully flawed, complex heroes and a sympathetic and even more flawed villain. It did not seem that either was sacrificed to make way for the other.
If you ask me, Coogler pulled off a minor miracle managing conflicting expectations.
