Superhero Media: Black Panther

Something I am never likely do to on this blog is a "Top 10" list of superhero films. There are a few reasons for this; the years-long backlog (I'm writing this in August 2020), the constant cycle of new superhero films and the fact I would have to justify many things not being on the list being just a few. However, one film that would certainly be in one of the top three spots would be Black Panther, the most important, if not the greatest, superhero film in cinema history. You may not personally like Black Panther, some people don't, but there is no denying the impact it had, or that it was masterfully assembled, acted and directed. Ryan Coogler had only directed two feature films before putting this together, that's hugely impressive in it's own right, but add to that star-making turns for Chadwick Boseman, Michael B Jordan and Letitia Wright and you have a damn masterpiece. Oh yeah, while we're at it, let's have career highlight performances from Danai Gurira, Winston Duke and Andy Serkis, a banging soundtrack by Ludwig Goransson and the first use of the Afro-futurist aesthetic in a major motion picture, and you have a movement. 

Thing is, if Black Panther was just a groundbreaking, glass-ceiling shattering, genre defining film as wasn't all that good, it would still be amazing on merit of intention alone. However, the film is also transcendent on a narrative level, even if it does borrow heavily from Hamlet, but it's called the monomyth for a reason, people. While I think of it, Killmonger is an excellent villain, but please stop trying to tell me "he was right", it just makes it clear you didn't understand the film. The contrast between T'Challa and Killmonger is that T'Challa is king for his people and Killmonger wants the throne for personal revenge on a world that has wronged him. Want proof? When T'Challa imbibes the Heart Shaped Herb, he sees the spiritual plane and the line of kings before him, whereas Killmonger sees his father and the apartment he grew up in. Even though T'Challa decides that the isolationist policies of the past are wrong in light of Killmonger's actions, he wants to help the world, not conquer it. Killmonger actually appropriates the language of the colonisers, "the sun will never set", as he advocates for the wholesale murder of billions of women and children. By Bast, this is a great film. 

People do get that Wakanda isn't meant to be some big, anti-White People statement, right? The characters accept Everett Ross as soon as he demonstrates his humanity, but despise Klaw because he murdered for profit. Wakanda is an ideal, a post-needs society like the Federation in Star Trek, not perfect, but having perfected government for the benefit of the people. It's not explicitly said, but Wakanda doesn't seem to have money, and all of the industry is publicly owned, is the country a Socialist Monarchy? That would be really interesting, if a tad odd, I hope it gets explored at some stage. I actually like the introduction of Vibrainium as being some kind of "Handwaveium" fix-all, because I can see how that will come in handy as the Marvel Cinematic Universe matures and requires some leaps in logic to get things done. Like how Iron Man and Rocket can make an ersatz Infinity Gauntlet in Avengers Endgame or how space travel doesn't have any discernible "rules". Black Panther is always going to be important, but I hope it becomes only part of a broader series of equally "important" MCU films, eventually incorporating Queer, Trans and any and all rights movements that toxic individuals try to exclude from Superhero fandom. RIP Chadwick.  Wakanda forever!