The Atlantic: “The Tragedy of Erik Killmonger”

2/24/18

Another thoughtful piece on Black Panther over at The Atlantic:

Black Panther is a love letter to people of African descent all over the world.

Analyzing the tragedy of Erik Killmonger, the film’s main antagonist:

The part of Killmonger that makes him a supervillain is not the part of him that is African.

Indeed the fact that this character has so much interesting backstory, and a complex logic that is the result of his environment makes Killmonger the most interesting villain I’ve seen in a blockbuster since The Joker in Nolan’s The Dark Knight back in 2008.

Killmonger’s ascension and death is the event that catalyzes Wakanda’s redemption from its greatest failure, and his death ensures that unlike Loki, Thanos, the Red Skull, or any other of Marvel’s endless stable of world-conquering despots, the pathos of his tragic end cannot be infinitely repeated as farce. His death not only matters, it is also why he matters more than all the rest of them.

While his logic made sense, once he got in power, Killmonger’s motivation and reasoning shifted to a more cruel and one. However, his legacy in this fictional world is real and will have an impact on the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Like I mentioned previously, it’s no small feat to offer such a complex work from a mainstream blockbuster that will eventually make all the money. Thank you Mr Coogler!

[=] ​

[The New Yorker] “Black Panther and the invention of Africa”

2/24/18

I’ve been catching up on a lot of Wakanda-related reading over the past week. This one from The New Yorker makes a series of great points:

“There is a fundamental dissonance in the term “African-American,” two feuding ancestries conjoined by a hyphen. That dissonance—a hyphen standing in for the brutal history that intervened between Africa and America—is the subject of “Black Panther,” Ryan Coogler’s brilliant first installment of the story of Marvel Comics’ landmark black character.” ​ ”Coogler told Marvel upfront that his version of the story would remain true to those political elements. It is shot through with the sense of longing and romance common to the way that people of a diaspora envision their distant homeland.”

This last part above is something I can identify with, and something that I have found with manychildren and grandchildren of immigrants too!# The article goes on…

”Wakanda is no more or less imaginary than the Africa conjured by Hume or Trevor-Roper, or the one canonized in such Hollywood offerings as “Tarzan.” It is a redemptive counter-mythology.”

”The film is not about world domination by an alien invasion or a mad cabal of villains but about the implications of a version of Western domination that has been with us so long that it has become as ambient as the air.”

The really good point that the author makes is that while Wakanda is a fictional place, so is the western idea and portrayal of the African continent and its countries, cultures, and inhabitants.

”Marvel has made a great many entertaining movies in the past decade, but Ryan Coogler has made a profound one.”

Taking a step back, it is incredibly wild that a mainstream superhero blockbuster has so much conversation around it. It’s really a sign of the incredible talent displayed by Ryan Coogler, and his team of writers and actors to be able to give so much depth to the first Blockbuster of 2018!

[=]

The Atlantic: “The Tragedy of Erik Killmonger”

2/24/18

Another thoughtful piece on Black Panther over at The Atlantic:

> Black Panther is a love letter to people of African descent all over the world.

Analyzing the tragedy of Erik Killmonger, the film’s main antagonist:

> The part of Killmonger that makes him a supervillain is not the part of him that is African.

Indeed the fact that this character has so much interesting backstory, and a complex logic that is the result of his environment makes Killmonger the most interesting villain I’ve seen in a blockbuster since The Joker in Nolan’s The Dark Knight back in 2008.

> Killmonger’s ascension and death is the event that catalyzes Wakanda’s redemption from its greatest failure, and his death ensures that unlike Loki, Thanos, the Red Skull, or any other of Marvel’s endless stable of world-conquering despots, the pathos of his tragic end cannot be infinitely repeated as farce. His death not only matters, it is also why he matters more than all the rest of them.

While his logic made sense, once he got in power, Killmonger’s motivation and reasoning shifted to a more cruel and one. However, his legacy in this fictional world is real and will have an impact on the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Like I mentioned previously, it’s no small feat to offer such a complex work from a mainstream blockbuster that will eventually make all the money. Thank you Mr Coogler!

[=] ​

[The New Yorker] “Black Panther and the invention of Africa”

2/24/18

I’ve been catching up on a lot of Wakanda-related reading over the past week. This one from The New Yorker makes a series of great points:

> “There is a fundamental dissonance in the term “African-American,” two feuding ancestries conjoined by a hyphen. That dissonance—a hyphen standing in for the brutal history that intervened between Africa and America—is the subject of “Black Panther,” Ryan Coogler’s brilliant first installment of the story of Marvel Comics’ landmark black character.” ​ > ”Coogler told Marvel upfront that his version of the story would remain true to those political elements. It is shot through with the sense of longing and romance common to the way that people of a diaspora envision their distant homeland.”

This last part above is something I can identify with, and something that I have found with manychildren and grandchildren of immigrants too!# The article goes on…

> ”Wakanda is no more or less imaginary than the Africa conjured by Hume or Trevor-Roper, or the one canonized in such Hollywood offerings as “Tarzan.” It is a redemptive counter-mythology.”

> ”The film is not about world domination by an alien invasion or a mad cabal of villains but about the implications of a version of Western domination that has been with us so long that it has become as ambient as the air.”

The really good point that the author makes is that while Wakanda is a fictional place, so is the western idea and portrayal of the African continent and its countries, cultures, and inhabitants.

> ”Marvel has made a great many entertaining movies in the past decade, but Ryan Coogler has made a profound one.”

Taking a step back, it is incredibly wild that a mainstream superhero blockbuster has so much conversation around it. It’s really a sign of the incredible talent displayed by Ryan Coogler, and his team of writers and actors to be able to give so much depth to the first Blockbuster of 2018!

[=]