Quote Originally Posted by Realdealholy View Post
“Hardline” Shuri could be found in the Ironheart book. Very refreshing and I really wish the “Shuri” book leaned towards a similar interpretation of the character.



If I may ask, have you read the Priest run of the Black Panther books? That run had a great balance of T’Challa being a physical and political force, while being simultaneously being pushed to the brink mentally and emotionally.

Obviously no writer is expected to write exactly or even similarly to Priest (every writer will have their own interpretations of the character), but if there’s one thing Coates T’Challa lacks imho is that balance. He’s def pushed emotionally and mentally from various angles, but is he shown as a physical force? I’m can’t say he is (the intergalactic empire arc is trying to change that, but the fact that T’Challa didn’t know who he was for most of the arc sours things for many longtime readers, I suspect). Politically, his presence is definitely there but it feels more subtle and/or subdued this time around.

A big draw of T’Challa is him being that (sometimes overt) physical / political force who is also a ruler of a nation. Coates aims for a subtle approach to that (I think) and it does work in some cases (T’Challa and Thunderball is a great example of that, and I personally think that T’Challa convincing Changamire to switch sides was a good example too) but the problem is that the aforementioned force, that emphatic presence, from previous runs isn’t there. T’Challa is a king, and sometimes being emphatic is part of the job (and creates cool, if not great narrative moments).

MCU T’Challa managed to achieve that balance, though from a different angle. Ultimately, I think Coates just sees T’Challa very differently from a good amount of longtime fans (myself included), which explains the overall reception his run gets in this thread.
Shuri is pretty tricky because not only do we have a teenage girl in the MCU, but on top of that because of the nature of the character she sort of falls under the category of Disney Princess Now. And there's a degree of responsibility that I think comes with that. I definately think we can get an older more hardline Shuri than we're getting in the solo book... but I don't think we'll really get the version we got in Hickmans run or in the earlier parts of Coates run again. I think now that she's not just a supporting character, she'll need to be somewhat "protected" (or watered down or whatever you want to look at it). Which is sort of unfortunate since I enjoyed the more hardline Shuri... but I sort of understand why they're moving her in the direction they are.