T'Challa: The Black Panther Appreciation 2021

[Jewel Runner]

Why some of y’all engage with blatant trolls and provocateurs is beyond me. Wasting time and mental energy when we got one of the best BP issues in a long time lol.



As far as Shuri’s shift into technomage territory I wonder where that leaves T’Challa outside of his martial arts and strategic mind. It’ll be interesting to see if future writers focus more on the mystic angle (whether it be KOTD or something else) or play up T’Challa’s scientific know-how. I think the comics have been smart to ignore the MCU’s (pretty bad and borderline inexcusable) diminishing of T’Challa’s intelligence but does T’Challa no longer dabble in alchemy or is that just another thing that he’s ceding to Shuri? T’Challa should be more than just a good fighter and master planner. His supplementary talents should be distinct as the lead of the franchise.

It becomes more clear people just T'Challa as some kind of God on Earth who's good at everything and better than everyone.

[skyvolt2000]

It becomes more clear people just T'Challa as some kind of God on Earth who's good at everything and better than everyone.

The Black Panther folks wanted to see was in Redjack's book. He was seen under McDuffie, Hudlin and Priest's run. He showed glimpses of that under Lee & Kirby.

We haven't seen him in 5 years.

[Jewel Runner]

And point proven

[Redjack]

It becomes more clear people just T'Challa as some kind of God on Earth who's good at everything and better than everyone.

Some do, I imagine. Some fans always see their favorites that way. Doesn't matter which character or what their powerset might be. They just love their chosen character THAT much.

i'm not in that crew.

Heroism is about what you're willing to sacrifice for others, not who you can beat up.

[superheat]

Folks were fighting for black lead movies before Iron Man came out. Folks had to be REMOVED for that to finally happen. The head of Disney confirmed that.

Nobody has an issue with what is being done with others. NONE.

Folk can be unhappy with what is planned with Black Panther 2.

Folks are NOT in the mood to be told because it's a black cast movie they have a duty to SUPPORT it because it's black folks.

But I have as they RECIEPTS! Black Panther made a billion. Lets say HALF of that Box Office came from us alone. $500 million.
Lets say that is what we put in. So that would mean since black folks are sworn to support everything black....

Wouldn't EVERY Tyler Perry movie have $500 million box office?
I guess all those black folks forget they had a duty to support everything black.

Just saying. Those who choose to not see BP 2 are doing what EVERYONE else will do. Make a choice.

Ryan gave us a great Black panther film. Why would anyone think his next BP film will be bad. We know nothing about the film. Yes we should support black films just because it's black, if you want something you have to support, just like others people support things just because it's has themselves in it.

[XJlock]

I would assume that is part of the doombot that T'challa blew up in Rise of the Black Panther

You are probably right. T'Challa may have removed the robotic head behind the mask offscreen.

[MouserGrey]

It becomes more clear people just T'Challa as some kind of God on Earth who's good at everything and better than everyone.

Explain please what his accomplishments are so we can guage what you actually think of him. He is best described as a polymath in my opinion. DaVinci-like. Good at many things. But I am curious what you expect from a well written T'Challa.

[Dboi654]

Explain please what his accomplishments are so we can guage what you actually think of him. He is best described as a polymath in my opinion. DaVinci-like. Good at many things. But I am curious what you expect from a well written T'Challa.

Not to mention, a good role model who has inspired me to become a better person in life despite being a fictional character.

[MouserGrey]

Not to mention, a good role model who has inspired me to become a better person in life despite being a fictional character.

My main reason also. And not in the noble negro type way. At least most of the time.

[chief12d]

When it comes to actual powers I had hoped that he would get things from the different Panthers of the past being the king of the Dead. Ways to channel individual ones through access to their knowledge. Take "The Wall" Tconda for instance say he had some sort of super durability power that he used to protect his people at the time and passed that trait along to Tchalla now that they could communicate fully. And not always specific physical power ups, some could be mental or spiritual barriers from different Panthers.

This is just my personal sensibilities creeping in, but I've never been a fan of the whole "accessing powers of predecessors" trope. That's why I disliked when Coates gave that power to Shuri because it was effectively a mystical deus ex machina to move the plot along and worldbuild. I dislike it for My Hero Academia too lol. Wakanda is over 10,000 years old with there having been thousands of kings and queens, theoretically speaking T'Challa would have hundreds of different magic powers and IDK how I feel about something that's A. so OP and likely to be mishandled (magic displacing martial arts/skill) and B. derivative.

That's why I've been a huge proponent of necromancy, as it's highly specialized and relatively unique in his mythos, without really being able to replace his previously established talents. There's definitely a place for a high-level magic user in the BP mythos (I assume that'll go to an MCU synergized Zuri or Zawavari) but I don't care for a T'Challa that's overly involved in accessing mystical powers beyond supplementing his talents. For example, with KOTD's necromantic powers they could easily do it so T'Challa can ressurect dead enemies to extract info or using his ghost spear to make him more effective against dark magic. I'd like smaller, more unique things like that than T'Challa having accessing powers of random BP #294 who could conjure fire. I just think that as great as it is T'Challa is Wakanda's #1 fighter and strategist there's still space to give him an additional power that complements his abilities (outside inventing stuff on the fly).

[Killerbee911]

I don’t have a problem with them both playing around with magic/science but I don’t want to run into the issue of shaving off T’Challa traits/skills and giving them to supporting characters like the MCU. Idk, T’Challa should be more than just a really clever Captain America, he should bring some supplementary powers to the battlefield that aren’t purely tech-enhanced martial arts.

The thing is that didn't happen in the MCU, They showed Shuri as a genius but only hinted at T'Challa as a genius, the issue is not with the presentation of Shuri. The problem was they didn't show T'challa as brilliant which some people take to mean that Shuri stole T'challa genius. KIB did an amazing job of showing Shuri is smart, T'challa is smart. Shuri could have been more technical or book smart than T'Challa it didn't matter because he held his own in the intelligence department. The book went on to show T'challa as a tactical genius and a great leader in areas where he is clearly better than shuri.

Lastly characters that come after to do at times surpass the lead character in an area, for example, Cass Cain is a better fighter than Batman, It gave her niche in the franchise and something she could use in the future to hold a book. Cass being better than Batman didn't make Batman a bad fighter

[Ekie]

It becomes more clear people just T'Challa as some kind of God on Earth who's good at everything and better than everyone.

Being a physical avitar on earth for a god.....kinda makes him a god on earth

[Ezyo1000]

I think alchemy makes a lot of sense for Shuri. She’s big into materials science given her vibranium experiments and it’s the most scientific of the magical disciplines in fiction. So yea, if the general direction is less necromancy/spiritual manipulation (which I think T’Challa should specialize in) and more shadow clones and exotic materials I’d be happy with that.

I don’t have a problem with them both playing around with magic/science but I don’t want to run into the issue of shaving off T’Challa traits/skills and giving them to supporting characters like the MCU. Idk, T’Challa should be more than just a really clever Captain America, he should bring some supplementary powers to the battlefield that aren’t purely tech-enhanced martial arts.

I'm cool with T'Challa being more spiritual, communing with previous panthers and such. Shadow physics is dead now lol. But his super genius Uber tech, on the fly tech, and radio shack tech abilities Shou be hos strong points Ontop of his h2h abd prep. Priests and Hudlin version Panther are just so good, oh and RJs as well. Sprinkle Ja and Hickmans version In occasionally too

[chief12d]

The thing is that didn't happen in the MCU, They showed Shuri as a genius but only hinted at T'Challa as a genius, the issue is not with the presentation of Shuri. The problem was they didn't show T'challa as brilliant which some people take to mean that Shuri stole T'challa genius. KIB did an amazing job of showing Shuri is smart, T'challa is smart. Shuri could have been more technical or book smart than T'Challa it didn't matter because he held his own in the intelligence department. The book went on to show T'challa as a tactical genius and a great leader in areas where he is clearly better than shuri.

Lastly characters that come after to do at times surpass the lead character in an area, for example, Cass Cain is a better fighter than Batman, It gave her niche in the franchise and something she could use in the future to hold a book. Cass being better than Batman didn't make Batman a bad fighter

If you take a character who in the source material is generally believed to be top 10 intelligence, downgrade and neglect to portray this intelligence in an adaptation all while elevating their side character to the most intelligent character in the adaptation’s universe, that’s basically stealing. The issue isn’t Shuri’s portrayal, as you said, but the failure to properly depict T’Challa in that regard. The result is the same as straight up denigrating T’Challa’s intelligence onscreen to really drive home Shuri’s smarts (something they basically did in Endgame when she made Banner blush over his scientific oversight).

Maybe it would’ve been rectified in future installments (I highly doubt it and there’s no way of knowing now) but that’s what happened, and why this comic executed Shuri and T’Challa’s intelligence better than the movie. It respected canon portrayals of T’Challa while tastefully elevating Shuri, who should be Wakanda’s top scientist/researcher as that’s a great direction for her, with the obvious dash of technosorcery/alchemy. Whether that makes her smarter than T’Challa isn’t clear nor does it truly matter because Redjack, like many fans have been saying, is interested in the functionality and storytelling surrounding these characters. As long as she has a well defined niche Shuri can thrive like Cass did years ago.

[MouserGrey]

I always hoped Kod would be like in Panthers Quest when they visited the tomb and communed or saw the lives of the previous panthers but through his own personal meditation or communion with them. Little or big nuggets of lost lore, history, magic, or even science could be integral to some plot or other.