T'Challa: The Black Panther Appreciation 2021

[KingNomarch]

Random thought. I dislike how "cheap" MCU films look compared to phase 1.

As much as I love the throne room in Black Panther its a shame they couldnt have the budget to make it look on Thor 1's level

No they has the budget, they just didn't go with one that was nearly complete cg like the one in Thor

[Ekie]

T’Challa getting cut seems like it’s just for tension. Though I guess that would depend on how skilled you consider these assassins to be. Like 6 of them were able to kill and severely injure two of some of Wakanda’s greatest warriors in what appears to have been minutes. One of them being able to deliver a shallow flesh wound to T’Challa isn’t that crazy. But I guess the big question is consistency. If T’Challa starts mowing these assassins down in the future, the fight from this issue makes less sense. But if they show that only a handful of them are enough to keep him busy and that they have something bout them makes them more capable (vibranium weapons, cybernetics, etc) then it’s not that big a problem IMO.

As for the lack of respect, I think that’s more Ridley pulling on Priest. He’s more extreme with it because the distance between T’Challa and his people is greater than it was back in the 90s and 00s but it’s basically building on the idea that being a king is a thankless job. T’Challa makes decisions that he often would rather not make but he does it because he believes it’s the best course of action. There’s a coldness about the way he makes those decisions and I think that colors his response to criticism.

I think it’s in character for him not to throw his title around every time someone questions his authority and I think T’Challa’s smart enough to know that threatening soldiers that he needs to bring in quietly and safely isn’t the best course of action. It’s one thing for him to backhand a HZ who speaks out of turn but it’s another to do that to a sleeper agent in a far more sensitive situation. As long as we’re not getting monologues about how he hates himself I’m fine with him shrugging off criticisms rather going “I AM YOUR KING NOW” every time one of his subjects says something he don’t like lol.

Fully agree. I have faith in this run. He seems to have done his homework on the character and understands the mentality of T'Challa.

[batnbreakfast]

Weird questions:

Could someone please let me know if Wakanda was created with Botswana or Namibia in mind? A stand-in like Gotham City is actually NY?

Also looking for interesting African writers to read (especially South African writers) like Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah or Ijeoma Umebinyuo?

[BlackClaw]

Weird questions:

Could someone please let me know if Wakanda was created with Botswana or Namibia in mind? A stand-in like Gotham City is actually NY?

Also looking for interesting African writers to read (especially South African writers) like Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah or Ijeoma Umebinyuo?

Lol no. Wakanda was always meant to represent what Africa could’ve been like if it was never colonized. A utopia.

[charliehustle415]

Weird questions:

Could someone please let me know if Wakanda was created with Botswana or Namibia in mind? A stand-in like Gotham City is actually NY?

Also looking for interesting African writers to read (especially South African writers) like Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah or Ijeoma Umebinyuo?

Also Gotham and NYC both exist in the DC Universe.

Wanna know a weird fact: the DC Earth is bigger than our earth hence the land mass to have NYC, Gotham, and Metropolis can exist on the Eastern seaboard.

[Marvell2100]

T’Challa getting cut seems like it’s just for tension. Though I guess that would depend on how skilled you consider these assassins to be. Like 6 of them were able to kill and severely injure two of some of Wakanda’s greatest warriors in what appears to have been minutes. One of them being able to deliver a shallow flesh wound to T’Challa isn’t that crazy. But I guess the big question is consistency. If T’Challa starts mowing these assassins down in the future, the fight from this issue makes less sense. But if they show that only a handful of them are enough to keep him busy and that they have something bout them makes them more capable (vibranium weapons, cybernetics, etc) then it’s not that big a problem IMO.

As for the lack of respect, I think that’s more Ridley pulling on Priest. He’s more extreme with it because the distance between T’Challa and his people is greater than it was back in the 90s and 00s but it’s basically building on the idea that being a king is a thankless job. T’Challa makes decisions that he often would rather not make but he does it because he believes it’s the best course of action. There’s a coldness about the way he makes those decisions and I think that colors his response to criticism.

I think it’s in character for him not to throw his title around every time someone questions his authority and I think T’Challa’s smart enough to know that threatening soldiers that he needs to bring in quietly and safely isn’t the best course of action. It’s one thing for him to backhand a HZ who speaks out of turn but it’s another to do that to a sleeper agent in a far more sensitive situation. As long as we’re not getting monologues about how he hates himself I’m fine with him shrugging off criticisms rather going “I AM YOUR KING NOW” every time one of his subjects says something he don’t like lol.

I agree with this post. I said it earlier, if these assassins are taking out Wakandan agents, they have to be good. And they know that at some point they are going to go up against T'Challa himself so they know they would have to train to fight him.

It's not like some random goon slam gary got a punch in or T'Challa got captured by tree branches. These are assassins, trained to kill and they are going up against the best so I expect them to have a good showing.

We've had so many complaints about T'Challa having good villains, well looks like we have some now.

[DigiCom]

I agree with this post. I said it earlier, if these assassins are taking out Wakandan agents, they have to be good. And they know that at some point they are going to go up against T'Challa himself so they know they would have to train to fight him.

It's not like some random goon slam gary got a punch in or T'Challa got captured by tree branches. These are assassins, trained to kill and they are going up against the best so I expect them to have a good showing.

We've had so many complaints about T'Challa having good villains, well looks like we have some now.

When the hero has a hard time with the mooks...

The thing is, these AREN'T good villains. Faceless, characterless, and essentially cannon fodder.

What they are, instead, are POWERFUL villains.

"See how tough they are! They can take down Wakandan agents in seconds, and even give the Panther a hard time! Scary!"

While I was a bit unfair in my initial assessment, I still believe that Ridley is having T'Challa & co. job to these guys to make them look more dangerous.

[Klaue's Mixtape]

[BlackClaw]

E-Man stays doing the lords work.

[Ezyo1000]

When the hero has a hard time with the mooks...

The thing is, these AREN'T good villains. Faceless, characterless, and essentially cannon fodder.

What they are, instead, are POWERFUL villains.

"See how tough they are! They can take down Wakandan agents in seconds, and even give the Panther a hard time! Scary!"

While I was a bit unfair in my initial assessment, I still believe that Ridley is having T'Challa & co. job to these guys to make them look more dangerous.

This is how I feel too. Which I CAN be okay with them seemingly being tougher IF these guys have some sort of Multiple disciplines in different martial arts, as well as advanced technology, and cybernetics MINIMUM. Bonus points if they have some sss type enhancements as well.

Basically they need to be Essentially at the level of DM/HZ in terms of skills and deadliness at a bare minimum with other enhancements to explain how they could tag T'Challa. Issue 3 with how it ended will be a good idea of it These guys are actually dangerous, or if Ridley is jobbing T'Challa to make them seem stronger. But either way i still struggle to see these guys being a threat given what T'Challa and Wakanda has gone up against.

Maybe this is also bothersome since we just got of Coates weakass era of tchumpa so everything Ridley does is going to be under the microscope, but I am not dropping it yet, and minus those things the book is interesting. And I like T'Challas overall voice

[Ekie]

When the hero has a hard time with the mooks...

The thing is, these AREN'T good villains. Faceless, characterless, and essentially cannon fodder.

What they are, instead, are POWERFUL villains.

"See how tough they are! They can take down Wakandan agents in seconds, and even give the Panther a hard time! Scary!"

While I was a bit unfair in my initial assessment, I still believe that Ridley is having T'Challa & co. job to these guys to make them look more dangerous.

That remains to be seen though. They're still shrouded in mystery and their leader is unknown. If he is someone with a personal connection to the Cholla and has all of the information needed to at least harm him like Hunter would then a rectro active description of their powerlevels and capabilities suffice. Also we need to know how many there are. If there are hundreds then yea, Tchalla shouldn't job. But if there are like 10 then thats few enough to be considered an elite unit to be fleshed out

[chief12d]

Well priest T'Challa and Hudlins still would not allow such blatant disrespect. Only people in Priest run who talked like that to him were Ross and Qdj and even then it was one time before he let them know he won't stand for that. No one did that in Hudlins run either without him laying down the law too. I just don't like how it is regardless and that could also be thanks to Coates isht job.

As for the assassin's. Again, given what Wakandans have gone up against and T'Challa himself, EVEN IF, they have a deep understanding of Wakanda, unless they are Wakandan AND sporting more than just assassin skills and basic weapons, I won't buy them being this effective against some of Wakandas best warriors and T'Challa himself. We gotta remember that Wakanda had faced skrulls, the Black order, hydra, knull, and the cotari or whatever there names were and beat them back successfully. All of which save Hydra, in terms of physicality, are stronger that normal humans. So these guys need to be packing some kind of heat otherwise it makes zero sense for T'Challa and co to be faring so poorly.

Two agent's got beat by 6 in minutes, one got wrecked within seconds and same assassin was able to wound T'Challa... We don't need anymore goon slam Gary situations where we desperately are hoping the fodder is atleast powered and not just some regular dude that should of been curb stomped immediately

Priest had W'Kabi flagrantly disrespect T'Challa's ex-fiancée/lover and T'Challa mostly shrugged it off. When it came to Ross and QDJ I don't remember him ever really threatening them or throwing his title in their faces when they got too informal. Same with the Hudlin run, T'Challa casually dismissed criticism or hesitation from his subjects.

To me T'Challa is a man of action. He shuts down critics with competence and results. What I remember far more often from past runs is T'Challa getting shit from his friends (especially Ross) for his seemingly crazy plans and manipulation then T'Challa proving he was right to do what he did by saving the day. I think we're being a bit sensitive to characters not messing w/ T'Challa because of the whole "No One Man" thing and the push to give every character in the BP franchise agency but BP himself. But the tension Ridley is building between T'Challa and his subjects is more nuanced and less poorly characterized than in the previous run, they're not the same thing.

I'm fairly certain the weapons used were vibranium. Shuri seemed interested in a piece of armor that she found at the scene where Jhai was killed. And I can't think of many things that would be able to cut through vibranium weave outside vibranium itself or some variation. But I agree right now we know so little about these villains, what they want, and how they're so competent. Though it's worth saying this first arc was marketed as a mystery espionage story so it'll probably be 2-3 more issues before we completely find out what's going on. Right now I don't think we can say T'Challa is jobbing because we still don't know enough about these assassins to say they shouldn't be able to perform this well. The fights we've seen are decently choreographed and don't make anyone come off too poorly.

I agree with this post. I said it earlier, if these assassins are taking out Wakandan agents, they have to be good. And they know that at some point they are going to go up against T'Challa himself so they know they would have to train to fight him.

It's not like some random goon slam gary got a punch in or T'Challa got captured by tree branches. These are assassins, trained to kill and they are going up against the best so I expect them to have a good showing.

We've had so many complaints about T'Challa having good villains, well looks like we have some now.

Exactly, one of T'Challa's biggest issues is he has crappy villains. This isn't T'Challa having his armor chipped by regular bullets from regular African mercenaries like in the previous era. It's what appears to be a relatively small, highly trained and well equipped group of assassins whose threat to Wakanda isn't direct invasion but instead dismantling Wakandan intelligence and jeopardizing years of T'Challa's efforts to integrate his people with the outside world.

It's a different mold of villain (much appreciated) and up until this point I don't feel T'Challa has been shown as out of his depth or incompetent to make them look better. These guys are operating with the advantage of superior knowledge and T'Challa's number one priority atm isn't even defeating them, it's saving his agents because that's more important. I'm 100% fine with T'Challa getting bloodied up a bit to establish the threat before we start getting an idea of how and why they're doing what they are. I'll start criticizing if the info we get ends up being underwhelming. Ezyo is right that these guys need to have the resume to justify being a threat to T'Challa and his top agents (advanced tech, maybe some physical enhancements, etc.)

[Dboi654]

Recast T'Challa is trending again

[Ezyo1000]

Priest had W'Kabi flagrantly disrespect T'Challa's ex-fiancée/lover and T'Challa mostly shrugged it off. When it came to Ross and QDJ I don't remember him ever really threatening them or throwing his title in their faces when they got too informal. Same with the Hudlin run, T'Challa casually dismissed criticism or hesitation from his subjects.

To me T'Challa is a man of action. He shuts down critics with competence and results. What I remember far more often from past runs is T'Challa getting shit from his friends (especially Ross) for his seemingly crazy plans and manipulation then T'Challa proving he was right to do what he did by saving the day. I think we're being a bit sensitive to characters not messing w/ T'Challa because of the whole "No One Man" thing and the push to give every character in the BP franchise agency but BP himself. But the tension Ridley is building between T'Challa and his subjects is more nuanced and less poorly characterized than in the previous run, they're not the same thing.

I'm fairly certain the weapons used were vibranium. Shuri seemed interested in a piece of armor that she found at the scene where Jhai was killed. And I can't think of many things that would be able to cut through vibranium weave outside vibranium itself or some variation. But I agree right now we know so little about these villains, what they want, and how they're so competent. Though it's worth saying this first arc was marketed as a mystery espionage story so it'll probably be 2-3 more issues before we completely find out what's going on. Right now I don't think we can say T'Challa is jobbing because we still don't know enough about these assassins to say they shouldn't be able to perform this well. The fights we've seen are decently choreographed and don't make anyone come off too poorly.



Exactly, one of T'Challa's biggest issues is he has crappy villains. This isn't T'Challa having his armor chipped by regular bullets from regular African mercenaries like in the previous era. It's what appears to be a relatively small, highly trained and well equipped group of assassins whose threat to Wakanda isn't direct invasion but instead dismantling Wakandan intelligence and jeopardizing years of T'Challa's efforts to integrate his people with the outside world.

It's a different mold of villain (much appreciated) and up until this point I don't feel T'Challa has been shown as out of his depth or incompetent to make them look better. These guys are operating with the advantage of superior knowledge and T'Challa's number one priority atm isn't even defeating them, it's saving his agents because that's more important. I'm 100% fine with T'Challa getting bloodied up a bit to establish the threat before we start getting an idea of how and why they're doing what they are. I'll start criticizing if the info we get ends up being underwhelming. Ezyo is right that these guys need to have the resume to justify being a threat to T'Challa and his top agents (advanced tech, maybe some physical enhancements, etc.)

Again I get the human element of how the agent's are Acting, however, the only people in past runs to blatantly disrespect T'Challa we're friend's and family, and he shrugged it off. When someone he wasn't close to popped off well



For now Its a minor complaint and one I expect Ridley to address similar to Priest where characters will realize T'Challa was right. Just in my honest opinion I wish this was actually the second arc story and the first story was just a quick 4-6 issue story about T'Challa kinda reinvigorated, just straight up dominating some known enemy to reestablish himself and Wakanda as the place to not frak with. Kinda like issue one with the Avengers but a couple issues with a less nameless threat THEN move into showing this shadow assassin group at the end reveal.

Same goes for their power scaling, for now I will accept it but T'Challa NEEDS powerful villains with actual powers or tech to threaten him realistically. Tetu and Zenzi could of been that but failed. IGEW could of been that but failed. We need good powerful villains that don't require T'Challa and co to be jobbed to make them interesting. There are multiple ways to easily do that.
All of us here likely have our own stories in our heads of a story to do just that.

That's all I want. Real threats that challenge T'Challa and show off his super genius prep and planning we have been missing since Liss

[Dariel81]

https://comicbook.com/movies/news/bl...movies-survey/

Interesting 🤔