YIBAMBE! T’Challa: The Black Panther Appreciation 2022

[Ezyo1000]

What gets me is how off Ridley's voice for T'Challa is.


The gist of it is:

spoilers:

Bashenga and his brother both basically formed Wakanda, Bashenga being of the Panther Tribe and Bashenga leading the Hyena tribe, but discussion over whether Bashenga's brother should have the throne caused him to use the unrest as an excuse to exile his brother and his people to consolidate power and keep the peace even though his brother hadn't really done anything. T'Challa and Shuri found out about this and basically say they plan to expose this causing him to transform into a giant panther and try to kill them. He redeems himself in the end, but...yeah.

end of spoilers

Meh, I like Redjacks version better. WAAAY Better

[Tofali]

Ridley set up this arc, and left his main character kneeling on the ground weeping to his ex to not leave him alone.

The past two days I've been stopping myself from posting a gif of Blackstreet's hit song Don't Leave Me to immortalize how low Ridley has brought T'Challa.

[Mantis-Ray]

The past two days I've been stopping myself from posting a gif of Blackstreet's hit song Don't Leave Me to immortalize how low Ridley has brought T'Challa.

This whole thing actually reminds me of Breaking Bad specially the episode Ozymandias where Walter is brought to his absolute lowest point, losing horribly and driven to outright despair and begging.

Which works for a villain protagonist cause well its actually deserving, I mean everyone loves seeing Joker get put in his place and begging not to die an inglorious death.

But when its done to a hero like that well.......... Like imagine Kamala Khan or Moon Girl going through that? Its depressingly sad.

[chief12d]

So are Folasade and her underling gonna get exiled for putting the Hatut Zeraze in power and supporting the initial attacks on T’Challa? Is Shuri gonna receive any criticism for being the one to bring the Hatut Zeraze back in the first place? Why is Shuri the one who has to prove Tosin wrong and set him right, why does T’Challa not get the opportunity to defend himself and his approach to ruling? The only good thing about this arc is T’Challa and Ororo broke up, now keep her the hell away from Wakanda and bring back Monica Lynne.

This whole story was the worst possible follow up to the Coates era and entirely unnecessary direction for T’Challa’s character. If they didn’t want him on the throne Marvel could’ve sidestepped this mess by having him exclusively do foreign adventures or traveling in space. Thoroughly crapping on the character to justify the worst bad faith readings of his personality and elevate bad OCs was not the way to go. T’Challa was already off the throne, we didn’t need another story of him being an unlikable incompetent ass who everyone hates, he had nothing to lose at the beginning of this story and all that’s happened is an endless dragging of his character.

Ridley has never been anything more than an average writer so even if this is the start of a new arc that builds T’Challa back up I’m not convinced he has the ability to do anything much better than we’ve already gotten. And with editorial likely tipping the scales to match the MCU even if Ridley was capable of more I don’t think he’d be allowed to reconstruct a character he’s dragged through the mud. I had some hope for the Avengers space arc but my goodwill is gone lol. I have every reason to believe T’Challa will continue to be written as an incoherent, depressed and incompetent weirdo until Ridley is off the book or Marvel finally musters up the strength to kill T’Challa off, which they probably want to do anyway based off this story.

[chief12d]

This whole thing actually reminds me of Breaking Bad specially the episode Ozymandias where Walter is brought to his absolute lowest point, losing horribly and driven to outright despair and begging.

Which works for a villain protagonist cause well its actually deserving, I mean everyone loves seeing Joker get put in his place and begging not to die an inglorious death.

But when its done to a hero like that well.......... Like imagine Kamala Khan or Moon Girl going through that? Its depressingly sad.

Modern Black Panther writers think because T’Challa is willing to keep his cards close to his chest and do morally ambiguous things for his people that he’s no better than a villain. At absolute best you get takes like Coates, where T’Challa is a hermit despot who reaches out to white and Asian oppressors for advice on how to keep his political power. Then you have Ridley, who thinks T’Challa’s actions are entirely indefensible and that he’s worthy of being called an ass or a $&&/ every other issue because he’s not keeping his friends and family in the loop. Modern BP writers don’t believe T’Challa is an aspirational figure who has flaws and makes mistakes but tries to rise above the inherent darkness of his throne and personal trauma, they think he’s Doctor Doom, but worse because he’s black.

Let us also not forget this is fiction and the many fictional monarchs who never had this problem because they were the heroes of their story. just saying. It's one thing for a character to face up and downs but the amount of real world b.s they throw at or on tchalla as though it doesn't fall from someone's pen and the amounts of justification they try to dab into a story to make it fact must be tiring on some level either mind body or soul. cause i know reading it can take you out sometimes. or maybe it's fun for them.

And when other monarchs do have their reckoning, it’s not a complete castigation and insult to the character every issue like it is with T’Challa. When Aquaman lost his throne, it was with dignity and agency. It was a hard fought battle wrestling with his emotions, his family, and the political forces of Atlantis to relinquish power but it was one that treated the character with a basic level of understanding. He was approached with humanity and respect both in the story itself and in the broader themes and conclusions made by the writer. Same goes for the Inhumans, there wasn’t a total lambasting of everything Black Boot represents and a stream of OCs literally shitting on the character every time they showed up on panel.

Tosin and Folasade’s main functions through this story has been telling the reader how bad and oppressive T’Challa is, not just as a political figure but as an actual character. There is no equivalent to that in any other “king/queen deconstruction” story we’ve gotten. It’s not just about criticizing T’Challa as a king, there’s a deep seeded vitriol the character is met with in his own books that is bizarre. The way writers in this franchise will go out of their way to mischaracterize and villainize T’Challa just to have him debased with no worthy follow up is extremely weird.

Honestly, T’Challa leaving Wakanda is the only way I see the character’s depiction improving. As long as the modern Dora Milaje and Ridley’s rabid OCs are running around T’Challa will have the worst portrayal imaginable to prop them up. Let T’Challa join the Avengers full time and not step foot there for a few years while the Wakanda spin-offs fail like they always do.

[Ezyo1000]

So are Folasade and her underling gonna get exiled for putting the Hatut Zeraze in power and supporting the initial attacks on T’Challa? Is Shuri gonna receive any criticism for being the one to bring the Hatut Zeraze back in the first place? Why is Shuri the one who has to prove Tosin wrong and set him right, why does T’Challa not get the opportunity to defend himself and his approach to ruling? The only good thing about this arc is T’Challa and Ororo broke up, now keep her the hell away from Wakanda and bring back Monica Lynne.

This whole story was the worst possible follow up to the Coates era and entirely unnecessary direction for T’Challa’s character. If they didn’t want him on the throne Marvel could’ve sidestepped this mess by having him exclusively do foreign adventures or traveling in space. Thoroughly crapping on the character to justify the worst bad faith readings of his personality and elevate bad OCs was not the way to go. T’Challa was already off the throne, we didn’t need another story of him being an unlikable incompetent ass who everyone hates, he had nothing to lose at the beginning of this story and all that’s happened is an endless dragging of his character.

Ridley has never been anything more than an average writer so even if this is the start of a new arc that builds T’Challa back up I’m not convinced he has the ability to do anything much better than we’ve already gotten. And with editorial likely tipping the scales to match the MCU even if Ridley was capable of more I don’t think he’d be allowed to reconstruct a character he’s dragged through the mud. I had some hope for the Avengers space arc but my goodwill is gone lol. I have every reason to believe T’Challa will continue to be written as an incoherent, depressed and incompetent weirdo until Ridley is off the book or Marvel finally musters up the strength to kill T’Challa off, which they probably want to do anyway based off this story.

What's worse is they won't kill off T'Challa, in this new Wakanda series, they are going to go HARD at isht talking T'Challa. I can already tell based on what Stephanie Williams has said, she is going to completely dunk on T'Challa because she has this rabid hatred of comic T'Challa.

If Tosin and these other OCs show up they are going to foam at the mouth when T'Challas name comes up. I bet they will even try to spin this as once T'Challa is gone "Wakanda has seen a level of peace never even imagined".

Or some other BS where some weak ass vanilla villain shows up to threaten Wakanda and the "I am woman hear me roar" and "defender of the one TRUE Wakanda" OCs will step up to defend Wakanda more successfully than T'Challa ever could and they will spew some bullisht about how they don't need T'Challa and they can stand on their own (sound familiar)

All the while this trash talking book will likely be cancelled after issue 1 because again, you don't build up supporting cast to spin off into their own book's by dunking on the character who's carried the franchise for the last 56 years to even allow for them to get a chance to even show up.

The ONLY thing that needs to happen, is a Hudlinesque purging. Have Morlun come in (or better yet, get a BP villain buffed up to completely crush team Wakanda. With Shuri and Okoye watching as this team of PoS characters get dunked on and destroyed. ALL of them. Because ALL of them offer nothing to the franchise. Just dysfunction and isht slinging with no solution or anything better to offer.

To quote T'Challa and. Erik

[DigiCom]

I have a friend who introduced me to a concept called "The Eight Deadly Words":

I don't care what happens to these people.

I've now reached that threshold. I'm not even angry anymore. I have achieved complete apathy.

(Marvel should be flattered. The last time this happened to me with a major fandom was 20 years ago, with Star Trek: Nemesis.)

[Frontier]

I guess what gets to me is that Ridley's T'Challa voice is just so, so off. Like, close to Bendis at this point.

[Ezyo1000]

I have a friend who introduced me to a concept called "The Eight Deadly Words":

I don't care what happens to these people.

I've now reached that threshold. I'm not even angry anymore. I have achieved complete apathy.

(Marvel should be flattered. The last time this happened to me with a major fandom was 20 years ago, with Star Trek: Nemesis.)

You know, usually I really hate when fanbases want characters to die because they don't like change, or they blame the faults a run or game etc. On characters instead of the people in charge, especially when characters have interesting backstories or potential, but Tosin, Omolola, Ayo and Aneka have none of that.

They are all literal blank slates with no interesting backstories or motivations or anything interesting to say. All their introductions or times they have shown up have incited nothing positive, and they all rely on isht talking T'Challa to make themselves appear capable or relevant. All those characters can get dusted. There are so many better ways to introduce characters and have them mean something and not be defined by one specific thing and that's their personality.

Tosins number on won the list that needs to get backhand barry'd, followed by a Hudlins Karnak moment and ended with a Hudlins space werewolf finisher. The dude is absolute garbage. Omolola can go out the same way super duper important Jhai did, and Ayo and Aneka can go fly off to space Wakanda and be the protectors in limbo. A of them can disappear and the franchise won't hurt at all for their absence and can only improve

[king of hybrids]

By virtue of being the one mortal among immortals/gods, the 1 million BC Panther was always going to be the first to go in-story; but I’m kind of wishing this new connection between Wakanda, K’un-L’un and Asgard was actually explored; T’Challa finding he has command of an army of Destroyers that Odin keeps sending every few centuries when he’s wasted or something

Or Hunter actually interacting with the his siblings and playing evil chancellor rather than plotting from all the way over in another IP’s books/event

Something additive rather than reductive

[skyvolt2000]

I have a friend who introduced me to a concept called "The Eight Deadly Words":

I don't care what happens to these people.

I've now reached that threshold. I'm not even angry anymore. I have achieved complete apathy.

(Marvel should be flattered. The last time this happened to me with a major fandom was 20 years ago, with Star Trek: Nemesis.)

To be FAIR to Nemesis a LOT of stuff got cut out of that film that would NOT require you to have seen the tv series.


And on that note- from The Star Trek Universe I met at the comic con today Philip Glasser (whose scenes were cut from Star Trek Insurrection and yes he's the voice of Fievel from An American Tale).

Brighter Panther news.....

At the con I met Sal Velluto who did the art for 36 issues of Priest's run and I got one of his prints at a discount. He asked to me to name 10 folks from the print he did of almost everyone who he drew in the run including himself, Priest and the inker. I named 30.

And interesting guess whose stuff folks were LOOKING for? Aside from She Hulk .

T'Challa. While IGNORING the 3rd printing of Black Panther 200 with Tosin on the cover.

Even met Francis from Pee Wee's Big Adventure (he's thin NOW) and Diane Pershing the voice of Poison Ivy from Batman The Animated Series.

[DigiCom]

To be FAIR to Nemesis a LOT of stuff got cut out of that film that would NOT require you to have seen the tv series.

I wish they'd cut the dune buggy chase.

At the con I met Sal Velluto who did the art for 36 issues of Priest's run and I got one of his prints at a discount. He asked to me to name 10 folks from the print he did of almost everyone who he drew in the run including himself, Priest and the inker. I named 30.

The inker was Bob Almond. I still get a birthday greeting from him on Facebook.

[Mantis-Ray]

As I think about it, I feel like writers have forgotten the difference between patriotism and outright nationalism.

Like Cap has a flag on his head but he's alright because he's self-aware that America isn't a perfect place. He has no issue admitting it has flaws, and if a problem is pointed out to him he will do something about it. He has no problem going against America itself like the government if something wrong is afoot because he believes in the ideals of what America should be. Like his famous "America is trash" speech, the flag and the country itself is meaningless if it doesn't protect the people it inhabits.

But everyone here just comes across as an ultra-nationalist. And thats not good, nationalism to any degree for any country is not good at all but it feels like people are falling way too into the Wakanda hype.

Like anyone read or watched Attack on Titan? Everything here comes across as a Jeagerist which if you are familiar with the series and the fandom, its not a good comparison to make.

[Ekie]

To be FAIR to Nemesis a LOT of stuff got cut out of that film that would NOT require you to have seen the tv series.


And on that note- from The Star Trek Universe I met at the comic con today Philip Glasser (whose scenes were cut from Star Trek Insurrection and yes he's the voice of Fievel from An American Tale).

Brighter Panther news.....

At the con I met Sal Velluto who did the art for 36 issues of Priest's run and I got one of his prints at a discount. He asked to me to name 10 folks from the print he did of almost everyone who he drew in the run including himself, Priest and the inker. I named 30.

And interesting guess whose stuff folks were LOOKING for? Aside from She Hulk .

T'Challa. While IGNORING the 3rd printing of Black Panther 200 with Tosin on the cover.

Even met Francis from Pee Wee's Big Adventure (he's thin NOW) and Diane Pershing the voice of Poison Ivy from Batman The Animated Series.

That's cool! Good work man I'm sure he was impressed

[Ezyo1000]

So are Folasade and her underling gonna get exiled for putting the Hatut Zeraze in power and supporting the initial attacks on T’Challa? Is Shuri gonna receive any criticism for being the one to bring the Hatut Zeraze back in the first place? Why is Shuri the one who has to prove Tosin wrong and set him right, why does T’Challa not get the opportunity to defend himself and his approach to ruling? The only good thing about this arc is T’Challa and Ororo broke up, now keep her the hell away from Wakanda and bring back Monica Lynne.

This whole story was the worst possible follow up to the Coates era and entirely unnecessary direction for T’Challa’s character. If they didn’t want him on the throne Marvel could’ve sidestepped this mess by having him exclusively do foreign adventures or traveling in space. Thoroughly crapping on the character to justify the worst bad faith readings of his personality and elevate bad OCs was not the way to go. T’Challa was already off the throne, we didn’t need another story of him being an unlikable incompetent ass who everyone hates, he had nothing to lose at the beginning of this story and all that’s happened is an endless dragging of his character.

Ridley has never been anything more than an average writer so even if this is the start of a new arc that builds T’Challa back up I’m not convinced he has the ability to do anything much better than we’ve already gotten. And with editorial likely tipping the scales to match the MCU even if Ridley was capable of more I don’t think he’d be allowed to reconstruct a character he’s dragged through the mud. I had some hope for the Avengers space arc but my goodwill is gone lol. I have every reason to believe T’Challa will continue to be written as an incoherent, depressed and incompetent weirdo until Ridley is off the book or Marvel finally musters up the strength to kill T’Challa off, which they probably want to do anyway based off this story.

writers of late have a hard on for showing how hypocritical their OCs can be, how much gaslighting they can do to T'Challa, and then use some bullisht excuse to pin it on T'Challa and get away with it and seeing if fans will eat this isht up.

The difference between Coates and Ridley is that Coates somehow gets away with way more bullisht because he mixes flowery prose into the dialogue whole Ridley gives everyone a more American dialogue. Had he don the same I'm sure people would eat it upeypo