Originally Posted by
Emperorjones
Reading over some of you all's thoughts on Tosin. The way I see it is that Marvel Comics went all in on the idea of the mantle and that Wakanda is more important than T'Challa. It wasn't enough to just introduce a new male character, one that had powers and potentially could be a breakout, but they also had to put him in opposition, loud opposition, to T'Challa. I think it was a bad move to bring Tosin into the book to crap on T'Challa, just like about every other new character has for years now. However, dumping on (straight) Black males was still very much in vogue in entertainment. Coates largely got away with it, but I think readers' patience is shorter with Ridley, especially when Wakanda Forever was looming, as was the specter that T'Challa would be buried in the movies and comics.
It's presumptuous that Tosin, who has lived in a closed off segment of Wakandan society would call himself "The Wakandan." While preaching inclusion on one hand, he's very exclusionary. It's like he can't see the contradictions, perhaps because Ridley can't. It was like Tosin is the kind of stereotypical idea of a "woke" young activist but is put in the context of Wakanda. The assumption is that these kinds of characters are going to sell, but I haven't really seen that happening at DC and Marvel, and some like the new New Warriors were quashed before they even saw daylight. Ridley didn't do much to make him endearing, outside of a neat look and potential power set. He so far hasn't even spent time developing a romantic relationship between Tosin and Shuri which perhaps could've made him more likable, or likable period.
It sucks that Vibraxas was tossed to the side. I find him more potentially interesting than Tosin or Gentle (still not digging that code name). I would much rather have Vibraxas and Queen Divine Justice as important supporting characters in a BP title or in a spin off title of their own.
I think the disappointing box office for Wakanda Forever will give Marvel Comics some pause on erasing T'Challa. I don't think they will go back on dumping on him completely-it's just too ingrained-but the door is now open for a Brandon Thomas, Bryan Edward Hill, etc. to perhaps give a more nuanced or tempered T'Challa. He will still get checked (largely by Black female characters) and be very reliant on Shuri, but maybe, just maybe, he won't be as hapless, self-loathing, and defeatist.
When I think about how Ridley writes Jace Fox versus T'Challa, it's almost night and day. He does spank Fox some, and he gets checked (often by females of color), but he's nowhere near as defeated as Ridley's T'Challa. No one is telling him he's not needed or that he makes everything worse. None of the Fox sisters are telling another hero that they are the future while their brother is the past, and things along that line.