Black Panther Appreciation: Wakanda Forever!

[Anthony Shaw]

My bro, like yourself, I'm genuinely looking forward to whatever Hickman brings to the table just as long as he doesn't chump T'Challa, Shuri and Wakanda out.

You're also right about it not mattering whether Hickman leaves T'Challa in a good place if another writer comes along and chooses to reverse all positive forward progression.

I share all your concerns.

On another note, unless BP is poised to make it on the big screen within the next two years, I'd rather he stay on an Avengers team.

Like you posted previously, BP only needs a couple pages to show his fighting skills. I don't think it is too much to ask for.

I am worried about who the next writer will be for BP moving forward.

[FLEX HECTIC]

Smoking Joe Acro... Are you on Mod duty today because I usually just TROLL Global as an excuse to talk basketball with him!


Anywho...


Wakandans are just Africans that have never been conquered and are technologically advanced but not necessarily better than any of their neighbors just a bit more xenophobic for obvious reasons!


The vibranium meteor crash landing in their homeland helps set off 10,000 years worth of a chain of events that runs right into the super hero era to which they must prepare and respond to!


This does not mean that they are totally different just that they have totally different goals and political agendas that redefines their fictional existence!


Tony Stark is essentially Steve Jobs or Bill Gates fighting super villains on the side so the playboy billionaire tech vibe needs to inhabit Stark where he is an American white male human with certain financial privileges and entitlements but still an Americanized character that you could meet walking down the street or at a board meeting!


If Stark was a Russian or Japanese citizen he would have to have some of the mannerisms associated with those cultures along with an accent that reflected where and when he grew up!


T'challa would still have an African accent as someone from that region but he comes from a bloodline that has never been colonized, conquered or enslaved so he has to have a worldview coming from that experience... There is nothing that needs to be super magical about that except where magic is used the same as in Asgard!


For many writers their own personal worldview often dictates the direction T'challa takes to which I stated years ago in the pre-rebooted forum that perhaps the next writer should spend some time in Africa not in the jungle snapping pics of lions and elephants but somewhere that Africans who engage in technology are trying to make a difference!


The Black Panther could be a billion dollar franchise with a little extra OOMPH added to the research but if all you want to play is musical chairs with writers who seem more comfortable scripting Spiderman and Batman than an African character the results will be around or near the same at the end of their run!


The Black Panther sometimes is a character meant to go beyond just the feats but a core ideal that challenges the normal comic book status quo the moment it claims to not having been conquered... A white male writer or a black male writer would have to dig deep to offset the current racial politics that envelop his own worldview as he scripted an African hero that did not have to bow down to the same rank and file stations that institutionalized racism has fostered!


With less than 2% writers at Marvel being black let alone African there needs to be some reaching out to find other writers similar to how they found Hudlin to get newer and fresher perspectives... Hickman, Maberry, Liss and Aaron came from somewhere and it's not like they woke up one morning as the second coming of Spielberg they too had to start from being nobodies to becoming full fledged "Architects" at Marvel somehow!


John Singleton, Tim Story, Antoine Fuqua or even Djimon Honsou could be commissioned to write Black Panther just as easily as a white writer who does not have a name yet gets a gig at Marvel and a chance to make a difference... You never know what you may find or what kind of buzz you could create doing things differently for a change of pace!


On another note... My brother in-law just gave me some more detailed knowledge on Black Mambas and why they are so aggressive as a snake!


I always thought there was some exaggeration about this serpent but Gosh dang Darnit Doo Hickey those sneaky slithers go all in with an attitude that is keeping it very real in the animal kingdom!


FRAK THIS I'm staying downtown Wakanda near the palace if this snake makes even the Late Crocodile Hunter work up a sweat...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG3OtCvo3QI

[Ajala]

I'm still waiting to see some no prize answers about how T'challa keeps his fade so immaculate.

The guy who used to do Steve Harvey's fade gives him shape-ups with Vibranium Tipped clippers.

[KOSLOX]

The guy who used to do Steve Harvey's fade gives him shape-ups with Vibranium Tipped clippers.

I'm not even sure those could work! Maybe a straight razor but clippers should just absorb each vibration and amount to just sticking a pair of turned off clippers to your head!

Between todays Avengers and now this.... Arghh... Hickman comics are so confusing!

I think Mr. Maj is probably on the right track with shadow particles, but that just raises the question.... WHERE DID ALL THE HAIR GO!?

[Ajala]

I'm not even sure those could work! Maybe a straight razor but clippers should just absorb each vibration and amount to just sticking a pair of turned off clippers to your head!

Between todays Avengers and now this.... Arghh... Hickman comics are so confusing!

I think Mr. Maj is probably on the right track with shadow particles, but that just raises the question.... WHERE DID ALL THE HAIR GO!?

You're talking about early prototypes which had every tooth made of vibranium. A fail model that is the shame of the Wakandan Cuttery Dept. The newer models have every OTHER tooth made of the stuff. Which reduces the randomness with the pulsing and provides a more even cut.

[MoneySpider]

I'm still waiting to see some no prize answers about how T'challa keeps his fade so immaculate.

Black Panther's methods are beyond us. He ALWAYS finds a way.

[Mr MajestiK]

I'm not even sure those could work! Maybe a straight razor but clippers should just absorb each vibration and amount to just sticking a pair of turned off clippers to your head!

Between todays Avengers and now this.... Arghh... Hickman comics are so confusing!

I think Mr. Maj is probably on the right track with shadow particles, but that just raises the question.... WHERE DID ALL THE HAIR GO!?

The Nowhere Room.

[FriendRoss]

I'm still waiting to see some no prize answers about how T'challa keeps his fade so immaculate.

I read this and just assumed t'challa was in avengers this week lookin sharp.


I haven't come across him anywhere yet. This would be the first week in like the last 4 where he didn't photo bomb in a book I bought. Anyone spot panther in any books this week?

[StormXPantherQueenSaga]

I miss the scheming Panther who only kept it real with Storm.

I hope Monica Lynne is never used again.

I never really got to know Lynne. But Storm hands down any day.

[skyvolt2000]

Come Back Africa (1959) movie currently showing on TCM is about a man leaving his farm to make a living in Johannesburg. The opening sequence shows an entire city with stores and buildings. At first I thought it was in New York but it was in Africa.

So for all the naysayers that keep claiming BP's homeland is difficult to do-here's yet another movie showing African living like normal people. When does that excuse stop being used when we have so many examples stating otherwise? Or is that part of the burail process to send BP to limbo after Hickman leaves Avengers?

[FLEX HECTIC]

On a more positive note we had some guests of our guests from South Africa visit tonight and I corrupted the whole lot of them... That means I went into full blown Chaos Bringer mode!


We got to talking about everything in relation to Africans and African Americans and so I showed them this link right here...


http://blackinventor.com


It was a man, his wife and two sons and the wife works for the South African embassy... I'm pretty sure as they drive home this instant they are still talking about me especially the two sons who got TROLLED exclusively by me about being the future of Africa!


Yep, I said that Africa should have at least 10 to 20 super powers in the future and they need to get started on that ASAP... Great time for a selfie right then and there if I must say so myself


Tomorrow my in-laws fly home and have to explain how cray cray that their brother in-law is but thanks to Skype most of that is a foregone conclusion at this point!


I mentioned the Avengers filming some scenes in South Africa and the possibility of a Black Panther movie and ways that they can capitalize off of the merchandise opportunity created by Hollywood filming overseas!


The Black Panther could go a long way towards influencing these concepts but tonight left me feeling good about things... The youngest son reminded me a lot of Michael from the show Good Times he has a little bit of militancy in him but not too over the top that he would lose focus!


Valuable intel was gathered as I compartmentalize and file these meetings for later research... I need another face to face with my friends/family from Ghana and Nigeria to help add to the Black Panther mythos!

[Double 0]

I guess my question is, how do you make people care about a fictional nation in a shared universe? Hell, even a foreign nation?

What was it about Panther's Rage, for instance, that appealed to people?

[Anthony Shaw]

What was it about Panther's Rage, for instance, that appealed to people?

I have been waiting forever for that story to be collected in a new print edition.

Perhaps if & when BP makes it onto the silver screen.

It was only after the Iron Man films that I was able to get a slew of trades.

[Anthony Shaw]

Jason Aaron has once more named dropped BP.

The glass half full side of me is hoping that this means BP's stock is on the rise.

The glass half empty side of me dreads that this will only lead to further disappointment.

Finally, what can you tell us to help prepare for "Original Sin" #6? We're very getting close to the end game; in fact the cover for issue #6 has the question, "Who pulled the trigger?"

Brevoort: I think we can pretty well say that by the end of #6, you'll know who did the deed. That won't answer all the questions, though, because obviously there are a lot of them, and we just spent a whole issue not answering any and creating a whole bunch of new ones. There is still plenty of story to tell and plenty of meat on the bone.


In Issue #6, we start to get down to brass tacks as to what is actually going on here, what it's all about, who's doing and who did what, the grand pattern of what the "Original Sin" story has been all about, and then we start to vector in a big way towards the climax.

Aaron: Yes, next issue answers the question of, why are all these people in this satellite in space? Why this group of characters? Why have Black Panther, Punisher and all these characters come together?

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=53986

[MrHashasheen]

I guess my question is, how do you make people care about a fictional nation in a shared universe? Hell, even a foreign nation?

What was it about Panther's Rage, for instance, that appealed to people?

It was pretty much a coming of story age for me. A young prince turned king, fighting for his people, fighting his people, fighting against his people to do what he thought was right against those who threatened it. It was one of the earliest examples of serial storytelling. It built upon an incredible realm of science and mysticism that to this day has not been properly exploited. It introduced a multitude of classic Black Panther characters, both villains and supporting cast. It created T'Challa's first true love, it exemplified the problems of isolation vs. cosmopolitanism, of tradition vs. modernity. It made Wakanda more than a name, no it made Wakanda a living breathing country.

You ask what it made it so appealing? I ask what it didn't do to make it so appealing.

On topic with this Captain Marvel controversy: I'm not a fan of it. I can get that Sue Kelly had an idea (maybe inspired by Hickman's previous ruminations on Wakandan spaceflight, maybe earlier considering vibranium has been space-originated since the beginning) and wanted to do it with Captain Marvel. I can dig it. I can bless it, because hey she want's to do something with vibranium and that is pleasing. What isn't pleasing is talking an instantly important story plot (origin of vibranium), something that belongs to and fits into the Black Panther mythos so well and then... give it to Captain Marvel? I get where Breevort is coming from: It's a big universe, people can share materials, Black Panther has nothing to do with space at the moment...

And that would work... if it wasn't explicitly clear that the reason Black Panther has nothing else going on is by design. Why don't Shuri and Wakanda have a book or a mini-series detailing this sort of adventure while T'Challa's being King of the Dead, Lord of the Illuminati and Detective of Intergalactic Death? No mention in the MCU, he hasn't been on the latest Avenger cartoon, not a peep or merchandise, outreach, anything. DC's been good with some digital only comics like Sensation Comics, Injustice, Batman Beyond, etc... We can't get even that for Black Panther & Wakanda. No, what we've gotten have been incrementally diminishing returns from Hickman's New Avengers, to the point where we're fighting over whether or not T'Challa fighting an expy of the Justice Society requires total victory or an acceptable draw considering he was unprepared.

So with all due respect to Sue Kelly and the Captain Marvel crew... Fuck This.