MTV: Marvel's Black Panther Has To Be Twice As Good If It's Going To Succeed

[Agent Z]

Hancock was a comedy movie starring Will Smith who was often the exception to the rule.

But it was still a superhero movie though.

[JamJams]

People have less bias towards watching movies with non-male-white actors than Hollywood/media like to admit. As long as Black Panther gets the same kind of marketing as any other Marvel movie, which it will, it'll be fine.

[JKtheMac]

The guy writing this article has hardly anything to say and very little knowledge is demonstrated of comics, the industry or MCU movies. So my reaction to this is a big 'yawn'.

[JKtheMac]

Reasons why the Black Panther comic even exists and will be around for a while:

Marvel like to make sure there are plenty of trade paperbacks available to tie into a movie release. If you walk out of the cinema and fire up the Marvel app or log into Amazon, Marvel want you to find a pile of recent books that you might be tempted to buy. But there are no recent Black Panther books, so why not launch one and commit to at least two trades that will be out by the release of the movie. (See also Doctor Strange, Thor, Black Widow, Ant-Man).

Following on from Hickman's Avengers and Secret Wars run there has been an expectation that Black Panther should get a solo book. The Ultimates is all well and good, but there is nothing like a solo to get fans of a character at least trying the first few issues. Presumably the idea of a BP comic had been circulating the offices for a while, because it was mentioned alongside early ANAD press. My bet is there were a number of pitches and discussions with writers that didn't amount to anything before they settled on Coates, and being untried as a comic writer they probably wanted to see a detailed outline and a preliminary script first before they committed. But they have certainly committed, and Coates seems to write scripts quite fast (it is hinted he is already writing 13 or higher). It the editors are pleased with the quality, that kind of speed and commitment is highly prized by editors with deadlines to worry about. Even if the books don't sell they have the material for the first two trades and would probably be prepared to gamble on new readers after a movie release, even if it meant relaunching the book.

There may be a specific and unrevealed plan for the character if they are already thinking ahead over a year. Think the way the Thor status quo shifted when Jane picked up the hammer. Marvel are not above headline grabbing changes if they believe in the writer. Thor wouldn't have grabbed headlines without the movies, neither would Black Panther until the general public have a better handle on him as a character. But post movie, things will be different, and a well timed press release could get lots of attention.

[JudicatorPrime]

Personally I don't care about records.I'm just hoping for a film that I will enjoy watching. There are quite a lot of films that have had huge box office figures but it just didn't have much appeal to me and vise versa.

Agreed. I just watched Deadpool over the weekend. Many raved about that movie, and the box office reflected their fervor. But I personally thought it was an absolutely wretched and hyper-puerile film. I don't care about box office; I only care about the studio making a quality entertaining movie. One that I will not only enjoy the first time, but one that I will want to watch more than once. That is the hallmark of a great movie. As for Deadpool, if the first installment was best in show, then you can be sure that I'll wait until the second one comes out on some premium cable network before I even consider DVRing it.

[Ascended]

Maybe not, but I don't think it's hard to beat Man of Steel, going in with CW hype. And Batman/Spider-Man, well, somehow Iron Man came out of nowhere around the same time as TDK, and while it wasn't a close competition, it was more than enough to change the landscape.

Right? And the second issue was apparently so hot that it was gone before my (crappy) lcs could get it.

Oh, its Box Office might be off the charts, who knows? I dont think anyone expected Guardians of the Galaxy to do as well as it did, and didnt Ant-Man of all properties end up doing more than all the Iron Man films? But even if its the biggest film in Marvel history, T'Challa still wont be anywhere close to reaching the level of Spidey and Bats and Superman, and expecting him to achieve that in any amount of time is foolish and setting the character up to fail.

And that sucks about the second issue man. You consider digital?

[Of Atlantis]

They did say Guardians of the Galaxy would be Marvel's first flop and... yeah.

Black Panther will do fine. I'd say their biggest challenge will be maintaining the hype.

[dragonmp93]

They did say Guardians of the Galaxy would be Marvel's first flop and... yeah.

Black Panther will do fine. I'd say their biggest challenge will be maintaining the hype.

They have been saying that since Iron Man 2.

[Ascended]

They did say Guardians of the Galaxy would be Marvel's first flop and... yeah.

Black Panther will do fine. I'd say their biggest challenge will be maintaining the hype.

That's the real issue.

Its not even making a bad movie. That'll happen eventually (gods forbid its either Panther or Captain Marvel) but a bad movie is easy enough to overcome (just ask Daredevil, Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, the X-Men.....) What'll end up killing the genre is audience boredom.

Marvel built its house on the concept of the shared universe. But at some point, people will get tired of saying "Oh hey, character X from this movie just showed in movie Y and they'll be teaming up next year in movie Z! I love that!" Once that appeal starts to wane Marvel will have to find a new hook to keep people interested and going to movies they might otherwise skip.

I'd say that Marvel's standard formula would be a problem too, but they started overcoming that (to a degree) with Winter Soldier, and while they're not films, the Netflix stuff has branched their style out considerably. I dont worry too much about Marvel finding a new formula that works, though they haven't strayed as far from it as some people seem to think they have. That's a thing, but not one that is insurmountable or even, really, all that difficult to do. They're already making solid headway there and I see no reason to be overly concerned about it going forward either.

Well, the day Kevin Fierge (or however you spell it) leaves, that'll be a hard day for Marvel Studios too. All their success, from what I can tell, can be laid at his feet. What they do when he leaves is gonna be interesting to see, and might be a more dangerous time for them than anything else.

[Mr MajestiK]

So you're just going to ignore the fact that Claremont had them meet up during his X-Men writing heyday?


But please continue with your false narrative

Quoted for actual veracity over totally false (and irrelevant) narrative.

[Mr MajestiK]

Reasons why the Black Panther comic even exists and will be around for a while:

Marvel like to make sure there are plenty of trade paperbacks available to tie into a movie release. If you walk out of the cinema and fire up the Marvel app or log into Amazon, Marvel want you to find a pile of recent books that you might be tempted to buy. But there are no recent Black Panther books, so why not launch one and commit to at least two trades that will be out by the release of the movie. (See also Doctor Strange, Thor, Black Widow, Ant-Man).

Following on from Hickman's Avengers and Secret Wars run there has been an expectation that Black Panther should get a solo book. The Ultimates is all well and good, but there is nothing like a solo to get fans of a character at least trying the first few issues. Presumably the idea of a BP comic had been circulating the offices for a while, because it was mentioned alongside early ANAD press. My bet is there were a number of pitches and discussions with writers that didn't amount to anything before they settled on Coates, and being untried as a comic writer they probably wanted to see a detailed outline and a preliminary script first before they committed. But they have certainly committed, and Coates seems to write scripts quite fast (it is hinted he is already writing 13 or higher). It the editors are pleased with the quality, that kind of speed and commitment is highly prized by editors with deadlines to worry about. Even if the books don't sell they have the material for the first two trades and would probably be prepared to gamble on new readers after a movie release, even if it meant relaunching the book.

There may be a specific and unrevealed plan for the character if they are already thinking ahead over a year. Think the way the Thor status quo shifted when Jane picked up the hammer. Marvel are not above headline grabbing changes if they believe in the writer. Thor wouldn't have grabbed headlines without the movies, neither would Black Panther until the general public have a better handle on him as a character. But post movie, things will be different, and a well timed press release could get lots of attention.

Very solid and well thought out post.

[cullenn]

Marvel built its house on the concept of the shared universe. But at some point, people will get tired of saying "Oh hey, character X from this movie just showed in movie Y and they'll be teaming up next year in movie Z! I love that!" Once that appeal starts to wane Marvel will have to find a new hook to keep people interested and going to movies they might otherwise skip.

Not sure why a (Marvel) comic fan would make this argument. Are you sick of it? I'm 40 and this is what has kept me returning to comics. The interconnectedness is one of the greatest contributions of the Marvel Cinematic U - just as it was a great contribution to the comic medium half a century ago.

There are lots of difficulties that arise attempting to maintain that interconnectedness, but I don't see any evidence that people are wearying of it - or will weary of it for quite some time. People who never paid much attention to comics (or maybe read some of the more highly-regarded indies or graphic novels) continue to be fascinated by the expansive shared Marvel universe, and regularly ask me to explain it to them! And older Marvel fans who have maybe disengaged from comics (think people who would have been reading in the 90s) are able to re-engage with a new medium... I honestly don't see interest in the shared universe declining. And it's definitely not going to be the thing that torpedoes Black Panther's chances.

[Michael Watkins]

I'm not worried about it. movie T'challa was about twice as cool as some of the other characters.

[XPac]

I'm not worried about it. movie T'challa was about twice as cool as some of the other characters.

Really, given marvel's track record I'm not sure we should be worry about ANY of the films. So far at least we haven't had a bomb in the bunch. Until we start getting a couple, I think their momentum should be enough to draws movie goers into pretty much anything they put out. Marvel itself has become enough of a brand name that it almost doesn't matter what specific hero stars in the film.

[skyvolt2000]

They did say Guardians of the Galaxy would be Marvel's first flop and... yeah.

Black Panther will do fine. I'd say their biggest challenge will be maintaining the hype.

Well to be fair GOTG, Antman, Deadpool, Iron Man, Blade & Thor didn't have a ton of COOKS in the kitchen that Batman, Green Lantern, Superman, FF & X-MEn suffer from.

Nobody was trying to make the end all movie with those guys. Nobody was folding them to some high standard version that Batman and others have to deal with.

Which leads to delays in film like WW, Flash & Justice League. Everybody wants thier version to be the PERFECT version.

Black Panther falls into the GOTG pit-just getting made is a victory, breaking even in a victory & making a big profit is a victory. Because like Deadpool and other others it says you can look beyond guys like Superman, Batman & legion of straight white males looming over a depressed universe when deciding to make films.

The hype will stay because Marvel is still tossing BP stuff out-unlike with Static, John Stewart and others of color-who got popular and later BURIED-Marvel is making sure you will have PLENTY to read about BP before that film.

Hudlin's run started it as his was pretty much the first BP run that you actually saw in stores and libraries. Now we are getting Priest, Kirby and the other runs. Now you toss in Coates's run.

We might by the time that film comes out BP will be the FIRST Marvel POC to have 200 solo issues. Unless Luke Cage (if you count costarring with Ironfist runs) does it first.