Shuri Appreciation: Princess of Wakanda (2018)

[Realdealholy]

Great speech.

Shuri kept it 100 throughout that whole issue.

Dare I say this is the highlight of season 1, imho.

This convo directly addressed a major moment in the Hickman run--a moment that was a major pet peeve of mine--and gave clarity and context to the situation (T'Challa's overall behavior up till NA #21), while clarifying why T'Challa kept on insinuating during this season that he wasn't fit to be King. This was the closest thing to closure I've had on what went down in NA #21, an issue that greatly affected how I viewed T'Challa as a character. As a fan, I can happily say I'm ready to move on from that.

The convo even indirectly addressed T'Challa constantly looking up to his predecessors, especially T'Chaka, something that has been consistent throughout his publication history.

Shuri's answer wasn't only sound and logical, it reflected her own experience. As a ruler, she didn't try to follow T'Challa's footsteps and very quickly ended up doing her own thing instead. So her telling what she told T'Challa made a lot of sense.

[HUTHAIFA]

Dare I say this is the highlight of season 1, imho.

This convo directly addressed a major moment in the Hickman run--a moment that was a major pet peeve of mine--and gave clarity and context to the situation (T'Challa's overall behavior up till NA #21), while clarifying why T'Challa kept on insinuating during this season that he wasn't fit to be King. This was the closest thing to closure I've had on what went down in NA #21, an issue that greatly affected how I viewed T'Challa as a character. As a fan, I can happily say I'm ready to move on from that.

The convo even indirectly addressed T'Challa constantly looking up to his predecessors, especially T'Chaka, something that has been consistent throughout his publication history.

Shuri's answer wasn't only sound and logical, it reflected her own experience. As a ruler, she didn't try to follow T'Challa's footsteps and very quickly ended up doing her own thing instead. So her telling what she told T'Challa made a lot of sense.

Coates used Shuri a lot to explain hings to the readers, its one of my disappointments with the complaints. You dont leave the New Avengers run as a happy king. Even if its only a memory and you saved everyone, that still happened to you.

I loved the consistency with Shuri. She died for Wakanda, so she doesnt have time for anyone, who is willing to anything less. She has the Jesus mic drop on disgruntled Wakandans.

[Realdealholy]

Coates used Shuri a lot to explain hings to the readers, its one of my disappointments with the complaints. You dont leave the New Avengers run as a happy king. Even if its only a memory and you saved everyone, that still happened to you.

There's a lot to criticize as far as execution is concern (slow pacing, initial T'Challa portrayal, the trafficking camps, too much telling & not enough showing, etc). No doubt about it. If it were up to me, I would've done a lot of things differently.

But Coates concluding that not everything is fine is a fair conclusion to make, imho. Way too much has happened in NA and TRO alone for things to just be all good. Going a different direction would've been fine, but addressing what happened recently was absolutely fair game, especially since Hickman's run left a lot of loose threads hanging and his ending was rather vague, as far as the BP-verse was concerned.

I loved the consistency with Shuri. She died for Wakanda, so she doesnt have time for anyone, who is willing to anything less. She has the Jesus mic drop on disgruntled Wakandans.

I'm overall pleasantly surprised with her portrayal in this run. In addition to being consistent to previous portrayals, as you alluded to, her progression ended up being very natural. She's still her, but with more polish this time.

On somewhat of a sidenote, this run and previous runs before it made me theorize that perhaps, from a writer's perspective, Shuri is an "easier" character to write than T'Challa?

T'Challa received a different take each time a new writer came in. Stan and Jack's was different from McGregor's, which differed from Gillis, which differed from Priest, Hudlin, etc. Each writer's T'Challa obviously have similarities with each other, yet each take is distinct. Part of it, I suspect, is the king/hero dynamic T'Challa has, resulting in writers leaning one way or the other. There's probably more to it, but nothing crosses my mind at this moment.

However, Shuri has basically been the same character throughout her entire publication history, at the hands of six writers (Hudlin, Mayberry, Liss, Waid, Hickman, Coates). Rather than several distinct takes, we've ended up with somewhat of an evolutionary process with her. Her just being a monarch probably helped a lot to that occurring, I suspect.

[XPac]

There's a lot to criticize as far as execution is concern (slow pacing, initial T'Challa portrayal, the trafficking camps, too much telling & not enough showing, etc). No doubt about it. If it were up to me, I would've done a lot of things differently.

But Coates concluding that not everything is fine is a fair conclusion to make, imho. Way too much has happened in NA and TRO alone for things to just be all good. Going a different direction would've been fine, but addressing what happened recently was absolutely fair game, especially since Hickman's run left a lot of loose threads hanging and his ending was rather vague, as far as the BP-verse was concerned.



I'm overall pleasantly surprised with her portrayal in this run. In addition to being consistent to previous portrayals, as you alluded to, her progression ended up being very natural. She's still her, but with more polish this time.

On somewhat of a sidenote, this run and previous runs before it made me theorize that perhaps, from a writer's perspective, Shuri is an "easier" character to write than T'Challa?

T'Challa received a different take each time a new writer came in. Stan and Jack's was different from McGregor's, which differed from Gillis, which differed from Priest, Hudlin, etc. Each writer's T'Challa obviously have similarities with each other, yet each take is distinct. Part of it, I suspect, is the king/hero dynamic T'Challa has, resulting in writers leaning one way or the other. There's probably more to it, but nothing crosses my mind at this moment.

However, Shuri has basically been the same character throughout her entire publication history, at the hands of six writers (Hudlin, Mayberry, Liss, Waid, Hickman, Coates). Rather than several distinct takes, we've ended up with somewhat of an evolutionary process with her. Her just being a monarch probably helped a lot to that occurring, I suspect.

The thing I like about Coates Shuri is the things she says make me feel almost a little uncomfortable.

She tells the MA she'll send her army to destroy their village if they side with the People, and she flat out tells the MA to accept being raped if that's what's needed (there are of course layers of meaning to what she said).

It's so blunt and harsh, that she literally steals any scene she's in where she's opening her mouth. And though I don't necessarily agree with some of the stuff she's saying (at least in the absolute literal) sense, it's hard not to respect it.

Coates gives her this wonderfully powerful voice. Hickman wrote a very good Shuri, but Coates version is on a whole other level of verbal bad @$$ery.

[MindofShadow]

First thing:

Shuri should NOT BE THAT DARK. At least not as dark as T'challa.

Stelfreeze wanted to make the royals "so black their blue..." but Shuri's mom is Ramonda, who isn't even Wakandan. She is only "half" Wakandan and should not be as dark as T'challa, who is a pure bred royal lol.

/minorartcomplaint

(I still hate the white dreads, id live with black dreads)

Great speech.

Shuri kept it 100 throughout that whole issue.

Dare I say this is the highlight of season 1, imho.

This convo directly addressed a major moment in the Hickman run--a moment that was a major pet peeve of mine--and gave clarity and context to the situation (T'Challa's overall behavior up till NA #21), while clarifying why T'Challa kept on insinuating during this season that he wasn't fit to be King. This was the closest thing to closure I've had on what went down in NA #21, an issue that greatly affected how I viewed T'Challa as a character. As a fan, I can happily say I'm ready to move on from that.

The convo even indirectly addressed T'Challa constantly looking up to his predecessors, especially T'Chaka, something that has been consistent throughout his publication history.

Shuri's answer wasn't only sound and logical, it reflected her own experience. As a ruler, she didn't try to follow T'Challa's footsteps and very quickly ended up doing her own thing instead. So her telling what she told T'Challa made a lot of sense.

Coates used Shuri a lot to explain hings to the readers, its one of my disappointments with the complaints. You dont leave the New Avengers run as a happy king. Even if its only a memory and you saved everyone, that still happened to you.

I loved the consistency with Shuri. She died for Wakanda, so she doesnt have time for anyone, who is willing to anything less. She has the Jesus mic drop on disgruntled Wakandans.

There's a lot to criticize as far as execution is concern (slow pacing, initial T'Challa portrayal, the trafficking camps, too much telling & not enough showing, etc). No doubt about it. If it were up to me, I would've done a lot of things differently.

But Coates concluding that not everything is fine is a fair conclusion to make, imho. Way too much has happened in NA and TRO alone for things to just be all good. Going a different direction would've been fine, but addressing what happened recently was absolutely fair game, especially since Hickman's run left a lot of loose threads hanging and his ending was rather vague, as far as the BP-verse was concerned.

I am/was just about sick and tired of one year of mopey ass t'challa.

But... Coates made it work and come full circle with #12. It now WORKS. Really well. The "I am not king" thing feels complete. Like we can move on from it. I still would have liked to see the old BP's and T'challa reconcile on panel, but even without that, i feels like T'challa has "healed" from the wounds of Hickman's run.

Now he has to turn T'challa more into the "confident badass" more akin to Priest/Hudlin/Liss/Johns Panther (no, not copy but in attitude). There is nothing left to deconstruct. Time to build upward.

I'm overall pleasantly surprised with her portrayal in this run. In addition to being consistent to previous portrayals, as you alluded to, her progression ended up being very natural. She's still her, but with more polish this time.

On somewhat of a sidenote, this run and previous runs before it made me theorize that perhaps, from a writer's perspective, Shuri is an "easier" character to write than T'Challa?

T'Challa received a different take each time a new writer came in. Stan's T'Challa was different from Kirbys, which was different from McGregor's, which was different from Gillis, which was different from Priest's, which was different from Hudlin's, which different from Mayberry's, which was different from Liss', which differed from Hickman's, which even differed from Coates'. Each writer's T'Challa obviously have similarities with each other, yet each take is distinct. Part of it, I suspect, is the king/hero dynamic T'Challa has, resulting in writers leaning one way or the other. There's probably more to it, but nothing crosses my mind at this moment.

However, Shuri has basically been the same character throughout her entire publication history, at the hands of six writers (Hudlin, Mayberry, Liss, Waid, Hickman, Coates). Rather than several distict takes, we've ended up with somewhat of an evolutionary process with her. Her just being a monarch probably helped a lot to that occurring, I suspect.

I think part of it is that she has only really had one 2 series about her (Power and Klaws) and has been a supporting character otherwise.

When you are only going to show up here and there, these writers are only going to take the "base" fo the character to work with. So, in shuri's case, it is a take no shit Wakanda first Queen. So each appearance is going to use that "base."

When T'challa shows up in guest apperances, they use his "base" form as well. Genius confident king that can fight. It is only the solos where they start doing more with him.

If she got a solo tomorrow, the writer would take that base and start to pick at it.

[Realdealholy]

First thing:

Shuri should NOT BE THAT DARK. At least not as dark as T'challa.

Stelfreeze wanted to make the royals "so black their blue..." but Shuri's mom is Ramonda, who isn't even Wakandan. She is only "half" Wakandan and should not be as dark as T'challa, who is a pure bred royal lol.

/minorartcomplaint

(I still hate the white dreads, id live with black dreads)

Under the assumption that T'Chaka's is more "old school" as far as a Wakandan is concerned, perhaps Ramonda being darker-skinned was one of the things that T'Chaka found appealing about her? In the event that he were to have a child with her? Thus, Shuri being as dark-skinned as T'Challa? That's how I make sense of it.

Would prefer black hair as well, but on the bright side, her current hair kinda "different." "Different" is good, for now.

I am/was just about sick and tired of one year of mopey ass t'challa.

But... Coates made it work and come full circle with #12. It now WORKS. Really well. The "I am not king" thing feels complete. Like we can move on from it. I still would have liked to see the old BP's and T'challa reconcile on panel, but even without that, i feels like T'challa has "healed" from the wounds of Hickman's run.

Now he has to turn T'challa more into the "confident badass" more akin to Priest/Hudlin/Liss/Johns Panther (no, not copy but in attitude). There is nothing left to deconstruct. Time to build upward.

No other place to go but up, at this point. Anything else would not be a good look.

I think part of it is that she has only really had one 2 series about her (Power and Klaws) and has been a supporting character otherwise.

When you are only going to show up here and there, these writers are only going to take the "base" fo the character to work with. So, in shuri's case, it is a take no shit Wakanda first Queen. So each appearance is going to use that "base."

When T'challa shows up in guest apperances, they use his "base" form as well. Genius confident king that can fight. It is only the solos where they start doing more with him.

If she got a solo tomorrow, the writer would take that base and start to pick at it.

Good point, perhaps that's the case. It would be interesting to see how things would go down the day Shuri gets a writer that decides to go the deconstruction route on her. There's a lot of avenues that could go. We had a sample of that via Power, in which she was a bit more reckless back then. Wonder how it would go now, with everything that has happened to her throughout the years.

[XPac]

Under the assumption that T'Chaka's is more "old school" as far as a Wakandan is concerned, perhaps Ramonda being darker-skinned was one of the things that T'Chaka found appealing about her? In the event that he were to have a child with her? Thus, Shuri being as dark-skinned as T'Challa? That's how I make sense of it.

Would prefer black hair as well, but on the bright side, her current hair kinda "different." "Different" is good, for now.



No other place to go but up, at this point. Anything else would not be a good look.



Good point, perhaps that's the case. It would be interesting to see how things would go down the day Shuri gets a writer that decides to go the deconstruction route on her. There's a lot of avenues that could go. We had a sample of that via Power, in which she was a bit more reckless back then. Wonder how it would go now, with everything that has happened to her throughout the years.

Hudlin initially had Shuri with a lot of built in character flaws (which is a GOOD thing because it gives more of a character journey). She did seem hot headed, reckless at times, and had some lingering jeolousy issues over her brother (though really who wouldn't).

But all those flows may be non factors now. She seems to have grown up quite a bit for lack of a better word. She still have a very ruthless streak about her, but it's very calculated and controlled as opposed reckless.

[Realdealholy]

The thing I like about Coates Shuri is the things she says make me feel almost a little uncomfortable.

She tells the MA she'll send her army to destroy their village if they side with the People, and she flat out tells the MA to accept being raped if that's what's needed (there are of course layers of meaning to what she said).

It's so blunt and harsh, that she literally steals any scene she's in where she's opening her mouth. And though I don't necessarily agree with some of the stuff she's saying (at least in the absolute literal) sense, it's hard not to respect it.

Coates gives her this wonderfully powerful voice. Hickman wrote a very good Shuri, but Coates version is on a whole other level of verbal bad @$$ery.

First time I read Shuri's response to the MAs in #12, I was like...



...didn't see it coming, at all.

Then she expanded on her statement and I was like...



...it made sense, but man, harsh stance to take.

To her credit, she isn't hypocritical about it. She could've left Wakanda with T'Challa in NA #24, but decided to stay and face her imminent death.

[XPac]

First time I read Shuri's response to the MAs in #12, I was like...



...didn't see it coming, at all.

Then she expanded on her statement and I was like...



...it made sense, but man, harsh stance to take.

To her credit, she isn't hypocritical about it. She could've left Wakanda with T'Challa in NA #24, but decided to stay and face her imminent death.

I think in part Shuri is there in the story to say the things that the writer doesn't want T'Challa to say.

That speech she gave in 12 should never come out of T'Challa's mouth, regardless of how justifiable the explanation may be afterwards. But Shuri saying it is fine.

[Realdealholy]

I think in part Shuri is there in the story to say the things that the writer doesn't want T'Challa to say.

That speech she gave in 12 should never come out of T'Challa's mouth, regardless of how justifiable the explanation may be afterwards. But Shuri saying it is fine.

Oh god, if T'Challa were to say that, the entire comic fandom would be set ablaze. It would be the comic controversy of the year.

The BP thread, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr would lit up. Even the mainstream media might catch wind of it too.

[HUTHAIFA]

I think in part Shuri is there in the story to say the things that the writer doesn't want T'Challa to say.

That speech she gave in 12 should never come out of T'Challa's mouth, regardless of how justifiable the explanation may be afterwards. But Shuri saying it is fine.

Which is why a strong supporting cast is needed. The lead doesn't need to be all things at all times.

[XPac]

Which is why a strong supporting cast is needed. The lead doesn't need to be all things at all times.

And I think that's especially true or a character like T'Challa as far as dialogue goes. I don't think you necessarily want him to do all the talking. Part of the mystique of Priests run was that T'Challa didn't talk that much, and it built a certain mystique around him. I don't think Coates, or any other writer for that matter, necessarily needs to go the degree Priest did, but having T'Challa not be overly chatty and leaving a lot of the exposition to supporting cast I think works better.

[MindofShadow]

Which is why a strong supporting cast is needed. The lead doesn't need to be all things at all times.

Coates is kinda like a MCU movie

focus is on supporting cast and hero

villains are thin

[XPac]

Coates is kinda like a MCU movie

focus is on supporting cast and hero

villains are thin

Yeah, because he had to juggle buiding up 2 entire new sets of antagonists in both the MA and the People, the People ended up coming up on the short end of things.

That said, he doesn't seem quite done with Zenzi yet so maybe she can still be salvaged into something cool.

[HUTHAIFA]

Yeah, because he had to juggle buiding up 2 entire new sets of antagonists in both the MA and the People, the People ended up coming up on the short end of things.

That said, he doesn't seem quite done with Zenzi yet so maybe she can still be salvaged into something cool.

The MA were the long term supporting characters. Zenzi and Tetu were just one dimensional threats. I personally would have wanted more investment in Tetu. I would have liked to see him commune more to whatever god he worships and bigger displays of power.