"But will disco ever die?"

You know, as much as people mock "superheroes" like Bouncing Boy, Matter Eater Lad, and Hal Jordan, I've got to think the most useless superpower of all would be seeing the future, any kind of oracular foresight. Because you'd never get anyone to believe you. I mean, imagine trying to tell your average seventies-dweller about current events.

Average person in the 70s: What's cracking, soul brother?

Me: Not much. We have a presidential race on and one of the candidates was filmed without his knowledge, then a video of him saying scandalous things was leaked to the press to smear him.

Average person in the 70s: Just like that scumbag Nixon tried to do!

Me: No, actually it happens to the Republican candidate.

Average person in the 70s: No way!

Me: YA RLY.

Average person in the 70s: What?

Me: Nothing, it's just a reference to a talking owl joke that's popular these days.

Average person in the 70s: OWLS CAN TALK IN THE FUTURE?

Me: No, forget about it. Also, one of the self-proclaimed good reasons to re-elect the sitting president is that he ordered the death of a really bad man.

Average person in the 70s: Those warmongering Republicans!

Me: No, liberal. Kal Penn said it at the Democratic National Convention.

Average person in the 70s: Who's Kal Penn?

Me: He's a movie star, he did these movies that are kind of like your Cheech & Chong films.

Average person in the 70s: Cheech Marin talked at a political rally? Lay it on me again, jive chunky!

Me: I don't understand your funky 70s slang, but I'm not lying to you. Oh, and someone tried to make a movie set in your time, based on the Daredevil comic books that are, for you, being published right now, since they're the definitive run on the title and the story is a complete take-off on your gritty crime films.

Average person in the 70s: Well, that sounds good.

Me: Oh, it doesn't get made. But that Dark Shadows soap opera that's on TV now? The kids who are watching it right now grow up to make a major motion picture about it with an all-star cast. But it's still set in the seventies.

Average person in the 70s: Why?

Me: We have our top scientists working on it.

Oh, by the way, get Kris Jenner to have her tubes tied.

Average person in the 70s: Why, future turkey? Will that stop nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union?

Me: ...yes.

Let's make a Black Panther movie!

Or add Black Panther to some other movie, whatever.

First order of business... Does he have to be Black Panther? Couldn't he just be The Panther? I see the benefits of this as twofold.

1. Avoids confusion with terrorist group, which is always nice. And yes, yes, I know, T'Challa predates the Black Panthers, but, like, three people know that. If you have a black supremacist (and don't tell me Reginald Hudlin didn't write T'Challa as a black supremacist; he refused to give A CURE FOR CANCER to white people) who calls himself the Black Panther and fights oppressive white guys, people will read into it. Do you think a movie could get made about an Irish guy named the Clansman who fights black criminals, even if we're based on some 16th century poem about Duncan MacLeod or whatever? No. No.

2. Avoids the "Black Lightning" problem of putting the word "black" in black superhero's name. Does anyone call Steve Rogers "Captain White America"? Or Natasha "Mrs. Black Widow"? No.

Anyway, it might not even be that big deal, but if it is a big deal, it doesn't have to be a big deal, ya know? Just saying.

Now, in the past, I've mentioned that it seems people like Black Panther more because he's a strong black man than because he's an interesting character, per se. But I actually think, even with the limited time you could conceivably spend with the character in a movie setting, it might actually be easier to give him a role.

In comics, there are so many pages to fill that you inevitably end up with variants on the same character. People like Dr. Strange, so you make Dr. Druid. Or people like Thor, but they don't want him acting OOC, so you get Hercules, who is pretty much a walking "Thor is a dumb himbo" joke.

The thing is, in a movieverse, you don't need those characters because there's surprisingly little time to explore the characters as is. Compared to the comics and even the TV shows, the movies have barely scratched the surface of Superman, so there's not much need to throw in Superboy to Man of Steel 2 and spice things up. We still haven't done Brainiac.

In this case, I think Black Panther can take some aspects that he shares with other characters and just own them, making him that much more interesting. In this case, it'd be the X-Men and Namor; characters who are generally treated as outsiders within the team because they have their own personal interests which can and do take precedent over the team's goals. In Namor's case, he cares more about Atlantis than the surface world, while the X-Men are naturally more concerned with mutant rights.

So, with characters like this, there's always this tension, this question of whether they're on the same page as the rest of the team. And Black Panther is particularly suited to this, because his core characterization is duty and responsibility, so it's even more dramatic if he gets torn between his duty to the team and his responsibility to Wakanda. You have to ask yourself, would he sacrifice, say, Montana to keep Wakanda safe? Would he cut a deal with Thanos to turn Wakanda into Vichy France while the rest of the world burns?

Obviously, he wouldn't do anything that anti-heroic in what amounts to a Disney movie, but it perfectly suits his character to be running a massive Batman gambit that ends in him getting close enough to the Big Bad to stab him in the back (can you imagine Namor or Wolverine being that mastermind-y?). So there's good drama, you can do a traitor in the ranks storyline without, say, turning Black Widow into an evil seductress, and at the end, people will leave the theater loving Black Panther not just because he's a cool black guy, but because it was totally awesome when he outmaneuvered Thanos and saved the day.

By the way, over/under on Black Panther showing up in Captain America 2? You could do a flashback to his father meeting Cap in WW2, have the villain trying to steal a load of vibranium for whatever superweapon he's cooking up in the modern day, and have T'Challa cameo and shake hands with Cap before promising to take the day off from ruling his own country if the Avengers ever need help. There's your origin story right there.