Let's make a Black Panther movie!
Sep. 18th, 2012 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficOr 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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2012-09-20 06:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-25 02:17 am (UTC)Yeah, no. The Black Panthers were not a terrorist group, not the original movement. One should hope you aren't talking about the original movement.
The "Black" in Black Panther's name is integral to the character's origin. It's more to do with his status as a royal than the fact he happens to be a African man of color, In-Universe.
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?
Yes, and society would bat a lash at for all 0.3 seconds before shelving it. We're talking about the same industry that's funding and producing Cloud Atlas and the Expendables, a heralds of problematic representation of People of Color if I ever saw it.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-28 03:43 am (UTC)Primarily, "Black" in a Black superhero name's speaks volumes about how white comic book creators cannot see past the fact that their protagonist (or villain) happens to be a person of color (and from Africa in T'Challa's case) and often brought with it a ton of problematic elements rooted in stereotypes, particularly the ones that were all the rage during the 1960s that survive even now. Given the time stamp on the Black Panther's creation date, I don't doubt that kind of thinking was definitely involved, but considering there's a giant feline that also shares the name, its easier to overlook.
Seriousfic's argument here is that the name "Black Panther" is sure to scare of potential [white audiences] and thus a contraction or replacement of "Black" with "The" is necessary despite the fact that the very sight of a Black Superhero wards the white populace off like plague-repellent because they don't see them in the same reverent light as white Superheroes who never have "White" in their hero names.