HERO OF THE WEEK: BLACK PANTHER (Marvel)Real Name: T'Challa
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #52 (July, 1966)
Fight Club Ranking: #72
Featured Fights:
- vs THING: Fantastic Four #52 (Jul 1966)
- vs CAPTAIN AMERICA: Tales of Suspense #98 (Feb 1968)
- vs SUPER-SKRULL: Fantastic Four #6 (Apr 1997)
- vs DOCTOR DOOM: Black Panther #19 (Oct 2006)
Black Panther! Black Panther! The time for T'Challa's big screen feature is at last here, and I can't help but sing along to that awesome theme song from the 2010 BET Black Panther animated series!
A lot of folks are really waking up to the classic Marvel hero as he steps out of Captain America: Civil War into his own featured spotlight. By all accounts, it's shaping up to be a rewarding experience for all, with early reviews maybe a little too overwhelming in their praise!
Of all of Marvel's recent offerings: this has probably been the one I've been most looking forward to!
Black Panther was one of the first Heroes of the Week when the feature returned back in 2016. At that time, Ryan Coogler had just been announced as director, and Civil War was a few months away. A year and a half later, we were back again for the first Black Panther trailer, which set expectations high! Marvel flaunted the visual spectacle that is shaping up to be a key feature of the film's appeal, making it one of the most pivotal steps forward for the entire cinematic enterprise!
Of course, as long as those two years of waiting have seemed -- it's been a whole lot longer if you've been following the rumors since the late nineties!
Back then: Wesley Snipes was attached to star in what would've been a very different style of movie. Snipes' Panther always seemed like a cheque Hollywood never cashed, but we were all ultimately winners for having Blade in '98, with a Black Panther movie at long last really here!
For long time comics readers, the much-discussed "afro-futurism" of Wakanda will be less a revelation, and more a relief. Things really could've gone astray in the film's design, but first impressions suggest this could be one of Marvel's strongest efforts to create a film with an aesthetic worthy of comics. There aren't as many pipes lying around as Kirby's era, and there's no Techno-Jungle, but it's a promising follow-up to Thor: Ragnarok, at the very least.
The Dora Milaje add particularly wonderful flourishes to the picture with their red armor, while also supporting the central hero on his almost Bond-like adventure.
The scenes of Black Panther leaping through traffic in pursuit of Klaw are reason enough to go to the theatre! Sadly, Man-Ape won't don his iconic white gorilla suit, but with superhero movies making so little investment in costume design, it would be difficult to reasonably expect comic book aesthetic to supplant American cultural (in)sensitivities in the minds of the audience.
I'm personally slightly bummed that bad-guy Killmonger gets the gold highlights on his Black Panther costume. The look -- popularized during Christopher Priest's run in the late nineties, and turn of the millennium -- always struck me as a great accent to a simple, classic design. It's a very minor complaint, but something I hope might work its way into the design in future sequels.
Overall, Black Panther feels like one of Marvel's most intact adaptations to date. Martin Freeman's Everett Ross might be the only glaring change that wasn't welcome, assuming sequels can do more to build on the villains' story. I would've preferred the out-of-his-depth lawyer of the comics, but it's not enough to distract from a movie worthy of the Black Panther comics.
We just got done talking T'Challa's first appearance in comics with Fantastic Four #52! Be here for more Black Panther battles throughout February! Be sure to discover more by diving into the Secret Archive for every classic contest catalogued by publisher, series, and issue!
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