Black Panther & Imperialism: Is Hollywood Afraid of Indigenous African Religions?

[Gxg (G²)]

The critiques given from the comic are truly amazing and I wish others were better prepared to handle it. And as another noted, Wakanda has seen the excesses of how Europe raped and decimated the majority of the continent in the 19th century - with them sadly doing so in the name of religion. And it's always interesting witnessing how most of the narratives about Wakanda show how it only survived (and thrived) by keeping the Westerners from its borders with a very long arm, which allowed a culture to develop that was distinctly and wholly theirs. ...as well as allow them to be competitors with the people asking for their assistance instead of doing things from a Euro-centric perspective.

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[Gxg (G²)]

Glad to know The critiques given from the comic are truly amazing and I wish others were better prepared to handle it. And as another noted, Wakanda has seen the excesses of how Europe raped and decimated the majority of the continent in the 19th century - with them sadly doing so in the name of religion. And it's always interesting witnessing how most of the narratives about Wakanda show how it only survived (and thrived) by keeping the Westerners from its borders with a very long arm, which allowed a culture to develop that was distinctly and wholly theirs. ...as well as allow them to be competitors with the people asking for their assistance instead of doing things from a Euro-centric perspective.

(Photo: Khary Randolph)
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[Gxg (G²)]

(Photo: Khary Randolph)
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There's an excellent book coming out soon that may be of interest to others following the series. As someone said best on the issue (for an excerpt):

Ideally, the writer offers notes in his script on how the comic book should look. This requires thinking with intention about what a character is actually doing, not merely what he is saying. This is harder than it sounds, and often I found myself vaguely gesturing at what should happen in a panel—“T’Challa looks concerned.” Or “Ramonda stands to object.” I was lucky in that I was paired with a wonderful and experienced artist, Brian Stelfreeze. Storytelling in a comic book is a partnership between the writer and the artist, as surely as a film is a partnership between the screenwriter and the director. Brian, whose art is displayed here, doesn’t just execute the art direction—he edits and remixes it. I decide the overall arc of the story, and the words used to convey that arc—but Brian ultimately decides how the story should look. The script for the second page of Black Panther #1 called for a big, splashy panel depicting a massacre. Brian drew that panel, but he also drew two other, overlapping panels that depicted T’Challa’s realization of the tragedy unfolding around him. Our partnership doesn’t end with the art, either. Brian’s concept drawings for Black Panther ultimately influenced the plot.

A concept drawing by Brian Stelfreeze that influenced the plot (Marvel Entertainment)
Despite the difference in style and practice of storytelling, my approach to comic books ultimately differs little from my approach to journalism. In both forms, I am trying to answer a question. In my work for The Atlantic I have, for some time, been asking a particular question: Can a society part with, and triumph over, the very plunder that made it possible? In Black Panther there is a simpler question: Can a good man be a king, and would an advanced society tolerate a monarch? Research is crucial in both cases. The Black Panther I offer pulls from the archives of Marvel and the character’s own long history. But it also pulls from the very real history of society—from the pre-colonial era of Africa, the peasant rebellions that wracked Europe toward the end of the Middle Ages, the American Civil War, the Arab Spring, and the rise of isis.​

These panels are excerpted from Ta-Nehisi Coates's forthcoming comic book, Black Panther #1.

These panels are excerpted from Ta-Nehisi Coates's forthcoming comic book, Black Panther #1.

These panels are excerpted from Ta-Nehisi Coates's forthcoming comic book, Black Panther #1.

These panels are excerpted from Ta-Nehisi Coates's forthcoming comic book, Black Panther #1.

These panels are excerpted from Ta-Nehisi Coates's forthcoming comic book, Black Panther #1.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

These panels are excerpted from Ta-Nehisi Coates's forthcoming comic book, Black Panther #1.

The new film for the Avengers looks to be very amazing....

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[Gxg (G²)]

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[Gxg (G²)]

Just saw the new Captain America: Civil War....and truly, Black Panther did not disappoint whatsoever.

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[Gxg (G²)]

I myself have thought about adopting certain African head wrap styles.

I'm cautiously optimistic about the Black Panther movie, while it's great they're going through with the project, I wonder how it's going to be approached. Will Hollywood water down it's Afrocentric view to suit mainstream [read: White] audiences?

Glad to see the progress that the new Black Panther movie is having after how much of a success the new Avengers film was showing him.

• The 'Black Panther' movie and the future of Marvel diversity
  
• Marvel's "Black Panther" Cast Will Be 90% African or African-American ...
  

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[PassionFruit]

Glad to see the progress that the new Black Panther movie is having after how much of a success the new Avengers film was showing him.

I am, too. Was quite pleased with Civil War and excited for the new Black Panther movie. There's rumors about Lupita Nyongo'o playing the love interest. We'll see how that pans out.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/black-panther-lupita-nyongo-talks-893213

 

[Gxg (G²)]

I am, too. Was quite pleased with Civil War and excited for the new Black Panther movie. There's rumors about Lupita Nyongo'o playing the love interest. We'll see how that pans out.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/black-panther-lupita-nyongo-talks-893213

Interesting with Lupita Nyongo being in it. I wonder how that would go as it sounds rather amazing. Do you feel the movie should show him having a love interest? Also what did you like about Black Panther in the new Civil War Movie?

On a side note, the new comic series on Black Panther is truly fascinating. For more, one can go here:

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Ta-Nehisi Coates's Black Panther is superhero success story


Author’s first comic has sold more than 250,000 copies in a month in the US and sold out in the UK

Ta-Nehisi Coates can add another feather to a cap that already sports a MacArthur “genius” grant and a National Book Award: a bestselling comic. His first venture into the genre, Black Panther, has sold more than 250,000 copies in a month, making it the bestselling comic in the US so far this year.

The first issue in Coates’s Black Panther series, which follows the adventures of T’Challa, the head of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, was published in the US on 6 April by Marvel Comics. Comic Book Resources reported this week that it sold an estimated 253,258 copies in April, putting it well ahead of the second-placed title, Star Wars: Poe Dameron, which sold 175,322 copies. The strong performance, according to the Hollywood Reporter, amounts to “an outstanding debut for a character often considered in the second tier of Marvel superheroes”.

The comic sees T’Challa, the first mainstream black superhero to grace the pages of a graphic novel when he first appeared in 1966, facing “dramatic upheaval” in Wakanda, as a “superhuman terrorist group” known as The People causes a violent uprising. It is illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze.

Coates is also the author of the award-winning book of polemical memoir and politics, Between the World and Me. In the Atlantic, he has written that his version of the Black Panther “pulls from the archives of Marvel and the character’s own long history. But it also pulls from the very real history of society – from the pre-colonial era of Africa, the peasant rebellions that wracked Europe toward the end of the middle ages, the American civil war, the Arab spring, and the rise of Isis.”

Isaac Butler said in his Guardian review that “Coates may be a first-time comics writer whose entire published catalogue thus far is nonfiction, but he attacks the material with aplomb”, the debut issue moving “fluidly, lighting the fuses of several plots that will clearly intersect before detonating in the finale”.

On the basic plot of Black Panther's story

Well, I was talking earlier and saying you have to find your way to get into the character. You have to find something to get a handle on the character, and so I spent a great deal of time researching the character trying to figure out what that was, and what occurred to me was the distinct possibility that a) maybe T'Challa does not like being a king and b) maybe Wakandans have come to believe they don't need a king.

And two things brought me to that understanding. Taking it from the perspective of the latter ... Wakanda has this mythology of having never been conquered. But in fact, there have been several comic books where in one case it does get conquered and really in other cases it really just suffers a terrible fate. It's no longer this invincible place anymore.

So if a monarch can no longer ensure the security of its people, what good is he then? Why would the people not then decide to take their safety and security and the fate of their nation into their own hands? The second part of it is that T'Challa — T'Challa's a real name of the Black Panther — T'Challa's one part a king, one part a superhero, he was always in the comic books leaving his kingdom to go do something else.

His sister would run it for some time, or his sister wouldn't run it at all, and he'd be gone. He'd be off with the Avengers in New York doing something. All these were instances when he leaves; at one point he's a schoolteacher in Harlem, working in Hell's Kitchen at another point. Just for fun. Just for kicks. Let me see what the world is about. This is a very bizarre way for somebody who presumably likes ruling a nation to behave, and certainly not the typical behavior for a king.

So what's going on there? Does this guy actually enjoy what he's been charged with or is his heart really somewhere else? And these are the questions I really wanted to ask in the comics. That is the undergirding conflict, I think.

On the lack of action in the beginning of the story

I don't know, man. To be honest, that is the one thing I'm worried about with the run — I'm worried about keeping people's attention. I feel like if there's one weakness in this series, it's that the fighting is there because it has to be there. It probably is not the thing that interests me the most.

And so I wonder about that. I did the best I could with that. Fighting, I guess, was never the real reason I read comic books as a kid. The fighting was an important part, an integral part of it, I don't know I would've read it without it.

And there's more of that later, like even in the next issue there's more of him tossing people around because it has to be there, but it probably is not the thing that moved my soul.

On how Black Panther connects to Coates' writing on being black in America

I think, this is going to get very, very personal. It's a little different than that. I think over the past year I have enjoyed, to be frank with you, an amount of success I did not expect, I never expected to happen. When that happens, people place you in certain positions you did not even necessarily ask for, and I found myself writing about that in the comic book.

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[Gxg (G²)]

I am, too. Was quite pleased with Civil War and excited for the new Black Panther movie. There's rumors about Lupita Nyongo'o playing the love interest. We'll see how that pans out.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/black-panther-lupita-nyongo-talks-893213

I was simply glad to know they were honorable toward what the character symbolized...

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[Gxg (G²)]

There's an excellent book coming out soon that may be of interest to others following the series. As someone said best on the issue (for an excerpt):

Ideally, the writer offers notes in his script on how the comic book should look. This requires thinking with intention about what a character is actually doing, not merely what he is saying. This is harder than it sounds, and often I found myself vaguely gesturing at what should happen in a panel—“T’Challa looks concerned.” Or “Ramonda stands to object.” I was lucky in that I was paired with a wonderful and experienced artist, Brian Stelfreeze. Storytelling in a comic book is a partnership between the writer and the artist, as surely as a film is a partnership between the screenwriter and the director. Brian, whose art is displayed here, doesn’t just execute the art direction—he edits and remixes it. I decide the overall arc of the story, and the words used to convey that arc—but Brian ultimately decides how the story should look. The script for the second page of Black Panther #1 called for a big, splashy panel depicting a massacre. Brian drew that panel, but he also drew two other, overlapping panels that depicted T’Challa’s realization of the tragedy unfolding around him. Our partnership doesn’t end with the art, either. Brian’s concept drawings for Black Panther ultimately influenced the plot.

A concept drawing by Brian Stelfreeze that influenced the plot (Marvel Entertainment)
Despite the difference in style and practice of storytelling, my approach to comic books ultimately differs little from my approach to journalism. In both forms, I am trying to answer a question. In my work for The Atlantic I have, for some time, been asking a particular question: Can a society part with, and triumph over, the very plunder that made it possible? In Black Panther there is a simpler question: Can a good man be a king, and would an advanced society tolerate a monarch? Research is crucial in both cases. The Black Panther I offer pulls from the archives of Marvel and the character’s own long history. But it also pulls from the very real history of society—from the pre-colonial era of Africa, the peasant rebellions that wracked Europe toward the end of the Middle Ages, the American Civil War, the Arab Spring, and the rise of isis.​

These panels are excerpted from Ta-Nehisi Coates's forthcoming comic book, Black Panther #1.

These panels are excerpted from Ta-Nehisi Coates's forthcoming comic book, Black Panther #1.

These panels are excerpted from Ta-Nehisi Coates's forthcoming comic book, Black Panther #1.

These panels are excerpted from Ta-Nehisi Coates's forthcoming comic book, Black Panther #1.

These panels are excerpted from Ta-Nehisi Coates's forthcoming comic book, Black Panther #1.

Book 2 of "A Nation Under Our Feet" should be fascinating...Ta-Nehisi Coates begins his second arc with T'Challa, teaming him up with fellow Avenger Manifold in an effort to stem the tide of destruction paguing his home of Wakanda thanks to a rellious faction called The People.

Thankful for this amazing interview from the author of the new series:

• Ta-Nehisi Coates on Writing the Black Panther Comics - The Atlantic ...
  
  
• Ta-Nehisi Coates on Writing the Black Panther Comics (Part 2) - The ...
• Ta-Nehisi Coates on Writing the Black Panther Comics (Part 3) - The ...
• Conceptualizing the Black Panther - - The Atlantic'
  
• Between the World and Wakanda: Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian ...
  

To see the comic author share on democracy is also powerful:

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[Gxg (G²)]

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[Gxg (G²)]

I know Hollywood won't even touch the topic, and again, I think it stems from the belief that audiences won't like it or relate. African religions? I'm positive Hollywood would not go near it. It's interesting how people say Hollywood is "progressive" and "liberal" when its' really not. Hollywood is very much in favor of continuing the status quo.

It is already interesting seeing the religious discussions the new Black Panther film is already having for people who are getting ready for it:

Love how it was said best elsewhere: "Kevin Feige, who commented that Marvel Studios could make almost half a dozen movies centered on the Black Panther mythology because of how rich the world is, said, “Creating a character named Black Panther, who comes across in those early comics as smarter than everybody else, is shrewder than everybody else, comes from a country that is more advanced than any other country… They were doing this in the ‘60s, right in the middle of the Civil Rights movement. That’s pretty good. And we are certainly not going to shy away from that.”" ( 'Black Panther’: Gorgeous New Images Reveal Wakanda's Cast of Characters )

 

[Gxg (G²)]

So excited:

 

[Zoness]

Black Panther is just a few weeks away and I am very excited.

 

[dzheremi]

I don't follow comic books or anything like that (the earlier pages of this thread were quite an education for me), but the trailer looks great. I hadn't seen it before since I don't watch a lot of TV, but I decided that I'm gonna have to see this one after seeing this explanation of the background of the story's setting on one of my favorite YouTube channels:

Seems really interesting and cool!

 

[Gxg (G²)]

I don't follow comic books or anything like that (the earlier pages of this thread were quite an education for me), but the trailer looks great. I hadn't seen it before since I don't watch a lot of TV, but I decided that I'm gonna have to see this one after seeing this explanation of the background of the story's setting on one of my favorite YouTube channels:

Seems really interesting and cool!

Awesome resource and thankful for sharing it. It is looking amazing

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Black Panther is just a few weeks away and I am very excited.

Dude, this movie....I've seen it several times and it is beyond powerful. Still mind blown with how powerful the film is worldwide and just how much history has occurred.

 

[Zoness]

Dude, this movie....I've seen it several times and it is beyond powerful. Still mind blown with how powerful the film is worldwide and just how much history has occurred.

I'm sure you have tremendous perspective on it considering how impactful it was for so many folks of color.

Having watched it, there were many great points and ideas I took away from it but of course I will have a different perspective. I loved it. I thought it was an excellent addition to the Marvel movie universe and really made African history, perspectives and aesthetic stand out and be accessible in a way that hasn't been seen in blockbuster film in a long time, maybe ever.

From the symbolism alone there was a lot I took away from it but I am sure you caught a ton more than I, being better well read about history.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

I'm sure you have tremendous perspective on it considering how impactful it was for so many folks of color.

Having watched it, there were many great points and ideas I took away from it but of course I will have a different perspective. I loved it. I thought it was an excellent addition to the Marvel movie universe and really made African history, perspectives and aesthetic stand out and be accessible in a way that hasn't been seen in blockbuster film in a long time, maybe ever.

From the symbolism alone there was a lot I took away from it but I am sure you caught a ton more than I, being better well read about history.

@Zoness , I have been super busy so I apologize for not getting to this sooner - but yes, doing research on it and working with others in doing presentations, I was VERY glad for the work being done THROUGH the movie.

I was VERY thankful for what it brought back with Afro-Futurism and the ways that several aspects of African culture were placed in view for the larger world. And of course, the fact that the film made world history as the #1 Super Hero film in World History