Super new kind of hero
THERE’S something different about Black Panther.
Even audiences wary of yet another big-budget blockbuster or weary of costumed crimefighters biffing one another and blowing up everything else can sense it in the lead-up to the movie’s release next week.
Maybe that’s just savvy marketing and promotion — after all, the team at Marvel Studios has gotten pretty good at generating hype and building anticipation since it introduced Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man a decade ago.
But there’s also the feeling that Black Panther is one of the biggest steps the superhero genre has taken when it comes to moving in new directions — directions that are a little more diverse and inclusive.
That’s something audiences have perhaps been yearning for, even without fully realising it.
We don’t even have to look back a whole year for an example.
Wonder Woman enjoyed commercial success and critical acclaim when it was released in 2017, but the response to the movie went beyond the usual profit and praise.
It appeared to strike a chord with viewers thrilled to see super-heroic deeds performed by someone other than, well, just another dude.
And when it comes to Black Panther, there’s the thrill of seeing super-heroic deeds performed by someone other than, well, just another white dude.
Of course, Black Panther — the semi-secret identity of T’Challa, the warrior king of the African nation of Wakanda — isn’t the first black superhero to make an impact on movie screens.
In fact, this year marks the 20th anniversary of vampire slayer Blade, played by Wesley Snipes, first stalking and staking his way on to the big screen.
But in the grand scheme of comic-book movies, it has mostly been an array of white men (and the occasional white woman) fighting the good fight.
The introduction of the Black Panther character in the 2016 Marvel movie Captain America: Civil War hinted a change was in the air.
And now his first solo movie confirms it.
I’ll leave it to this newspaper’s movie reviewer to give you the critical lowdown on Black Panther, but I would like to say that the bold, brawny film is a terrific, satisfying action-adventure in the tradition that Marvel has established, maintained and refined over the past decade.
And while the movies featuring the likes of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and their comrades in stand-alone adventures all have their own personality, Black Panther goes a bit beyond that — it has its own distinct identity.
Now, I’m well aware it’s a bit dopey for me — quite possibly the whitest man alive — to talk about how vividly African and African-American Black Panther is. But it’s apparent from the very beginning of Black Panther that the movie is doing more than using mythology, history and texture as a backdrop. These things are intrinsic to the title character and his story.
But talented director and co-writer Ryan Coogler — more than making good on the promise he displayed with h his last film, Creed — isn’t out t to give audiences a socialstudies lesson.
All the complex issues that t arise in the film — and there are plenty — work in tandem with a plot packed with thrills, spills and armour-plated rhinos. (Yes, really.)
But in the end, it’s Black Panther’s strong sense of pride, of strength, of self that really stands out, even in a marketplace where it seems every second movie has a superhero front and centre.
Black Panther feels like a story that has been waiting to be told for a very long time. Audiences should be excited to be here for it. BLACK PANTHER OPENS ON THURSDAY