Well they are working with source material… I don’t know that taking one of Marvel’s most prominent black men who is a superhero and giving it to a woman would, well help anything. I have high hopes that Captain Marvel will help strengthen up the where are the women problem Marvel has at the moment.
I think the mantle of both Black Panther and monarch could pass to Suri a few films down the line, but for now I think Disney and Marvel are going to rely on the enormous success of Black Panther and Chadwick Boseman’s status as the icon of the current movie series to keep T’Challa as the Black Panther for at least a couple of more films.
I do think in the long run, that Marvel Studios needs to revise some of the iconic but historically-male and/or historically-white characters in a more diverse fashion. This is already happening in the comics.
Suri is going to take over for Tony Stark. She’ll be the Riri.
Not sure that’s a fair criticism, I don’t remember the tribes’ names but Nakia was the representative for her tribe when T’Challa is first going through the ceremony to become king. They ask every tribe if they want to challenge, her tribe declined, but it seemed clear she would’ve been their fighter if they’d challenged.
Trial by combat for the role of king? Maybe not a very modern approach to government, but the movie specifically showed that women were just as eligible for this as the men.
That is how I remember that scene as well.
Wakanda isn’t a Utopia and Wakandans aren’t angels. They’re mostly assholes in fact. They have all the issues other people have, it’s just that they’re richer and more technically advanced than everyone else, and also, they’re African.
Is it dumb that they choose their leaders partially through a fight to the death? And I say partially since the movie makes it look like this sort of thing isn’t commonplace, it’s more lip service to tradition than anything else, but tradition is a biggie for Wakanda. Sure it’s dumb.
But so’s a popularity contest, and if they’d have Killmonger come in and be voted into office promising x and doing y, yeah, they’re more advanced than us, why don’t they have a better form of government? But nobody knows what that is, so, ritual fight to the death that nobody cares much about anymore it is.
Wasn’t that the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary?
oops, P & R leakage.
I almost referenced how I’d prefer trial by combat after that.
One of the main reasons the movies have done so well, and Marvel comics have disastrously collapsed in sales, is because they haven’t done that.
Black Panther (and Ant-man, and Guardians of the Galaxy,and Deadpool) prove that there’s a broad audience for diverse characters and stories that don’t necessarily fit within the mold of the “iconic” early comic book heroes - there’s a range of stories to be told. In many ways, Wonder Woman was a very traditional comic book hero story. The way to diversify offering is to create new and interesting characters (like the Guardians) and have them incorporated in the MCU, not supplant existing heroes.
Marvel publishing has been catastrophically diminished by taking the approach you suggest - gone from dominant market leader to badly lagging behind DC and even many independent comics. They are struggling to reorganize under a new EIC, but they’ve lost virtually all their talent.
I don’t think that’s why they’ve done poorly nor is it really true about the movies. Nick Fury, for example.
Maybe the comics aren’t doing well because they diversified their material but not their audience. MCU appeals to AND advertises to a large and diverse audience.
I think new mega events one after another, almost starting before the previous one is done had something to do with it too.
It’s a combination of a monarchy (with multiple different families) combined with physical strength…and one could argue, strength of will. It’s also a way a symbolically supporting the incoming king, because if you really have a problem with him, you have to either agree to accept and respect him, or train to defeat him in combat. Kind of a “put your money where your mouth is” approach.
You see that in the movie with M’Baku and his tribe: They feel ignored and marginzalied, so they enter into combat as a way to register their problems with the current ruling class. And that ends up reconciling the two parties.
I liked it as a way to run a system of government. You could just as easily make a movie about our society and have someone say, “A modern society ruled over by the person who makes the most outrageous promises doesn’t make sense.”
You are actually defending rule by WCW? So the Hulk Hogans of the world could take over?
Not that they would be worse than the Trump’s.
So wait a minute, this movie was actually a corollary to the 2016 election and what happens when an outsider defeats the established norms?
The challenger has to be a member of the royal family of the five tribes, so that narrows it down right away. So if someone thinks that they have a better case for ruling, they had better make sure that they are able to fight, since the king of Wakanda is also expected to be on the front lines fighting to protect his (or her) people.
Think of it less as, “Oh great, the strongest person is going to rule the country, even if he’s a bad king”, and more as, “If someone wants to rule Wakanda, they also need to be able to fight effectively, both to show the strength of their desire to rule, and to prove that they will be able to protect the country, since the king is also expected to fight.”
It would be like saying, “Oh, so the people who are the most eloquent and convincing will be able to take over the U.S.?” Well yes, once debates started being televised, suddenly public speaking became more important in a Presidential election…because public speaking became more important to the job of President.
So yes, you are defending rule by WCW.
Still sounds better than most Monarchy systems in History where it just fell to the son, even if the son was an asshole or a crazy psychopath.
The front lines of what? They live in a bubble nobody has seen the inside of except for one guy in the 90s. It’s not like they have a long history of war with the outside world.
No, but the movie certainly leads to the inference that they were active in world affairs under the radar, jetting around and performing secret operations to further their interests and protect their secrecy.
Doesn’t really seem like it’s the king’s business to fly around the world fighting people. But ok, Wakanda. You do you.
btw I love this movie and had no problem with the wrestling match. Just thought “king needs to be on the front lines” was a weird answer.
Now I am no Black Panther expert, but I got the impression this happened because he lost his dad… early. I am wondering if someone else would have chosen if his dad had lived longer. I though someone even mentioned the panther and the king being one in the same was unusual which I didn’t fully understand.