The Weird History of The Black Panther, New King of The MCU

[RossaLincoln]

The Weird History of The Black Panther, New King of The MCU

With the news that he's getting his own movie, we look back on the lore and impact of the king of Wakanda.

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[solidarityreg]

I still think he should've long had his named changed to just 'Panther' or used another prefix, regardless of the origins. It's still on the nose as seeming like his skin colour is a defining feature of his character.

 

[Nuxxy]

I still think he should've long had his named changed to just 'Panther' or used another prefix, regardless of the origins. It's still on the nose as seeming like his skin colour is a defining feature of his character.

In Africa, a "black panther" is the generic term for a melanistic leopard, the source for T'Challa, as opposed to the albino "white panther". [Source [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_panther]]

The name is accurate, not a race signifier. There is no creature strictly called a 'panther', other than a colloquial confusion for jaguar, leopard or cougar. The closest alternative would be "black leopard", which still has black. Imagine he was just "The Leopard", some black dude from Africa wearing a leopard skin. That's an even worse image than a guy who at least uses a black outfit for shadow cover.

They choose the animal for a reason: it's a sleek ambush hunter known for it's stealth, and one of the apex predators in that region of Africa.

 

[Tanis]

I thought he was named 'Black Panther' after the Panther GOD?
http://marvel.com/universe/Panther_God

Still, I never knew that Marvel's Black Panther predated the group.
Kind of weird, but cool.

Also:
While it's far from the 'best' cartoon out there...
The BET cartoon of the Black Panther is a solid 'who is he' to watch.

 

[Benpasko]

I'm really excited for this one, Black Panther is the shit. He's like a tougher, richer, smarter Batman.

 

[P-89 Scorpion]

Hey it's the black pedophile superhero I bet they won't touch that in the film!

He had sex with Storm from the X-men when she was 12 if you didn't know,

 

[vid87]

Please tell me I'm not nuts in making this connection:

Jackie Robinson was in the Black Panther battalion and the actor for this specific character recently PLAYED Jackie Robinson (and James Brown).

I mean...right?!

 

[RossaLincoln]

Please tell me I'm not nuts in making this connection:

Jackie Robinson was in the Black Panther battalion and the actor for this specific character recently PLAYED Jackie Robinson (and James Brown).

I mean...right?!

HAHAHAH, I spent hours on this and failed to make that connection. You win the day.

 

[vid87]

Please tell me I'm not nuts in making this connection:

Jackie Robinson was in the Black Panther battalion and the actor for this specific character recently PLAYED Jackie Robinson (and James Brown).

I mean...right?!

HAHAHAH, I spent hours on this and failed to make that connection. You win the day.

Just letting you know I've printscreened and saved this to my hard drive. Seriously Ross you made my day, thanks!

In any case it's either an extremely savvy move on the part of casting or just one of those beautiful accidents that'll make for interesting pop-culture trivia years later.

 

[VoidWanderer]

I find it slightly meta how little we see of Black Panther, given that his country tries to do as little as possible with the rest of the world, but I am looking forward to this movie coming out.

 

[leviticusd]

My six year old watches Marvel cartoons on Netflix just about everyday and Black Panther is seemingly always on. Not sure what series he is watching (he goes between a lot of options). It's interesting watching him choose his favorites, He doesn't really watch the live action movies and doesn't read any comics yet, so he chooses his favorites from the cartoons he watches and Black Panther is by far his favorite. Iron first, Captain America and Spider-man round out the top four.

Because of how much I see of him in my boy's cartoons I didn't realize that he was this obscure. Given the time frame he should be just about the right age to really enjoy the live action when it comes out, so I'm looking forward to seeing this with him in a few years.

 

[irishda]

Black Panther is so much the king of MCU that they buried him at the end of the phase 3 line-up.

I mean damn, Marvel, the talking raccoon got a friggin' movie before the black guy or the woman.

 

[hermes]

Hey it's the black pedophile superhero I bet they won't touch that in the film!

He had sex with Storm from the X-men when she was 12 if you didn't know,

For the record, he was a young boy at the time, too... It is only pedophilia if one of them is an adult.

But you are right, most likely, they won't cover that. Specially because Storm/Halle Berry is contractually tied to Fox.

Good to see Marvel increasing the representation of minorities in MCU. Truth, there was Rhodes, Fury and Wilson, but those were sidecharacters, mostly used by association.

 

[P-89 Scorpion]

Hey it's the black pedophile superhero I bet they won't touch that in the film!

He had sex with Storm from the X-men when she was 12 if you didn't know,

For the record, he was a young boy at the time, too... It is only pedophilia if one of them is an adult.

I read on Comic Book Resources that he was 18-19 during the time but I have never seen anything else about the incident except about Storm's age.

I meant jokingly would they have Black Panther's wife/lover as a little girl.

 

[maninahat]

My six year old watches Marvel cartoons on Netflix just about everyday and Black Panther is seemingly always on. Not sure what series he is watching (he goes between a lot of options). It's interesting watching him choose his favorites, He doesn't really watch the live action movies and doesn't read any comics yet, so he chooses his favorites from the cartoons he watches and Black Panther is by far his favorite. Iron first, Captain America and Spider-man round out the top four.

Because of how much I see of him in my boy's cartoons I didn't realize that he was this obscure. Given the time frame he should be just about the right age to really enjoy the live action when it comes out, so I'm looking forward to seeing this with him in a few years.

I really liked the cartoon series too. Put 2 & 1/2 hours aside and you can watch the entire first series back to back like a movie. The geopolitical commentary was pretty heavy handed, but I quite liked that it had the balls to do that too.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

My six year old watches Marvel cartoons on Netflix just about everyday and Black Panther is seemingly always on. Not sure what series he is watching (he goes between a lot of options).

Probably Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. He was usually part of the roster in that. I know you didn't strictly speaking ask, but I like feeling helpful.

Really kind of hope the movie doesn't turn out to be a seething mass of Africa cliches, but given Wakanda is by canon supposed to be a technologically advanced mega-city we can cut the "everywhere in Africa is straw hut villages" cliche right out. So thats something

 

[TheNaut131]

Something that has always pissed me off about how people react to Black Panther and Wakanda is how they seem confused with the idea of a reclusive group of technologically advanced people living in Africa.

Really, a lot of the reasons I've heard for why Marvel shouldn't attempt a Black Panther movies is that "Wakanda doesn't make sense."

But then these same people are totally on board with the idea of Atlantis and don't question it at all.

 

[webkilla]

I like the Black Panther character

though, I do prefer the short animated series made on him - the one where the US tries sending zombie-cyborgs to conquer the place...


That said, I am very much looking forward the black panther movie. I wonder what story arc they'll work into it

 

[JCAll]

I think you're criminally under-representing the importance of Blade.

 

[tzimize]

Hehehe...the black panther party...man...the cluelessness of people never stops to amaze. And its not like it takes MUCH research to know the difference either. Its telling that the people most offended usually dont have a fucking clue what they are really talking about. Some people just WANT to take offense.

Also, I believe we have an animal which is pretty non-offensive that uses the name without being harassed. Eh? Humanity. What a waste of space.

I'm looking VERY much forward to this movie. I dont have a close relationship to the BP novels, but it'll be refreshing to see a black face at the fore. (I'm white. I like diversity , now if only the WW movie wont suck......ohpleeeeaseohpleaseohpleasedontsuck!)