Week 4 – Black Panther

I have to be honest, Black Panther was not the most exciting comic I have read so far. It was a little too wordy for my personal preferences, and the impact and problems that arose with regards to the political side of society was not that interesting to me. However, what I did find interesting were the Biblical connections I was able to make. I connected T’Challa’s story of a fallen and rejected king with the story of Jesus. I also found it hard to follow the plot for a couple reasons; first, the African names for places and characters made it difficult for me to remember who was who and what their significance was. Second, many parallel plot lines jumping back and forth made it difficult to follow all the plots and connect them together.

One quote that stood out to me in Black Panther was “We have proven we can punish the guilty, but can we protect the innocent”. I think this is an interesting quote that not a lot of superhero movies or comics really focus on too much, and I can see why. When I watch superhero movies, I concentrate on how the enemy is defeated, and when this task is done, everything is fine and everyone is happy. This quote made me think back to a lot of these movies I have watched which don’t usually tell us about the aftermath of “the final boss battle” where everything in New York City is destroyed. It usually ends with the hero(es) and civilians walking out from the rubble and celebrating, but we don’t really think about how many innocent people were killed in that battle and how much damage was actually done. I am certainly not saying that you are not allowed to enjoy a good fictional movie without it becoming a moral debate, but it is an interesting thought, and perhaps an area that I think has potential to be further explored.