The highly acclaimed 'Black Panther' is the latest Marvel super hero movie.
The movie gives a fairly faithful rendition to Don McGregor’s ‘Panther’s Rage’ story line that appeared in Marvel’s Jungle Action comic of the mid 1970’s. McGregor excelled at showing the current king and Black Panther T’Challa not just as a super hero but as the King of the mythical African nation of Wakanda which is unique for having the planet’s only known reserves of the super-metal Vibranium which can absorb sound, vibration, and kinetic energy. This has made the country exceedingly rich and technologically advanced while remaining largely hidden from the outside world in order not to become a target for Vibranium thieving nations and villains.
The film starts with a reference to a theft of Vibranium by a man named Klaue (Klaw) and a long ago confrontation between T’Challa’s father and his brother Prince N'Jobu in Oakland. It is revealed that N’Jobu aided Klaue in the theft of the Vibranium for use in helping Africans and their descendants around the world who have been victimized for hundreds of years revolt against their oppressors. The plot then skips ahead to the current time where T’Challa’s father has been killed in the ‘Captain America: Civil War’ movie and T’Challa is ready to take the crown. Wakanda is a land of deep tradition and T’Challa has to fight in ritual combat against any challengers to take his crown which he does. After taking his crown, T’Challa ingests the secret vibranium infused flowers that give him the Black Panther powers and enters the ‘ancestral realm’ where he meets his father.
At this point the action leaves Wakanda while T’Challa and crew (his lover and chief spy Nakia and chief of guards Okoye aka Dabai Gurira / Michonne from Walking Dead fame) head to South Korea to attempt to capture Klaue and the long ago stolen vibranium. There is a gunfight in a casino and a wild car chase. Klaue gets away with help from Erik Killmonger who is a black ops specialist and Prince N’Jobu’s son which makes him T’Challa’s cousin and part of the royal family.
When T’Challa gets back to Wakanda he meets with some disdain from the tribal leaders who expected him to return with Klaue but that is trifling compared to his finding out that his father killed his uncle and abandoned his cousin to the streets of Oakland. His real problem comes when Killmonger makes his appearance in Wakanda, exercises his right as a blood relative to challenge T’Challa for the crown and proceeds to beat the living tar out of him before throwing him off a cliff and take over the throne. Naturally T’Challa hasn’t died in his fall from the cliff and he manages to win a final confrontation with Killmonger and retain his throne and decides to bring Wakanda more into the open as a nation and surreptitiously help impoverished African descendants in other nations.
‘Black Panther’ is a box office hit and is also receiving critical acclaim. I would place it on the top shelf of the Marvel movies but a cut below 'Thor : Ragnarok' which was more of a fun movie. The plot was easy to follow and the action and fighting scenes were great with the exception of the South Korea street race which I found poorly lit and hard to follow. Killmonger was a true Marvel anti-villain – capable of evil deeds but with a backstory that makes him an understandable and sympathetic character. I especially liked the merging of technology and mysticism in the three visits to the ancestral realm where T’Challa and Killmonger meet their respective parents and discuss their decisions. The ‘morality play’ of keeping Wakanda hidden from the world or using its technological resources to take over the world was the overarching subplot of the movie and handled in a direct manner.
The morality play is what I found most fascinating about the movie. Before Killmonger takes the throne the royal family seems to be steeped in the tradition of the Wakandan people and the five tribes that were affected by the vibranium metor. T’Challa is content to keep Wakanda’s vibranium and technological prowess hidden from the world as it has been for generations. Killmonger take the throne and decides to arm Africans and their descendants with vibranium powered weapons to take over the world. What struck me was how easily so many of the Wakandan royals discarded their traditions in an attempt to overthrow Killmonger after he attained the throne according to their own traditions. When Killmonger is ready to strike T’Challa a death blow he is stopped by the high priest who offers his life instead. T’Challa’s mother, sister, and Nakia leave Wakanda and bring the secret ‘Black Panther’ herb to a rival tribe in the hopes of overthrowing Killmonger.
The morality I took from the movie is that people in power will do whatever it takes to keep themselves in power. Killmonger was open about using the Wakandan traditions as a means to getting power but everyone except the royal guards acted the exact same way except being less open about it. T’Challa’s father abandoned his nephew in America because bringing him back to Wakanda would have opened a debate of the use of Wakanda’s power. The royal family’s adherence to tradition comes to a screeching halt when tradition prevents them from holding their power. Only the royal guards followed their tradition of protecting the throne no matter who sat upon it. Everyone thought they were doing what was best for themselves or their country which made a nice parallel to the current day political climate where so many are so convinced they are so right that dissent is vilified rather than ignored or discussed.
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