When Black Panther came out in 2018, it became a cultural icon, and felt like the highest form of movie representation. I feel so lucky to have gotten to watch it, and Killmonger is definitely on the mount Rushmore of greatest movie villains EVER. It brought a feeling of power to a culture that is either underrepresented or poorly represented in most modern media. And Chadwick Boseman WAS and still IS Black Panther. I legitimately don’t think they could have gotten a better fit for the Wakandan King.
And in 2020, ideas and concepts for Black Panther II were already surfacing.
I remember hearing things about the Sub Mariner and him being a villain who’s meant to be in the Wakandan waters or something.
But months later we all got devastating news.
I remember the exact moment to; It was one of the last days of summer, school was starting in 2 days. It was late and I was about to go to bed. I clicked on my YouTube homepage and saw a piano video for black panther and written on the thumbnail was “RIP Black Panther”.
It shocked me. I hoped that it was just a joke, maybe a meme video. I scrolled through my homepage as I saw more videos mourning the loss of the king, and when I searched it up, I found out what I dreaded and so badly hoped was fake. It felt like a hole had formed in my chest as I realized my hero was gone.
Black Panther 2’s original early 2022 release date would be pushed back by entire months.
But it left me and everyone else scared, worried and concerned.
What if they recast Black Panther?
What if they used their crappy cgi?
What if they just erased T’Challa entirely and made a completely horrible movie?
And it didn’t help that pretty much everything Marvel made in 2022 was garbaj.
With the momentum Marvel had, it seemed even more likely for Black Panther 2 to be a complete disrespect to Chadwick Boseman and all of his fans.
So with everything that was happening, with the Climax of Phase 4 on the line,
MARVEL DELIVERED
I LOVED Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
It honored Chadwick Boseman,
It had a good story,
It did the Characters Justice,
It introduced new characters,
helped set up the next Avengers movie,
Everything you could want from an MCU film, really.
There’s so many themes of this movie, but what comes to mind for me is PAIN.
Shuri goes through so much in this movie.
Shuri has always been a cool character, but to make her a strong main character, she NEEDED to experience pain.
And the writers GAVE her pain.
Shuri looses her Brother, who was her best friend.
She has to live with the guilt that she wasn’t smart enough or fast enough to create an herb to save him.
Even after years, the pain seems to linger, only getting harder to deal with. The person keeping her sane is her Mother.
Then SHE DIES.
All because of the Sub Mariner
And she WANTS REVENGE.
She takes the Black Panther herb, and that’s when we get the best scene in the ENTIRE MOVIE.
KILLMONGER
Ok, so first of all:
KILLMONGER
MICHAEL B JORDAN
so automatically, that’s a W.
But then, you have the powerfulness behind the scene.
Shuri is ANGRY and VENGEFUL. She already lost her brother, and now she’s lost the last thing she had keeping her sane.
You already KNOW she’s going to FIND the Sub Mariner and END HIM.
THATS the only reason she wants to become Black Panther. She wants to be given the strength to seek out her vengeance.
But the thing about vengeance is it leaves you hallow.
Because once you’ve gotten, your no better than the villain.
So when she enters the ancestral plane, she can’t see her ancestors who were black panther before her. Because every Black Panther is good morally, just like the one that comes after.
But not killmonger.
So when she takes the herb she doesn’t see the other morally right black panthers, she sees the black panther that sook vengeance.
Because Shuri was going down the path of becoming no better than Killmonger.
Killmonger even tells her, asking her “if you don’t believe in the ancestral plane, why did you take the herb”
When she leaves the ancestral plane her intentions don’t change, but the words echo through her mind and haunt her.
Ultimately, she couldn’t kill the Sub Mariner despite all the pain that he caused her.
She finds joy in the other people she’s met, and helping her country, not seeking vengeance.
It’s so powerful, and that’s why I love this movie.
Also M’Baku carried the comedy in this movie, just like the last one. Man Ape is so hilarious in the movies, especially in this one where he says he would have killed the “fish man”, but then 20 minutes later he gets his block knocked off by the sub mariner.
Lemme know what you guys think in the comments and get the conversation going in the fan page forums.