What Does the 'Black Panther' Movie Return To Development Mean?

'Black Panther' Movie Returns To Development With New Screenwriter

The news that Marvel Studios is pushing to develop a Black Panther film is good news. Still, given the complicated nature of the Black Panther as a character, there is a long way to go before we will see a successful Black Panther live action feature. As I have suggested in other venues, having exhausted established characters, producers of superhero films must develop lesser known characters. The Black Panther, the first black (not African American) superhero is a natural choice. At the same time, race and power questions connected to the character will create barriers to success. By his very nature however, T'Challa (the Black Panther's real name) personifies a rejection of western colonialism and calls into question the European legacy in Africa. Any film that is true to character must strike a careful balance of celebrating the African autonomy represented by the character and playing to the tropes associated with U.S. superhero movies.

The choice of Mark Bailey to write the screenplay is significant. He is known for documentaries-- Pandemic: Facing AIDS and Ghosts of Abu Ghraib. This suggests the film might engage the audience through the Black Panther's struggle to protect Wakanda from dangers facing Africa. This could, at once elevate the film, but it could also make it hard for white audiences to engage with the film. For the non-comic fan to embrace the character, they will need a story they can get behind.

Adding to the problem, the Black Panther is wrongly linked to the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (later shorten to the Black Panther Party). The very same Black Panther Party caught in the crosshairs of new Congressional investigation into whether or not the Obama Justice Department failed to pursue a case against them for intimidating white voters. While the Black Panther comic book character is not named after the party, it kinda hard to miss the similarity. How will movie going public react to that link in our supposedly conservative times? At some level, having a African-American president could allow the filmmaker (whomever that maybe) to strike a more positive note in terms of the United State and Africa versus the general charge of imperialism associated with the Bush administration. Yet, that approach would also open the film to a charged political interpretation. Ironically, more than any other Marvel character, the Black Panther has the opportunity to play extremely well overseas. The reason, of course, is because people will associate the comic book character to the leftist political organization!

So will conservative commentators ignore the new Black Panther film in development? Maybe, but they have been pretty critical of recent choice of Muslim French Batman in the pages of Grant Morrison's Batman Incorporated series. Marvel should make a live action Black Panther film. I want to see it, but I don't think it will be an easy task.

Mythology and Superheroes in Comics

Ohhh my goodness... When I decided on trying to analyze the mythological origins and references in superhero comics, I had no idea the can of worms I was opening up... On the one hand, it was awesome to see just how many connections there were between superheroes and psychology/mythology/philosophy, but all the information also made it terribly difficult to distinguish what I should be using and how to tie it all together. When I was talking to one of my sorority sisters about it she said, "Oh yeah, well, research essays are kind of like putting together puzzles..." and I think that really sums up what writing this paper was like for me. Fortunately, I was really interested throughout the whole process and I very much enjoyed writing the paper. Being a psychology major, I was especially interested in reading about the Jungian archetypes that had a lot of parallels with major modern comic books superheroes. I was also able to incorporate Joseph Campbell's "hero cycle...

Why blame comics for societal failure?

Why blame comics for societal failure? Society blamed comics for the societal failures because it was a fairly new industry, and as things seemed to go “wrong” they figured it must be comic books. When a child grew up during the war, his father was probably killing people and the military and his mother was probably making things in factories to help kill the opposition. The only things kids had to “babysit” them was comic books, and they read many different kinds. So when kids starting acting differently in this new generation the figured it must be the comic books. Society didn’t want to believe it may have been the internal and external scars war causes on the soldiers and their families. Also the fact that young unattended children are reading these comics may not be able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. When society fails it always needs a scapegoat then it was comic books next it was rock and roll. Society naturally resist change.

#FUTURES: Tomorrow Idris Elba will be the Last Man Standing

There is some bad buzz around Pacific Rim on the web. I suspect the possibility of a giant robot movie being awesome is too much for some people. The internet is full of dark corners, but until we see the movie we won't know the box office. What we can tell right now is that Idris Elba is doing his part to make the movie a success. A standout performer, Elba has made a name for himself in countless productions . He achieve wide recognition for his turn on the big screen in films such as Thor and on the small screen in the BBC's Luther . Of course, the open question about actors of color in any film is whether not they will help or hurt the box office. Will Smith recent disappointment with After Earth opens the door for this conversation. His lack of success sparks the question who will be the next "bankable" star of color. There can be only one! See what I did there:-) These sentiments reflect a Hollywood centric approach that ignores Nolly...

'Nuff Said: American Graphic Media

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