Author: Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy / Source: WIRED
Pop culture critic Evan Narcisse was recently recruited to write the Rise of the Black Panther comic for Marvel. Narcisse wrote his story without any inside knowledge of the Black Panther movie, the details of which were kept tightly under wraps.
When he finally saw the film, he was blown away.“I was surprised at how political the story was,” Narcisse says in Episode 302 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “How it embedded its meta-narrative of exploring one’s own blackness and black identity. That was basically the text of the movie.”
Jesse J. Holland, author of the novel Who Is the Black Panther?, was also pleasantly surprised that the movie got so political. He notes that geopolitics is one thing that really sets Black Panther apart from other superheroes.
“T’Challa isn’t worrying about the rent, he’s worrying about whether Latveria is going to invade,” Holland says. “He’s talking to Namor and he’s talking to Victor Von Doom. You get to deal with these worldwide crises and issues that you’d have to force a Spider-Man into.”
Fantasy author Tananarive Due appreciates the way that Black Panther deals with issues like colonialism and black liberation, but felt that the inclusion of a heroic CIA agent was somewhat problematic, given the agency’s history. “There are some people who are highly, highly political—well-versed in history—who will get popped out of the bubble just on that basis,” she says.
“So that’s the one thing I would change.”Holland notes that there’s a tendency for comics to utilize black characters only to make statements about race and diversity, and he’d like to see more characters like Black Panther who have rich backstories and inner lives.
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“The great thing about Panther is that his stories have been about more than just the race story that they want to tell at that moment,” he says. “You also get the…
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