Anticipating Black Panther

Marvel has gifted fans with tons of content this year but one of the most anticipated projects of this year is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I am fully prepared for this movie to absolutely destroy me emotionally as the trailer has made me cry on three separate occasions. The film certainly looks like it's going to be a collective grieving experience for both the filmmakers and the audience. But I wanted to use this article to point out the canonical things from the comics that they could incorporate into the future of this character. The choice not to recast Chadwick was a good decision, and leaves room for the women to take the forefront.

First of all we see a new Black Panther suit that is clearly holding a woman, the question for quite a while was which woman? It has since been confirmed that the new Black Panther is in fact Shuri. This is accurate to the comics and I appreciate that if they have to retire T’Challa for now that they incorporate comic book accuracy. Now in the comics when attempting to take up the mantle, Shuri was originally rejected by the goddess because of her lifelong jealousy of her brother and her arrogance in trying to take up the mantle. When met with a major threat to Wakanda Shuri takes up the mantle anyway, without powers and in doing so earns the powers of Black Panther. Im am so ready to see Shuri take up the mantle, however they make that happen through her grief and fight her way to earning the title.

The second major thing we know we are getting is Namor, often referred to as Marvel’s first mutant, the atlantean has always had a complicated relationship with our other heroes. The reflection of which we seem to be seeing in the new film. Bill Everett said something that perfectly encompassess what we might see in the context of the new Black Panther movie, “Noble yet misunderstood, powerful yet thwarted” from what we’ve seen of the trailer it looks like Namor will also be struggling with some form of grief and both heroes will grieve and grow together.

The third very important piece of the puzzle that will be appearing in the new Black Panther film is Iron Heart, otherwise known as Riri Williams. At the end of the last Black Panther movie Wakanda opened its doors to the world as well as letting Shuri lead an outreach program for young scientists, it's a very easy introduction. The scenes I am excited for are the interactions between Shuri and Riri, these brilliant women are bound to have some awesome exchanges. Riri made her first appearance in 2016 and therefore may be new or unknown to older fans, but the bottom line is that she is a mini Tony Stark as far as her brilliance goes. She's a 15 year old engineering student at MIT, Tony stans can suck it (the internet's idea that Tony is the only mind capable of technological invention is pathetic and sad). She clearly still takes her inspiration from Iron Man, which would have been hard to stay away from considering that it's her entire superhero identity.

These characters are going to inform an incredibly emotional and heartfelt film. I am so excited for this movie and I have no doubt that it's going to be the best Marvel project of the year. I really hope I'm not setting my expectations too high, but getting the chance to grieve with the fandom and honor and remember Chadwick is going to be what we need regardless of the actual film quality.