Marvel is always going to skew toward the flawed hero, that's the Marvel way. The difference is will he be bad ass and compelling.
There is a great article on Comicalliance about D.C wanting to be Marvel and how Marvel characters are and their core premise. Which is why you see Superman snapping necks, and bunch of evil supermans currently (Earth-2, Injustice, Ultraman), how Frank Millar's Batman was just Daredevil and so on.
I think we are on the right track.
Peter Parker is dead. Spiderman is one of Peter's biggest villains and a black/latino kid (Miles). So Shuri being Queen is perfectly fine imho. T'challa is finally in a position that is not easily ignored. That matters more to me. This is a long term plan and it's still early.
For all the talk about Wakanda and Shuri being Queen. This is what T'challa being King meant.
Seven, we agree on the skew of Marvel. My interpretation of their flawed hero is defined as an often infirmed (DD, Iron man), humanistic (FF), everyman (Spider-man), who is sometimes morally challenged while remaining honorable (Wolverine). In addition they are socially relavent and often in flow with the zeitgeist of the time. At their best Marvel heroes are all this and "compelling bad asses."
I also concur with you that Hickman is on the right track. The train however has missed a couple of stops and avoided the tunnel. The fight with Black Dwarf, Tchalla himself ordering the destruction of Atlantis; and as of this date with 13 issues in (this is the tunnel), the title
King of the Dead remains nebulous, and undefined. I know we are only a year in with much more to come but
BP fans are too often placed in hurry up and wait mode. Peter Parker has reached the pinnacle of what it is to be a comic book superhero. Spider-man is iconic. The primary reason for his status is Marvel's editors and writers very rarely blunted the core elemnts that defined the character. Tchalla's core elements have often been in flux post his introduction. From
Deadliest of the Species up to (but not including)
New Avengers the Black Panther's core elements - kingship, prep master and the inviolability of Wakanda have been so obfuscated that becoming guardian of Hell's Kitchen was not only tenable but became the preferred choice of vocation.
I think the true difficulty in writing the Black Panther's core elements lies in interpreting an autonomous Afrakan society. In a climate of political correctness and a pretense of all inclusiveness which in fact cloaks many Eurocentric mores, true cultural diversity is subsumed more so than expressed. This manifests as an ignorance or dismissal of certain historical and cultural facts that would need to be predicated upon in order for this Afrakan ruler (the Black Panther) to exist. The matter becomes more complicated when the errors, hypocrisies, paradoxes (which all people go through) of the Afrakan are filtered through the lens of racism and bigotry.
Hickman's train will be entering a new station soon and I am looking forward to a few more stops that will be definitive in establishing the Black Panther.
Completely random but when Hickman was writing the Ultimates I wanted him to fix Ultimate T'Challa
I'm with you on that one
Genki.
Let's see what tomorrow brings.
LONG MAY HE REIGN.
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