Marvel’s First Black Featured Hero ‘Black Panther’ Gets First Teaser Poster
Marvel is churning out its next hit, ‘Black Panther’ and the teaser trailer will be out tonight!
The story, according to the press release, picks up after ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ where T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) heads back to Wakanda to take his place as king after his father’s death.
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Though we’ve had African-American characters in the Marvel Universe, this will be the first stand-alone Black-Featured Character Film with a back story to show, and whether anyone wants to come out and say it or not, it is a big deal. After the foray step into characters like Luke Cage with Marvel’s Netflix Features, it’s very clear that the demand is there for more Black Heroes to be represented.
Not only can African-American children look up to heroes like this (because now they have a hero that looks like them), it also gives them someone to dress up as, whether it be for Halloween or Cosplay. Which is NOT a statement that is to discourage anyone of color or different ethnicity to take on designs of white characters, but despite the fact that conventions are supposed to be a “safe space,” whether it be Comic-Cons or Anime-Cons, it’s always an emotional step to cosplay a traditionally white or Asian character while being an African American.
An African-American girl cosplayed a character from Overwatch named D.Va, who is traditionally a white/Asian character, and spoke with an outlet about the backlash she got for doing so. The cosplayer, who goes by Victory Cosplay, who even got attention from ‘Star Wars’ John Boyega for doing a gender-bended Finn cosplay.
But when she chose to Cosplay ‘Overwatch’s’ character D.Va, she got a lot of racist backlash toward her interpretation. But it also wasn’t the first time. She had also been slandered for doing a Black ‘Wonder Woman’ Now Loadingand a Princess Leia. She said in her interview that “I wanted to quit cosplay, I never wanted to be D.Va again. I was so shell shocked that something I was so excited and thrilled to do was clouded by such judgment and unfairness just because I’m black.”
As time goes on, we’ll see the widening spectrum of both more Black Characters, more Female Characters, and more LGBTQ friendly characters within comics (more so than there already are, anyway), which should then translate over to the comic book movies. We’re still waiting to hear any information regarding DC’s Gotham City Sirens, where the comic does show more of a female-on-female nature.
As far as ‘Black Panther’ is concerned, there will be multiple characters to dive into, including characters played by Michael B. Jordan and Lupita Nyong’o, as well as Angela Bassett and Forest Witaker. Other big names that aren’t of the African American persuasion are Martin Freeman (‘The Hobbit’ Series,’ ‘Sherlock’) and Andy Serkis, who, judging by his character name, just might be our villain. And if you know anything about Serkis, who played Gollum in Lord Of The Rings, as well as assisted on the technological end of Age Of Ultron, his character is bound to be computer generated-tech-candy.
To see the teaser trailer, you’ll have to tune into Game 4 of the NBA Finals, or wait till it hits “the YouTube.”
Amy Cooper is the type of journalist that when asked “What do you bring to the table,” she replies “I am the table.