www.theroot.com: On a rainy Friday afternoon in January, rivulets of black comic fans trickled through the halls of Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The occasion was the annual Black Comic Book Festival—an event that draws thousands of comic enthusiasts, creators, publishers and collectors. Black Panther tickets had just gone on sale days before, and an evening event at the festival promised advanced clips from the film. But the Marvel film was, in many ways, old news to some of the attendees.
5 comments:
I am so incredibly excited to go and see Black Panther as soon as it comes out. The prospect of seeing a movie where everyone looks like me and my closest loved ones is something I would have been so excited to see as a little kid. When I was little the only black superhero I saw was Frozone in the Incredibles. I was obsessed with the movie from the first time I saw it until I was about 12. Frozone reminded me of my dad, he even looked vaguely like him. This movie will give the next generation of kids a slew of superheroes in a world without colonization who are all black in all different shade and shapes.
The existence of dark skinned black people on the silver screen without the existence of racial trauma stemming from slavery, which effects almost every movie about black people, will be revolutionary. I am also excited for younger kids to learn about the Black Panther party by proxy of googling the title of the movie. The legacy of the Panthers is still important in urban communities especially with the rise of free breakfasts for students.
This movie is going to be great. Not only cinematically, but by the statement it is making in Hollywood and our society at large. Today, it seems like all we hear out of the entertainment industry are stories of sexual misconduct or terrible working environments for minorities and women alike. Movies like "Black Panther" are helping to put an end to that. This movie is showing how important it is to have roles for people of color to play that are not just the best friend or a stereotyped lead. This cast is huge and so strong with so many great black actors in it. It makes me excited to see how they cast it. Movies like this are how we are going to move forward and maybe work towards getting past the injustice that still persists today in entertainment and society alike. Also, bring in Kendrick Lamar to produce the soundtrack is such a cool idea to me. A great black rapper like him is the exact person who needs to be on this project. Can’t wait!
Wow this was such a good choice for marvel. They needed this story just as the world needs this story. A black superhero shouldn't have taken this long to get to the screen but from the looks of the promotional material and all of the reviews of the film to date say that they more then hit it out fo the park with this one. I love Ryan Coogler and have loved both of his incredible films up to date and can't wait to see what the third in the trilogy will do. He always is able to bring the black actor and the black story into the for front of his films and the choice for him to direct the "Black Panther" film was a home run in my opinion. We as a society need that we need to see black actors on film and more importantly black actors in power and as the good guy in film. I was struggling thinking of any previous black super heros until I read Joss's comment about the incredibles and Frozone. The fact that I have to go all the way back to 2004 to find someone for black Americans to look up at a silver screen and see someone that looks like them just isn't right and that was just one character in a cartoon nonetheless.
I can't help but think about seeing "American Moor" from last week's conservatory hour while I read this article. That play addressed the issues of stereotyping and misrepresentation in the entertainment business (theater specifically, but nonetheless) and I felt that that rallying cry is being directly answered in the approach Marvel and Coogler are taking with "Black Panther", what promises to be a triumphant achievement in black cinematic representation, and a extraordinary piece of film making in its own right. As a nerdy young white guy, I would always be able to relate to Spider Man and other superheroes and look to them for inspiration and ideals to strive towards. This self representation is a huge part of what makes superheroes so popular and I can only imagine how much of a positive impact it will have for African American kids to grow up with Black Panther like I did with Spider Man.
I love comics because they can tell cool ridiculous story similar to how we in the past have relied on the the usage of mythology and stories of the gods and heroes. What I truly did understand until Black Panther was coming out was how important it can be to have a comic book movie you can relate and connect to. I remember when the first trailers coming out and talking to a couple of my friends online, all of us probably have a slightly unhealthy love of comics, and them telling me that while they like such and such older movie that Black Panther really looks like a movie that they we be able to connect with. Flash forward and a lot of my friends from undergrad who were so stoke to see it finally got to and they were beyond happy,just small grievances that I feel all comic book fans have after seeing a superhero movie, and it pretty damn cool to see the so pumped up I can wait to see it too.
Post a Comment