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Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Black Feminist Writing Black Panther-WTF?



First Marvel gave us RiRi Williams, the Black Female Iron Man. Now A Black Feminist is writing Black Panther.

Marvel is really going in the wrong direction when it comes to diversity.

Yeah, I get the need to diversify the comic book industry. And I understand there’s a need to appeal to female comic fans.  But there’s a right way and a wrong way to expand an audience. Unfortunately, Marvel is doing it the wrong way.

Marvel is looking for an Affirmative action hire to make headlines, not making a serious attempt at diversity. Yeah, a Black feminist writing Black Panther gets a lot of press. But usually it doesn’t lead to sales or build a fanbase for a character.

Case in point Gay Rawhide Kid. Or Hispanic Ghost Rider. Both of these characters got a lot of press when they made their debut. But at the end of the day both fell back into obscurity.

Sadly Marvel’s publishing division is still following business approaches from the 1990’s. Trying to get attention for their comics by pushing creators to the forefront instead of the character. With Black Panther being the one of the most popular characters in Captain America: Civil War you would think Marvel’s editors would be  trying to maintain the momentum the character gained with casual readers by pushing the character to the forefront.

Moreover, you would think if there were such a serious push for diversity they’d be pushing a qualified writer to the forefront. Seriously, what does a Black feminist know about writing Black Panther? What kind of stories could a Black Feminist tell about an African King?

If we look at the work of Black feminist authors like Alice Walker and Sapphire They’re going to push a narrative that does not fit the Black Panther’s story model. These are the kinds of women with an extremely misandrist view regarding Black men and hate anything masculine. If anything a Black Feminist would make every effort to emasculate a Strong Masculine Alpha Male like the Black Panther in their stories and make him look weak as a kitten. Or she would make him a savage that looks like a big black brute. Most Black feminists haven’t been raised with a balanced picture of Black masculinity or Black Manhood, so they don’t understand how to write a balanced story about a Black man like the Black Panther.

Worse, these women would push a heavy lesbian agenda. What many don’t understand is that many Black feminists like Alice Walker and Sapphire are lesbians. And they love to take the opportunity to push lesbianism to the forefront in their stories and make it core element in them. While a Black Feminist will spin the narrative saying that they’re just trying to diversify the Marvel Universe by integrating homosexuality, the agenda of their narrative just doesn’t fit who the Black Panther is or expands on his mission as a superhero.

In the Marvel Universe, The Black Panther is the King of Wakanda, a leader of an African Kingdom that’s more technologically advanced than the United States, Europe and Asia combined. He’s an intelligent hero with the diplomatic finesse to handle a tense political situation with Victor Von Doom in Latveria and has the physical power to fight alongside heroes as tough as Iron Man and Captain America in The Avengers. It takes a special skill to write that kind of hero and present him as the strong Alpha Male he truly is. A Black Feminist wouldn’t know how to write the Black Panther and maintain his Black masculinity and his manhood, because she wouldn’t value his masculinity or his manhood.

If Marvel wanted to hire a Black writer to write stories for the Black Panther, you would think they’d hire a Black male writer like myself. Why? Because a Black man like myself would better understand the character and write to his strengths.

As a guy who has written Strong Black Alpha Male like John Haynes in stories like The Temptation of John Haynes and The Man Who Rules The World I believe understand the issues Black heroes like The Black Panther would face better than a Black Feminist. I doubt a Black feminist would understand things Black men face in the world like racism, intra racism, classism, and even the issues Black men have with Black women in relationships. In Black fantasy stories I’ve written like The Temptation ofJohn Haynes and Isis: Bride of Dracula I made an effort to present those issues so people could understand the tightrope that Black men walk in everyday life.   





Moreover, I’d understand why it’s important to maintain a Black characters’ masculinity. If a Black male isn’t depicted as strong and masculine readers aren’t going to respect him. And all it takes is the wrong writer like a Black feminist to make a character like The Black Panther look weak. And when that character looks weak readers have no incentive to buy that characters’ adventures.

Short-term a Black Feminist writing The Black Panther’s adventures makes for great press. It gets a lot of attention for Marvel. However, it could do damage to the Black Panther’s brand and his image in the long term. With all the work the Russos did to Bring Black Panther to the screen in Captain America: Civil War it’d be a shame to see all that momentum disrupted by a poorly thought out Affirmative Action Diversity hire that is clearly unqualified for the job.  

If you want to see what a Shawn James Black Panther would read like in a comic Pick Up Isis: Amari’s Revenge. The way I wrote Prince Ammon is just how I’d write T’Challa.
















13 comments:

  1. She was Coates' friend so there's that. Coates is doing all the things you're talking about to the great King T'Challa. You'd think he didn't use the gauntlet to restore his country. T'Challa's a dense emo punk in Coates' story. And they somehow degraded to the point where Wakanda has tree house rape camps. If you get a chance to see what I'm talking about, you'd think you were seeing a different universe.

    Vic78

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    1. So basically Coates is a Mangina pandering to his Black feminist friend. Damn. Just Damn. A great Black hero emasculated. I miss Christopher Priest.

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    2. Good Gravy read a few reviews and this sounds like a mess. Not the Black Panther I grew up with.

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    3. It looks like he helped her get the gig. It also looks like his supporters are the ones buying his book. They seem to think his crap is deep. Lots of flowery language but no resemblance of T'Challa or Wakanda.

      I'll give you an example: T'Challa has a meeting hearing advice from dictators on how to deal with an uprising. Can you see President Obama getting in a room seeking advice from the worst leaders? But we're supposed to believe that a hyper advanced country would support this nonsense. Oh yeah, T'Challa had the gauntlet but couldn't bring his sister back after restoring Wakanda. Coates doesn't have the vision to be anywhere near an idea like King T'Challa. I'm not even going to touch on African philosophers in the story promoting John Locke's ideas in a country that's more advanced than the western democracies.

      Stinks to high heaven.

      Vic78

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  2. FYI-the women are not writing his book-it's another book that is about his kingdom. His book will still be done by Coates. Also the Hispanic Ghostrider is back in a new series later this year.

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    1. Still a feminist is involved. The fact that she's in the mix Should be troubling to Black males regarding a Black male superhero at a White owned company. Black feminists are the enforcers of White supremacy and at their company that's not good for the Black man's image.


      Hispainc Ghost Rider will fade back into obscurity the same way he did two years ago.

      The question most comic fans have to ask about Hispanic Ghost Rider is How is launching the exact same character in a brand new seires lead to new readers finding the exact same character? Fits the textbook definition of insanity. Doing the exact same thing and expecting a different result.

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    2. It always seems like they just don't put much storytelling effort into the characters. I just see it as not knowing what to really do with them, and just trying to throw something to shake things up. I will honestly miss Dwayne McDuffie, his creation, Static, was his own original character, and he ran contrary to the notion that having electrical superpowers making someone a villain, plus he got featured as a future Justice League member in JLU.

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    3. It's more along the lines of what some people have said earlier, we lost creators like Dwayne McDuffie, and now we get essentially a bunch of frat boys running the comic book industry and IMO, "throwing a bone", or throwing a token character into the mix. Plus, they made Superman and Spider-Man into bitches and doormats for their wives. I could not stand it when DC and Marvel did that. There's a big difference between and honest relationship where you and the significant other communicate to each other how you feel, and how to handle matters better, and being someone else's doormat. It also makes the female characters a bit less attractive too. Some days I personally wonder why comic books had to have all these political, demagogue, fantasy BS written in them, and could just be seen as teenage entertainment like they used to be.

      -John

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    4. Spider-Man i can understand but Superman was anything but a doormat for his wife.

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  3. Nailed it. What I find most distressing is that Black Panther is an ideal symbol of a strong, black, male leader. He is a King in more than one way.

    And now, we've got a feminist Black woman involved in the story. I can already tell what she will do. There will be more than one 'strong independent Black woman' characters who will constantly undermine and try to one-up Black Panther. For example, if they both fight off enemies together, she will NOT fight alongside him like a partner, but instead as a competitor. How much do you want to bet she'd give him the ol' "Nigga, I don't need your shit" look?

    Now, it's not that we can't have strong black female characters - but we really don't need the modern version of today's black woman who is basically constantly trying to put down her black King.

    I've given up on black women, to be honest. I've no reservations calling them race traitors, and some of the vilest, most obscene people I've had the misfortune to deal with. We finally have a movie with a strong black King, and now the so-called black "Queen" (who doesn't wear a crown, but instead someone else's hair) is here to threaten him.

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    1. And that's very much my concern for comic book characters in general, especially the guys. The publishers at DC/Marvel have, in the recent two decades, gone so far as to have a woman talk shit to a superhero husband/boyfriend, have the boyrfriend/husband who is a superhero take it like a bitch, and even worse, the publishers at Marvel/DC have actually had women rape men. It's pretty messed up. I don't care if rape is man on woman or woman on man, or whatever. It does not belong in my comic books! Frankly, I got fed up with all that and left.

      -John

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  4. I could never get the anger over weaved hair and several African women (those living and remaining in places like Nigeria) do relax their hair at any point.

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  5. Speaking of Black Panther, what's your take on the Ultimates by Al Ewing?

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