craigdbfan
Avenger
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2008
- Messages
- 31,172
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 56
Man do I want to see Black Panther already. 


Pondering this question I looked at the countries and Kingdoms that resembles Wakanda. The one I kept coming to was the Vatican. We have a secretive religious and political leader, secretive base of operations, people dressed in traditional clothing, modern yet keeping a eye on tradition.
Based on that I would have the populace of Wakanda dress like normal people in the 21st century. The only ones who wear traditional dress are those who hold titles in the government/religion...and then they would be modern takes on the clothing. T'Challa wouldnt run around in his Black Panther garb all the time. I imagine he would wear something similar to what James Earl Jones wore in Coming To America but instead of a lion head it would be a black panther head.
Man-Ape needs help though... I can't take him seriously on his own, and adding too much depth to him just makes him Killmonger. Perhaps a combination of Man-Ape and someone else? Klaw? Hunter? Moses Magnum?
Man do I want to see Black Panther already.
![]()
I wouldn't set the whole movie in Wakanda, if only to show that T'Challa is more than just Wakanda, and I'm not sure him ticking off Tony is a great idea, because it makes T'Challa look like a villain or at least an uberjerk. He could just invite Tony over as a pretense, like he did in his first appearance with the Fantastic Four, then he's still kind of a jerk, but it's okay, because he helps you up and explains everything afterwards.
Man-Ape needs help though... I can't take him seriously on his own, and adding too much depth to him just makes him Killmonger. Perhaps a combination of Man-Ape and someone else? Klaw? Hunter? Moses Magnum?
What really makes a movie like this for me, other than the action, is the dialogue. Especially having that royal thing going on, people need to say things that are awesome. I'd pepper that thing with so many African proverbs and zingers and badarse explanations it wouldn't be funny. That's probably my favorite part of Hudlin's BP: "Emotional? No, I'm Happy... all my enemies are in one place." And that whole "What's your leverage" thing... craziness. Except everyone would be on that insanely quotable stuff, kinda like the characters in The Dark Knight trilogy.
Watching the leaked Ant-Man footage made my mind go crazy on what they could do with BP. I hope one day we'll see Tony, Hank, Banner and T'Challa together. The smartest men in the MU.
Not really. When you make the world look just like our world, you have created the expectation that it is just like our world except for the changes you show happen. If you break that unspoken agreement, it's like trying to retcon real life. They can't say "well, everyone on MCU Earth has two hearts," because that breaks the illusion, the contract, the premise. That's why, as far as we've seen, the MCU is like our world, and notably unlike 616 whenever that conflicts with Earth's actual history, and that's why we can expect them to continue to make that decision.
Are there secrets? Absolutely, Wakanda is highlighted at the end of Iron Man 2, but none of that gives the MCU the licence or motivation to throw audience expectations of the world they've created out the window.
Show, don't tell. That's what I'm saying.
Speak that word, brotha!
I think a lot of the great stories come from T'Challa trying to balance his new ideas against the old ways. That's a story that resonates with everyone,in every society, and is a big part of BP's original mythos. T'Challa's conflict with Wakanda's old ways, and the problems he brings to their beliefs with all his tech, typified by Erik Killmonger, makes for a good story, and one of his greatest, if only for being one of the first comic book story arcs ever. I think calling back to that would be a great start, what with Killmonger being the closest he has to an arch enemy, to set up for that conflict in #2 after dealing with Klaw and some mercs and maybe M'Baka in #1. After that, there'd be a few different ways you could do things...
A thought on Priest's tech level: Did Priest make Wakanda a product of T'Challa or vice versa? Because by that time, T'Challa had been active long enough to have designed and invented Wakanda's military machine, satellites included, all by himself.
I would have Wakanda be this completely cut off country that no one knows a thing about.
However they are the only source of vibranium in the world and the sale of the ore has led to them being extremely rich and extremely technological.
You can have one or the other. You can't have both.
actually you can...i forgot to mention it. The vibranium sales are done through a third party....think of the lawyer from Usual Suspects...he has the power to make deals for T'challa and Wakanda.
There's an example of overthinking something
actually you can...i forgot to mention it. The vibranium sales are done through a third party....think of the lawyer from Usual Suspects...he has the power to make deals for T'challa and Wakanda.
Of course you can have both.
Most people don't care if advanced technology is near impossible without global trade based on obscure academic theories.
Not even a little bit.
It's a sci-fi/fantasy superhero movie not a historical thesis.
I think the biggest risk, on this angle, is not so much that the audience won't buy that a secret fantastic nation could exist in the setting. The audience already accepts quite a bit. Its more that, they need to accept that Wakanda is credible within the setting, in terms of its portrayal and characterization. If the Wakandans don't act recognizably like people, then it will stand out like a sore thumb in a setting where even the aliens have comprehensible human motives and goals.
And "badly done green aesop" is not going to qualify.
While I agree with a lot of these themes just fine, I think they could be done quite well with my "Japan of Africa" Wakanda model, and without the baggage of "random sci-fi utopia". Giving Wakanda laser cannons and skyships in the 1600s doesn't really contribute in any meaningful way, and T'Challa comes off better as a genius if he's not just using off-the-shelf Wakanda tech invented by people centuries before.
IIRC, T'Challa was indeed largely the source of Wakanda's technology. He didn't single-handedly take them from the stone age to the space age, but the ultra tech post dates the beginning of his rule. I *think* this was also the case in prior iterations.
Man-Ape was the only BP villain I knew of lol but anyone better could definitely work.
And I said BP should tick Tony off for a reason. I was thinking something along the lines of with all the supes popping up around the world and especially with the Avengers making themselves known to the world, BP feels like something big is coming, something big enough to threaten the safety of Wakanda. He feels like even though going to the outside world is looked down upon by the Wakanda chiefs it's a necessary thing to do. He also realizes that just showing up at Tony's door wouldn't get him or anyone to take him serious seeing as he's from an African country that no ones ever heard of. So he chose to show Stark who he knows everyone will listen to that he can be a force to be reckoned with. And after defeating Stark he explains all of this to him. With this explanation even Tony understands BP did the smart move.