Wakanda Weeps

Geeking out over the last black cast movie.

These are, ladies and gentlemen, the last days of black cast movies. I imagine we have maybe a couple more in production, let’s say 10 at the outside. After that, there will have to be some kind of important change in American film (yeah right) for something new and exciting to be done. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is probably the last big budget movie of that sort.

What’s true and clear in this excursion into black American Hotep + Superhero fantasy was a marked reduction in the amount of explicit snapping at The Man. You can take it for granted that enough of Hollywood is so soaked in the Woke okey-doke that even they must demand a bit more subtlety than the first time out. You may recall the South African crusty evil dude and the short American white goofball in over his head, both often referred to as ‘colonizers’. This time the same epithet was delivered once with just about the only bit of wry humor in this melancholy tale.

The Hotep fantasy of black American unity with indigenous Africans combining to make a force of world-historical and magical dimensions is alive and well in this episode of Black Panther, but the Superhero aspect is muted as clearly the most badass character in this go round is not Wakandan at all. It’s Namor, the SubMariner. More about him later. So Wakanda has grown up and shown some vulnerability. While only our heroine undergoes much serious growth and change one thing is clear is that she didn’t instantly grow fight skills. She’s not as awkward as Peter Parker whose growth and transformation we’ve gotten to see in great humanizing detail. Shuri never really stumbles much her first fights, but is clearly not up to Black Widow standards of ass-kicking. Then again, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is not a kickass movie.

BPWF is a long and melancholic look at the Wakandans waking up to the real complexities of the human world they have finally engaged. Whereas the first movie was as bold as an entire society of Malcolm X-like clarity and purpose, we come up close and personal with the grief and confusion of those who have lost their bright shining prince. Not their powers, nor their capability to bitch smack the world, but their purpose and vision for the future. Despite the serious proclamations made in the UN, the royal family is wobbly behind the scenes. We witness the harsh and tense brittleness of the Queen of Wakanda still burning over the death of her husband and son now faced with the kidnapping of her only remaining child, the wizard daughter Shuri. We hear echoes of Killmonger’s vengeful anger in the voice of that daughter who refuses any and all rituals to heal her spirit. The more she thinks of her dead brother, the Black Panther we all came to know and respect, the more she wants to burn the world. Sadly we’re not even sure why, all we can guess is that she’s petulant and immature. What else does she do on a normal day but nerd out with her transparent computer interfaces and AIs? Oddly enough, we’re never quite sure if and how Wakanda even survived the Snap.

Marvel’s Wakanda is an honor society. As such it may be a decent representation of a Hollywood interpretation of actual black American culture. The rigor and complexity of their funeral rites, mirroring that of their succession rites from the first film is in full technicolor display. The rhythms, the costumes, the recitations, rapt respect, the stentorian deliveries with the single tear all signify to us in the audience that we are dealing with a social order that is not to be trifled with. But all of that order doesn’t come from anything like a Western society of constitutional or parliamentary legality, but from monarchical & magical communion with great, wise ancestors to which Wakandans are spiritually bound. As presented, that’s about as Hotep as it gets. On the other hand, that’s what the proper study of history delivers. Still, we must overlook the detail that with the destruction of the magic flowers from which the Black Panther’s secret sauce was made, so too would be that link to the spirit world from which the defender of Wakandan society got superhuman strength. Killmonger literally nipped that in the bud in the first episode. Nevertheless, Wakanda is almost entirely unique in the MCU as a representation of Deep Culture.

What Wakanda needs is something it is unlikely to get which is an ongoing dramatic series for television and streaming that would allow the men and women of the various tribes space and time to dramatize the depth of these inner struggles. It might be asking too much, but if I were the dude Kevin Feige, I would triangulate between The General, The Scientist and The Mother. Wakanda would still be a woman’s tale for a generation, but how they raise the boy child to be the next king and what happens to the Wakandan monarchy could not be worse that those two corny derivative sword and sorcery money pits now on our small screens. What are they called? Before the Ring and Game of Dragons? The Wakandans might be Earth’s finest diplomats owing to their rigorous demeanor and catty sense of propriety. It is demonstrated well in the film but where is it going?

Prince Namor arrives on the global scene with his own Deep Culture. Something of a cross between Mayan-Aztec-Atlantians, the entire origin story of these underwater dwelling people of blue color is told in exquisite fashion. Namor’s tribe has also mastered the weaving of magical Vibranium into extraordinary tech. As a demigod born of woman (his father is not really mentioned at all), Namor is more the scion of a vision of a shaman who produces some magical herb mixture which is an alternative recipe of the Wakandan elixir. What are the chances? Two secret societies unknown to the world of ordinary humanity with secret sauce and Vibranium? The MCU to its dubious credit allows us to speculate whether or not the royalty of these two very different (but similar) Deep Cultures might join forces and revenge themselves upon the world of ‘colonizers’ who would deprive them of their precious natural resources. Why not launch a crippling first strike? Ahh the temptation. The movie sets up the duality between nobility and revenge, so the two cultures could be typed as mirrors on that axis. Yet neither is destroyed by the end of the film; we can expect more from them in the future.

If Wakanda is to persist, then it must accomplish more internal drama to get it out of the Hotep zone. I didn’t bother to watch the second Coming To America, so maybe the time for all of that is past. It’s hard to imagine the realization of a multi-ethnic black diaspora engaged by Marvel, although the framework was setup in the called out locales of Cape Verde and Haiti. At the very least the Wakandan Nakia, played by Lupita Nyong’o, (The Mother) demonstrates her multilingual abilities. I think she’s the most interesting character yet, and the best actress in the film.

Somehow my prejudice against what I believe to be Hollywood’s prejudice will find it difficult to advance Wakanda’s internals without advancing Talokan, the province of Namor. I can’t see that happening. Underwater Talokan cannot sustain an entire film. Aquaman proved that; but surely Wakanda will be back. Is it just me or do these Deep Culture societies just distrust everyone in the WEIRD world? Of course they do, because we’re enemies of Gaia and all we want is oil and deception. So yeah Julia Louis-Dreyfus is perfectly cast as the glib head of the CIA, representing the Americans who cannot be trusted with any significant amount of vibranium or its tech, just like that evil South African from the first installment.

Overall, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was a big long movie dealing with a God shaped hole that was our beloved T’Challa, who was the perfected Obama in much of America’s mind. It was tearful and clumsily magical and trying hard to keep up appearances. Yes it was deeper and more mature than the first film, and lacking the martial spirit that made Wakanda so compelling during the Endgame. Something interesting is bubbling under the surface that could make Wakanda’s women and new prince worth examining in depth. As long as the WEIRD world is interested in the MCU, there’s enough money to do so. Thank god it’s not a Disney property. Yes, it’s a better movie than the first one. No you will not feel anything weird about how the mantle of Black Panther is passed from man to woman. No Wakanda is not self-deprecating about its power like The Eternals and Black Adam, but no there’s pretty much only one amped up ass-kicking scene (Mass Ave bridge to Cambridge, best spear fight ever). It’s probably not rewatchable for me, but could be for fans. It could be a step in the right direction now that it ably dealt with the death of T’Challa.

If I were going to make Wakanda into what it ought to be in the MCU, it would involve Nakia as The Mother and perfect spy. It would continue the antagonism between the CIA and Wakandan intelligence apparatuses. It would re-establish the Dora Milaje as unique uber-special forces doing some joint missions where typical gadgets don’t work. It would place their spirit world into the emerging multiverse context of the Time Variance Authority. It would emphasize the capacity for tribal wisdom to dispatch with the Principal-Agent Problem. And just for kicks, they would establish Detroit as a new model city based on their control and licensing of vibranium tech, which symbolizes nuclear energy and an actual green future with energy independence for all. Most significantly it could leverage the respect it has for itself into a diplomatic leadership with an embrace for justice on Earth - a narrow line the right writers could pull off. Like me.

On a personal note, we do family film night in Hollywood, continuing a tradition of my late brother’s, all about Star Wars. It has expanded to the MCU as well. So at the beginning of the Holiday season, we greet you both ways.

Chinese Theatre, Nov 2022