Black Panther is a unique character in all of comic book history. He doesn’t simply moonlight as a superhero. He is also the ruler of the most technologically advanced country in the entire Marvel universe, while matching the brains of Tony Stark and the enormous capacity to self-sacrifice that Steve Rogers has. It has taken decades to get a legitimate Black Panther film into development and the character represents more than than a simple crime fighter to many communities. The character was created in response to a lack of black representation in comics by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. Since his inception, T’Challa aka Black Panther, has been a source of pride both on and off the page for many comic readers.
Today, EW released their cover story for Captain America: Civil War, which featured the first official stills of Black Panther, played by Chadwick Boseman (Get On Up, 42). The debut of the African superhero has been long-awaited and it did not take long for EW to give their commentary on the new hero. In fact, they did it right on the cover.
There are several odd, if not insensitive, decisions that were made by the editors of the cover photo. First deciding to add a “Meow” is an arbitrary decision since the characters are not in a scene or talking to one another. Even in the animal planet saying that a panther, one of the jungles most deadly animals, “meows” would certainly be considered an insult. Panthers are powerful animals who roar, not “meow” like a tame house cat. Without getting too far into gender and Wild Kingdom politics, it’s at the least, signaling weakness in Black Panther’s character.
One bad joke can happen to anyone, particularly if they aren’t aware that they are actually being culturally insensitive. The second miscalculation however, seems to reaffirm the need to emasculate the African hero before audiences are even introduced to him. Black Panther’s “costume” is a tradition passed down generations and partially signals a rite of passage into manhood. It is also made up of Vibranium, the same precious fictional metal that created Captain America’s shield and even has claws made of the same material. He is a complete badass.
However, on the cover EW introduces Black Panther as having claws “that a real ‘Housewife’ would envy.” This could be taken many different ways, however it is certainly comparing Black Panther’s weapons to fake acrylic nails. The “Housewives” comment is presumably in reference to The Real Housewives series which follows the lives of predominately “catty” black women who are married to celebrities. Again, this is another head-scratching decision that is either insulting, ignorant, or worse. Devin Faraci at BMD also let his thoughts on the cover be known as well:
“Look, I don’t want to get all gender normative here, but there’s no way to read the cover text as anything other than an emasculation of a powerful black man. More than that, it’s an emasculation of the first black superhero. It’s the emasculation of a superhero whose very existence and day job as a KING was intended to make him an empowering figure. I do not believe that the weird “Meow” and Real Housewives text was intentionally placed there to disempower the character but holy hell, you can really read it that way. Easily. Like, one of those bits of text would have been eyebrow raising, but both?”
The final decision to place a masked Black Panther looming over the unmasked “heroes” is equally curious. The cover story is not only designed to get the attention of comic book fans, but also to introduce mainstream audiences to the new superhero. It’s logical to place him between the heroes, since his role in the upcoming conflict in Captain America: Civil War has been described as neutral. However, the positioning of the characters indicates that Black Panther is hawking over them, like you would expect from a villain. Add to the fact that his face is hidden, which also masks his blackness, while the recognizable heroes appear powerful and resolute makes the troublesome picture complete. Plus, within the story there are plenty of stills of the masked Black Panther, so it would make sense for the world to be introduced to the face of the new hero, along with the other faces of the MCU. Right?
It’s hard to imagine that Entertainment Weekly set out to undermine history’s first mainstream black superhero, but that was the end result. However it should be noted that the actual story within, was rather complimentary and had a different tone than whoever designed the cover. However, the end result is undeniably messy. I can’t recall when, or if, Thor, Captain America, or Iron Man, have ever been undercut in the same way on an EW cover story. It’s hard to imagine EW mentioning that Thor has luxurious locks that are fit for a queen on a cover. Or that they will hide the new face of Spider-Man, Tom Holland, when he makes his debut soon.
Hopefully there will be more cultural sensitivity and attention paid as we embark on the next step in cinematic social change. In just a few years, for the first time in history, kids will have a powerful ethnic superhero and Avenger to look up to on the movie screen. This also will not be the last time during the build-up to the Black Panther solo film and other upcoming progressive films, where insensitivity will rear its ugly head. Taking moments like this to notice when things are incorrect and opening a discussion, so further mutual understanding can be had, may reveal the true power of superhero movies.
Captain America: Civil War opens on May 6th. Black Panther opens on February 16th, 2018.
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