{"id":993,"date":"2019-06-01T17:00:34","date_gmt":"2019-06-01T21:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/TheStrip\/?p=993"},"modified":"2019-06-01T16:26:24","modified_gmt":"2019-06-01T20:26:24","slug":"property-review-black-panther","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/TheStrip\/2019\/06\/01\/property-review-black-panther\/","title":{"rendered":"Property review: Black Panther"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Marvel Studios, 2018<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Black, powerful,beautiful<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Seeing your people represented on the silver screen when you are a person of color means quite a bit. Seeing them do important things and be decent human beings means quite a bit more. Seeing them as royalty and enjoying prosperity means everything.<\/p>\n

Written well and superbly acted, Black Panther has the difficult job of being a lot of things to a lot of people and it succeeds. Even with the heavy topics of race and what it means to be black in the world, there are light moments. Black Panther isn\u2019t without humor and it\u2019s deftly mixed in with the right balance. How it achieved this balance is important because it has quite a few stories to tell in a short amount of time.<\/p>\n

When Black Panther was announced, the most we knew about T\u2019Challa was from the comics: He was the ruler of Wakanda \u2014 a prosperous black nation in Africa that was hidden from the rest of the world \u2014 and that he was married to Storm of the X-Men. Also, he was on a quest of revenge for the death of his father T\u2019Chaka, which occurred in Captain America: Civil War. That\u2019s about it. But then something wonderous happened: Marvel started talking about T\u2019Challa\u2019s origin story and why it was important to get it out there. And that push began one of the greatest runs ever for a comic book property.<\/p>\n

Black Panther is so layered with different concepts that it\u2019s hard to not go down the rabbit hole too deep. Black Panther starts out with the re-introduction of T\u2019Challa some months after the death of T\u2019Chaka and T\u2019Challa\u2019s ascent to the throne of Wakanda. In swift order we are introduced to Okoye, Shuri and the advanced nature of Wakanda, thanks to the infinite supply of vibranium. T\u2019Challa\u2019s day-to-day struggle to rule Wakanda alongside its other clans, keep the nation safe from the outside world and get involved in the world\u2019s affairs is just one of the layers and that\u2019s swiftly peeled back to show that everything on the surface is just that: Surface material for the more pressing concept of just what it means to be black and free.<\/p>\n

The introduction of Erik Killmonger is one of the next layers down. Killmonger represents the rest of the black experience: hurt, angry, bitter and wanting something more in life than to be stereotyped and abandoned by the world at large. Killmonger\u2019s story is the result of what happens when we as black people are not uplifted and left at the mercy of an unforgiving system of oppression and what happens when we don\u2019t help our own who are downtrodden and hurting. And though that struggle is simplified here for the general masses, it still speaks to the heart of America\u2019s past and present in terms of race.<\/p>\n

On a deeper level, there is the concept of what it means to be a leader and a man. T\u2019Challa\u2019s development from Civil War to Black Panther is so detailed that it feels like we knew nothing about him before Black Panther. And this is the same with the rest of the characters: No one is left out of the development process and every character\u2019s motivations are addressed in painstaking detail. And with that development comes a wealth of standout characters. Shuri, Okoye, W\u2019Kabi and Nakia are wonderful characters that add depth to T\u2019Challa\u2019s life and story. And the true scene-stealing addition is M\u2019Baku, leader of the Jabari tribe. Making a memorable entrance early in the film, M\u2019Baku manages to strike a defiant yet relatable chord in his quest to have his part of the Wakandian pie recognized for its might and resiliency.<\/p>\n

And what a pie Wakanda is. From the opening sequence of T\u2019Challa returning home from an important mission to the ending sequence showing the Wakandian sunset, the nation of free and prosperous black folk is a beauty. Everything that we imagine the motherland to be in its natural beauty and wonderment was and is a sight to behold in the fictional nation\u2019s depiction. Wakanda is beautiful, lush and vibrant with an Afropunk futuristic vibe that we have only seen glimpses of in the real world through the pages of magazines.<\/p>\n

Black Panther meant a lot of things to a lot of people when it hit the screen. Its sequel is poised to bring the same type of magic as well. With the show put on by director Ryan Coogler in Black Panther, we can only wish that our return to Wakanda is just as fun and important as our first go around. Wakanda forever.<\/p>\n

How we grade<\/strong><\/p>\n

Acting: 10<\/p>\n

Story: 10<\/p>\n

Like the comics?: 9.5<\/p>\n

Overall grade: 9.8<\/p>\n

HOW<\/span> WE<\/span> GRADE<\/span>
\n<\/strong>We score the prop\u00ader\u00adties in three cat\u00ade\u00adgories: Cast\u00ading (or voice act\u00ading in cases of ani\u00admated), plot and sim\u00adi\u00adlar\u00adi\u00adties to its source mate\u00adr\u00adial. Each cat\u00ade\u00adgory receives points out of the max\u00adi\u00admum of 10 per cat\u00ade\u00adgory and 30 over\u00adall. The per\u00adcent\u00adage is the final\u00a0score.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Black, powerful,beautiful Seeing your people represented on the silver screen when you are a person of color means quite a bit. Seeing them do important things and be decent human beings means quite a bit more. Seeing them as royalty … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[271,262,7,22,71,72],"class_list":["post-993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-review","tag-2q2019","tag-black-panther","tag-comics","tag-marvel","tag-property-review-2","tag-staff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/TheStrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/TheStrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/TheStrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/TheStrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/TheStrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/TheStrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":995,"href":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/TheStrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions\/995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/TheStrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/TheStrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/TheStrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}