On August 28th, the Black Panther died. Actor Chadwick Boseman was the well-known face of the Black Panther, a superhero in Marvel’s universe.
While his death from colon cancer was unexpected, his contribution to Marvel’s universe and to our cultural moment is unquestioned. Last week, Disney made the Black Panther film free to stream on its platform, and last night, Comixology announced that all single issues of the Black Panther comic would be free. (Go get an issue or five!)
Boseman became the film character for a popular superhero with an important history. Indeed, all comics are important cultural artifacts, and like all cultural productions, they are always about more than a plot or a fight scene. The Black Panther first appeared in 1966 as the first black superhero. The timing is important. Just two years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which guaranteed voting and civil rights to black Americans, the Black Panther made an impression. He defeated the most popular superheros in his first run (later teaming up with them), and his fictional home country of Wakanda, a technologically advanced and wealthy African nation, deliberately challenged readers’ false racial stereotypes and prejudices.
Historians highlight how creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were influenced by the use of the black panther as an animal symbol for a community and voting advocacy organization called the Lowndes Country Freedom Organization (LCFO), which fought for the rights of black Americans to vote and resisted forms of white supremacy. Later referred to as (and taking the name of) the “Black Panther Party,” this organization emerged in the turbulent times of the Civil Rights Movement. Thus, it’s easy to see how the Black Panther was always a powerful political symbol of justice, community pride, and self-determination.
Representation — in books, films, and media — is essential. It is how we look beyond ourselves, reduce intolerance, and affirm the unique pasts and experiences of others. Comics (and graphic novels and narratives) are an important space for diversity of character, of author, and of worldview. For instance, Ms. Marvel, a series about a Pakistani-American Muslim teenage girl becoming a superhero, was written by an American Muslim woman and edited by a Pakistani-American woman, and the 2015 Midnighter series, a series about an openly gay superhero, was written by a bisexual man. Yet there remains a lot of room for improvement, both in race and gender representation.
On a related note, if there are any fans of The Watchmen (either the comic books or the HBO series), here is an excellent (and short) graphic narrative about the Tulsa Race Riot in America — the opening scene to the TV series.
