By Brandon T. McClure (@btmcclure @fakenerdpodcast)
The MCU, specifically the Infinity Saga (2008-2019) has meant a great deal to me, as I am sure it has for many people. What first started as a book pitch is now a series of essays of mine that will be (hopefully) published every week. The goal is to pick a specific moment within The Infinity Saga and share with you why I believe it’s a defining moment. To revisit previous posts, visit our site HERE.
Enjoy the ride as we count down from 50 of the most defining moments and share your thoughts in the comments.
• T’Challa Learns A Hard Truth •
MOMENT# 29
MOVIE: Black Panther
DIRECTORS: Ryan Coogler
WRITERS: Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole
Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) and T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) in Black Panther.
Kingsman: The Secret Service (bear with me) is about a secret organization trying to stop a man from fixing the problem of global warming. That’s a really reductive way of looking at it, especially when you consider that Valentine was going to kill most of the people of the world with the exception of the rich and famous. But Valentine was looking to stop global warming and when he was defeated, all the rich and famous people who sided with him were killed and the Kingsman went on to have another adventure. So what’s the point of this? Well, Kingsman: The Secret Service isn’t interested in fixing the problem of global warming, it just wanted to give the villain a relatable motivation.
There’s an adage in storytelling that says “villains are the heroes in their own stories.” Very often, villains will be given motivations that allow audiences to sympathize with them. However, sometimes storytellers could go too far and create a villain that is undeniably right. The only way to make a villain like that evil is to make them do something that pushes them over the line. Often time’s it’s murder. Valentine was right, but his way of fixing the problem would have killed billions of people. Ra’s Al Ghul in Batman Begins was right, but he was going to destroy Gotham. Flagsmasher from Falcon and the Winter Soldier was right, but she blew up a hospital. Over and over again, there are examples of this trend happening in films and television shows. This is where Erik Killmonger comes in.
Killmonger was introduced in 2018's Black Panther. Played by Michael B. Jordan, the character was a Wakandan whose father was killed by King T’Chaka. He spent his entire life outside the walls (or forcefield) of Wakanda and saw what kind of injustices were happening around the world. He knew that Wakanda had the means to stop all of it, but their isolationist policies forbid them from interfering. Killmonger sought to take control of Wakanda, in part to avenge his father's death, but also to supply the oppressed peoples of the world the means to rise up and dethrone their oppressors. But if all Killmonger wants to do is help oppressed people from around the world, then why is he the villain? The simple answer is that he’s also a cold-blooded killer.
T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) in Black Panther.
How are Killmonger's motivations any different than Poppy (Kingsman: The Golden Circle’s villain), who just wants marijuana to be legal, or Valentine who just wants to stop global warming? To bring it to the same franchise, how is Killmonger any different than Flagsmasher who wanted to protect the multination communities that were created during the Blip? In truth, he’s not, but he has a greater impact than all those examples and many other examples across countless franchises. He positively impacts T’Challa and changes T’Challa’s worldview.
When T’Challa was crowned king, he reserved himself to keeping Wakanda to their isolationist ways, but when confronted with the sacrifices Wakanda has had to make in order to remain isolated, he knew things had to change. Killmonger is the representation of those sacrifices. He is the embodiment of the sins of the father coming back to haunt the son. Wakanda has sacrificed too much to remain the same for all these years and it’s time for them to step out of the shadows and help the world. Not with violence like Killmonger wanted, but with support like outreach programs and sharing of technologies.
If it wasn’t for Killmonger, T’Challa may have allowed Wakanda to remain an isolationist nation. Killmonger may have been a villain, but he was right and T’Challa knew that he had to do something. He couldn’t just defeat Killmonger and call it a day like so many heroes before him. He had to see the problem that created Killmonger and work to fix it. The handling of Killmonger is a seminal moment in the MCU and film history. The character should be looked at as a template for creating villains who want to positively change the world. The hero shouldn’t just ignore what the villain was trying to accomplish, he should work towards the same goal but the right way and with less bloodshed. It’s often said that a hero is only as good as its villain and Killmonger is one hell of a villain.