On Black Powers,
super- and political.
In the July 1966 issue
of Fantastic Four, legendary
comics duo Stan Lee
and Jack Kirby created their newest character, the Black Panther. Other black
characters had appeared in various supporting roles in American comics, but the
Panther—really a super-powered African prince named T’challa from the fictional
nation of Wakanda—is generally considered the first mainstream black superhero.
If so, Lee and Kirby, and their successors in writing and illustrating the
character, have done that pioneering idea full credit, creating a character
with as rich a backstory and mythos, home “world,” familial and romantic
life, and powers and personality as any of his peers in the Fantastic Four, the
Avengers, and the Marvel Universe overall.
From what I can
tell it was coincidental that the Panther’s debut was followed three months
later by Huey
Newton and Bobby Seale’s October 1966 creation of the Black Panther Party
(or at least there seem to be no explicit references to any connection between
the two Panthers); both might have been responding to the well-known
African American World War II tank battalion, among other potential origins
for the name. But in any case the timing reflects the complexity of the
American racial, social, cultural, and political world into which Lee and Kirby’s
character arrived, both within the comic (as an African immigrant to the United
States; or perhaps simply a visitor, as he often returns to his home country in
the comics) and as a cultural presence. This was a character who was literally
the most powerful individual within his African homeland, coming to a world in
which the
very concept of Black Power (also newly coined in 1966) was a revolutionary
one.
So when Stokely
Carmichael led those SNCC marchers in the cry of “We want Black Power!,”
would the release (just a month later) of the debut Black Panther story have
satisfied them? Obviously a comic book superhero is not the equivalent of
meaningful political or social change—but the Panther did represent a
significant cultural shift, or at least an addition to the mainstream cultural
landscape, and such cultural developments have their own value to be sure. Moreover,
it’s possible to argue that such cultural shifts can produce social or political ones—as, for example, a generation of
comic fans grows up rooting for a super-powered, socially responsible, Ku
Klux Klan-fighting African prince, the concept of Black Power moves from an
abstraction or a potential division to, ideally, a shared and obvious part of
our world. Sounds pretty super-heroic to me.
Last hero
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Thoughts on this character? Other comics you’d highlight?
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