![]() “Black Panther,” with an overwhelmingly Black cast, brought a vision of Afro-futurism into mainstream American popular culture, which often falters when confronting the more complex and painful aspects of Black history. However, until the February 2018 release of “Black Panther,” the MCU looked mostly White. REUTERS/Jason Redmond (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA) JASON REDMOND/REUTERS Stan Lee arrives at the Activision E3 Preview Event in Los Angeles June 14, 2010. Marvel heroes, in contrast to rival comic book universes, were the ones who lived just outside your door, with real problems that allowed readers (and later filmgoers) to relate to the teenage angst of Peter Parker’s Spiderman or the battle with alcohol addiction fought by Tony Stark’s Iron Man (in the comics, but not film). a box office star and launched a multi-billion-dollar global cinematic franchise. The first decade of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) began with the 2008 release of “Iron Man,” a blockbuster movie adaptation that made Robert Downey Jr. Those stories weren’t always the same ones featured at the multiplex. As a budding intellectual, my fandom shaped my study of that history for me, the most interesting comic books were the ones that reimagined the world of superheroes, parallel universes and intergalactic struggle – and presented them as being inclusive of the Black experience. ![]() ![]() When I was young, my comic book fandom paralleled and intersected with my deepening love of writing, of reading fiction and of understanding Black history. It also underscores the need to understand contemporary political crises as rooted in an origin story Americans have often stubbornly refused to acknowledge.įor me, loving superheroes and loving history have always been linked. “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” the six-part Disney series that culminates in Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson becoming a Black Captain America, is important because it challenges notions of American exceptionalism that gloss over the most painful chapters in our nation’s history. Peniel Joseph Kelvin Ma/Tufts University/Kelvin Ma/Tufts University ![]()
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