NOTE: A less sexually explicit version of this article is posted at The Leveret's brother site, The Wild Reed.
Film critic Kenneth Turan succinctly sums up the significance and appeal of Black Panther when he writes: "A superhero movie whose characters have integrity and dramatic heft, laced with socially conscious commentary as well as wicked laughs, Black Panther is the model of what an involving popular entertainment ought to be but hardly ever is."
Black Panther is, of course, based on Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's revolutionary comic book character of the same name.
As both a comic book and a film, Black Panther has a queer appeal. What do I mean by this? Well, I've come to understand that to be "queer" is to attempt to expand or go beyond (in thought, word or deed) the parameters of gender, race, heterosexuality, patriarchy, and other socially-constructed (or manipulated) concepts. Laurence Coleman, in discussing vocalist Dusty Springfield as a queer icon, says that embracing this understanding of queer “denotes a spectrum not only of identity and practice but also inquiry.” Accordingly, to be queer is to be a questioner and subverter of what Michael Warner has called “regimes of the normal,” and not just in matters to do with sexuality and sexual expression, but also in matters of gender, class, and race.
For many people, a definite appeal of Black Panther is that it boldly questions and subverts in entertaining ways, “regimes of the normal” as they relate to gender and race. (It almost did the same with sexuality, as Linda Lang documents here.)
I celebrate the subversion and transformation of any status quo that is oppressive and limiting, and without doubt Black Panther does this. Accordingly, I think it's fair to say that it is queer in the broadest and deepest sense of the word.
Queer male sexuality
Black Panther is also queer in the more focused sense of sexuality. Though not as obvious or resolute as its focus on race and gender, a queer take on sexuality is nonetheless observable, simply and beautifully, in the film's celebration of the impressive physiques of the main Wakandan characters (both male and female); in Black Panther's body-hugging outfit (one that emphasizes the male body's "tools of attraction"); in the sensual, cat-like way T'challa / Black Panther moves; and in the young king of Wakanda's journey and travails in becoming a hero.
“When I was a teenager,” one gay man told Gerard Jones, author of the book Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book, “superheroes were obviously about being queer. Clark Kent shedding that hideous [business] suit and shooting into the sky in his tights? What else [could it be about]?”
I think a very similar thing can be said for T'challa, not only in his donning of his tight-fitting Black Panther suit, but in his efforts to move Wakanda out of the shadows so as to openly reveal and share the country's immense riches and unique gifts with the wider world, a move that is both liberating and risky, much like coming out as queer.
I think it's also important to note that this sexuality-focused display of male queerness as described above is present in the original and current Black Panther comic books, as the illustrations below clearly show.
– Art by Bob Brown; text by Steve Englehart (1973)
– Art by John Romita Jr. (2018)
– Art by Valerio Schiti and Frank Martin Jr.;
text by Jonathan Hickman (2014)
text by Jonathan Hickman (2014)
Of course, as has been noted previously at The Wild Reed, in the always entertaining world of fan art, many popular superheroes are often depicted as queer, particularly in relation to sex and sexuality.
The image at right by Steven Garcia and below by Wally Rainbow are two of the more explicit examples of this. Yet regardless of how in-your-face or subtle such depictions may be, they all speak to just how many queer superhero fans there are out there, and how strongly they want to see themselves represented by and within this particular genre.
In the world of Wakanda, we see this depicted primarily in images showing T'Challa / Black Panther with Erik "Killmonger" Stevens (left, by NightWolf), but also with Bucky Barnes / the Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers / Captain America, and M’Baku, leader of Wakanda's Jabari tribe.
Following are a few more examples of fan art that depicts a queer Black Panther.
– Skaky
– Artist unknown
– Source
– Source
– Source
– Artist unknown
– Artist unknown
– Artist unknown
– Source
Above and below: T'Challa / Black Panther and Bucky Barnes / the Winter Soldier.
– Artist unknown
– Artist unknown
– Artist unknown
Above: T'Challa / Black Panther and Steve Rogers / Captain America.
– Yacksa
Above: T'Challa / Black Panther (right) and M’Baku, leader of Wakanda's Jabari tribe.
– Source
– Source
– Source
Related Off-site Links:
The Racial Politics of Black Panther – Mikhail Lyubansky (Psychology Today, February 20, 2018).
The Revolutionary Power of Black Panther – Jamil Smith (Time, February 2018).
10 Important Things You Might Have Missed While Watching Marvel's Black Panther – Lanette Mantle (Odyssey, March 20, 2018).
Why Black Panther Is Such a Big Deal for Women – Emily Rems (Salon, April 4, 2018).
Black Panther Sequel Set for 2022 Release – Erin Nyren (Variety, August 24, 2019).
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The Important Cultural Moment That Is Black Panther
• Celebrating Black Panther – Then and Now
• “Avengers Assemble!”
• Jason Johnson on Stan Lee's Revolutionary Legacy
• Another First for Black Panther
• “Something Special,” Indeed!
• Wolvie
• Season of the (Scarlet) Witch
• One Divine Hammer
• What the Vatican Can Learn from the X-Men
• The New Superman: Not Necessarily Gay, But Definitely Queer
• Adam Sandel on the Queer Appeal of Harry Potter
• Musings on the Possibility of “FinnPoe” in the Star Wars Saga
• Thoughts on Queer Cinema
