Avengers

Black Panther Movie: Weapons are metaphors. We use them in figures of speech (the pen is mightier than the sword) and as figures of speech (stick to your guns). The weapon-as-metaphor suffuses contemporary culture but it is perhaps nowhere more present than in the Marvel Universe. Thor’s boomerang hammer, Spider-Man’s sticky tech—they’re ripe with symbolism. In Black Panther, the MCU series’ new blockbuster flick, Ulysses Klaue, a South African arms dealer unzips his pants in the midst of a South…

No doubt about it – Black Panther is fun: it’s got all the grand VFX razzmatazz of a Marvel movie, enjoyable characters, a giant scale fit for the big screen, but more importantly, a villain who is relatable and memorable. And it looks like Marvel has finally begun to let their films have the voice of the director because this is more a Ryan Coogler movie than a studio mandated product. We were introduced to the titular…

Black Panther is finally here, and not a moment too soon. The MCU sure feels like a sprawling saga, covering narrative ground from here to Valhalla. But it’s taken a decade and 18 movies for a non-white superhero to supersede being a bit player in the big story – and no, the green-hued Hulk doesn’t count. So among the cheery hype and rousing acclaim welcoming this film’s debut, another, slightly coarser sentiment is also present:…