Reginald Hudlin debuted the Black Panther trailer today at Comic Con. The animation is much like a comic book with moving images; all the backgrounds remain still, while the characters move in the foreground.
The “Black Panther” cartoon is NOT for children. From the beginning of the story expect nothing but blood and gore. And a lot of it. The scenes are brutal and extracted directly from issues 1-6 of the Black Panther.
I had to laugh when Hudlin brought up the history of the Black Panther comic creation and the Black Panther political party in the 1960s. “Two Jewish guys in New York and two black guys in California had the same idea at the same time.”
My favorite scene of the trailer was a callback to the comic. Black Panther and Captain America fight, and the Black Panther wins. You have to love when a cartoon or film adaption of a comic book stays true to the comic.
“You have to love when a cartoon or film adaption of a comic book stays true to the comic.”
Not when it stays true to the work of the worst writer in the comics industry. Perhaps if it had been an accurate recreation of the fight as it was originally written, several years earlier, by Christopher Priest. That version highlighted King T’Chaka’s intellect (by speaking several languages), a well informed and his capable leader, wary of the outside world but willing to trust a man of honor.
But that version depicted the fight as more or less a draw, up until the point when T’Chaka ended it, having been satisfied that he could trust Captain America.
And Hudlin couldn’t accept that his character (not one that he created, but one he feels is his nonetheless) could ever have an equal. So the fight was reduced to a simple matter of who’s stronger and tougher, because Hudlin thinks that’s all that matters.