Bam Smack Pow
Fansided

Captain America: Civil War: Whose Side Will Black Panther Take? Maybe Neither

By Nick Tylwalk

facebooktwitterreddit

The tag line for the Civil War comic book series was “Whose Side Are You On?” Spider-Man and a few other heroes switched sides, but it was presented as an either/or proposition. You either stood with Iron Man and supported the Registration Act or you sided with Captain America and felt the government should butt out of the super hero community. A similar choice is going to face Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War, but according to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, it doesn’t mean he has to necessarily pick one faction or the other.

Feige addressed that possibility in a recent interview with Super Hero Hype, almost making it sound like Black Panther would be the Switzerland of super heroes when it comes to Civil War.

"In the case of “Civil War,” we needed a third party, we needed a character who wasn’t on either Captain America or Iron Man’s side, which is why we went, “You know what? We’re doing a Black Panther movie, but it would actually be smart to have him fill this role we need in Civil War and introduce him here first.”"

The context for that response was a general question about whether super heroes needed to be introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in solo movies before interacting with others — as was the case with Iron Man, Captain America and Thor — or if they could be worked in the opposite way. Feige’s answer gives the impression that the Marvel brain trust already had the idea of a neutral party in mind and simply felt T’Challa was the right man for the job.

There’s some precedent for that from the comics, though not in conjunction with Civil War. In the early days of the Illuminati, a secret group of heroes that included Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic and Black Bolt, T’Challa agreed to let them meet in Wakanda but proves unwilling to join due to his misgivings about their agenda. An argument could definitely made that his concerns were justified, though Black Panther would later join the Illuminati anyway.

In any case, T’Challa is almost always written as a man who does what he thinks is best for his country and his people, and simply agreeing to fight on one side of a super hero conflict in a world he barely has had time to analyze (in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at least) would be very much out of character. When it comes to Captain America: Civil War, neutrality suits him just fine if that’s what’s in store.

(via Super Hero Hype by way of Heroic Hollywood)

More from Bam Smack Pow

Home/Movies