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| Entertainment Weekly magazine cover 2015 – 2017 comparison |
The entertainment magazine Entertainment Weekly finally realizes Black Panther is not a joke.
EW featured a Captain America: Civil War (2015) cover showing the main heroes: Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.). They also featured the third star of the film: Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman).
Unfortunately, they chose to denigrate him. First, there’s the fact that he’s standing behind the two stars. The previous Avengers covers had actors standing behind the main star, but they usually show more than the head and shoulders.
Second, the blurb says he has claws “That A Real Housewife Would Envy.”
This irritated me to no end. How can you make jokes about the first Black superhero and a king? Did the Thor cover make jokes about his hammer? Does the Black Widow cover make jokes about spiders?
This is offensive not just to me, but other’s as well. Devin Faraci of Birth. Movies. Death said,
“Look, I don’t want to get all
gender normative here, but there’s no way to read the cover text as anything other than an emasculation of a powerful black man.
More than that, it’s an emasculation of the first black superhero. It’s the emasculation of a superhero whose very existence and day job as a KING was intended to make him an empowering figure.”
Not the only one to point this
“The fandom has very few African-American superheroes. Period. It’s disappointing to see Black Panther singled out as the only hero, that’s trivialized on a cover that also features Iron Man and Captain America. Don’t get me wrong, I get that it was an attempt at humor, but it was poorly executed… Do better, Entertainment Weekly.”
Darian Robbins “fixed” the cover (h/t @WeAreWakanda)
Once again, @Darian_Robbins comes through with the truth. Take notes, @EW. #blackpanther #civilwar pic.twitter.com/gEhhyb1KPT
— We Are Wakanda (@WeAreWakanda) December 2, 2015
The biggest mistake is they thought it would be funny to show the cat-themed superhero saying “meow”. Was that even necessary? Is Tony saying “Billionaire. Playboy. Philanthropist”? Does Black Panther famous for his sense of humor?
The whole thing was, and is insulting. Fast forward two years.
Reviews of Civil War praised Black Panther as a highlight of the film. The Black Panther solo movie is highly anticipated and the trailer picked up 89 million views in the first 24 hours. Entertainment Weekly finally realized their mistake and gave him a cover worthy of a king.
They released a new cover for their special Comic-Con double issue and it features “an Afro-futurist paradise whose king is one of the most groundbreaking heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe”. The cover also has Erik Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan, and the always lovely Lupita Nyong’o as one of Black Panther’s bodyguards Nakia.
Not only does he look like a superhero, he looks like a king. The blurb calls him the “most beloved, game-changing superhero” ever.
Much better Entertainment Weekly. Keep up the good work.
Update: Here’s another awesome Black Panther photo
Click on the link for all our coverage on Black Panther (2018).
What do you think of the EW cover? Are you looking forward to Black Panther?
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