Black Panther: Wakanda Forever teaches us how to really say goodbye to a superhero

There is a line in a 1991 issue of the comic series Marvel X-Factor in which Professor Xavier makes fun of the X-Men’s inability to die permanently: “Sometimes it seems that there are no mutants in the paradise of mutants pearly gatesbut revolving doors“, he observed to Jean Gray, a character who counts a spectacular number of deaths and rebirthsa trend which would be exasperated in the following years.

Trite and contrite trend

A scene from the funeral of Martian Manhunter in Final crisis 2008 shows Superman ending his eulogy by saying, “Everyone will miss it. We pray for his resurrection“. His wish will be granted: the character returned to action two years later, as a consequence of the events of the crossover series The deepest night, which saw a dark entity exhume a good number of deceased characters. Superman is dead, Batman is dead, as is Spider-Man. All these characters, however, in one way or another, have been resurrected. In modern comics, death is at best a temporary setback and is rarely taken seriously.

This approach to mortality has been transposed into cinecomic, movies dedicated to superheroes. Superman died at the end of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice only to come back to life a year later in Justice League. A host of characters was reduced to dust at the end of Avengers: Infinity Waronly to reappear in Endgame. Even the figures whose death seemed as final as possible on screen – like Iron Man or Black Widow, who both sacrificed themselves for the common good in Avengers: Endgame – can potentially return, thanks to the infinite possibilities offered by the multiverse and Disney’s equally infinite checkbook. However, no amount of money or space magic couldAnd bring T’Challa back to life.

The exceptional nature of Chadwick Boseman

After the untimely and tragic death of the actor Chadwick Boseman in August 2020, all plans for a sequel to the beloved and successful 2018 film, Black Panther, with its original protagonist have been trashed. There were those who hoped and asked that the role be entrusted to another actor. However, everything Boseman had infused into the character – passion, intensity, insight – it was not replaceable. Putting a new performer in his place would have seemed like an attempt to undo what the actor had done, or to turn him into a replaceable cog. The work of him in Black Panther it had been too important.

The path ultimately chosen – contextualizing Boseman’s death in the Marvel canon by killing T’Challa off-screen – was therefore as inevitable as it is courageous. Strengthen the audience’s emotional bond with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – the sequel to Black Panther just released in cinemas around the world – allowing viewers to address the grief for the actor in that for the character, and at the same time inviting them to participate in the path of acceptance of death undertaken by the film.

A unicum in cinecomics

Nobody says Marvel will never resort to the recasting for an actor. Just last month the news that Harrison Ford will replace the late William Hurt as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross in Captain America: New World Order. However, the firm’s willingness to address the loss in Wakanda Forever marks a change: T’Challa’s permanent death is treated with a respect that superhero stories rarely show, and creates one emotional depth of which the genus is often lacking. Give Boseman’s Black Panther an inheritance instead of aligning it with the myriad of exhumed and reincarnated heroes who preceded him.

The era of cinecomic – especially Marvel movies – it has been going on for over a decade now, and it seemed like the status quo was now immutable. Allowing some difficult truths to make their way through the comic book logic, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever shows that comics and their film adaptations don’t have to remain static. Can regenerate and become something new.

This article originally appeared on Wired UK.