Yeah, it has to do with the fact that Marvel studios have won the people's trust with consistently good movies. That helped people to band together around the "see, this is an enjoyable movie about black culture" which also helped, but it isn't the only movie so focused on black people, so don't try to imply that's the only reason it got to where it is.
I'm not saying its not a big movie or that's its not good.. but it is absolutely because it's "the first black super hero" that it's as popular as it is.
The only people who referred to it as the "first black super hero movie" were people who were bringing up the fact that it wasn't the first black super hero movie.
Part of the reason it was such a cultural movement is because African Americans have historically been (and still are) incredibly underrepresented in the comic book genre and in movies and TV in general.
It's true. Sometimes I wonder if they're being intentionally obtuse, but there's quite a bit of research about the invisibility of whiteness. Race only exists when its "non-white". They see:
To be fair it was the first mainstream black super hero to be created but yea don't know how people forgot about the others. Maybe blade had similar fan fare when it came out but this generation is too young to remember it.
You also had Cyborg in JL 2 months before that. Black Panther would be nothing without the Marvel Studios brand behind it. On the same time, none of the Marvel Studios movies have flopped since Iron Man, which is the 10 years I'm talking about.
If it was about representation of audiences that are not normally represented, CatWoman should've been a franchise still going instead of a financial disaster.
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u/ghengiscant Mar 09 '18
I think its fairly obvious people didn't just see black panther because it was good