There’s this popular Black Panther meme that pops up every now and again, never quite taking over the internet and being mainstream or anything, but shown or referenced enough to feel its presence. In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s a photo of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Black Panter with Ryan Gosling’s face edited on. Most people agree that this image is stupid or silly, but there are of course some bad faith actors who use this meme unironically whenever a character is race-swapped in adaptations. Regardless of how you feel about that, Marvel Comics has seen fit to bring this meme to life and answer the question once and for all: what if Black Panther was white? Marvel Knights: The World to Come has revealed T’Challa’s son and future king of Wakanda, and he’s very white. But the question we have to ask ourselves is is this some kind of troll on Marvel’s behalf, made to garner attention, or does Marvel actually plan to tell a deep story about family, race, and acceptance?
Marvel Knights: The World to Come released the first issue of its new miniseries and sought to cover a lot of ground. The book repeatedly jumps around in time, using a year called the World to Come as a reference point. It starts sixteen years after the supposed date, with the death of a much older T’Challa on his throne. A member of the Dora Milaje travels to an old man, the leader of a resistance group called the Aquamarines, to tell him of T’Challa’s death and say he should return home, only for the man to recount the story of how everything turned out like it had. He details how T’Challa married Storm, but they divorced, and some time after that she was killed in the Race War (which is a wild thing to write). Seeking an heir, T’Challa rekindles his relationship with Monica Lynn, another ex-fiance, and she leaves her then-current partner to become his queen. She is eventually seen pregnant with a son.
The rest of the story focuses on the bloody contest between T’Challa and his son Ketema for kingship over Wakanda. T’Challa dominates the fight, but the corrupt Cleric “M” refuses to call it off, seemingly having inspired a deep hatred for the king inside of Ketema, with the young man claiming T’Challa has always used him instead of loving him. Due to his unwillingness to kill his own son, Ketema eventually defeats T’Challa, ripping off his mask to reveal white skin and blonde hair, declaring that Wakana is now his. The narrator claims that saving Ketema’s life is T’Challa’s worst mistake, since Ketema will kill hundreds of thousands of people.
On the surface, this could easily look like Marvel trying to capitalize on a meme and making a rage-baiting comic to get people’s eyes on it. After all, there’s no such thing as bad publicity when you’re selling a story. The fact that Ketema is blonde with blue eyes and even kinda looks like Ryan Gosling makes the whole thing seem too on the nose to possibly be anything else, right? Well, maybe if it were any team besides Christopher Priest and Joe Quesada, but with these two revolutionary creators at the helm I don’t think it can be anything other than a set up for a deep dive into the very nature of race and family. According to Quesada, this story started as an idea that Priest pitched years ago, way before any memes about the White Panther were circulating, and they came back together to bring this story to life under their decade-defining Marvel Knights logo, which they started way back in the ‘90s. The franchise clearly means a lot to both creators, so it seems unlikely they would flush it down the drain for a meaningless joke.
Priest is most well known for having what many consider to be the defining Black Panther run under his belt, and is known to tell deeply personal stories in unconventional formats, which is exactly what issue one of The World to Come reads like. There’s also a clear explanation as for why T’Challa and Monica’s child was born without any melanin, with that being the man Monica left for T’Challa looks a lot like Ketema, and the panel of T’Challa proposing has the darkened silhouette of the man standing between the two lovers, like he will literally be a shadow over their marriage. Ketema himself seems to be struggling with feelings of resentment towards his father, which could only be exacerbated by having the pressure of being the heir to one of Wakanda’s most revolutionary kings and the only person who looks like himself in the country. With these other elements at play, Ketema’s appearance starts to take the shape of something deeper and possibly a fantastic set up for deep conversations about the intersections of race and family and what it means to belong even if you’re “different”.
Priest’s depiction of Black Panther is remembered for being a monarch first and a hero second, often acting like a dick and doing whatever it takes to preserve the safety of his country. It could easily be assumed that this characterization carries over to now, with T’Challa raising Ketema as his son but keeping some distance between them because of public perception or expectations because of Ketema’s origins. The book is already willing to dive into deeply controversial themes such as religious corruption, with how Cleric “M” is abusing his position to negatively influence Ketema and consolidate his own power, alongside there being such a thing as the Race War. As meme-worthy as a white Black Panther is, I don’t think it’s just a shallow shock to drive up sales, but a real attempt at telling a deep story. I do think he looks like Ryan Gosling on purpose, though.
Marvel Knights: The World to Come #1 is on sale now.
Marvel has introduced the new king of Wakanda, Black Panther’s white son. But is this a cheap meme or something far deeper? Read More