Hopefully this won't start another PantherGate... #NeverForget
K so here's the deal doe. We know very little about 2018's Black Panther movie, despite having seen both Black Panther himself in Captain America: Civil War as well as his arch-nemesis Ulysses Klaue in Avengers: Age of Ultron. We know Michael B. Jordon and Lupita Nyong'o are in the film as unconfirmed characters (would love to hear theories). It's hard to imagine Andy Serkis' Ulysses Klaue not appearing in the film, and Sebastian Stan seemed to hint that the Winter Soldier would show up, despite being put on ice last time we saw him.
I have to admit, when I first heard about a possible Winter Soldier cameo, I was skeptical. I really would like this to be a self-contained movie and let it focus on making Black Panther cool--securing this hero as a bankable franchise. I'm not begging for a Bucky Barnes cameo here. However, it looks like it may happen, and I have an idea for how it should be handled.
Back in May, 20th Century Fox released this little piece of trash called X-Men: Apocalypse. If you liked it, congratulations, have a cookie, I'm slightly exaggerating anyway. I certainly didn't hate it, but the bad outweighed the good for me. However, there was one epic scene in that movie that stood out, one I feel Marvel Studios should totally rip off and make better.
I don't bullshit, okay? I'm not gonna pretend like I don't want Marvel to rip off this scene.
As I'm sure you all know, Wolverine's cameo in Apocalypse was actually pretty great. The X-Men find themselves in the middle of one of William Stryker's facilities, where Wolverine had just been experimented on. He breaks out of his containment and goes on a killing spree, ruthlessly slicing up Stryker's men. There were a lot of genuinely bad things in that movie... but this surely was not one of them.
And it got me thinking, Wolverine and the Winter Soldier aren't dissimilar in character. Both are living weapons designed by evil men. Both can be unpredictable. And they're both badasses down to the core. And then that got me thinking, "What if Klaw or some other villain invades Wakanda?" Black Panther and his crew would be defending their fortress, but they can't be everywhere else. Perhaps T'Challa lets him out, Klaw idiotically lets him out, who knows--but if the Winter Soldier were to be released during such an attack, he could potentially wreck just as much havoc as the Panther himself.
The problem with this is that Bucky is currently one-armed, having had his metallic arm blasted off by Iron Man during his daddy issues-fueled rampage in Civil War. So in my head, I was trying to figure out a way for Bucky to get a metallic arm attached to him before this scene that would be organic to the story. Maybe the writers could work that all out, but again, this movie isn't about Bucky--his inclusion should be minimal. And then I thought... screw it, let's have the Winter Soldier come out of the ice machine and take out Klaw's goons with one [frick]ing arm, showing how dangerous he truly is.
I can see why people wouldn't want it. Black Panther HAS to be the coolest character in his own movie. We don't want Winter Soldier to show up and steal his spotlight. My argument is, it wouldn't. T'Challa and Bucky are both badass men, but they're in badass in different ways. I think this would be a great way to incorporate the character and possibly set him up for Avengers: Infinity War.
So, CBM, have I completely missed the mark once again? Let me know what you think in the usual place.