As comic book creators, is it our job to feed into the prejudices of a few, or to tell the truth? Why would anyone say that it's impossible for the Black Panther to defeat a god? Let's be clear, in the fantasy/comc book genre nothing is impossible. In fact, on a number of occasions, the science fiction tech ended up inspiring an inventor to turn the fake tech into reality. The most famous adaptaion is the cell phone. The flip cell phone was introduced to us by the 1960's Star Trek. There is little doubt that this fake technology influence inventors to create a real life version. So, in essence nothing is immpossible in the fantasy/comic book world.
When you strip away the hero aspect of both the Black Panther and Daredevil they are human. When both of these humans defeated Thor as Dwayne McDuffie wrote it, he is empahsing the fact that a human is defeating a god and not a white man or black man - but a human. The truth behind the story is that humans have the ability to build, reason, and be clever to overcome any obstacle and defeat any foe if they put their mind too it.
If the comic book writer confined to the narrow market of hard core comic book readers (who demographics say are white males), then the notion of a black character who is human defeating Thor is theoretically impossible. Impossible only if the mind set of the reader has a pre-defined view of only non-whites having the ability to be clever that is. But again, the truth remains that us humans are smart and can go toe to toe with any machine (as the Matrix showed us,) any alien ( as Independence Day showed us) and any other thing that may come our way. Some real world examples include conquering tyranny during World War II and conquering the heavens by landing a man on the Moon.
Besides, by writing characters of all races we as creators are expanding the market which helps the overall comic book community and expands our market. Reginald Hudlin gave an interview where he said the comic book shop owners love when his work come out, why, because it brings in a very diverse crowd and thus more sales.
In the end our jobs as writers are to be creative as possible with the technology and situations we put our characters in. BUT, since humans read about other humans, we have to tell the truth about character motivation, feelings and ingenuity no matter the race.
Eddrick Dejuan
ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.