Image credit: Comicvine.com

I’ve heard it said by many that there aren’t enough African superheroes in popular media.  I’ve also read on the iTunes reviews where Marvel’s character The Black Panther is one of the underrated and unsung heroes of comics.  Well it looks like that may be a thing of the past. In spite of their assertions for several years that a movie will be forthcoming having to date not reached fruition, Marvel has an animated series debuting on BET based on the character.  This isn’t new news, but it is cool for fans of the character like me.  You can get a music video preview of it from iTunes for free and I’ve seen the video for the trailer on Youtube, but they have disabled the “embed” feature so I can’t put it here.

I agree that the Black Panther is underrated.   He was Wolverine a decade before Wolverine was a gleem in the eye of Marvel.   While his claws are part of hie costume and his demeanor is much more regal than violent, he could show Wolvie a thing or two about hunting in my opinion.   For those saying, “Its about time” in regards to the “black superhero”, this very character is as old as I am, having been created back in 1966. Its not that they’re not out there, they just aren’t hitting that cord with the population.

Other than ‘Blade’ played by Westley Snipes, the main problem seems to be popularity of the character in general.

To name a few others out there:

1. Luke Cage aka Powerman (TM Marvel Comics)
2. Jefferson Pierce aka Black Lightning (TM DC)
3. Blade (TM Marvel Comics)
4. Storm aka Ororo Munroe (TM Marvel Comics)
5. Sam Wilson aka Falcon (TM Marvel Comics)
6. Chapel (TM Image Comics)
7. Cloak aka Tyrone Johnson (TM Marvel comics)

And many many more… Looking at the trailer I like the guest appearences and have always loved the various incarnations of Wakanda I have seen. I’ve never been a big fan of the jerky animation style I saw here, but a good story and compelling cliff hanger could still keep attention of fickle folks like me.  Regardless, I’d like to see it for myself.