Ok so this is my first ever blog post so bear with me here. Ever since I was a child, I have always loved superheroes. They have always captured my awe and imagination and in many ways, inspired me to be more like them. I remember imagining myself as Superman, Spiderman and Wolverine as a child when at times I was not always socially accepted. But that is another story for another time.
As an adult, I look up to a much greater hero who is actually real, and superheroes as types of characters that can be used in stories that authors can use to communicate a message. Today I will be talking about a common theme shared between two MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) movies Black Panther and Thor: Ragnarok. Both T’Challa (the current Black Panther) and Thor are heirs to their perspective kingdoms following the deaths of their fathers. Both of these princes have great reverence, love, and respect for their fathers and both feel the pain from their losses. In the same manner, both T’Chaka and Odin have raised their sons to be the strong men we know and love. However, both of them carried dark secrets that become major adversaries for their sons to deal with in their own perspective stories. During a flashback in Marvel’s Black Panther, we learn that T’Chaka murdered his own brother, Prince N’Jobu, for giving away vibranium. This is a huge no no because N’Jobu swore an oath to protect their home country of Wakanda, thus keeping their prized natural resource a secret. In killing N’Jobu, T’Chaka left his very young nephew Erik “Killmonger” Stevens alone without a father. Several years later, that boy almost murdered T’Challa and threw the world into chaos over his insane world views.
In Thor: Ragnarok, Thor and Loki traveled to Norway just in time to see Odin’s final moments as he confessed to them that Ragnarok would be brought about by Thor’s older sister, Hela. He was forced to sealed her way due to her extremely violent nature, and would only be freed upon his death. So one might ask, how did she become this way? She had a good teacher. Later in the film, Hela enters the throne room of Asgard and destroys a painting on the ceiling depicting a peaceful and diplomatic history of Asgard. Under it revealed the original mural depicting violent military conquests of nine realms of reality lead by Odin and herself. Hela herself turned out to be too powerful for Thor defeat so the only way to stop her from enacting in another meaningless conquest was to destroy Asgard.
Until the scale of the threat was fully realized, neither Thor nor T’Challa knew that their fathers were even capable of allowing such things to happen, especially to family. However, to me, that is a part of becoming an adult in our own lives. Especially as children, we tend to sanctify the admirable adults in our lives until years later we find out that they are not near as perfect as we wanted them to be. While most of us do not have bloodthirsty family members that want to raise an army, keeping dark secrets can have unintended consequences. T’Challa was not only forced to kill his cousin, but also had to fight in a civil war where many of his countrymen had died, and possibly the power of the Black Panther itself for future generations. The price Thor had to pay was the loss of his right eye, his homeland, Milnir, and thousands of his own people. Perhaps in your own life there are people close to you who had betrayed your trust years ago and are still dealing with the consequences to this day? Well just remember that only one man was perfect, and look what was done to him, and why he accepted it willingly. We are all flawed human beings that make wrong decisions and there are consequences. So let’s remember the ones we look up to for the good things they stand for but at the same time acknowledge their faults, and learn how to improve upon them to become better human beings. If you are looking for the perfect hero, might I suggest Jesus Christ. He is not the king of a single nation, he is the king of kings. He is not the leader of a pantheon of gods, he is the “homo utheas”. He is not a comic book character from the imagination of men, he walked on this earth over 2000 years ago. If you put your faith in him, talk to him, and model your life after him, he will make a better you than you could ever imagine.