#which is so funny considering my main mercy skin is the one from that season i think?

[noots-wears-blue-boots]

time to lock in to get like another 16 ow teirs just for a title wish me luck chat

[amandajoyce118]

Black Panther Easter Eggs And References

Instead of doing a Six Sentence Sunday this week, I thought I’d finally get around to writing up and sharing some Easter eggs and references from Black Panther. I’ve now seen the movie twice, so I think I’ve got a fair amount, but I’m also sure there are going to be things I missed.

If you haven’t yet seen this movie, there are spoilers in my list! So. Many. Spoilers. You have been warned.

I’m not going to give you everyone’s comic book history and what’s been changed for each character for the movie, but what I will say is that I think this is one of the few MCU movies where every single named character exists in the comics, which is pretty fantastic.

The Marvel Comic flip.

Before the Marvel characters and logo appear on screen, the studio still uses the flipping comic book pages to give you a little nod to their history. Usually, the images are the same for the MCU with the Avengers you see across Phase 1. This time, if you blink you might miss it, there’s a Black Panther symbol in those pages.

The history of Wakanda.

The movie’s opening has a father telling his son (you might have that it was T’Challa getting the story when the movie first opened, but that’s definitely Erik being told the story by his father) the story of vibranium landing in the middle of Africa, tribes separating, and Wakanda being built around the vibranium mound. He also details the lineage of Black Panthers. All that is almost exactly out of the comics. The MCU often changes bits and pieces of the story, like it does for T’Challa’s father dying when he’s an adult instead of a boy, but this stunning set up is almost exactly the same.

Oakland, 1992.

Oakland happened to be where director Ryan Coogler grew up and it’s also where the Black Panther political movement was born in the 60s - shortly after the comic book character made his debut. I’m not sure if 1992 is a significant year for him because it’s not for Black Panther. The previous comic book series ended in 1991 and another volume wasn’t published until 1998. It was considered a particular “bloody” year by local papers though. There were 167 known murders that occurred in Oakland that year, which apparently was a record at the time. Since that’s particularly dark, let’s also note that the Oakland Athletics (that’s baseball, folks), finished first in the American League West that year. (When the movie returns to Oakland at the end, that’s also a nod to Coogler’s real life dream: to be able to give back to the community that raised him. T’Challa puts a Wakandan Outreach program in place. Coogler spoke in some of his very first interviews about wanting to bring his movies to Oakland, to film there, to generate revenue for the city, to work with kids that live there in arts programs.)

Public Enemy.

One of the posters on the wall of the Oakland apartment is for Public Enemy, which seems appropriate for a guy in 90s Oakland who wants to bring power back to his people.

The MCU timeline.

The movie references it being a week since the UN conference and T’Chaka’s death, so it’s set right after the events of Captain America: Civil War, putting it right before Spider-Man: Homecoming and Doctor Strange, but also possible happening during the last few episodes of Agents of SHIELD’s third season. So, don’t expect a crossover there.

Killmonger’s mask.

In addition to being inspired by real life ceremonial masks worn by the Igbo, the mask also draws on comic book inspiration. Killmonger wears a mask very similar to the one in the movie during his first confrontation with T’Challa in the comics.

Killmonger’s girlfriend.

So, this might not have been intentional, and this might not even really be an Easter egg, but one relationship long time comic book readers will remember is that of Killmonger and Madam Slay. Madam Slay had trained leopards (and we do see leopard-like spots in Killmonger’s costume later), and she was his right hand for a few issues when Black Panther stories were being told as part of Jungle Action comics. She had a thing for knives and wanted to help Killmonger kill T’Challa. Of course, she was also Wakandan, so maybe the woman seen in the movie isn’t her.

Klaue’s arm.

The cannon in Klaue’s arm is inspired by the comic book design. He has a “sonic cannon” in his arm in the comics, which gets something of a shoutout when he says it’s sonic mining equipment that was used to give him the arm in the movie.

Shuri’s buns.

When T’Challa meets his family off the plane, Shuri’s hair is in a couple of buns. That’s your Star Wars reference as it was meant as an homage to another princess in a galaxy far, far, away. Letitia Wright confirmed the nod in an interview.

“What are thoooose?”

I hear this is a nod to a famous vine. LOL Okay, I have to admit that I was never into vine, but everyone in the theater under 30 found this hilarious. I found it more adorable that Shuri bases her shoe design on Back to the Future. But hey, we all find different things funny.

Mount Bashenga.

Shuri’s lab is inside a mountain named for the first known king of Wakanda that becomes Black Panther. He’s even named in the opening sequence of a bed time story.

M’Baku makes a move toward Shuri.

During the challenge, as M’Baku talks about the things he disagrees with in Wakanda, one of them is “a child” being in charge of the technology. In the comics, M’Baku specifically wants to get rid of all of the futuristic tech in Wakanda. He also, at one point, kidnaps Shuri. So, that brief moment struck me as a nod to that.

So, I’ll also note here that M’Baku is a big departure from the comics, but a lot of things were kept to provide a nod to the source material. Like Nakia calling him the “Great Gorilla” when she meets him because the villain name Man-Ape is pretty racist, no? Her term is more a sign of respect. The skin he wears over his shoulders? A nod to him killing a White Gorilla in the comics in a ritual that gives him the strength and stamina of the animal.

(Also, side note: the movie cut, but set design kept, the Jabari tribe loving the wood from a sacred tree in the mountains and using that to build their homes with. It’s in direct contrast with the high tech Vibranium. Winston Duke also worked with a dialect coach so his rhythms would be closer to different Nigerian dialects instead of South African dialects to differentiate himself from the rest of the main cast, setting the Jabari apart from the rest of Wakanda. It was also his idea to do the barking/grunting sounds as a nod to the comic book source material, but to give the Jabari a way to make an entrance and shut people up.

Okoye complains about that wig.

Honestly, this only struck me because Danai Gurira has to wear a massive wig for her role as Michonne on The Walking Dead. I know she’s spoken at length about loving that role, but I immediately thought her character’s hatred for wigs was a nod to the fact that she spends so much of the year in one.

The Pan African flag.

The stripes of the Pan African flag are green, black, and red, so when Nakia, T’Challa, and Okoye walk into the underground gambling ring in Korea and stand at the guardrail, you’re seeing that flag brought to life. (And for those who think that’s reaching for symbolism, Ryan Coogler confirmed in an interview that was the intention of the costuming decisions in that scene.)

Stan Lee’s cameo.

We all recognize Stan Lee by now, but in case you missed him, he’s one of the gamblers. He talks to Agent Ross and takes T’Challa’s winnings when he leaves them behind.

“Every breath you take is mercy from me.”

T’Challa says this line to Klaue in the movie, but in the comics, he said it to someone else. He said it to Namor following the arrival of Thanos in Wakanda. T’Challa and Namor have a complicated frenemy-ship, we’ll say. I kind of hope Namor (since the rights are back with Marvel) gets to make his debut in a Black Panther movie.

Vibranium from Sokovia.

When Agent Ross and T’Challa chat in the casino, Ross mentions the guy he’s dealing with also having been traced to the events in Sokovia. So, just in case you needed another big flashing sign for an MCU connection, there you go.

The story of El Dorado.

Klaue tells the story of a Golden City, and how people searched for it in South America. In addition to trying the movie to the legend of El Dorado, it’s also a nod to the capital city of Wakanda in the comics, called the Golden City. It’s where the royal family lives and where most of the activity takes place in the comics.

Another broken white boy.

When Shuri makes the comment that there’s another broken white boy for them to fix (after the CIA agent is brought in to have his spine repaired), I actually didn’t think about the fact that Bucky Barnes was cryogenically frozen in Wakanda for safe keeping, though I’m sure plenty others did, but of Hunter, T’Challa and Shuri’s adopted brother. T’Chaka saved the boy after his parents died in a plane crash over Wakanda and raised them with his children. Hunter grew to be jealous of T’Challa and the leader of the War Dogs. He was a sometimes enemy of his adopted brother. Of course, the post-credit scene makes it clear that Bucky is standing in for Hunter since the kids even call him by Hunter’s comic book name, “White Wolf,” even if the timeline doesn’t quite add up.

The influence of African cultures.

Yes, Black Panther is a comic book movie, but Black Panther also takes a whole lot of inspiration from different African cultures. For example, the Dora Milaje are inspired by the Dahomey Amazons, an all female military group that essentially died out after the mid twentieth century. The costuming, the body modification, the language, and even the hairstyles in the movie are all rooted in different African cultures. This twitter thread does an amazing job at explaining so much of what you see in the movie.

It’s also worth noting that you won’t see a Wakandan character in the movie with relaxed hair. Why? The country was never colonized. I believe it was Lupita Nyong'o who explained in interviews that the idea of relaxing kinky hair was brought about by colonizers shaming Africans for their looks. Because Wakanda has never been colonized, the residents have pride in something as simple as natural hair.

War Dog assignments.

The “War Dogs” are referenced several times, but outside of Nakia being called a spy, there’s not a whole of information about them. So, the term War Dog is actually in reference to the Hatut Zeraze, which are the “secret police” in Wakanda in the comics. T’Challa actually disbands them when he becomes King because he doesn’t like the idea of sending out people to assassinate others around the world, which is one of their jobs. The movie appears to have made them literal spies instead of assassins.

Shuri’s gauntlets.

I’m sure a lot of people noticed that she built her gauntlets to resemble the heads of panthers. While that’s obviously a nod to the Black Panther being Wakanda’s hero, it’s likely also a nod to Shuri becoming the Black Panther in the comics. She takes her brother’s place when he’s gravely ill and she also becomes the Queen her country needs.

Over the waterfall.

The moment where Killmonger tosses T’Challa over the edge of the cliff? Taken exactly from the comics. T’Challa survives that fall as well, though he doesn’t get help from M’Baku in the comics since they were enemies as well there.

War Dog cities.

When Killmonger and W’Kabi discuss which War Dogs have responded to his plans to take over the world, they are in very specific cities. New York, London, and Hong Kong are mentioned. Those also happen to be the cities that house Sanctum Santorums in the Doctor Strange movie, which means they’re hot spots for magic, lines between realms, etc. (Though this could be a coincidence as they’re also well known and well populated cities that world wide audiences would recognize.)

Killmonger’s Black Panther suit.

I already mentions that he gets leopard-like spots on it, which could serve as a nod to Madam Slay’s leopards, but there’s more. Black Leopard was the name used for Black Panther briefly in the comics to distance the character from any politics. Killmonger also had a sidekick in the form of a leopard he called Preyy. The gold tones in his costume - and particularly the look of the necklace - are a direct callback to what the actual Black Panther suit most often looks like in the comics as well.

T’Challa wrestles a rhino.

The scene where Black Panther takes down a rhino? Pretty much exactly out of the comics. In his very first comic book run in Jungle Action comics - the run is actually called Marvel’s first graphic novel - he had to wrestle a rhino to the ground in the same way.

Alex R. Hibbert.

The young actor, famous now for his role in Moonlight, gets a cameo at the end of the movie as the little boy who chats with T’Challa about his ship. Ryan Coogler is a big fan of Moonlight and has said that the director actual gave him a lot of support in his career. Hibbert gets the last official line in the movie, though there is a mid credits scene and a post credits scene.