Posted in: Comics | Tagged: captain america, civil war, comics. entertainment, death, rumour, spoilers

Will Captain America: Civil War Death Rumour See History Repeat? (SPOILERS)

Published Sat, 08 Aug 2015 12:00:42 -0500

***WARNING*** This article refers to possible spoilers regarding the Captain America: Civil War movie that have been prominent of late. Read on, knowing this.

The death of Black Goliath in the Civil War comic at the hands of Clor back in 2006 caused considerable controversy, for its time. Promoted as a major death, it was seen as an example of the Black Dude Dies First trope. Still at his giant size, the late Bill Foster was buried six feet under (although at that size, he should probably have been buried a lot deeper unless you want the whole graveyard to start stinking up the place). His son ended up taking on the role as Goliath, in the Revengers team.

Is it really going to be repeated in the Captain America' Civil War movie?

That is the popular rumour de jour, that the original elder Black Panther T'Chaka,is going to be killed, give us a funeral scene and inspire his son, T'Challa, to take on the mantle, into the Black Panther movie.

It's not just "Black Dude Dies First" but the "Black Dude With The Word Black In His Name Dies First And His Son Takes Over" trope. Is it a trope? Well we may be about to get two examples, one in the comic and a different one in the film…

Back in 2006, then-Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada told Newsarama

With respect to Black Goliath, I had some readers protest the fact that a black character was killed off. In Young Avengers/Runaways the complaint came in from some readers who were upset that some of the gay characters were put into torturous peril by the villain of the story. In Marvel Team-Up, Freedom Ring, the lead of the story, who happens to be gay, dies in the series. Let me also add that the majority of those complaints came in from black and gay readers respectfully.

Now here's the way I see it. I'm Hispanic, and there is a serious lack of Hispanic representation in comics today, so I'd personally love to see more Hispanics as lead characters or heroes in the future. However, by me asking for and desiring that kind of inclusion into the world of mainstream comics, I have to accept all that comes with that. Heroes are placed into dangerous situations, sometimes heroes get killed, sometimes they get placed into torturous peril and yes, sometimes they get attacked by the Brood. For me to ask for inclusion and then to find exception to the things that come with that inclusion is then in effect me asking for special treatment and exclusion from the process.

Whether we get anything like this, is a different matter…