In just one week, Black Panther has made more than half a billion dollars at the box office, shattering box office records and giving us one of the MCU’s greatest villains in the process. A sequel is all but guaranteed, but a Black Panther sequel could mean doom for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Specifically Doctor Doom.Allow Markeia McCarty to explain what could be coming down the pipeline for the MCU in Phase IV and beyond.
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With Disney’s looming acquisition of 20th Century Fox, Marvel could soon have a whole host of characters to bring into the MCU: the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and iconic villains like Doctor Doom, to name a few. Conveniently, all of those characters intersect to fight for the fate of Wakanda in a 2010 Marvel Comics storyline called “Doomwar,” which would be absolutely perfect for a Black Panther sequel.
In “Doomwar,” Doctor Doom overthrows the Wakandan government, seizes the country’s Vibranium reserves, and he even manages to win the favor of the Panther God Bast through his sheer dedication to villainy. And that is just the tip of the evil iceberg. Doctor Doom is basically a perfect villain for Black Panther. He’s ruthless, iron-willed, and ferociously intelligent. Plus he’s the king of Latveria. Who better to challenge a king than another king?
However, in order to stop Doctor Doom and his army of magically enhanced Doombots, Black Panther is going to need a little help. If T’Challa wants to save the day, he’s going to need another Black Panther–his sister Shuri–as well X-Men like Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Psylocke; the Fantastic Four; Deadpool; and an elite strike force of the Dora Milaje known as the Midnight Angels.
Can’t you just picture that? With the rest of the world’s superheroes dealing with other threats, who can Black Panther turn to? The newly arrived cavalry, fresh off of their stint studying abroad at 20th Century Fox. Not only would this give the Black Panther sequel an epic sense of scale in order to follow up its tremendous debut, but it would be a seriously savvy way to meaningfully integrate these Fox-owned characters into the MCU. Seeing Deadpool slicing and dicing his way through Doombots with the Dora Milaje’s best and brightest is the stuff of which comic book dreams are made.
But perhaps most importantly, “Doomwar” isn’t a story of brute force or spandex-clad slugfests. It is a story of political intrigue, intellectual one-upsmanship, and hard choices, Case in point—and spoiler alert for those of you who don’t want to know what happens—in order to save the lives of his people, Black Panther must sacrifice their economic livelihood by rendering all of the world’s Vibranium inert. Plus, “Doomwar” even features Black Panther inventing a new branch of science called shadow physics that combines alchemy and quantum physics. When’s the last time Tony Stark invented an entire scientific field?
But what do you think? Do you agree that “Doomwar” would make for a killer Black Panther sequel? What storyline do you think Black Panther 2 should follow? Let us know in the comments below.
Images: Marvel Comics
Sources: Marvel; Wikia; Comic Vine
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Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@DanCasey).
