Green-Eyed Monsters
The Green-Eyed Monster is a long-time traditional metaphor for raging jealousy. This may—or may not—be worth keeping in mind when one comes to what is arguably the single most striking piece of visual imagery in a single panel in the entire comic book. About two-dozen vibranium miners are shown with exceptionally creepy glowing green eyes and teeth bared in a half-grimace, half-smile. The only text in the panel is a thought expressed in narration from Black Panther about how the miners—his children—have discovered hate. Jealousy breeds hate. But is this imagery that speaks directly to the well-known metaphor intended to implicate that? The panel occurs very early on in the comic, so one must wait for the answer.
Lawrence of Arabia
Interestingly, there has been no—or, at least, none easily found through a simple internet search—analysis that sees what seems to be a rather obvious allusion or parallel in the imagery of the text. Tetu’s arrival into the proceedings is marked by a series of panoramic panels strongly recalling the wide-screen introduction of the character Ali in the film Lawrence of Arabia, right down to the shimmering mirage of his Tetu’s shadow. The parallel, of course, extends well beyond the visual imagery.
Imagery as Exposition
Although the writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates has been criticized for a lack of action and excitement, from a literary perspective, it gets the job done efficiently. Exposition is, for most writers, the worst part the actual storytelling process. Information that needs to be gotten out often inherent lacks the drama that would make it interesting to convey. Coates manages to effectively skirt around this issue early in the comic book by disguising the lame process of filling in the backstory as almost Shakespearean imagery:
“Wakanda is in chaos, mother. Roads are infested with robbers. Farmers are cut down in their own fields. Villainy rules. Justice is a slave. Your daughter, Shuri, or queen, has vanished. Our returned king rules from a shaky throne. This house has fallen.”
Foreshadowing
Coates also reveals his talent—painfully underestimated by some readers—for using language as it should be when working within the domain of literary technique. The problem for Coates, unfortunately, may simply lie in the fact that he is a bit too subtle for those who raised mostly on comic books and fantasy series. The subtlety in Book I will not be revealed until later installments when it will require the astute reader to turn back and take specific notice of not just the foreshadowing, but the irony here:
“You have said it yourself: villainy overwhelms us. And your answer to this villainy is to turn the upholders of Wakandan law into its flouters.”
