Black Panther: A Cultural Exploration by Ytasha L. Womack. New York: Epic Ink, 2023. 176pp. https://www.quarto.com/books/9780760375617/black-panther
Judging by its cover, lavish illustrations,
and meager page count, you wouldn’t think Black Panther: A Cultural
Exploration lived up to the scholarly ambitions of its title. Yet Womack
manages to pack a surprising wealth of cultural references and oral history
into this slender volume. Having myself analyzed the Panther by reference to
the aims of his creators, I was fascinated by Womack’s reader-centered approach
to the character. Prior scholarship has problematized the Panther’s status as
the “World’s First Black Superhero,” given Marvel’s all-white creative staff
back in the sixties. Womack implicitly responds to this criticism with a moving
account of the lived experience of the superhero’s African-American fans who,
in that same era, encountered the new character at the newsstand and argued
with their friends about how he was connected to the Black Panther Party. And
she ties this oral history to developments in contemporary history and culture,
from Kwame Nkrumah, the first Prime Minister of Ghana, to the cosmic jazz of
Sun-Ra. In so doing, she encourages us to think of the Black Panther not as
corporate IP, but as one of the shared myths of our culture: “I’d reason that
the Black Panther myth is bigger than its creators, an idea held by fans,
writers, pencilers, and the awed alike—a myth that channels love and
liberation.” Having previously published a book on Afrofuturism, Womack is well
situated to deliver in this effort to claim the Black Panther as a genuine
expression of the African-American experience.
While the first chapter contextualizes
the creation of the Black Panther in the ferment of the late 1960s, the book is
organized not by timeline but by topic: “The Panther Mystique,” “The Wakandan
Protopia,” “The Modern Goddess and Futuristic Warrior Queens,” etc. Throughout,
Womack works suggestively rather than analytically: in the chapter on political
power, for instance, she juxtaposes the Panther with real-world political
figures ranging from MLK to Mandela, but does not explicitly argue any
particular parallel or connection. Some may see this as a virtue, in that it
invites the reader to take an active role in making sense of the Panther’s
cultural resonance. But I would have liked a more detailed account, especially
in regard to lesser-known figures like Kwame Nkrumah. Without such detail, the
reader is hardly in a position to weigh the real significance of Womack’s
musings.
The book’s greatest strength is its
oral history of fans. Besides childhood memories, the interviews offer up a
variety of insights as to the Panther’s political and cultural significance. A
few of those interviewed are famous; many others are identified by Womack as
authors or artists. In a few cases, we are provided with no more than a name,
which left me wondering what principle Womack used in choosing whom to
interview.
Another strength is the book’s format:
lavish full-color images predominate throughout, ranging from comics panels to
news photographs. Comics are a visual medium, and it’s wonderful to see
scholarship illustrated in this way. Too often, due to the cost of permissions,
comics scholars see their work go to print with no illustrations whatsoever. In
Black Panther as well as in an earlier book on Spider-Man, Epic Ink
neatly solved the permissions problem by partnering with Marvel Comics.
But I can’t help but worry that this
cure is worse than the disease. Rights holders like Marvel are unlikely to
partner with scholars who train a critical eye on their history, so in the
marketplace of ideas, such scholarship will be text-only and hence at a
disadvantage relative to visually attractive puff-pieces. Womack’s
wholeheartedly celebratory account—which interrogates neither the politics of
the character’s
early decades nor the politics of Marvel’s creative team—does little to allay such concerns.
Interested readers will have to seek out that richly problematic history
elsewhere.
