Black Panther: M’Baku’s transformation from page to screen

Marvel’s Black Panther is full of surprises and chief among them is the character M’Baku. Not only for the scene-stealing performance by Winston Duke, but the overall appeal of the character. A stark contrast with his comic book counterpart.

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When it was announced that Marvel planned to use M’Baku in the film, some were concerned. The character, also known as Man-Ape, could have been difficult to portray on the screen without racial undertones. The character is African, proudly refers to himself as ‘Man-Ape’, and wears a gorilla suit. A quick Google search will turn up hundreds of memes and articles about our former President and First Lady routinely being referred to as apes. This is a slur that dates back centuries as Africans were considered sub-human and compared to monkeys.

The creators of the film were very aware of these problems and sought to fix them. The first decision was made to not refer to him as Man-Ape but only as M’Baku. The second decision was to avoid putting him in a gorilla suit and to simply use fur and a chest plate to create the appearance.

While the physical transformation was important, the writers seem to have also changed M’Baku’s relationship with T’Challa. This will be important to watch in Avengers: Infinity War. But first, we need to give you some background.

M’Baku in the comics

In order to fully understand the transformation, you must first know the M’Baku of the comics. Created in 1969 (3 years after Black Panther was first introduced) M’Baku’s relationship has almost always been that of an adversary.

His first transgression is the one that gives him his abilities. Long ago, the Black Panther outlawed the White Gorilla cult. However, as Black Panther leaves Wakanda to work with the Avengers in America, M’Baku revives it. He stalks and kills a rare white gorilla, then bathes in its blood and eats of its flesh. Through this process he is able to absorb the power of the white gorilla. His listed abilities include the following:

• Superhuman Strength: He has the ability to lift 10 tons
• Super stamina: He can exert himself at full capacity for hours before feeling any effects.
• Enhanced Agility: His agility is described as being greater than that of top athletes
• Enhanced Reflexes: His reflexes are described as being greater than those of top athletes
• Super-human Durability: Unlike the average human, he is able to withstand blows from powered beings and survive a fall from several stories up with little effect.

Per: Marvel.wikia.com

Clashes with T’Challa

After gaining his abilities, he challenges T’Challa upon his return to Wakanda. His goal is to outlaw technology and to return Wakanda to its primitive roots. He actually defeats T’Challa in this battle, however he makes a “fatal” mistake. He ties T’Challa to a large panther statue but when he tries to break the statue to crush T’Challa, he ends up burying himself in the rubble instead. T’Challa assumes he is dead and returns to America to help the Avengers but M’Baku is revived.

Round 2

Later, The Grimm Reaper recruits M’Baku to join the Lethal Legion so they can take on the Avengers. M’Baku makes the trip and ends up being defeated by Captain America during the fight. After this, T’Challa says that if he returns to Wakanda, he will face the death penalty. M’Baku, at this point, accepts his defeat and for a while takes simple mercenary missions across the globe.

Round 3?

Eventually The Grimm Reaper gets him to come back to America for another shot at the Avengers. He returns for a while but eventually decides that The Grimm Reaper is just too racist for him to continue to work with. He eventually just leaves the team.

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M’Baku in the film

The M’Baku described above does not sound much like the one that audiences around the world are falling in love with. Yes, he does challenge T’Challa in combat after he returns from fighting with The Avengers, but that is where the similarities stop. Unlike the comic battle, M’Baku loses during Black Panther. If the MCU planned to use M’Baku later as a rogue character in a team-up of some sort, they could have shown him later licking his wounds or plotting revenge but they don’t.

The next time we see M’Baku is after T’Challa is thrown off the waterfall by Killmonger. Queen Ramonda, Princess Shuri, and Nakia bow at his feet and offer him the last heart-shaped herb. A M’Baku who was blindly ambitious would have devoured the herb, become the strongest person in Wakanda, and immediately destroyed the technology without looking back. However, the M’Baku in the film honors the throne and instead shows them that his men pulled T’Challa from the water. He could have ended T’Challa but instead is keeping him alive by placing him on ice.

Not only that, but he and the Jabari show up during the battle between W’Kabi’s men and Okoye’s women at a point where the Dora Milaje have been surrounded. They help turn the tide of the battle before Okoye and W’Kabi finally let love prevail. We later see that M’Baku has brought the Jabari back to the table as he appears in the last tribal council.

Winston Duke’s words

In several of his interviews, Winston Duke has talked about his version of M’Baku. He says: “this is a thinking M’Baku.” In particular, during the scene where he returns T’Challa to his family, M’Baku displays this thinking. According to Duke, M’Baku is aware of the way that he is perceived because of his appearance and plays into this. When he jokes that he’s going to feed Everett Ross to his children, no one hesitates to believe this as a possibility. He then laughs it off and tells the group that he is a vegetarian, but he knew that the line would be effective.

He shows his playful side again during this scene after T’Challa’s health is restored via the heart-shaped herb. During a very serious moment he makes sure they know he is unimpressed and asks if they are finished yet.

Fan reactions to the character

Every aspect of the character has been praised by some groups. The most vocal among them has been the ladies. You can find any number of articles referring to the overall attractiveness of Winston Duke in the movie, as he has been catapulted to sex-symbol status. This role was a far cry from the only other role I’d seen him in personally. He played a “blind side” type role on Modern Family, as a large teenager who was the star of the football team. I was shocked to hear that he was cast, but after the movie I will be shocked to not see him everywhere in the near future.

Besides the love from the ladies, there was also the #MBakuChallenge. A trend where fans recorded themselves reciting the character’s lines from the film, including his iconic speech during challenge day at warrior falls. Even Duke couldn’t help but enjoy the videos.

His future in the MCU

Given the fan reaction there was no doubt that M’Baku would make another appearance in the MCU. The only question that remained was when. Some worried that we might not see him in Avengers: Infinity War. That is until a fan paused the trailer in just the right spot to catch M’Baku in the background of an important scene.

Next: Killmonger is the best villain in the MCU. Period

We know M’Baku will be in the next Marvel film, but we don’t know if he will now be more of an anti-hero than a villain forever. M’Baku is against technology and the hates the outside world. We only see the latter in the way that he treats Everett Ross, but the point is established. Though M’Baku appears to be friendly with the throne now, it would likely play well on the big screen if they can find a reason to have him turn on T’Challa.

Perhaps, after the events of the Infinity War, or Avengers 4, M’Baku blames T’Challa for whatever casualties there will undoubtedly be. With the battle taking place in Wakanda, there will be many lives lost in the great nation. I would expect the fallout to be a new challenger to the throne, or a return of an old one.

Right now, the hottest choice for the next Black Panther villain is Madam Slay. In the comics Madam Slay teams with Killmonger to try restore Wakanda to its old ways. However, the MCU could definitely team up Madam Slay and M’Baku. I don’t think his new fans would complain about this union.

We’ll keep our ears to the ground for more news on a sequel but in the meantime enjoy Black Panther (and M’Baku) in theaters everywhere.