From Superhero to Tragic Hero: Rethinking Genre and Character in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther

In a 2019 interview with Empire magazine, Martin Scorsese created a small controversy when he dismissed Marvel’s superhero films as “theme parks” rather than “the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being” (“The Irishman Week”). Scorsese’s remarks generated a buzz, and in November 2019, he wrote a New York Times op-ed in which he doubled down on his position. In the essay, he writes that Marvel films do not lack quality but instead lack “revelation, mystery or genuine emotional danger. Nothing is at risk.... They are sequels in name but they are remakes in spirit” (“I Said”). For Scorsese, this avoidance of risk stems from the movie industry’s aversion to loss on investment, so studios produce films that are “market-researched, audience-tested, vetted, modified, revetted and remodified until they’re ready for consumption” (“I Said”). The studios’ profit motive leads to the assembly-line production of franchise films that are known to make money, and this eliminates an essential component of cinema as Scorsese sees it: “the unifying vision of an individual artist,” which is the “riskiest factor of all” (“I Said”). As a result, Scorsese breaks down all contemporary films into two categories: “There’s worldwide audiovisual entertainment, and there’s cinema” with Marvel films belonging to the former, inferior category (“I Said”). Although online apologists of Marvel Universe films paint Scorsese as an out of touch curmudgeon, his extensive knowledge of film history, insider’s perspective of the movie industry, and the sheer number of superhero films released over the past decade suggest he may be at least partially correct. At the time of writing this essay, since the release of Iron Man in 2008, twenty-three Marvel films have been released, grossing billions of dollars, with several more slated for production. Nor is Scorsese alone in his critique of Marvel films as uninspired tripe. Bill Nasson takes Black Panther to task along lines similar to Scorsese, lambasting the film’s formulaic plot, its cartoony computergenerated imagery, and its preachy dialogue. Although complimentary in regards to the film’s representation of Africa, Nasson’s essay characterizes