Villain Profile: Erik Killmonger

He's hunting Panther tonight.

Yeah, so this isn’t The Punisher or Black Panther. I haven’t had time to make it to the theater or sit down and watch more Punisher. So, I figured its high time for a Villain Profile. And, I also figured, why not talk about a villain that I had no idea about until the new movie came out. Those are the best kind of villains to talk about, especially when they turn out as interesting as Erik Killmonger. Wouldn’t have guessed he’d be fun to read about, with a name like that. I honestly expected him to be more or less a blank sleight that the studio was using because Black Panther doesn’t have all that many household name baddies. I was pleasantly surprised. Let’s get to it.

... Why is T'Challa using a sword? He has razor
sharp claws!

The man that became known as Erik Killmonger was born N’Jadaka in the African nation of Wakanda. His life was peaceful, for a time, but things took a hard-left turn into suck city with the arrival of one man, Klaue. Not to be confused with Dr. Claw, you know, from Inspector Gadget. Ulysses’ Klaue was in Wakanda to steal as much Vibranium from the nation’s Vibranium Mound as humanly possible. To do this, he forced a bunch of Wakandans (using his hired muscle and his scary weapons to do so) to help him transport the material. Thankfully, King T’Challa aka the Black Panther got wind of the scheme and fought his longtime foe. Klaue was defeated and fled the country, for like the 47^th time, but, N’Jadaka’s father was killed in the confrontation. And, to add insult to injury, the Black Panther elected to make an example of these traitors and banished N’Jadaka’s family and the other forced laborers from his nation. Kind of heavy handed leadership, there, T’Challa.

N’Jadaka, understandably, developed an intense hatred for both Klaue and T’Challa. He legally changed his name to Erik Killmonger to distance himself from his home country. Uhhhh… that’s about as on the nose a name as Kilgrave. Just saying. I’m going to refer to him as Erik, as I can’t take the name Killmonger seriously. I hope you understand. Erik dedicated his life to avenging his father’s death, on both Klaue and T’Challa. He worked to get a PhD Engineering and an MBA from M.I.T. He worked hard, and was actually able to convince T’Challa to repatriate him. Isn’t that nice of T’Challa? T’Challa even went so far as to rename Erik’s home village N’Jadaka Village in his honor.

Unfortunately, these apologizes kind of don’t make up for the whole dead parent and living for decades in exile. Erik dedicated himself to overthrowing Wakanda’s government, and defeat the Panther. He gathered an army of followers and razed several villages to attract the Panther’s attention. When the Panther arrived, he sicced his trained leopard Preyy on his ruler. T’Challa was able to snap the beast’s jaw, but was then thrown from atop a waterfall. The Panther survived the fall, though, but had to battle Erik and another of his rogue’s gallery, a snake charmer named Venomm. Not to be confused with the much more awesome Venom. Like, why even go with that name? A digression for another time. T’Challa was able to overcome the two of them, but Erik escaped.

The hell is going on with his hair right now?

He resurfaced several times, working as a high-ranking goon for several of Black Panther’s villains. He was ultimately killed while serving a man called Salamander K’Ruel. But, like sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many villains before him, this wasn’t the end for Erik Killmonger. He was revived by the Mandarin, using one of his Ten Rings, and almost immediately went back to harassing T’Challa. Working in tandem with the Mandarin, Erik and his men stole some Stark Industries tech, kidnapped Iron Man’s best friend James “Rhodey” Rhodes, and murdered T’Challa. At T’Challa’s funeral, Erik revealed himself and claimed the Black Panther mantel for himself… Somehow. So I guess T’Challa’s sister Shuri and other family don’t get a say in things this time. Thankfully, the thing that was killed was actually a Life Model Decoy, a highly advanced robotic body double. In actuality, Black Panther and Iron Man had teamed up to draw out their enemies. That task taken care of, they storm the Panther Palace. They’re able to get the upper hand on Erik and his ally Madame Slay, but Slay revealed that she had Rhodey captive. Iron Man used a life sensor to track down his buddy and flew to the rescue. Unfortunately, Rhodey was being held at the Vibranium Mound. Which is bad. The baddies had also set up a cyclotron on the Mound. Which is worse. Why? Using the cyclotron, they blast the Mound to alter the Wakandan Vibranium into Alaskan Vibranium. For those who don’t know, Wakandan Vibranium is a rare metal that is virtually indestructible. It’s Antarctic counterpart, confusingly also called Vibranium, is also called Anti-Metal. It liquifies all other types of metal. Which is horrible for a whole host of reasons. Chiefly, the Mound has soo much Vibranium, that it could wipe out all the metal in Europe, Asia and Africa. They’re able to disable the cyclotron, save Rhodey, and defeat Erik. The Mandarin recalled his ring, which caused Erik to revert to a fleshless skeleton. Graphic.

Erik was revived again, and actually able to steal the throne of Wakanda. He used a recent Coup D’état lead by Reverend Achebe, the King’s frequent absences, an unpopular Regent and some economic turmoil to force T’Challa into a corner. He then challenged T’Challa to ritual combat for the throne. And, to everyone’s surprise, he came out victorious. Erik was made the Black Panther, and T’Challa was exiled in disgrace. Erik kind of went off the deep end after this, attempting to not only rule Wakanda, but also claim T’Challa’s place on the Avengers. Can you imagine that visit to the Avenger’s Mansion? “Hi, I usurped your friend’s country and stole his title as Black Panther. I’m here to take his hero job too!” Tony gives him a flat look and slams the door in his face. His reign ended, though, as he attempted to consume the Heart-Shaped Herb. This quasi-mystical plant is what gives the kings and queens of Wakanda the powers of the Black Panther, but it is extremely poisonous to those outside the family. I assume he either didn’t realize this side effect, or was so diluted that he thought he could force the Heart-Shaped Herb potion to empower him. Erik ended up in a coma, and T’Challa resumed his post.

Erik later returned and menaced Officer Kasper Cole, whom was a new Black Panther in New York City. He tried to force Kasper into working with him by bribing him with a synthetic version of the Heart-Shaped Herb, all the powers without any of the side effects to non-Royals, and help him find his kidnapped son. Kasper took the bribe, but hunted down his son using the panther powers himself, to avoid having to owe this particular devil any more. Most recently, Erik Killmonger, using his Synthetic Herb, had taken control of Niganda, Wakanda’s neighboring nation and attempted to invade. But, he was killed when an escaped prisoner Monica Rambeau aka Spectrum blasted him through the chest. Probably not the last time we’ll see him. Especially given the movie’s success.

Erik Killmonger was initially just a physically gifted but otherwise human revolutionary. He has a genius level IQ, a PhD and MBA, a silver tongue, and is also multilingual. Since developing the Synthetic Herb, he’s given himself Black Panther like powers. These include, but not limited to, beyond peak human strength, speed, agility, reflexes, and senses. Or, in simpler terms, he can’t out lift the Hulk or out run Quicksilver, but he’s significantly better then your average person across the board. Captain America and the actual Black Panther have proven more than once that being a Jack-of-All-Trades can be better then being a master.

Not so much a Black Panther as a Gold Panther.

To date, Erik Killmonger has only appeared in Black Panther. His origins have been reworked so that he is an American Black Ops soldier named Erik Stevens, nicknamed Trying-Too-Hard… I mean Killmonger. He’s the son of N’Jobu, whom is the brother of T’Chaka, Wakanda’s former king. He’s T’Challa’s cousin, in case that was too weirdly stated. He’d lived in Oakland, California with his father, until a visit from Uncle Chaka. T’Chaka had confronted his brother about stealing Vibranium to sell on the black market. It ended with N’Jobu dying by T’Chaka. He plots to usurp his cousin’s throne, and provide Wakandan weaponry to people of African decent world wide as part of a cultural revolution. Props for giving him such a grand plot, for making him have a legit claim to the Wakandan throne, and for getting Michael B. Jordan to play him. What? He was single-handedly the best member of Fan4stic.

As an amateur writer, I can tell you that one of the hardest things to do is make a good villain. If you make them too sympathetic, they can overshadow your protagonist, but if you make them too monstrous, they come off as either a Saturday morning cartoon villain or an out and out sociopath. Neither is ideal. But, I think Erik Killmonger is a decent balance between the two. We, the audience, can sympathize with his background and hatred for T’Challa and the royal family, but at the same time realize that his goals are just way too extreme to be reasonable. His movie version in particular feels akin to Magneto, someone that suffered immeasurable pain and decided to take it out on others rather then move past it. He’s an interesting villain, and I hope to see more of him in the years to come.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Killmonger
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelcinematicuniverse/images/8/8f/Black_Panther_OCT17_Trailer_58.png/revision/latest?cb=20171016145740

Viewer Log: The Punisher ep 4

So what if you can see the Darkest Side of me? No one will ever tame this animal I've become.

We start off with a little excavation. Veteran kid with obvious PTSD, Lewis, spends the day digging out and reinforcing a foxhole. Why? To sleep in. Apparently. That is so very sad. I hope someone looks after him, I’d hate to see another character reenact the death of Septimus Smith. And now I’m thinking about Mrs. Dalloway again. Damn it. Let’s get to the plot, hopefully lots of violence will get that dull, dull, dull, dull story with a violent ending from my brain.

Is it wrong that a part of me wanted him to pull the trigger?

Frank assaults a man that is living out of a cargo container. Don’t worry, it’s just Turk. You know, the sleazebag from Luke Cage. Apparently, he’s gotten into arms dealing since the last time we saw him. Frank came to steal a few supplies from him, but, unfortunately the intel they got was off. Turk didn’t get he small armories worth of guns and ammo, and instead only has a single, pink rifle with no bullets. Frank knocks him out and returns to base. At base, Micro is watching his family via the camera network he has set up around the house. I think we’re supposed to take this voyeur thing as a sweet, touching moment, but I just find it incredibly creepy. He’s interrupted by Frank’s return. Frank is rather miffed at Micro about his information being off, but the computer wiz just says that he only knows what the cops know. As they’re the ones that he keeps hacking.

Meanwhile, Stein and Madani are working on a couple of cases. Well, Stein is working on getting the guns Frank was after from a group of Greek mobsters, while Madani is still more focused on Wolf’s murder. They’re interrupted by the arrival of their boss’s boss, Rafael Hernandez. Hernandez was apparently the one that had recruited Madani way back when, and is just stopping by to give her a reality check. He basically tells her that, Wolf’s murder is being handled by another department, and that he wants her to keep her nose to the grindstone. Did I use that expression right? I mean, he wants her to focus on the job’s she’s assigned to, as they’re what’s going to get her into a position where she can do some good. She agrees, extremely reluctantly.

I'd be willing to bet that Curtis never thought he'd be counseling
someone in a foxhole after leaving the army.

Okay, now I’ll cover Lewis’s story in one paragraph. Ready? Go! Lewis is visited in his little fox hole by Curtis. Curtis, trying to be helpful first and foremost, advises Lewis to restructure it slightly, as if it’s all level he’ll probably end up drowning when it rains. Lewis tells Curtis to sod off, essentially, and that he’s going to join the Private Military Contractor (PMC) Anvil. He wants to go back to the war, where things made sense. Now I’m thinking of The Things They Carried. It’s a better story then Mrs. Dalloway but still pretty depressing. After hearing a very, very supervillainy speech from Russo, Lewis excels in training. He pushes himself hard, and yet also takes the time to push his fellow applicants to their limit. Which is good. But, Curtis has doubts. I guess Russo called him in for a consult. Curtis feels that Lewis, while motivated, is a ticking timebomb. Russo, despite his own reservations, cuts Lewis. Lewis is clearly furious about this and storms off. Huh, hopefully that won’t bite anyone in the butt.

 Micro is looking into getting Frank more guns. It must be kind of frustrating to be one of the few superheroes that can run out of his weapon of choice. Just saying. Frank, needing an outlet, takes the time to clean the guns that they have. He even cleans Micro’s pistol, as part of a passive aggressive attempt to make Micro feel bad about not performing proper maintenance. And that will be the only time the phrase ‘passive aggressive’ fits Frank Castle. They’re interrupted in their conversation by a call from Sarah Lieberman, Micro’s wife. Apparently, she needs Frank to sign a “I won’t sue you” document before her insurance will pay for the repairs. Micro is clearly not happy about this situation, but tells Frank quite… hm… do I want to say frankly (in an open, honest, and direct manner) or Frank-ly (in a Frank Castle like manner, i.e. being an asshole) … Frank-ly that he’s not going to help until his family’s car troubles are resolved. What a classy guy.

Frank goes over to the Lieberman house, while Micro watches over the cameras. Apparently, the Lieberman kids are handling their current household situations in two very different, equally unhealthy manners. The son, Zach, is being a passive aggressive little pain in the ass. He actually tries to shoulder bump Frank to show off how ‘macho’ he is. And the daughter, Leo, (yes you read that right) is taking on as much household responsibilities as she can. That’s better way to handle it, but at like 14, that’s a good way to get yourself burnt out on life, fast. Frank helps the family unclog their disposal, and offers to fix the car himself. Seems like Castle might be going a bit native at the Lieberman house.

Micro is able to hack Homeland securities data base right around when they’re planning to hit the Greek’s arm deal. Stein has a plan that Madani improves upon, and Micro gets all the data on it. After showing the info to Frank, who was spending time tuning a guitar, he claims that they need wheels. We then cut to some criminal types torturing a pair of dudes. Well, finishing torturing one, and starting to torture another. Frank comes in, and in classic Punisher fashion, distracts them for a moment with a dummy grenade and then mercilessly un-alives them. He brings Micro in after finishing the last guy. Shockingly, David Lieberman doesn’t take the sight of the carnage super well. He’s just barely able to bite back vomit. They steal a car. Micro gives Frank a look when he hops in a Mustang, to which Frank replies “Always buy American.” Hold on a second. Say Ma, if you’re reading this, turn to Dad and tell him I think he’d like Frank Castle. Give him no other context.

It's amazing how much a flamethrower helps in decision
making, isn't it?

Frank finishes prepping their ride just before Homeland begins their sting operation. Micro tries to back out of the field work, but Frank pretty much guilts him to helping. Basically, he throws Sarah’s words at Micro, stating that he was never the type to get his hands dirty, and that’s got to change. They head out. Micro turns on some really loud techno music after hacking Homeland’s comlinks. This provides enough of a distraction for Frank to hop on the truck and steal it. He leads Homeland’s tail car around a bit, before parking in an empty lot. When the agent’s arrive and pop the back door, he’s got a flamethrower in hand. He tells them they have five seconds before their either wet or fried, they choose wet. Frank and Micro meet. He has Micro take the truck while he uses the Mustang. Unfortunately, Madani choses to go after them in her own vehicle. Frank leads her from Micro using the Mustang. Which feels like an odd choice for her. You’re choosing to play tag with the Mustang, rather then try to chase down the much slower truck? How odd. They end up playing Chicken, which is ended with Micro T-boning Madani’s car with his truck. Frank tells Micro off before pulling Madani from the wreck. She wakes up enough to recognize him. He takes her gun, before warning her to stay out of his way.

This episode had a nice mix of action and character moments. We see both sides of Frank Castle here. The savage killer, as well as the kinder family man that I think a huge part of him still wishes he could be. There’s a moment where he’s chatting with Sarah, and seeing how hard the Lieberman’s have it now that Micro is in the wind, when he offers to help fix the car. And that’s after fixing their garage and garbage disposal. Now, a lot of times, I’d see something like that, real world or in fiction, and think that he’s angling for something. Like leverage on Micro, or something. But that’s not the sense I get from Castle. It just feels like that, he sees a family in need, and regardless of how he feels about Micro, he can’t stop himself from helping them where ever he can. Frank, once, was a very good man, and despite the level’s he’s sunk to, to do what he thinks is justice, he still has that spark of humanity that refuses to go out. I’m also rather surprised that I enjoy Lewis’ story arc. I mean, most of the time I’m bored completely by TV original characters and their stories, but this kid is just too tragic to dislike. He is lost, unsure of where he stands in the world now that he literally can’t be a soldier anymore. Which is especially interesting since his time as a solider is what clearly broke him. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a tricky bugger, isn’t it? I’m almost as curious about how his story will turn out as I am about The Punisher and Micro’s. Next time, I’ll either cover Black Panther, or the next episode, depends on when I get to the theater.

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Viewer Log: The Punisher ep 3

Get up, come on get down with the sickness. Open up your hate, and let it flow into me.

Alright, so, when we last left Frank Castle, he’d tracked down the mysterious Micro to his secret lair. He then knocked the former analyst out, intent on getting some answers. This should be… interesting. Violent, but interesting.

I bet Micro is remembering when being strapped naked to a
chair while deactivating a failsafe via a retina scanner would
have seen odd.

Frank wakes David Lieberman aka Micro up with a bucket of water. Apparently, since being knocked out, Frank has stripped David down to his birthday suit and zip tied him to a chair.  Now, despite this… undignified situation, David tries his best to convince Frank to trust him and work together. Frank, shockingly, doesn’t say a word and just stares at David. Frank’s excellent attempt at intimidation is interrupted by David’s computers blaring an alarm, and a 3-minute countdown starts playing on the monitor. David tells Frank that, unless he puts in a shutdown code, it’ll set off a bunch of bombs, destroying his lair and more than likely killing them both. Frank waits it out, but eventually decides to let Micro shut it down. It turns out the shut down requires a code, and a retina scan to disable it. David is paranoid as heck.

After Frank threatens Micro one more time, he gives Frank a breakdown on what happened to him. We flashback to when things in David’s life were actually pretty good. He had a decent, but boring, job, a loving family and all that jazz. But, he was given a CD with potentially damning info on it. After speaking with his wife, David decided to access the info on the CD. It had the footage of Zubair murder. David forwards the footage to his superiors. A short time later, the Lieberman family is on a trip somewhere. David notices some military types slowly approaching from behind. He tells everyone to stay in the car before bailing. He’s chased down by several NSA agents, led by Agent Wolf. Wolf and co corner Lieberman. He tries to talk them down, but this is kind of obviously a hit. If the guys in black with assault weapons in NYC weren’t enough of a clue, Wolf shouts GUN even though Lieberman clearly doesn’t have a weapon of any kind. He’s shot, and pitches back into the bay behind him. All while his wife watches. That’s traumatic as hell. He explains that his cell phone in his pocket is what saved him, and that afterwards Wolf and co tweaked the narrative to make Lieberman seem like a traitor.

We’re going to condense the side stories into one paragraph. Why? Because they’d just be like a sentence long otherwise. Don’t judge me. Madani and Stein are looking into Director Carson Wolf’s death. They’ve got no leads, other then the disturbing discovery that Wolf had roughly six million dollars in offshore accounts. Yeah, I don’t think even an NSA director should have that much money in offshore, numbered accounts. With the other side characters, Curtis and Russo meet up. We learn that Russo is the one that bankrolls Curtis’ veteran support group. They then head out to Frank’s grave and have a drink in his ‘memory.’ Curt nearly tells Russo that Frank is still alive, but holds it back, for some reason. Afterwards, Curtis has another group meeting, where one of the vets, a kid named Lewis, shares. He tells the story of seeing some friends killed via friendly fire from an Apache, and then saw it spun by the PR people as them getting killed in an ambush. Lewis later nearly kills his father after a PTSD moment.

David, why did you let them lead you to a secluded area?

Back with Frank and David, Frank is ‘upset’ that his captive lied to him. Frank checked the place out and found exactly zero explosives. Micro explains that this is actually a countdown to his computer sending a CC recording of his lab to the various news networks. He assumed that, should the NSA or other group find him, they’d execute him. So, sending the video would be his final ‘screw you’ to his murderers. So, him disabling the failsafe is really useful for Frank. Micro disables the failsafe again. Afterwards, Frank flashes back to joining Schoonover’s unit a few years back. The group is black ops, codenamed Operation Cerberus, and run by a man they call Agent Orange. Nothing shady about that. Frank and his buddy Russo are made the team leads for their group. Their missions are covert, black ops type things. They perform some shady stuff, hits mostly, but things only start going really bad when Cerberus ‘interrogate’ Officer Zubair. He was clearly uncomfortable with interrogating a police officer like this, but, like many a soldier, follows orders. We learn that Frank was the one that killed Zubair. Wow, that’s dark.

Back in the present, Frank has another nightmare about his wife. Turns out, his dream is the whole “loved one is murdered by masked figure, and the masked figure is me,” dream. That’s screwed up. He’s awoken by the alarm blaring again. Micro tries to convince Frank to work with him, again, but Frank still has zero interest. But then, Micro reveals his plan. See, each time he typed the code into his computer, he used a mechanical pencil to hit ENTER. Each time, the lead is pushed out further. Turns out, this isn’t a pencil, but a James Bond style hypodermic needle. He injects Frank, knocking him out.

Frank flashed back to a mission with Cerberus. During the mission briefing, Frank points out that this feels like a trap. They’re going into a hostile location, that’s terrain makes air support and/or extraction difficult, under the cover of darkness. Yeah, that feels like a trap to me, and I have no military experience. Russo agrees with Frank, but they go with the mission anyway. Low and behold, it was a trap. Guys are getting killed, bullets are flying everywhere, and Schoonover lost an arm. Frank… kind of snaps, and goes Rambo on these guys. He kills ALL of them, and only seems to only get a minor GSW to his shoulder.

Don't need a psychology degree to get the symbolism of
this dream.

Back at base, Agent Orange rather callously asks if they were able to kill their target. Yeah, most of your men are wounded, your immediate #2 has lost an arm, and both your team leads are coated in blood, now is the time to ask if they had time to finish their job while everything was going so far south they hit the Antarctic. Frank decks him and starts flipping out. Russo tells him to calm down, and if he thinks he can’t keep up with this job any more, ask for a transfer. Like he did. Frank, unfortunately kept going. In the present, Micro once again asks for Frank to work with him. Micro wants to be the guidance system for the Punisher’s metaphorical missile. Frank finally relents, on one condition. That he, Frank, gets to kill them all, everyone tied to Cerberus. Micro nods and says he can live with that.

This was a solid origin story episode. Sure, we’ve gotten the broad strokes about Frank’s pasted in Daredevil season two, but the more details, the better. Frank’s time at Cerberus was clearly a time where his faith was shaken. His duties to his country kept him going, but by the time they assaulted that compound, he was clearly on uneven footing. Which might explain the whole, snapping and killing an entire enemy crew all but single handedly. When Micro, in one of his attempts to win Frank’s trust, lets him know that Cerberus was never officially sanctioned, you could almost see a little of his soul chip away. He wasn’t a soldier serving his country, he was a mercenary, and that distinction was what kept him going. There’s a nice little parallel between the Punisher and Micro. Both were doing what they felt was their civic duty, they both did things they weren’t proud of, and they were both ultimately betrayed by the system that they believed in. A very sad course of events. Also, finding out what Wolf did prior to his run in with Frank, made the whole assault and murder that Frank did to him seems much more satisfying. Random thing I noticed, so during a slight break while with Cerberus, Frank was playing his guitar while his buddy Russo read a book. The book? The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde. Not sure if it’s relevant at all, it’s just a very specific book for a guy to be reading in a warzone. And, considering the story involves a young man that remains handsome and beautiful, while a metaphor for his soul withers, I don’t see how it could be irrelevant. All I’m saying. So, now the missile has its guidance system, time to watch the fireworks. 

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