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.
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| ... 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 47th 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
Twitter: @basicsSuperhero
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
killmonger costume
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