Okay, so I’m still feeling pretty
burnt out, so I think that I’m going to delay Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
for the beginning of 2023. Sorry, but a full-length movie feels like a lot
given the last few days. But, to at least do something Black Panther themed, I’ll
do a quick Villain profile for one of T’Challa’s big villains, M’Baku. Fair
warning, I’ll only be referring to him by his real name for this one. Again,
sorry, but I just feel a little dirty referring to him by his supervillain alias
the Man-Ape. Like, I felt ill saying it that one time to acknowledge that is in
fact his name. M’Baku is overall a minor character in the Black Panther mythos,
but his prominence in the MCU makes me think that he’s going to be given greater
focus in the years to come. Enough preamble. Let’s get to it.
I honestly don't know if Gorilla
beats Panther or not.
M'Baku began life in the Jabari village
in the outskirts of the African nation of Wakanda. M’Baku trained relentlessly and
became known as one of the country’s greatest warriors. As he grew in skill and
renown so did his ambition. Wanting to take control of the nation and return it
to a ‘survival of the fittest” mentality, M’Baku made plans for a coup while T’Challa
was away working with the Avengers. He revived the cult of the White Gorilla to
meet this end. The cult had been outlawed by the ruling Panther cult centuries
before. To show off his dedication and to make himself a match for the Black
Panther, M’Baku hunted down and killed a rare white Gorilla that lives in the
mountains of Wakanda. He ate its flesh and bathed in its blood to imbue himself
with mystically enhanced strength. He also took to waring the skin of the
gorilla he killed in like Hercules did with the Nemean Lion skin.
When T’Challa returned to Wakanda
with the Avengers, he found M’Baku waiting, and the gorilla skin usurper challenged
his king to trial by combat. M’Baku planned to defeat T’Challa and outlaw the
advanced technology and return the country to a simpler, survival of the
fittest lifestyle. After a long battle, M’Baku bested T’Challa. He tied the king
to a statue of the Panther God Bast and intended to push it over and crush him,
but the statue instead crumbled, burying M’Baku. T’Challa returned to New York
to continue working with the Avengers, believing his enemy dead, but M’Baku was
dug up by his supporter N’Gamo and he began to prepare for another battle with
the Black Panther.
M'Baku became a recurring villain
for T’Challa. He often served on villainous teams as the villain opposite of
the Black Panther. He served on the Lethal Legion, a villain team run by the
Grim Reaper. This didn’t last long, as the Reaper is openly racist and obviously,
he got fed up with that. He also worked with an incarnation Masters of Evil.
Weirdly, he did get an invite to T’Challa’s wedding where he and Ororo Monroe
(aka Storm) where he tried to pick a fight with Spider-Man after he got totally
wasted on scotch. Sounds like a wedding with my family. Ha. I wonder if he ever
got pissed off that Killmonger got to usurp T’Challa’s place as king of
Wakanda. I can’t seem to find a summary that talks about them interacting. What
are you going to do?
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He's really in your face, this guy.
M'Baku was a strong man and gifted
fighter before he gained his superpowers. After bathing in the blood of and
eating the flesh of a sacred white gorilla, M’Baku gained enhanced strength,
speed, agility, stamina, and durability. Your standard Strongman powerset.
M’Baku is a recurring antagonist and
rival to T’Challa in various media. His portrayals vary from generic to truly
noble.
M’Baku was a minor villain in the
excellent The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, portrayed by Kevin Michael
Richardson. In the short episode “Welcome to Wakanda” M’Baku challenged T’Challa’s
father T’Chaka for the throne. T’Chaka was bested and killed by M’Baku, with
unseen help from the evil Ulysses Klaw. T’Challa fled the country and went to
New York to seek aid from the fledgling Avengers. While he’s away, M’Baku and Klaw
made plans to sell the Vibranium Mound, one of Wakanda’s most precious
resources, to HYDRA. In “Panther’s Quest” T’Challa returns with his allies and
battles M’Baku again. Despite using the same device that let him best T’Chaka,
T’Challa is able to defeat M’Baku and later Klaw, who’d turned into a monster,
and free his people.
.png)
Biggest villain glow up since Marvel comics
made The Prowler's nephew a Spider-Man.
A significantly more heroic version
of M’Baku appears in the MCU. M’Baku is portrayed by Winston Duke. In this
continuity, the Jabari are one of the tribes of Wakanda, the only one that
originally didn’t want in on the pact that formed the nation of Wakanda under
the Panther tribe. He’s never referred to by his alias, but it’s made reference
to in the fact the Jabari worship a gorilla god named Hanuman instead of the Panther
God Bast, and they wear armor stylized after Gorillas. M’Baku even has a habit
of beating his chest like gorilla as a combination personal psyche up and intimidation
check against his opponents. He first appears with the Jabari during T’Challa’s
coronation ceremony, where any member of the five tribes can challenge the
prospective king to single combat without his powers. T’Challa and M’Baku
fight, but the Panther beats the Gorilla by getting him into a grapple. He
returns later when T’Challa’s mother Ramonda, his sister Shuri, agent Ross, and
his girlfriend Nakia flee Killmonger’s hostile takeover of Wakanda. They offer
him the Heart-Shaped herb if he’ll fight Killmonger and avenge T’Challa but he
instead informs them that T’Challa is alive and receiving medical aid from
them. During the climax, he and the Jabari arrive at the last minute to help T’Challa
regain control of Wakanda.
In later MCU projects, M’Baku
serves as one of T’Challa’s advisors and confidants. By the events of Wakanda
Forever, he’s been placed as an advisor to the dowager Queen Ramonda after
T’Challa’s death and tries to be a friend and ally to the grieving Shuri, to
mixed results.
When I started writing this post, I
had assumed that M’Baku was the Black Panther’s version of the Abomination, or
Venom, or even Whiplash, but honestly his sparce appearances and list of accomplishments
is way more reminiscent of the Scorpion when I did research for his post. A visually
iconic villain that is a physical match for the hero but has rarely done much
to distinguish themselves as a real threat. I have to assume that’s at least a
little bit due to how… ookie… it is to have a Black man wearing the skin of a White
Gorilla. HP Lovecraft called; he wants his extremely ham-fisted metaphor back. Another
could be that he just sort of serves as a starter villain for T’Challa, much
like the Enforcers did with Spider-Man. He is the baseline that T’Challa builds
off as he begins facing off against more cunning villains. Or, he might have
just been following T’Challa’s path, as it were. I saw Wakanda Forever at
the Alamo Drafthouse theater. For those whom have never been, they like to
start MCU movies (possibly others) with a sort of ‘spotlight’ that gives
context on the history of the characters and their portrayal in the MCU and
behind the scenes stuff. It’s how I learned that for Dr. Strange, the MCU hired
a dancer who specialized in specifically finger movements to help Benedict
Cumberbatch come up with the movements for Strange’s spells. For Black Panther’s,
one of the artists that was interviewed pointed out there was a ten or fifteen
year time span where T’Challa was there with the Avengers, but he really
didn’t do anything. He was stuck in a holding pattern, so I guess his villains
might have been too. Who knows. I kind of hope that the comics are considering
giving him an alignment make over to make him more of a support character to T’Challa
than as an antagonist. What? I like Winston Duke and would like his portrayal
to be canon. I’m not apologizing. I have greatly preferred the honorable,
heroic M’Baku to the dastardly villain, and again, I’m not apologizing. And
that’s all I have to say about that. Next time, The holiday special. I’ll see
you there.
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