Black Panther's Killmonger Followed a Real Hero's Journey (Includes Spoilers)

I believe enough time has passed since Black Panther has come out in the movie theater and enough people have seen it that I can finally talk about it without the fear of giving away too many spoilers.

I am not familiar with the original Black Panther comic that came out in the 1960s, so all of my opinons will be based on the film.

(Caution: this may contain spoilers)

Unlike many other comic characters, the role of the Black Panther could be passed to different individials. In the film, two different people assumed the role of the Black Panther–one was a prince of Wakanda and the other was an American born, direcr descendant of the Black Panther bloodline named Killmonger.

In the days that passed after watching the film, I became more and more conflicted with the way Killmonger's character was utilized and introduced. His backstory was that he was an kid from Oakland who grew up in the projects and he lost his father at a very young age. He spent his life trying to get stronger, he joined the military and was in the special forces–all with the hope that he would get revenge on the people who killed his dad when he grew older.

Now, take Killmonger's back story and replace his name with "Batman" or "Spiderman" and there would be the foundation of the typical American superhero.

Honestly, after I watched Black Panther, I was a bonafide fan of Killmonger.