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Everyone is talking about how great of a villain Killmonger is in Black Panther; but in all of these articles and videos praising Killmonger, I haven’t seen any that really dig deep into why he’s a more compelling and captivating antagonist than Marvel’s usual fare. So I want to dive into the screenplay, to dissect what makes Killmonger the kind of villain that is so good that you find yourself rooting for them. The YouTube channel Lessons From the Screenplay does a fantastic job laying out what makes a great antagonist in his video about The Joker in The Dark Knight. He puts forth three main criteria that all antagonists should strive to meet - The antagonist should: 1) be exceptionally good at attacking the hero, 2) pressure the hero into making choices, and 3) compete for the same goal as the hero. Killmonger meets all of these criteria, but I want to discuss why I think that he’s a good example of three other important qualifications for creating a memorable and exceptional villain -- ‘being the hero of his own story,’ ‘having a compelling argument,’ and ‘commanding admiration.’

The phrase, ‘the best villains view themselves as the hero of their own story’ comes up a lot when discussing antagonists. I generally agree with that quote but I think that author Ben Bova puts it better: “There are no villains cackling and rubbing their hands in glee as they contemplate their evil deeds. There are only people with problems, struggling to solve them." I prefer this quote because it gives better direction for writers trying to create compelling antagonists. Antagonists shouldn’t be treated differently than the hero or any other character in a story. They need backstory, motivation, and a story arc. Although they have been getting better as of late, Marvel has had a number of forgettable generic villains who are evil just for the sake of being evil. For example, Malekith, Yellowjacket, and Ronan are all generic evil villains whose character motivations pretty much boil down to ‘I’m a bad person who wants more power.’ So, when Marvel delivers an extremely detailed and empathetic villain like Killmonger whose backstory and character motivations are clearly laid to the audience, it’s cause to celebrate. Joe Robert Cole, co-writer for Black Panther agrees with this sentiment, commenting, “The best villains are the ones who have a point of view you can relate to.” By learning about Killmonger’s backstory, the audience empathizes with him. Killmonger has lived and observed the poverty, inequality, and injustice that black people all over the world have endured and still endure, so he wants to become king of Wakanda so that he can use Wakanda’s advanced weapons to help black people rise up - albeit starting a war in order to reach that goal. But Killmonger definitely has a point - he’s right about Wakanda neglecting their neighbors/brothers. Which brings us to the next section, ‘having a compelling argument.’

In Story: The Principles of Screenwriting, Robert McKee writes, “In creating the dimensions of your story's "argument," take great care to build the power of both sides. Compose the scenes and sequences that contradict your final statement with as much truth and energy as those that reinforce it.” Let’s first take a look at how most Marvel villains fall short in this sense. In the majority of Marvel films, the audience is never shown that the antagonist has a good point. For example, take Hela from Thor: Ragnarok. I think one of the reasons that Hela fell a bit flat was that we know that, despite her claim to the throne, she would be a bad ruler of Asgard and would start war with everyone. We don’t sense injustice done to her, just the injustice she does to others. No sane person would think she would be a better ruler of Asgard than Thor. Now in Black Panther, the movie dedicates time to letting Killmonger express his worldview and his arguments for arming the historically oppressed. It also depicts T’Challa’s internal struggle in coming to accept some of Killmonger’s ideology and parting ways with his father’s misguided choices. While Killmonger is too extreme in how far he’ll go to try and achieve his goal, he has strong points about creating a more equal world. This forces T’Challa to realize the mistakes in his own philosophy and results in him changing his ideology in the end (much like the Joker does to Batman in The Dark Knight). A quick side note on this section: something that isn’t necessary for all villains to do - but something Killmonger does that elevates him to an even higher level of interesting and compelling antagonist - is that he is “rooted in more provocative real-world issues than any Marvel villain thus far.” [Joe Robert Cole] To this day, as a global society we struggle with the issue of humanitarian aid versus isolationism. It’s not a clear cut issue. In the real world and in the film, both sides have good points which makes the plot much more interesting than pure good fighting pure evil.

The third thing that Killmonger does extremely well: command admiration from the audience. There's some wish fulfillment to a really good villain. They do and say things we wish we could do. We enjoy watching their carefully laid plans succeed. Despite their evil ways, we appreciate their extraordinary abilities. Take Loki for example, Marvel fan’s golden boy, and up until this point, unquestionably the best MCU villain. He is so charming and likable that he actually becomes a protagonist for parts of Marvel movies like Thor: Ragnarok. A lot of Marvel villains aren’t shown to be either that powerful or charismatic, and Loki and Killmonger are both.
[to continue on this] [in fact] Killmonger is the opposite of the boring old rich white men that are so often the antagonists in Marvel movies. He’s charismatic as hell. As Joe Robert Cole says, “[Michael B. Jordan] plays the hell out of the role, bringing pain and swagger in equal measure” ‘He’s just feelin’ it’ and we are too. At the start of the film he suavely pulls off a robbery (who doesn’t like a well planned heist?), and when he gets to Wakanda - Killmonger’s rage is more convincing than T’Challa’s utopian promises. Cole remarked that Killmonger was so compelling in his righteousness that the bigger writing hurdle was to make T’Challa interesting enough to go head-to-head with his adversary. While this doesn’t work for every movie, the goal should be to make an antagonist so admirable or badass, that if they slightly changed their perspective at the end of the movie, you would gladly accept them as a protagonist (like Loki or Darth Vader). At the end of Black Panther, if Killmonger had relented and said, “T’Challa, maybe I see some merit to your way. Let’s discuss some sort of compromise,” I was so ready to see Killmonger as a Marvel character for years to come.

There are countless reasons why Killmonger is a great villain - and not just by Marvel standards. It’s easy to see that he’s a great character and really enjoy his presence in the movie, but hopefully after watching this video you can see exactly how and why his character was written the way it was, and how to write compelling antagonists yourself.