Even What If..? Fails to Do Killmonger Justice

Erik Killmonger is perhaps one of the best villains in the MCU. 

In Black Panther, he manipulates and murders the white arms dealer Ulysses Klause to get hold of Wakandan technology and tries to use it to free the oppressed African people from all over the world. But he also attempts to usurp T’Challa’s throne. And despite T’Challa empathizing with his fight, Killmonger is declared to be too “radicalized” and consequently defeated and killed.

Of course, with Marvel’s play-it-safe policy, it makes sense that an interesting and subversive character like Killmonger is a villain. As his very moniker suggests, he is portrayed as someone who wouldn’t hesitate to kill and betray his people if he believed it served the greater good. In fact, he is so dangerous that unlike other white villains (like Loki and Zemo, who get lots of redemption points and screen time despite their propensity to violence), he is summarily killed by the end of the film. This, in turn highlights Marvel’s own preference for liberal fence-sitting and pandering to the status quo.

Image via Marvel

The new What If…? series that reimages key MCU events in alternate settings features an episode starring Killmonger. But here, too, he is portrayed as a villain who saves Tony Stark in order to backstab him. He orchestrates a war and lies and manipulates the Wakandans in order to become the new Black Panther. Although he is somewhat successful here, he is still a villain with excellent strategizing skills.

But perhaps, a larger question that Marvel needs to answer is this: why does Killmonger need to be a villain at all?

After all, he is fighting to end the racism and oppression that Black people have been forced to endure for hundreds of years. By showing him to be extremely violent, power-hungry, and cruel (who wouldn’t mind killing civilians and innocent people to achieve his goals), Marvel reveals its complicity in erasing the crimes committed upon the Black population and showcases the Avengers (who are mostly white and extremely privileged) in a better light than they actually are.

Characters like Killmonger who are fighting for the right cause but with the “wrong” means never get their justice— either onscreen or in real life.