**Warning: there may be slight spoilers. If you have yet to watch the movie, do not read**

Dear Disney,

Believe it or not, you actually earned a measure of congratulations. It’s only a measure because what happened is mostly due to a company you own, actually did the deed and not something you did 100% on your own.

See, what had happened was, you actually had a bonafide Black prince who became king on the big screen make his debut. Sadly though, it wasn’t in any of the animated films that you have graced audiences with for years.  This king is powerful, is technologically advanced and a superhero. Like some princes portrayed, he ascended the throne through a terrible act that would define how he would be king. It took Marvel Studios to do in less than ten years something that Disney has yet to do. Marvel Studios brought us a credible Black Panther that surprised many of us.

Just as a side note: Anyone who wants to say, “What about Musfasa? James Earl Jones did his voice.” Ummm, I am sorry we are not going to compare an ANIMAL to a human just because that animal was in Africa as portrayed by a Black voice. Please have all of the back seats.

Where was I?   Ah, yes. Disney has a very spotty record when it comes to their princesses who are of color. Many would even debate if characters like Mulan, Tiana, and Pocahontas should even be in the same room with Snow White, Cinderella, and Ariel. While that is a debate for another time, we can say for certain that Disney has never ever had a Black king on the big screen (sorry, Ernie Hudson’s Poseidon does not count here.) until Marvel Studios did it.

Now some of you may say, “Well, we all knew from the trailers that Black Panther was going to be in Captain America: Civil War.” To which I would agree but to what extent? Would he have a minor role to which he may have said a few words? Would he just be hired muscle? Would he just be around long enough for one good fight scene? Because again, we already know Hollywood does not have a good track record with Black characters in their movies with mostly white leads. Some of us are still giving Chadwick Boseman the side eye for allowing himself to be in the god awful (pun intended) Gods of Egypt. Many of us, had our fingers crossed that Boseman and Marvel would do T’Challa justice.   Many of us were pleased. I can go as far as saying that when he initially took the suit, and we finally got to see that entire trailer play out with himself, Cap, and the Winter Soldier chasing each other, many of us lost our collective cools.  We finally got to see this fight play out and it was nothing cut from the trailer.  Before that, T’Challa held his own without the suit and we saw that he was not one to be trifled with.   Black Panther stood his ground with many of his contemporaries and we finally see this played out in a live action movie and it felt good to see the comic pages being done justice to something many of us knew.

However, it wasn’t just how the Black Panther fought that made this movie, it’s how his character is portrayed. This was a character who had conviction. T’Challa had the air of a man who knew what he had to do once he assumed mantle of king. Once his father was dead, T’Challa knew it was time for him to step up  and that was avenge his father’s death and his country’s loss.  He spared no time wallowing in despair and grief. Retribution was coming but it wasn’t going to be blind. Even after Steve derailed T’Challa meting out that revenge on Bucky, he looked Steve in the eyes and said, “The Black Panther has been the protector of Wakanda for generations. A mantle passed from warrior to warrior. And now because your friend murdered my father, I also wear the mantle of king. So I ask you, as both warrior and king, how long do you think you can save your friend from me?”

In my opinion, this was the best part to T’Challa. Marvel could have easily made him into a man who was blinded by rage no matter of the cost and immature. Marvel did not do that. T’Challa was portrayed as a character that knew what his duty to his people was as well as a philosophy of being loyal to his duty as king. Thanks to Marvel, they actually portrayed a character who wasn’t stereotypical or largely beholden of many of the tropes we see in movies. This was done in such a way that many of us who are disenfranchised by Hollywood movies finally could have a glimmer of hope that when the stand alone film comes out in 2018 or so, it may be worth watching. What really made the Black Panther compelling was even at the end of all things, once he knew the entire truth of Baron Zemo’s machinations for causing all of the strife as well as being the real killer of his father, he showed mercy. While the others were still fighting it out, T’Challa was the one who found Zemo. At that point, there was many ways the confrontation could have gone with even the “I am king, I do it MY way.” and having to be talked down from killing Zemo by either Cap or Tony.  But it didn’t happen like that. Zemo even tried to take his own life and T’Challa could have looked on and let him, but instead decided that Zemo would face justice. That, to me is the sign of a leader and something that we rarely ever get out of a compelling Black character on screen.

So Disney, I thank you.   Thank you for allowing a company you purchased to quickly and deftly do a job that still has yet to be done on your end since your creation. Thank you for allowing Marvel to not only bring Jack Kirby’s character to life but do it in such a way that he would be proud. Thank you for allowing us to have at least one king on screen that not only myself but young kids of all colors could aspire to.

Remember as you count the profits, all you did Disney, was buy the company.