Black Panther’s Shuri Is the Genius Movies Need Right Now; Comic Book Resources, January 27, 2018

Hannah Collins, Comic Book Resources; Black Panther’s Shuri Is the Genius Movies Need Right Now

"“As far as the technologically advanced side, in our mind, and in our incarnation, Shuri is the head of the Wakanda Design Group,” Moore explained of Shuri’s role during a Black Panther set visit. “She’s the smartest person in the world, smarter than Tony Stark, but she’s a 16-year-old girl, which we thought was really interesting. Again, black faces in positions of power or positions of technological know-how, that’s a rarity. So it’s something that’s a big part of the film.”

There are plenty of strong, smart black women in superhero comics — Storm, Spectrum, Amanda Waller and Misty Knight, for starters — but super-intelligent ones who can rival the genre’s heaviest intellectual hitters are few and far between. That isn’t a problem exclusive to comics, though. When we think of a stereotypical genius in any medium — comics, prose, television, film — we tend to envision a white man. Upon further deliberation, we might conjure a white woman, or a black man. But a black woman? While superhero comics aren’t solely to blame for that, it doesn’t mean the industry can shirk the responsibility of tackling the problem, especially when the likes of Marvel and DC Comics wield such mighty cultural influence at the moment. In fact, Marvel has made a pointed effort to rectify that disproportion in recent years with the introduction of Riri Williams and Moon Girl, the latter of whom now holds the title of smartest person in the Marvel Comics universe; Letitia Wright’s Shuri will ascend to that throne in the Marvel Cinematic Universe when Black Panther premieres next month."