Black Panther’s 8 Biggest WTF Questions

Full SPOILERS follow for Black Panther. Make sure to check out IGN’s spoiler-free review.

While we love Marvel’s Black Panther, that doesn’t mean we still don’t have some lingering questions about what went down in it.

Here are the eight biggest WTF questions we had after watching T’Challa’s long-awaited solo film, starting with …

Killmonger had the Heart-Shaped Herb destroyed. So does that mean the Black Panther line of succession truly ends with T’Challa? That no one else can ever gain those super-powers again without the elixir made from from the herb? While anyone can put on a Vibranium suit not everyone can gain the powers of the Black Panther without the Heart-Shaped Herb.

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Black Panther Director Answers Our Big Infinity Stone Question

With Black Panther hitting theaters, IGN talked to director Ryan Coogler about the Infinity Stones, those powerful gems that big bad Thanos is after in Avengers: Infinity War.

Warning: full spoilers for Black Panther!

As it turns out, the Black Panther movie does not include an Infinity Stone. Given that it’s the last movie before Avengers: Infinity War debuts in May, we theorized that Black Panther would be where we discover the last of the six Infinity Stones, the orange-colored Soul Stone, but that’s not the case.

Here’s what Coogler said when we asked him why Black Panther didn’t feature an Infinity Stone.

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Black Panther End Credits Scenes Explained

The Black Panther movie has two end credits scenes, so we’re going to explain what they mean for the future of T’Challa and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Warning: beware of spoilers!

Let’s start with the post-credits scene first, which shows a small Wakandan village where Bucky is being rehabilitated by Shuri. The last time we saw Bucky was in the post-credits scene to Captain America: Civil War, where he was put in cryogenic stasis until he could be cured of his trigger-word brainwashing.

Marvel Comics released a story that fills in the gap between these scenes called Avengers: Infinity War Prelude #1. There, Shuri explains to T’Challa that she put Bucky on ice in order to scan his brain and do tests on a digital copy of his mind. Her goal was to remove the trigger words and “reboot” his brain, with the challenge of not damaging his original personality.

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18 Changes Netflix’s Altered Carbon Made From The Original Books

Adapting Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon as a TV show was a tough ask. The series consists of three books that intricately detail a sci-fi future where technology has made immortality an everyday fact of life, and fitting the story of Takeshi Kovacs into a single 10-episode Netflix series represents several unique challenges.

In order to make the story work in a different medium, the show had to make a number of changes. While some are far more drastic than others, all of them end up setting the show apart from the books it’s based on. New characters were added or removed while others were reimagined to the point that they may as well be the show’s inventions entirely. Other plot elements were added or dropped, altering the story very mildly in some cases and enormously in others.

Here’s 18 of the ways Altered Carbon, the show, is different from Altered Carbon, the book.

Black Panther Review Roundup: What Are Critics Saying About Marvel’s New Movie?

The time has finally come. The reviews for the next installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are out. Black Panther won’t be in theaters until February 16, but critics are sharing their thoughts about the movie and, so far, it’s very good news.

The film, which follows King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) in the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War, has been met with unanimous praise by critics thus far. Reviews are touting everything from its visual design, to its representation of race and gender, to its soundtrack. Thankfully, it seems as though the story and characters explored in the movie are also well-received–save for some minor criticism of T’Challa, himself.

With a score of 88 on GameSpot’s sister site Metacritic, the future of Black Panther appears to be bright. Take a look at a sampling of reviews below for a better idea of what critics think.

  • Movie: Black Panther
  • Studio: Marvel
  • Release date: February 16

GameSpot

“[Wakanda] pulses and thrives, colors and structures simultaneously informed by African heritage and an alienness granted by vibranium technology. The original songs by Kendrick Lamar fit perfectly, lending each scene both modernity and an added sense of history. And the characters who live there easily cement themselves in this movie as some of the most fully fleshed out in the whole MCU.” — Michael Rougeau [Full review]

The New York Times

“Race matters in Black Panther and it matters deeply, not in terms of Manichaean good guys and bad but as a means to explore larger human concerns about the past, the present and the uses and abuses of power. That alone makes it more thoughtful about how the world works than a lot of mainstream movies, even if those ideas are interspersed with plenty of comic-book posturing. It wouldn’t be a Marvel production without manly skirmishes and digital avatars. Yet in its emphasis on black imagination, creation and liberation, the movie becomes an emblem of a past that was denied and a future that feels very present. And in doing so opens up its world, and yours, beautifully.” — Manohla Dargis [Full review]

Nerdist

“The film does deal head-on with issues of race, subjugation, and oppression in ways both heartbreaking and hilarious. At one point, a young black boy in a rundown apartment in Oakland, California ([director Ryan] Coogler’s hometown), dismisses the idea of Wakanda itself: What good is “a kid in Oakland, running around believing in fairy tales”? Coogler answers that question with the film itself: Here is a fairy tale for children who rarely get them, and never like this.” — Marc Bernardin [Full review]

IGN

“For a film that touches on so many very real and very serious topics, you might expect Black Panther to be an entirely solemn affair. Some parts are, but it’s also an entertaining adventure film about an action hero with awesome gadgets and a super-suit, a fun film with many laugh-out-loud moments, and a gorgeous movie with a distinctive visual style that can’t be mistaken for any other big-budget movie. It’s a testament to director/co-writer Ryan Coogler’s skill that he juggles all these elements without his film ending up tonally inconsistent.” — Jim Vejvoda [Full review]

Collider

“This movie is a game-changer, and for all the valid critiques you can throw at Marvel, the studio deserves credit for bankrolling Coogler’s fearless vision. You have to go back to 1998, back to Blade and Wesley Snipes for the last time Hollywood launched a superhero franchise led by a hero of color. Since then, there’s been Catwoman (oof) and supporting roles. Never in our lifetime has there been a superhero blockbuster so intently invested in the black experience, in the importance of identity and heritage, and the tragedy of being denied those things. ” — Haleigh Foutch [Full review]

Variety

“Truth be told, T’Challa is kind of a bore, even if the movie that surrounds him seldom fails to thrill: He’s prince of a utopian city with little interest in the fate of the world beyond his borders–until his father, King T’Chaka (John Kani), is assassinated during a bombing at the Vienna International Centre (a flashback to Captain America: Civil War). Though the Black Panther who made his impressive, hyper-acrobatic debut in that film is one and the same as the character seen here, Coogler humanizes him to such a degree that T’Challa doesn’t feel like a superhero so much as a deeply conflicted world leader — albeit one who must defend his title via brutal hand-to-hand bloodmatches (in a ritual that suggests a considerably more primordial, and decidedly anti-democratic, form of governance).” — Peter Deburge [Full review]

Rolling Stone

“If you’re thinking you’re in for another macho power trip, forget it. The women are more than a match for the men in this game, from the iconic Angela Bassett as Ramonda, T’Challa’s widowed mother, to the ready-to-rumble Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, T’Challa’s ex-love and a spy for Wakanda in the outside world. And wait until you see the dynamite Danai Gurira–Michonne on The Walking Dead–fire on all cylinders as Okoye, head of Wakanda’s all-female Special Forces known as the Dora Milaje. Her head shaved, her eyes beaming likes lasers and her weapons at the ready, she is the living definition of fierce. And there’s no beating the smarts and sass of the wonderous Letitia Wright, who brings scene-stealing to the level of grand larceny as Princess Shuri, T’Challa’s kid sister.” — Peter Travers [Full review]

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Play These Xbox One Games For Free Right Now

If you don’t already have enough to play or are simply looking to mix things up, you’ve got some options right now on Xbox One. Three different games are hosting free-play weekends, two of which don’t require Xbox Live Gold.

The first two are NBA 2K18 and Rainbow Six Siege. 2K18 is the latest game in the basketball sim series, and while its Virtual Currency microtransactions are objectionable to some, the on-court action is quite good. Siege, meanwhile, is the continually evolving competitive shooter from Ubisoft. It’s undergone a remarkable transformation since its launch in 2015, and it continues to go strong, with a big update coming up soon.

Both of those games are playable even if you don’t have an Xbox Live Gold membership, which is often a requirement to take part in these free-play events. You will, however, need an active Gold subscription to check out the third game, Blizzard’s hero shooter, Overwatch. As with previous free trials, you’ll be able to play the majority of the game, including all heroes and maps in Quick Play, Custom Games, and Arcade. As it happens, the game’s Lunar New Year event is ongoing, giving you a chance to unlock some cool new Year of the Dog skins.

Progress made during any of these trial periods will carry over to the full versions if you ever decide to purchase them. NBA 2K18 and Siege’s free events run from now through February 18, and both games are on sale on the Xbox Store this week; the Overwatch free event runs through February 19.

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