SHU alumnus publishes ‘Black Panther’ biography

Todd Burroughs ‘89 recently published a book called “Marvel’s Black Panther: A Comic Book Biography, From Stan Lee to Ta-Nehisi Coates.”

Burroughs said that he has been an avid Marvel fan for most of his life and was always up to date with the new happenings of the universe, whether it be comic books or movies.

Once he saw the new “Black Panther” movie by Marvel, Burroughs said that he felt that there was a story behind the scenes that needed to be told.

He commented on how the writers sculpted the Black Panther into a well-developed dynamic character cool enough to make it into “Captain America: Civil War.” Burroughs said he believes that it was extremely important that the characters portrayed in Black Panther were racially diverse and capable of participating at high levels in a fantasy world setting.

Herb Boyd, Burroughs’ editor and co-author, described his own motivation to write the historical work.

“Our aim, as with all of our projects, is to bring a deeper understanding of the subject, while maintaining a broad tableau of opinions,” Boyd said. “For the most part, we present the views and allow our readers to reach their own conclusions.”

While the book primarily concentrates on the characters’ biographies, it also relates to American history, Burroughs explained.

“Writing about the Black Panther superhero has been important because I think it is always important to show how American popular culture is created and disseminated around the world in the 20th and 21st centuries,” Burroughs said. “Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were imaginauts, and it’s the contents of their imaginations that an entire world has now hungrily absorbed for more than a decade.”

Boyd said he also felt strongly about the connection of the Black Panther characters to American history. He explained that, knowing the film would provoke a lot of discussion, they collected a number of reviews and commentaries with the purpose of publishing an anthology representing the different views.

“The book, like the film, is a commentary on American history,” Boyd said.

“Each interrogates some of the inequities that are part of the nation’s DNA.

We hope the anthology expands on some of the issues the film raises, particularly as it pertains to Afrofuturism, Black self-determination and the imaginative creativity at the center of our cultural matrix.”

James Ryan, a sophomore business and marketing major, said he is a huge fan of the Marvel Universe and thoroughly enjoyed the action-packed film, Black Panther.

“I loved the connections that Marvel made between the several other movies included in the MCU [Marvel Cinematic Universe],” Ryan said. “Also, learning about Wakanda was a big important piece within the entire set-up of this universe.”

Ryan added that he believes the characters of a movie can impact people.

“For the people that watched the movie, it can create a desire to watch the movies that came before the Black Panther within the MCU,” he said. “It could have the opposite effect and turn people away from the rest of the movie. Gladly, this movie was successful and did have a great impact on the community.”

Pierre La Monica can be reached at pierre.lamonica@student.shu.edu.