Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Black Panther

-

There's a lot to love about Ryan Coogler's Black Panther, but few could have anticipated that Winston Duke's M'Baku - originally a villain in the comic books - would emerge as a clear fan-favorite. M'Baku is leader of the Jabari tribe, the only Wakandan tribe to refuse to submit to the rule of the Black Panther, and despite his initial antagonism he proves to be a valuable ally in T'Challa's (Chadwick Boseman) fight against Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan).

Black Panther is Duke's first ever film role, though he's previously appeared in TV shows like Person of Interest and Modern Family. M'Baku is also set to return in this summer's Avengers: Infinity War, which will see the nation of Wakanda play a pivotal role in the Avengers' first clash with Thanos.

Related: Every Record Black Panther Has Broken

Interestingly, M'Baku was nearly left out of Black Panther altogether, due to the problematic nature of the character's original design. In the comics he was better known as "Man-Ape," and he wore the skin of a gorilla - head included. He's not the first Marvel character to be updated for modern times, but he is definitely the biggest success story so far - especially when compared to earlier efforts like the Mandarin and the Ancient One. Here's a breakdown of M'Baku's origins, and how Coogler and Duke turned him into one of Black Panther's best characters.

M'Baku's Comic Book Origins

Man-Ape - First Appearance - Marvel Comics

M'Baku a.k.a. Man-Ape first appeared in the pages of The Mighty Avengers #62 (1969) (later reprinted as Jungle Action #5), by Roy Thomas and John Buscema. While T'Challa is away adventuring with the Avengers, he leaves M'Baku - whom he considered and a friend and ally - in charge of Wakanda. However, M'Baku isn't satisfied with simply being a temporary ruler, and when T'Challa returns with the Avengers, M'Baku tricks them into drinking drugged wine. He then reveals himself to T'Challa wearing the guise of the White Gorilla - regalia that T'Challa had forbidden because of the White Gorilla's legendary reputation as "the most savage [and] merciless of beasts."

The rift between T'Challa and M'Baku is fundamentally religious, with T'Challa worshipping the Panther God, and M'Baku worshipping (and deriving his enormous strength from) the White Gorilla. These alliances carried through to the MCU's Black Panther, in which T'Challa and the other Wakandans worship Bast, while M'Baku and the Jabari worship the Hindu monkey god, Hanuman.

Related: Every Black Panther Character Returning In Avengers: Infinity War

As in the movie, M'Baku challenges T'Challa for the throne in ritual combat, meaning that the other Wakandans cannot intervene. In fact, the battle is as much about politics as it is about combat prowess; M'Baku claims that T'Challa has "sold [him]self to our white-skinned enemies," and T'Challa's soldiers demand that he prove the usurper wrong, and prove that he hasn't grown soft during his time away. The two battle fiercely, but Black Panther is ultimately saved by the intervention of the Avengers, who bring a massive panther statue down on M'Baku's head, crushing him. In a eulogy for his former friend, T'Challa declares:

"He was a living anachronism... strange to the ways of civilization! M'Baku had only ever lived by brute strength alone! And so, faced with a world more complex... more subtle... He could only ever battle on until the end."

Christopher Priest's M'Baku

Black Panther - Gorilla Warfare

Though M'Baku is a classic and long-running Black Panther enemy, he's not an easy character to adapt for the big screen in the 21st century. The idea of black character called Man-Ape, who dresses as a gorilla and opposes efforts towards civilization, has some very unfortunate implications. Speaking to Screen Rant on the set of Black Panther, producer Nate Moore explained that, "The character of M'Baku has always been problematic. Man Ape is an image that I personally find offensive and can be offensive if handled incorrectly." Because of this, M'Baku is never referred to as "Man-Ape" in the movie - only by his name, or as "Great Gorilla."

The version of M'Baku played by Duke is primarily based on the character's depiction in Christopher Priest's critically-lauded run of Black Panther comics, published from the late 90s to the early 2000s. Priest's M'Baku wanted a Wakanda that was "unsullied by bankrupt Western culture [and] the evils of technology," and led a group of fanatics called the Cult of the White Gorilla, who had made their home in the so-called "forbidden lands." However, Priest cast this iteration of M'Baku in a more sympathetic light by elaborating upon the persecution that had led to his villainy. The Jabari's worship of the White Gorilla was considered blasphemy by other factions in Wakanda, and so T'Challa publicly condemned the tribe - inadvertently causing them to become outcasts, shunned and hunted by the rest of Wakanda. As Moore explained, the movie built upon the idea of M'Baku and the Jabari as outsiders in their own country.

"The idea of the character that we especially borrowed from the Priest run specifically, of this guy who is the head of the religious minority in Wakanda, that's fascinating. That's something that's real. That's something that we felt we could ground and give him a real character story that made him worth including. So defining the world of Wakanda and how M'Baku and the Jabari fit in that world was important in making that character work at all. Otherwise, we would have just taken him out."

That was a solid foundation upon which to build the character of M'Baku in Black Panther, but the reason that the movie version of the character is so good comes down to two things: great casting, and the reinvention of M'Baku as a heroic figure.

Winston Duke as MBaku in Black Panther

Black Panther's M'Baku

When M'Baku first appears in Black Panther, he appears to a clear-cut antagonist. He emerges during T'Challa's coronation ceremony, surrounded by the chanting Jabari, wearing gorilla fur, and condemning the king-to-be for failing to protect his father, and for allowing 16 year-old Shuri (Letitia Wright) to lead the Wakanda Design Group. He doesn't seem to be opposed to the technology itself, but rather the fact that a teenage girl is in charge of developing it. The Jabari's homelands do appear less technologically advanced than the Golden City, but that seems to be more to do with their status as outcasts - shunned by the four other tribes, and ignored by the kings of Wakanda for centuries.

Without the super-strength of the Black Panther, T'Challa is quickly overwhelmed in the battle with M'Baku - injured and nearly defeated. He eventually manages to turn the tables, but instead of killing M'Baku outright he pleas with him to yield, arguing that his people need him. After resisting at first, M'Baku finally relents after looking up at the faces of his tribesmen. This is crucial for two reasons: it establishes that T'Challa doesn't hate M'Baku, and even has a certain amount of respect for the Jabari; and it reveals M'Baku as a man who genuinely cares about his people, and is willing to suffer the shame of defeat in order to stay with them. "He's a leader," Winston Duke explained, in an interview with Screen Rant. "He's not just someone being driven by his own ego... he's a leader with people's best interests at heart."

Related: How Black Panther Changed Comic Book Killmonger for the Movie

M'Baku doesn't have a great deal of screen time in Black Panther, but he has a powerful character arc that takes him from being an enemy of T'Challa, to the lesser of two evils, and finally allows him to emerge as an unlikely savior during the Dora Milaje's battle with the Border Tribe. Crucially, he also plays fair. Unlike the version of Man-Ape in the comics, who was willing to scheme and double-cross his way to the throne, Black Panther's M'Baku begrudgingly accepts his defeat and, when offered the heart-shaped herb, does the honorable thing and turns it down, allowing T'Challa to take it instead.

Perhaps the biggest and best change from the character in the comics (whose defining character traits were anger and a lust for control of Wakanda) is that M'Baku is funny. He is serious when he wants to be, but he also makes jokes (and laughs at his own jokes) - treating the Wakandans who approach him for help with sardonic amusement. "I'm sure you could," he chuckles, when T'Challa tells him that he could use the help of the Jabari army in his fight against Killmonger. "But no."

In an earlier moment, which has earned a lot of laughter from audiences, Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) attempts to weigh in during the Wakandans' appeal for help - only for M'Baku and the Jabari to shout him down with a series of gorilla barks. It's the kind of scene that could have come across very badly, if executed differently. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Duke explained that Jabari simply don't recognize the association between with gorillas as potentially racist - because they've never really experienced racism:

œThey haven't been affected by colonialism and all the narratives that are associated with developing a sense of inferiority and people comparing them to animals. To them, this is just who they pray to, and they find their strength and agency in this religion. So being a bit gorilla-influenced was a sense of pride for them.

More than anything else, M'Baku may prove to be a blueprint for how Marvel can deal with adaptations of problematic characters from comics that were written half a century ago - something that the studio has attempted before. Ben Kingsley's Mandarin in Iron Man 3 caused an uproar when it was revealed that this caricature of a "Yellow Peril" villain was actually just that: a caricature, created by a drunk British actor. The move certainly subverted the stereotype, but also outraged many hardcore comic book fans. Doctor Strange tried a different tactic with the character of the Ancient One - a stereotypical wise old Asian master - by simply making him white, and a woman. Far from side-stepping controversy, this actually created an even greater backlash when Marvel was accused of white-washing the character.

Black Panther's M'Baku works so well because, rather than trying to tiptoe around the problematic elements of the character, Coogler took the most interesting aspects of his character in the comics and embraced them. The Jabari's worship of the White Gorilla and their love of tradition is treated as a strength, rather than as something awkward that the movie must try to tiptoe around.

Ultimately, M'Baku is one of Black Panther's best characters because he's the perfect foil for T'Challa. "The panther is sleek, the panther is sneaky, the panther is covert," Duke explained to Vanity Fair. "The gorilla will show up and bang on his chest and make noises to warn you about what is about to happen if you continue to cross the line. We don't hide, we don't sneak. We come through the front door.

More: Black Panther Review

Key Release Dates