11 Best Things The MCU Did Differently To The Comics
3. Making Nakia A Hero - Black Panther
Marvel Studios
For all the amazing things Christopher Priest did on Black Panther, the characterisation of Nakia - a member of the Dora Milaje in the comics - was not one of them. She starts out as one of T'Challa's bodyguards hoping to eventually wed him, and when her advances are eventually spurned, things take a turn for the worse.
Nakia eventually rebrands as the villain Malice, who works alongside Killmonger to conspire against the Wakandan government. To say that such an arc would've wasted the talents of Lupita N'yong'o would be putting it lightly, and by the time Black Panther released in 2016, audiences were relieved to find that not only had the Dora Milaje changed, but so too had Nakia.
The ceremonial wife angle was dropped, but the Milaje continued as Wakanda's elite Special Forces. Nakia fought as a spy, while figures like Okoye headlined the military unit.
It just works better, and with calls for N'yong'o's Nakia to get her own spin off, it's clear that Marvel's fans agreed.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
