We need heroes. 

Humans, for as long as we’ve been human, have made up stories to explain things, to give warnings, to inspire. Fictional heroes exist in every culture, and they serve the important function of inspiring goodness and greatness in those who listen to the stories. 

When I heard the news that actor Chadwick Boseman passed away, it hit me in the gut. I’m not going to lie, I cried.

If you don’t know me, I have to explain that I am a huge Marvel fan. My favorite superhero is Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. the Winter Soldier. If you don’t think he’s a hero, we’re going to fight, then I will subject you to my TED Talk about the many reasons JBB is awesome.

Marvel as a franchise has done an excellent job of inclusion, representation and diversity in its comics and movies. There are superheroes of every color, religion, gender, species, and ability. 

They have disabled superheroes (Professor X), superheroes who have no powers and obtained their skills through practice and determination (Hawkeye). They have female superheroes (Captain Marvel), smart superheroes (Tony Stark) and superheroes dealing with PTSD (my boy Bucky) and mental illness (too many to list). They have LGBTQ+ superheroes (Warlock). They have superheroes of every race (Falcon, Storm, Ms. Marvel, Jubilee, Thunderbird, Black Bolt, etc.).

And don’t come at me with “That’s a fictional character.”

Representation in the culture in which you live matters. Seeing people who look, talk, believe, love like you do portrayed on television, in movies, in literature, is vitally important.

While we all need heroes to inspire us, children are particularly in need of heroes to look up to. Children need stories and heroes and the inspiration they bring. How many little kids started out wanting to be Batman or Superman and grew up to be police officers or soldiers?

What is just as important as having a hero is having a hero that looks like you.

While the comic books have a wide assortment of heroes, in America, Black children didn’t have a superhero that looks like them on the big screen until Black Panther. Children of other races didn’t have a non-white superhero in front of them until Black Panther (Luke Cage isn’t a show for kids, and while DC does have Cyborg, his skin color is so covered over with metal as to almost not be there).

Chadwick Boseman did that with multiple roles, but the one that I think has had the widest impact was Black Panther.

Black Panther was a movie made with kids in mind, and there is a whole line of toys created around the movie. Kids can dress up as Black Panther. They can wear shirts and hats with Black Panther, they can play with toys of Black Panther.

Most importantly, they can watch a movie about a superhero and see, not just a side character that looks like them, but a whole movie where almost everybody looks like them, where people who look like them are the stars, both on the good side and the bad side.

Boseman took on that role, both on the screen and off. He had to have known how important this role was for kids, and he embraced it, gave it his all. He is inspirational both on and off the screen, and the world is poorer for his loss.

So, while not conflating the actor and the character, for many Chadwick Boseman was Black Panther. His passing is cause for mourning for the way he stood before us and showed us, all of us, this is what a hero looks like. 

 Eve Copeland-Brechbiel is a reporter with The Tifton Gazette.