OK...So I saw Black Panther yesterday and I was blown away. It was amazing. It lived up to all the hype and was just incredible. One reason the movie is so good is Micheal B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger. Jordan is just electric. Every scene he is in, he steals it. But I could go on all day about the movie and do a review, but I want to talk about how Killmonger really isn't a villain per say.
Spoilers are ahead so if you haven't seen the movie turn back now, but come back after you have. The stuff that Killmonger does in the movie some would say is villainous, but he has a clear and well-thought out motive. All the past Marvel villains sought to either destroy or rule the world. Killmonger wants to show the world who Wakanda is and take the people who are oppressed in the world, give them something to fight with, and shift the way the world works.
N'Jobu, Killmonger's father and T'Chaka's brother tried to do the same, he saw people killing people, the rich getting richer oppression getting worse and Wakanda doing nothing and he was going to do something. But teaming with Ulysses Klaue was his downfall, and that is way Killmonger kills Klaue, and it also gains him the trust of the Wakandans who wanted Klaue dead for so long, but King T'Chaka could not provide that for them. Killmonger's motives have a racial undertone to them as well, as in the end he says as he dies, "Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors who jumped from ships, cause they knew death was better than bondage." And in the opening scene when we hear the story of Wakanda and the Black Panther, we see slaves being loaded on ships, while in the background Wakanda is growing and developing doing nothing to stop this horrible occurrence. Killmonger is a young boy in California in 1992 during the L.A. Riots, a time of civil unrest and uncertainty. T'Challa even tells his his father that they are the ones who created Killmonger. T'Challa tells his father that Wakanda can no longer sit by and do nothing for the outside world. Erik Killmonger or N'Jadaka's actions are villainous, yes. But motive, no. He sees wrong in the world, oppression and racial unrest. He sees that his supposed "home" has done nothing about it for centuries and it is his turn to do something about it. It is his turn to be the hero!