“Wakanda Forever” revolves around grief, loyalty, vengeance and territorial security, and its music - both the “inspired by” album and a separate “Original Score” album by Goransson - is largely somber, even ominous. She prays for protection over swelling strings and choir-like voices, but still sounds vulnerable.
While the song is a careful international alliance, nothing upstages Rihanna. Its pop superstar attraction is the reappearance of Rihanna for the album’s opening song, “Lift Me Up.” The Nigerian singer Tems shares the songwriting credits and joins the backing vocals a traditional Mexican group, Mono Blanco, adds backup vocals and plucked string instruments, joined by a West African kora. Marvel introduced Namor decades ago as the ruler of Atlantis, but now - perhaps as an opportunity to address colonialism, perhaps for demographic outreach, perhaps for the angular graphic impact of feathers and beads - his domain, Talokan, is tied to Indigenous Mexican culture, equating Namor with Ku’ku’lkán, the Mayan feathered serpent god. The second franchise installment, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” adds another culture to the mix: an undersea realm ruled by Marvel’s long-running character Namor, the Sub-Mariner. And for the film soundtracks, collaborations between Hollywood pros - notably the Swedish composer of the orchestral score, Ludwig Goransson - and African musicians. On the screen, that has meant inventing Wakanda as a disciplined, high-tech African nation. They’re expected not only to deliver action, thrills and special effects, but to remediate an entire genre’s longstanding stereotypes and to provide honorable representation for previously marginalized cultures. The Black Panther films shoulder far more responsibilities than the many other products of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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