Is Marvel Afraid of Namor’s Bump in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever?

Consider for a moment the plight of the penis-wielding superhero actor.

Pretending to embody and embody impossible physical ideals is a huge challenge Also Wear elaborate costumes modeled after the outfits drawn on the site without paying much attention to physics. Also, these costumes aren’t built for real life, they’re built for the big screen. That makes being a real human sometimes an inconvenience — dicks can get in the way of what a superhero movie is trying to achieve. In the case of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the mission is often to portray heroes as conventionally attractive and devoid of sexuality as possible. Sometimes that’s difficult.

This came to my mind the week after the release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Crew members shared behind-the-scenes footage on social media, and f ans spotted a very special clear difference to the finished material of the film

Before we continue, it should be noted that “costume” is a generous term. In the comics, Namor’s most iconic outfit is a green Speedo made out of some sort of shed, coupled with his bad attitude. For Namor’s debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the outfit was made a bit more elaborate. The Speedo has been swapped out for form fitting swim shorts and complemented with lots of jewelry that doesn’t Yes, really functions as a shirt but can be charitably described as a breastplate. However, the math of the situation is simple: put someone with a penis in swimming shorts in the water and the results can be revealing.

Bulge is a regular concern in superhero costume design, as form-fitting costumes intended to highlight or enhance idealized physiques leave little to the imagination, and even help it through the design. But cultural notions of “appropriateness” also need to be considered, and Disney is perhaps the most rigid in its quest to be the most “family-friendly” megacorporation in entertainment. Usually this means working very hard to deny that sex exists or that humans are capable of it.

As many on social media have noted, this leads to the hilariously funny and very plausible assumption that somewhere in a Marvel or Disney office there are people working very hard to edit every piece of footage that has a touch of penis, lest the world be outraged at the existence of genitals. (A Disney publicist did not respond to Polygon’s request for comment.)

From that perspective, it’s ridiculous. People have tails! Context isn’t salacious, and making a big deal about something is a great way to draw attention to it.

There are a few other plausible explanations, though – Disney’s soft-wittedness about dicks is easily the most entertaining one to ponder. It’s also possible, for example, that simple capitalism is at play here, since footage deemed “non-offensive” has the longest reach across diverse cultural and social mores around the world. It’s also possible that Huerta himself didn’t want his member indirectly served on screen in one of the biggest films of the year.

If so, allow us to offer you our condolences. Comic superheroes can be wonderful characters, but also genderless, and the demands of their box office dominance mean real people must be contorted into forms defined only by brawn and ideals, which are then reflected in costuming. This is only a first step, however, as the person wearing the clothes is just another piece of fabric that digital tailors can shape, cut and pack as needed until there is little difference between the character seen on screen and the actual figure the impossible there on which she was born the side.