Doom85
Member
It's Canon to the comics but (they did everything wrong).... But you're right. Shuri was boring. The humor and wit was gone.
I mean, from what little I've read of her (so my apologies if she's mischaracterized in these issues from how she is mainly in the comics), Shuri in the comics is less empathetic compared to her brother.
(remembering best I can, my bad if I get some details wrong) There's a situation involving Sam Wilson trying to uncover a secret plot by a group of villains hiding within Wakanda, and this is when the country had just started accepting immigrants from the U.S. When Sam is discovered to have used the immigration to secretly enter the country to find the villains, Shuri refuses to listen to Sam explaining himself. Even after Sam stops the villains, Shuri as punishment deports ALL the recent immigrants back to the U.S., feeling she needs to protect her nation's safety at all costs.
When T'Challa finds Sam after this, he apologizes and says that while he agrees with his sister that Wakanda's prosperity is what should be focused on most as a ruler, but he would not have gone to the extremes she would have and he would have been more willing to hear Sam out.
And in the new Ultimate Black Panther series, Shuri's main characterization is a desire to go to open war against the enemies who are attacking innocent people outside their borders even if it means publicly exposing Wakanda's technology and full capabilities.
So if the more upbeat MCU Shuri pre-Wakanda Forever is a reflection of how she is in the comics, I've not read it yet.
I didn't mind the humor being mostly gone from Shuri in the second film. It reflected how her brother's loss had affected her, and I felt the actress did excellent in displaying her grief. I imagine the third film will show a return to how she was in the first movie, probably not fully, but the second film ends with her finally beginning to mentally heal from the pain of losing her family. I could at least empathize with her in the movie, but like I said, from what I've read of the 616 version, she's not really likable there, and the Ultimate version isn't unlikable but isn't really humorous either.
It's hard for me to read the recommended Black Panther runs of the last few decades as most seem to involve T'Challa/Storm as a couple or even after they split still have Storm appear and show feelings towards each other. No offense to those who do, but I never liked this pairing, and I never like it when characters long-associated with a group are "graduated" to a new book at the expense of their time with their old friends (this was especially bad with DC's Cyborg, as moving him to the Justice League in the comics robbed him of all his established friends, and it also carried this negative implication that being a Titan is something one should eventually "mature" from, yes they were originally and sometimes depending on the roster are called Teen Titans (but Cyborg and the other older members could still be mentors to the younger ones like in Geoff Johns' run), but the group is frequently called just Titans so any age should be accepted and they've saved the world multiple times so I hate seeing certain writers view them as "lesser" than the Justice League).
Even Ultimate Black Panther, despite this continuity writing T'Challa and Okoye as a pretty interesting couple, they have to throw in a prophecy that pretty much confirms he'll eventually end up with Storm (despite this version of Storm being pretty ruthless and having no chemistry with him).
I really hope if they do bring T'Challa back in the MCU, they don't force Storm away from the X-men and put her in the BP movies.
(if you do know of good modern Black Panther runs that don't involve Storm in them, feel free to recommend them though, I would love to read them)