Some family members have referred to me as a “Grinch” before. I’m not much of a fan of Christmas. But I will say that giving gifts has been pretty fulfilling, especially when I feel like I might have helped a child in their development as a caring person. One such instance came in June of 2021 when I gave toys to the two sons of one of my wife’s closest cousins. The older son needs constant care including a respirator and other medical equipment. The younger one had been calling himself a superhero lately while standing tall with his chest out. I wanted to show them some love by sending a few age appropriate action figures their way.
With T’Challa/Black Panther, I wanted to help both of them to see that we all benefit from the help of technology and special equipment. I hope that they see disability and differences of ability as normal; I tried to show them that it is not just that “broken” or “inadequate” people need special help. Normal people and even superheroes do too.
With Finn from Star Wars, I tried to encourage independence and a healthy resistance to imperialism and militarism. I also used Killmonger and Thanos to give them a nuanced idea of how conflict can come from different ideas rather than people being inherently or irredeemably evil. With Killmonger, I wanted them to see that liberation for a people gained through a new Black imperialism is a dangerous replacement of new faces into an evil system that continues to cause massive harm. In thinking about Thanos, I hoped to show them that our greed and ingrained ideas of scarcity blind us to the adequacy of what is available and spur us to destructive solutions to problems that could better be addressed if we worked to normalize cooperative relationships.
Finally, I tried to encourage them to make the conflict between the toys a chance for them to help correct destructive ideologies. By coincidence, Marvel released a show called What If… a couple months after I shared these ideas with my little cousins. In the show they imagine an alternate path that events might have taken in the Marvel universe. As it relates to these toys, Marvel just so happened to make a plot where T’Challa convinces Thanos of problems with his ideology so that Thanos abandons his plan to destroy half of the galaxy’s population (the plot of the Avengers movies Endgame and Infinity War). I thought it was pretty neat that I was encouraging these kids to play out that exact scenario.
Anyway, I sent the toys with the letter below to teach them those lessons. And their mom sent me a very sweet text message showing that the youngest one was getting it. Touched my little heart.
If you are looking to buy an action figure of Black Panther (T’Challa), Finn, Killmonger, or Thanos, they are all very easy to find on eBay. Black Panther is popular enough that they keep making new ones that you could buy in a store on a typical day. Thanos is not on the same level, but he is still popular enough that you might find new ones in the store. For both of them, you could go on eBay and see options that were made in the last few years. For Finn and Killmonger, you’ll need to shop second-hand. There are a handful of action figures for each of them. All four of the ones that I gave away were bought together in a larger lot from Goodwill. These are popular enough figures that Goodwill will remain a viable option for awhile.
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