ABSTRACT
In 2018, Lexus released a series of commercials featuring Marvel’s Black Panther, including a Super Bowl spot. “Long Live the King” intersperses shots of actor Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther with shots of the Lexus, creating a visual echo where the movement of car echoes that of the man, or vice versa, as the commercial progresses in a way that seems to be suggesting that one’s movement is a continuation of the other. This correlation demonstrates Zakiyyah Iman Jackson’s theory of plasticity. Jackson’s explanation of how Black people have been positioned through plasticity helps articulate the layers of representation within the commercial’s strange contrasting elements. The visual echoing within the advertisement emphasizes Black Panther’s physical performance with sequences that shift between Black Panther running and the car speeding along. The superhero/superbody is taken to the extreme by aligning the two. As the commercial continues, Black Panther’s position continues to shift.
