Appearance Spotlight: Killmonger’s Scars

I don't know if you've heard, but Black Panther - which came out all the way back in February 2018, almost a year ago - is a pretty big deal. It's the most successful MCU domestically, even beating all the Avengers films; it's the ninth most successful movie of all time worldwide (it doesn't beat the Avengers movies there); it's appearing on every "top 10 movies of 2018" list; it was nominated for a Best Picture Golden Globe; and most importantly, it was a cultural revolution.

So, of course, it elevated the status of all characters associated with it, turning them into household names. Not least among these was Killmonger, a character many call Marvel's best. It's no surprise, then, that Killmonger received a miniseries last month to delve into his origins, and it's even less of a surprise that this new story is influenced a bit by Black Panther.

When Killmonger first appeared in Jungle Action #6 (July 1973), he had a look similar to Kraven's in that it's like a tribal warrior look filtered through superhero comics.

He keeps that basic look throughout his history, though it becomes more involved and gains a mask.

But this style didn't carry through to the Black Panther movie. That movie got him looking straight like Vegeta. But it added a new detail, too: in keeping with the afro-futuristic design sense the movie went for, the Earth-199999 version of Killmonger had ritual scarring, one bump for each person he's killed.

On the first page of Killmonger #1 (December 2018), we see him with the same scarring:

The rest of the series is a flashback, so this is the only time we've seen it so far. But with three issues still to come, I imagine we'll see him get them at some point.