As the year of 2018 comes to a close, and fans start to reflect on the best TV and movie experiences they had during the year, we here at ComicBook.com wanted to get in on the action, and ranking the year in entertainment as we and our fans see fit. And so we’ve once again put together the 2018 Golden Issue Awards to celebrate the biggest things in geek culture — and now it’s time to reveal another winner.
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Our Golden Issue Award for Best First Appearance is designed to celebrate characters who are making their first debut on the movie screen, and did so memorably that they became instant favorites. This year the competition was really intense, as fans got to see some long-awaited characters finally adapted for the screen (X-Men’s Cable and Domino) as well some fantastic new characters we never saw coming (Erik Killmonger, Mission: Impossible‘s August Walker). While veterans like Josh Brolin and Henry Cavill surprised with their ability to still deliver both action and drama, there was one younger performer whose intensity in both areas clearly managed to outshine all of his competitors.
And the winner of Best First Appearance is…
Erik Killmonger, as portrayed by Michael B. Jordan in Black Panther!
Michael B. Jordan has had career on a slow-burning rise ever since he starred as doomed-kid Wallace in HBO’s The Wire. The last few years have seen Jordan step into the big time with critically acclaimed Oscar bait (Fruitvale Station), big franchise reboots (Creed), and of course, superhero films (Fantastic Four). Most of Jordan’s biggest successes have been working with director Ryan Coogler, who followed the acclaim of Fruitvale Station and financial success of Creed by giving Jordan the pivotal role of Erik Killmonger in Marvel’s Black Panther.
On the comic book page, Killmonger was something of a thin and forgettable villain who never really held much of a place of prominence in the Marvel Universe. On the movie screen, Jordan turned Killmonger into a multilayered villain who served as a symbol of black people’s pain and suffering and anger, stretched across two continents. Jordan’s dramatic chops made Killmonger’s fury something people could not only understand, but root for — and shots of the actor looking buff as hell with those intricate scarring patterns all over his body was indeed a sight to behold.
The phrase “IS THIS YOUR KING?!” is one that could be used to describe 2018 in a nutshell, and only a performer as powerful as Michael B. Jordan could deliver it.
List of nominees:
- Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) – Black Panther [WINNER]
- August Walker (Henry Cavill) – Mission: Impossible – Fallout
- Cable (Josh Brolin) – Deadpool 2
- Domino (Zazie Beetz) – Deadpool 2
- The Wasp (Michelle Pfeiffer) – Ant-Man and the Wasp
