Character Highlight: Everett Ross (Black Panther)

*A few Ross-related spoilers.*

I’m waiting for Secret Invasion to end before I review it, but in the meantime, it reminded me that I haven’t written about Everett Ross yet. He’s popped up in several MCU projects, but he’s best known for being one of the few Tolkien white guys in Black Panther (pun totally intended.)

Ross, to put it mildly does not make a great showing in his first MCU appearance, which is Civil War. It’s meant to be karmic at the end of the film when he prepares to throw Zemo down a whole and gleefully tells him about all the pain that will be inflicted on him every time he moves an inch out of line, and the civil liberties violations aren’t a great look. This is the same dude who laughed in Captain America’s face when he asked about the possibility of Bucky getting a lawyer. Everything about Ross in Civil War screams, A-Hole American Fed Who Throws His Weight Around with Impunity, which is unfortunate, given my affection for Martin Freeman.

It surprised me, then, to find out I enjoyed Ross when Black Panther came around. He enters that sphere coincidentally, as the Wakandans crash the meetup he’s scheduled with Ulysses Klaue. Ross attempts to maintain his authority in the situation, but when T’Challa and co. are forced to reveal more about Wakanda’s capabilities than they intended to, Ross starts to realize just how out of his depth he is.

Over the course of the ensuing fracas, Ross is shot, and T’Challa insists on bringing him back to Wakanda, where Shuri can treat him. And there, Ross gets his biggest eyeful. One of the few outsiders to ever see past the curtain of the illusion Wakanda shows the rest of the world, he gets a load of their immense wealth of resources and technological innovation.

In this situation, Ross could do what has been his more usual M.O. so far, stick to the job and look out for U.S. interests above all else. But he’s grateful to the Wakandans for saving, not just his life, but his mobility, and he recognizes that the threat Killmonger poses outweighs anything else going on. So he adapts to the issue at hand: sharing information with the Wakandans, standing with the royal family when Killmonger unseats T’Challa, and even providing key assistance during the climactic battle.

I appreciate this, that Ross’s views aren’t always black and white and that he does have a moral compass beyond rote duty. Wakanda Forever finds him pretty conflicted, because the Wakandans are asking for favors that could jeopardize his position. But, exasperated as he is, he trusts them when they insist that they can’t reveal everything they know, and he still holds enough gratitude for Shuri to want to help when she’s in trouble. He displays some quick thinking in this movie, searching for ways to get messages to the Wakandans while he’s being watched by his boss/ex-wife.

Much of the relationship between Ross and Wakanda is fairly tit for tat, so I’m glad to see Okoye come to bail him out at the end of Wakanda Forever when he’s in a bad spot. He’s their “favorite colonizer,” so they’re happy to do him a solid!