The neutrality of certain articles on the decision to isolate Wakanda from the rest of the world after the discovery that the entire country sits on a vibranium meteor deposit amuses me in a bleak way.
Wakanda is a relatively small country, but it qualifies as a technological superpower with an interesting history of animal god worship. The vibranium meteor under the place gives them an unusually high rate of mutation among plants, animals and people. This includes the heart-shaped herb that gives the Black Panther his (or in Shuri’s case, her) powers. Just about every time someone comes to Wakanda, it’s with the goal of taking the vibranium. The Wakandans actually do sell limited amounts of vibranium to the outside world, but it’s never enough for these invading adventurers.
Wakanda has male and female soldiers, and uses the profits from the sale of vibranium to send scholars abroad. They don’t use binary computer languages, so their computers are nigh-unhackable by the outside world. On the same token, since their scientists study abroad, they can usually hack their way into anybody else’s computers with very little trouble. The Black Panther himself is usually one of the most baddest of asses and a moral compass usually on par with Steve (usually. Sometimes T’Challa fucks up hard, but he was right about Tony and the goddamn Illuminati, wasn’t he?)
Then there are the Dora Milaje, aka The Adored Ones, daughters of the 18 tribes of Wakanda and the most elite military force in the entire goddamn Marvel universe, capable of taking out more or less anybody ever with little to no regard for numbers. The Dora Milaje have exhaustive training as well as vibranium armor and weapons, oh and by the way, they have jetpacks, too. (And their own Quinjets, but w/e.)
Basically, Wakanda should be the national equivalent of Magneto: a country that, on the surface, has a very simple power, but when that surface is scraped slightly, is the most ridiculously over-powered nation ever created in a fictional universe while still abiding by the natural laws of that universe. If an author or an editor approves a storyline in which Wakanda is compromised or defeated in any meaningful way (I’m looking at Namor and the Cabal so fucking hard, not to mention Ultron), the reader should automatically question the validity of that storyline, as it flies in the face of what canonically makes sense.
Wakanda is very important to me as an unconquered, unconquerable nation of Black people, who are very aware of how the Black diaspora is viewed and treated by the larger world, and are largely unimpressed. I can, however, see them working with Black heroes, including canonical ally Storm, Luke Cage, Sam Wilson, and James Rhodes (although Rhodey and the Wakandans have a mixed history, largely because they don’t particularly trust Tony Stark, although sometimes T’Challa can work with him.)
