Why is Wakanda so bad when it comes to war?

They literally have no good defenses aside from that shield, and the shield itself is very easily by passable if you simply dig underneath it.

They don't have any good ranged weapons.

Now that I think of it, if Killmonger had gone forward with his plan he'd have lost very badly to multiple nations.

Wakanda doesn't even have a proper strategy when it comes to war. They literally can shoot beams out of their spears but chose to charge anyways.

Their offensive output isn't exactly great.

In contrast, the US military has far more deadly weapons, better strategists, bigger numbers, SHIELD has better tech even, with helicarriers from Winter Soldier being able to wipe out millions on its own. They just don't look as shiny. Bucky seemed to be much more effective than Wakandans with their spears...

Why did Wakanda not have anything impressive just in case someone discovers them?

Even the US military would have done much better against the Outrider army than Wakanda since normal guns were able to one shot them. With standard gear and equal amounts of prep time and even with equal numbers most armies would have assembled a far more impressive arsenal than Wakanda.

Lol this will be a funny thread.

InB4 somebody says, Wakandan spears can one shot tanks.

A shoulder launched Javelin missile can one shot tanks and a US Army soldier can do that from 4 kilometres away, hidden from plain sight, locking on to its heat signature or targeting it through a fire control radar, while munching on a chicken burger.

Like the massive fleet of gunships they had? (that inexplicably disappeared in Infinity War)

plot. same reasons the thousands of Asgardians that we saw in Thor 1 turned to less than 100 in ragnarok and could all fit inside a jumbojet.

They have cool shields and they have spears! F-22's got nothing against that.

@macleen: Hela took them out. Asgard to her is definitely not it's people lol.

Lol you're totally right. Never thought much about it.

And you can use War Machine as a direct comparison as he was way more effective than anything the Wakandans did

@strangetales: Exactly. Warmachine was the biggest gun Wakanda had. Even after having a huge jump start, they couldn't come up with something better than Tony Stark, which I think also speaks volumes about the Shuri vs Tony debate...

I think Wakanda holds itself back due to population and an isolationist mentality. To me Killmonger wanted to lead a racial revolution. He'd probably arm terrorists and other villains if needed. Leading to global destabilization. Then there's unexplored tech that would have been useless against Thanos but would run havoc against normal world armies. Things like covert ops, electronic warfare, hacking etc.

Yeah remember hundreds of those gunships and war rhinos they had. All disappeared during Infinity War...it’s just plot

I honestly think Marvel doubted Black Panther would have received the success and warm reception it did, so they didn't really factor many elements from it (ie, why Wakanda's air force and military industry basically vanished in IW)

They're not a warmongering nation. I don't know why people keep thinking they are. They're a technologically advanced, xenophobic country. Espionage is their game.

@rl4: But it's still very very risky to not have a proper army when they clearly can have one.

If they are discovered somehow and some nation wants all of their Vibranium they are screwed. Most top dogs in the normal world could take them on and Hydra could also take them down if they wanted to.

Arrogance?

In "Black Panther" their soldeliers were beaten by jabari tribe soldiers, and M'Baku literally uses weapons made of wood lmao.

probably due to lack of real experience in war and in combat in general. Same with a lot of traditional martial arts where they know their stuff but not how to implement it.

That being said they have the skills and weapons to wage war but their lack of war and combat experience has left them without the mindset and mentality to deal with actual enemies that want to kill them and not just some practice drill.

They have bulletproof blankets let's stop the shenanigans. Jabari has vibranium too

It's not arrogance when they never fight and no nation could find them and get through the shield

Lack of experience due to being Isolated for so long. Also Wakanda is tiny even with better technology they would probably be overwhelmed easily.

@kgb725: They still seemed arrogant.

I think you're mistaken. There is no proper standing army in Wakanda. It's very clear that what military factions exist are comprised of the various tribal identities, all of which, minus one, pledge fealty to the royal family.

It's not the "Wakandan army" It's more like, "The Jabari warriors" or the "Water Tribe."

And, I'm doubtful they'd ever be taken out by other world powers, even if discovered. Remember, this is an espionage state, whose intelligence gathering rivals or exceeds that of the CIA, with agents or "War Dogs" in place all over the world. It stands to reason that if they can infiltrate the governments of several nations, that they can impede or hinder hostile campaigns against them.

They really don't

They were quite pathetic really. War Machine was doing better than tens of them just with his rockets and bullets. Asgard was pretty disappointing too in all movies. Hope Atlantis isn’t like that as well.

they've never been invaded so they must've been doing something right

Lack of experience.

Because hey are so use to being secure and far away from the real world.

It's purely Rule of Cool. The smart way to use their laser spears is as actual lasers, not as melee weapons.

But if I were to put more thought into it than the writers likely did, I'd say their warrior culture is actually causing them to stagnate as a military.

Wakandans are extremely traditional. To the point the position of king is still left to a duel to the death where as pretty much every major civilization left that manner of election behind in the bronze age. Physical prowess is an even worse means of electing a person to a seat of supreme executive power than some watery tart tossing a sword at you.

This deeply traditional mindset bleeds into their warrior culture. Like a lot of traditional martial arts styles the Wakandans refuse to evolve their warrior traditions to match the modern day. They are practicing the same martial arts with the same weapons they always have. They are just using their advanced technology to upgrade those ancient weapons into something more formidable and assuming it will be as effective as it was before their self imposed isolation. The only person who gets to test their skills against modern weaponry are the kings, and they have suits that render them impervious to basically all small arms weapons they might be expected to run into on a small scale field. It works fine there, but the entire Wakandan army isn't wearing a full body suit of vibranium.

The Wakandans simply haven't experienced a real, modern war. They see what modern war looks like and invent tools that theoretically might help keep their extremely out dated spear throwing traditions relevant, but they are working on a decaying foundation to begin with. Custom dictates warriors fight in glorious melee, so instead of adapting to a ranged combat style like the rest of the world did they are trying to make melee viable and telling themselves that it totally still works. Like that guy still playing an extremely old PVP build in an MMO that has been nerfed several times while other, stronger builds have come out. Wakanda is ignoring the meta and trying to force it to conform to them, basically.

In a more grounded world this would be leading to a major reckoning as Wakanda gets wrecked in a modern war against enemies with superior tactics. In this world? Wakanda totally gets to have their cake and eat it too, and their out dated spear tactics will end up competitive or superior to modern warfare.

@metaljimmor: nice write up.

That makes me think about what would have happened if everyone went with Tony in Civil War and they decided to fight Wakanda.

"WAKANDA FORE"-

*Mind stone vaporizes half the army*

"va."

They're African?? I mean, there is hardly any part of the continent that wasn't colonized by Europeans or Middle Easterners using warfare.

Vibranium-armored battle-Rhino solos Shield.

@arrsenal: Do you have a clip of the movie stating that ?

They have no need for a standing army because no country has been able to find their true nation for decades if not centuries. They keep to themselves while keeping tabs on the major powers and only recently has the world found out that they're the most technologically advanced nation. They're probably the only nation that hasn't been affected by a war in centuries, and they could stay that way if they wanted to.

Also like others said..a lot of the resources seen in Black Panther were written out in IW.

Because they never felt the need to fight any War.

@rl4: If I'm gonna be honest then Wakanda has displayed nothing to suggest anyone from their country has done anything to rival sheild or hydra when it comes to espionage.

They couldn't really catch Klau very easily.

Theirvown King went to catch the guy.

We saw who was sent to catch Klau by the CIA.

Even if this were the SHEILD they'd not sent their best to catch the guy. Wakanda isn't exactly very good when it comes to espionage.

There is official character bio. You can also look at any Jabari soldier from BP or IW. They all use wooden armor and wooden spears.

@richubs: pretty sure vibranium guns were killing them.

They were pathetic

From a military perspective, it's simply because they don't engage in war with our countries on a regular basis in the world.

Countries that do regularly go to combat zones have the opportunity to test out their theorised tactics that may have worked in training - so now do they work in a real world? These tactics get changed or adapted, equipment becomes changed or new stuff is designed around what works and what is needed.

For example, it's kind of hard to predict how one could train and fight effectively in an a-symmetric environment such as Afghanistan if nobody has been there before, especially when most countries revolve around conventional tactics.

Because it never faced war?

@arrsenal: It is worth noting tho that Jabari weren't inferior to other Wakandans. Entertainment Weekly interviewed Duke, and it was brought out that (while the film didn't have time to cover it deeply) Jabari Wakandans basically bred a unique species of "sacred" wood that could stand on equal ground to Vibranium.

It was one of the issues I had with Black Panther’s final battle, to be honest. One could just chalk it up to practical storytelling reasons, but the fact that Wakanda didn’t have any giant robot panthers and flying warships like they do in the comics did bother me. MCU Wakanda seems less like the most highly-advanced nation in the world, and more like a country that just got really lucky with one resource and only built technical innovations out of vibranium.

Plot. I was annoyed by that too.

Pretty much all of mcu advanced civilizations are pathetic, The plot need the heroes, including the street levelers, to be relevant in big battle.