Marvel Confirms Wakanda Helped Create Iron Man’s Infinity War Armor

Marvel has just confirmed that Iron Man‘s nanotechnology armor was made with the help of Wakandan technology. That revelation confirms that T’Challa’s decision to open up Wakanda’s doors at the end of Black Panther had very real repercussions for the Avengers at the very least.

First introduced in Avengers: Infinity War, the Mark L armor was easily Tony Stark’s most advanced armor, allowing him an impressive spectrum of additional abilities that essentially amounted to him becoming a shapeshifter of sorts. It was also the most convenient of Tony’s Iron Man armors, housed entirely within a removable chest arc reactor and afforded Tony considerably more power, speed, and durability and arguably protected him from greater damage in his fight with Thanos on Titan. Fundamentally, it was a leap in technological progress on the previous armors, which often only featured incremental improvements.

Intriguingly, thanks to the release of Marvel’s The Wakanda Files book, it has now been revealed that Tony’s use of nano-technology was reliant on Wakandan assistance. The book shows communications between Pepper Potts, Stark Industries’ Asset Management department, Tony Stark and JARVIS (somewhat confusingly, given that he’d been previously obliterated) dealing with an information trade that led to Stark gaining access to nanotechnology.

The revelation comes as part of the notes on Tony Stark’s development of the Iron Spider armor in the wake of Civil War. He mentions receiving “nanoparticle tech” from a friend (T’Challa) and using it to make a more “versatile and protective suit” for “the kid” who he affectionately calls the real deal after how well he did in Berlin. Considering the accepted logic that Stark introduced Spider-Man to the Civil War conflict as a battle nerf, seeing his reaction to Peter’s performance as part of Team Iron Man is an interesting new touch. It also suggests that he genuinely brought Spider-Man onto his team because of his value as a superhero and that despite Spider-Man: Homecoming suggesting he wanted to sideline Peter, he did have plans to use him in future missions before that film’s ending.

Most importantly, considering Tony’s arc and his self-imposed isolation in his obsessive pursuit of the perfect Iron Man armor – as an extension of his need to protect the Earth – it is a mark of growth that he turned to Wakanda to helo make his best armor. And it’s also very telling that he handed over access to Wakanda to his own data files (at least up to a point), given Stark’s usually fierce protection of his own technology (given his past experience with enemies and his own government attempting to steal his tech). It says a lot about Iron Man‘s immediately strong relationship with Wakanda, which should be of little surprise given their shared affinity for technological improvement.

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Simon Gallagher
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Simon is a veteran editor who has been writing online since 2010 – long before anyone wanted to read his work. He loves Clueless. Like, a lot.

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