A new in-universe MCU book reveals that T’Challa’s sister, Shuri, is looking for a way to create more super soldiers like Steve Rogers after the events of Avengers: Endgame.
While the storyline of the Infinity Saga is relatively easy to follow, there are still a lot of details and unexplored elements of the fictional superhero world that we don’t know anything about. The same is true for a number of other technical aspects in the MCU that are hard to grasp and explain. It makes sense, too. Films can’t really go over the appropriated runtime, much less for something as inconsequential as plot exposition. As such, it’s always a better idea to explore these concepts in the form of tie-ins.
Marvel Studios has decided to do just that with The Wakanda Files, a new in-world book written by Shuri. After reading about Tony Stark’s thought process on the time travel dilemma, we now learn that Black Panther’s sister wants to create more super soldiers based on the US government and HYDRA’s experiments back in the days of World War II.
Here’s the excerpt from the book that details the Wakandan princess’ studies, which tell us that she’s trying to understand how super soldiers were made so that she can replicate the process. She also notes that nearly all of the successful projects involved a healthy dose of radiation.
“If we are to synthesize, and by process improve upon, an ancient Wakandan herb, we must first study supplementation where others have tried and succeeded. And also, where they have failed.
[The Red Skull’s] transformation failed because his serum lacked radioactive exposure. Rogers was exposed to Vita-Rays. Banner became a massive rage monster because he was exposed to gamma radiation. It is likely that Zola utilized gamma radiation from the Tesseract to enhance Barnes. [Hydra] figured out a way to expose subjects to whatever cosmic rays the Mind Stone emits and it transformed them.How is massive amounts of radiation linked to superhuman abilities? Does the Mind Stone emit a type of radiation? The heart-shaped herb produces the same enhanced effects without the need for radiation. So where do the two methods diverge and what links them?”
As you can see above, Shuri says that the common thread which connects these different types of super soldiers with unique abilities is exposure to radiation. Though she fails to link this to what the Mind Stone and the Tesseract emit.
If this new book and its revelations have any bearing on future MCU movies, we may have to expect more super soldiers to pop up, particularly in future Black Panther installments, but also in the wider franchise. Until then, though, be sure to let us know what you make of this interesting new reveal down below.
