Marvel: A Lazy-Ass Superman

Whether Tony Stark had made the same discovery, and how much he actually knew, was something Henry wasn’t sure about.

However, the fact that neither of them had ever connected their personal resources to Stark Pictures’ supercomputer, Hollywood Kid, showed a shared understanding.

They weren’t just guarding against each other.

They were guarding against a third party as well.

In the world of hackers, only losers thought about calling the police and using public authority to solve their problems.

If someone came knocking, then naturally you welcomed them with good food and drink—while secretly slipping in a little rat poison or some mystery pills.

Whether they fell for it depended entirely on their skill and luck.

In Henry’s memory, Wakanda’s War Dogs were primarily responsible for recovering lost vibranium artifacts and advanced Wakandan technology that had somehow found its way into the outside world.

Which raised an interesting question:

If Wakanda had truly maintained a policy of isolation for centuries, why was so much Wakandan technology scattered abroad in the first place?

The official explanation was usually theft.

But if the nation was genuinely isolated, and nobody even knew the name Wakanda, then who exactly was supposed to be stealing all this stuff?

A more plausible explanation was that agents had been sent abroad on missions and never returned, leaving equipment behind.

Which naturally led to another question:

What missions?

Once you thought about it carefully, the matter became far less simple.

To begin with, the idea that possession of a special resource alone could allow a region’s technology to surpass the rest of the world by several generations wasn’t particularly logical.

Unless vibranium emitted some kind of radiation that dramatically enhanced intelligence, Wakanda should theoretically consist of a population of geniuses.

But that clearly wasn’t the case.

Even if vibranium allowed Wakanda to leap ahead in applied sciences, could a nation of a few million people really dominate the entire world in theoretical science as well?

Forget race entirely.

Just looking at population size, the notion that a small country could mass-produce Einstein-level scientists merely through a good education system sounded ridiculous.

Without a strong foundation in theoretical science, how could applied science advance so dramatically through vibranium alone?

At that point, it would almost make more sense to claim vibranium researched itself and generated its own instruction manuals.

Technological progress depended on necessity and imagination—not on a particular mineral.

If Wakanda’s true advantage was merely vibranium, then a nation isolated from the world producing high-tech vibranium spears would actually make perfect sense.

Even if those spears happened to shoot lasers.

Princess Shuri, Wakanda’s genius prodigy, was probably still at an age where she needed a bottle.

Surely Wakanda couldn’t produce a Shuri-level genius every generation.

A closed vibranium kingdom independently achieving impossible scientific breakthroughs generation after generation simply wasn’t convincing.

Which led Henry to what he considered the more reasonable explanation:

A significant portion of Wakanda’s scientific advancement likely depended on intelligence organizations like the War Dogs conducting industrial espionage throughout the world.

By continuously stealing technology developed by other nations, they could combine it with vibranium and elevate Wakanda’s overall technological level.

That, in Henry’s view, was the primary reason Yulian Williams—a Wakandan War Dog—had infiltrated Stark Pictures.

Unfortunately, during the era of ”political correctness” and ”Black Lives Matter,” Marvel would never openly embed such an interpretation into the MCU.

Only comic fans and uncritical audiences would accept the assumption that possession of vibranium automatically equated to technological superiority.

After all, Wakanda practiced isolationism.

As long as it didn’t participate in international trade, it could freely appropriate foreign patents and technologies without worrying about foreign laws.

Combined with vibranium allowing them to manufacture superior products, a sense of technological superiority naturally emerged.

Most Wakandans could therefore sincerely believe that they didn’t need interaction with outsiders in order to enjoy a higher standard of living.

Originally, Henry had no intention of getting involved with Wakanda.

This was simply one last act of mischief before leaving.

At the very least, he wanted them to know he wasn’t some clueless fool.

Besides, they had indirectly contributed an entire library of Wakandan technology to him.

For that, he genuinely felt some gratitude.

After all, anyone who passed through left traces behind.

For Henry and Tony Stark, that philosophy translated into:

If you’re already here, how can you leave without leaving something behind?

Henry had returned the favor.

Tony Stark probably hadn’t been much more polite.

The third little player possessed decent hacking skills.

Unfortunately, their instincts weren’t sharp enough.

Henry had visited their servers multiple times, yet the firewall configurations never changed.

From that, he concluded they probably didn’t even realize he had been there.

Still, staring at what amounted to an encyclopedia titled ”Ways to Use Vibranium,” while possessing only five kilograms of the metal himself, Henry could only sigh and admit defeat.

The most useful information involved vibranium processing techniques, which at least gave him confidence regarding future work with his own sample.

As for the technological content itself, there were certainly impressive aspects.

But compared to the Kree Empire and the Skrull Empire, Wakanda still lagged far behind.

That assessment, of course, ignored the comic-book background where Wakanda supposedly originated during the age of the prehistoric Avengers, with the first Black Panther fighting alongside a young Odin a million years ago and enjoying uninterrupted development ever since.

Because if that were true, it wouldn’t explain why Yulian—a Wakandan War Dog—had infiltrated Stark Pictures in the first place.

Unless Wakanda possessed prophetic powers and had spent years waiting specifically for a Kryptonian to walk into their trap.

Judging by its MCU portrayal, this supposedly most advanced nation in Africa was still advanced only to a certain extent.

At least based on the data Henry had acquired, Wakandan technology remained behind that of both the Kree and Skrull civilizations.

No faster-than-light jump technology.

No planet-destroying weapons.

Nothing on that level.

Without vibranium, the nation might well regress to something close to a pre-industrial society.

Still, now that Henry had left Stark Pictures, the Wakandan War Dog problem belonged solely to Tony Stark.

Whatever Tony chose to do about it was none of a Kryptonian’s concern.

It was rather amusing, actually.

Henry hadn’t even attempted to rob Wakanda yet, and Wakanda had already set its sights on him.

Or perhaps Stark Industries remained their true target. Compared to that, movie-production technology was hardly worth mentioning.

Now that he had regained his freedom, Henry once again experienced that refreshing sensation of having no obligations hanging over him.

Previously, he had to consider the Stark name and avoid doing anything too outrageous.

Accepting someone’s paycheck while simultaneously wrecking their reputation wasn’t something he could bring himself to do.

Now that the separation was complete, nobody had any reason to hold back.

Everyone was free to do whatever they wanted.

To outside observers, losing the protection of the Stark name should have made Henry Brown more cautious.

Instead, he did the exact opposite.

The moment he got home, he set out to deal with the family that had fled toward the Yukon.

The family had chosen to travel by long-distance bus.

Thanks to the nineteenth-century gold rush, the Yukon possessed comparatively well-developed transportation infrastructure by Canadian standards.

Unlike neighboring Alaska—which relied primarily on sea and air transport—the Yukon maintained a network of roads and railways connecting its major settlements.

Not comprehensive coverage, but sufficient.

At least during part of the year.

Once winter arrived and heavy snow blocked the roads, even the best infrastructure became useless.

The family intended to exploit that final pre-winter window and isolate themselves deep within the Yukon.

They believed doing so would allow them to escape Death’s pursuit.

The bus journey lasted several days and passed through vast stretches of wilderness.

It was there that a bullet from a Coachmate Lever .45-70 rifle shattered the target’s plans.

In a country like Canada, where bears were common and licensed citizens could legally hunt them, the rifle wasn’t quite ubiquitous—but it remained an extremely popular classic hunting weapon.

A stray bullet accidentally striking a passing traveler was rare.

But not unheard of.

As a result, Canadian police began investigating hunters active near the crime scene, carefully examining their firearms and hunting permits.

Needless to say, the investigation ultimately went nowhere.

The killer had already returned to Los Angeles, stopped by a supermarket for groceries, and gone home to cook dinner.

Remaining to-do list: 9.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For 40 advanced chapters, visit my Patreon:

Patreon - Twilight_scribe1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~