Marvel: I am Iron Man

Vibranium is renowned in the Marvel Universe. In the lore, vibranium originally came from outer space and is an extremely rare and miraculous material.

Its natural super hardness, combined with its energy absorption properties, makes it a top-tier material in terms of defensive capabilities throughout the Marvel universe.

Of course, when talking about vibranium, one cannot avoid mentioning the black men of Wakanda.

The story is set many years ago when a giant rock fell from the sky and landed in Wakanda, an African country. Vibranium's amazing properties and exceptional development potential allowed the indigenous tribes to rapidly develop a technologically advanced society that is among the most advanced in the world.

However, the concept of "world-leading technology" is presented in a somewhat abstract way in the movie, or it could be said that the black men's technological development is a bit off.

If you say their technology is lacking, they have high-tech stealth fighters, giant protective shields that can cover an entire city, and high-tech spears that can be fired by individual soldiers with lasers capable of taking down tank units.

Not to mention their leading position in technologies such as gene modification and biomedicine.

But while you might say they're technologically advanced, the movies depict their primary fighting style as charging in hand-to-hand combat with spears powerful enough to sink a fighter jet.

It felt like driving a Ferrari to a primitive wrestling match, as if vibranium were some kind of high-end firewood in their hands.

In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos invades Earth and engages the Avengers in a major battle in Wakanda. At first glance, this seems like a planetary-scale war, but upon closer inspection, you'll find that it appears only War Machine is fighting a modern war.

It's no exaggeration to say that Colonel Rhodes' War Machine single-handedly carried the entire army's firepower during the Battle of Wakanda. Apart from War Machine's constant aerial firepower suppression, everyone else, including Banner in his Hulkbuster armor, was engrossed in hand-to-hand combat.

Tony had wanted to complain about it when he watched the movie in his previous life. Iron Man's Hulkbuster was so imposing when it first appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron. With the support of the aerial equipment provider Veronica, the Hulkbuster was practically a mobile arsenal, a heavily armed and heavily armored machine.

In contrast, when Tony saw Banner's Hulkbuster in the Battle of Wakanda, he wanted to complain – can you please stop thinking about your stupid fist?

He even thought that if Hulkbuster's legs had been crippled in Avengers 3, and he had been made to be a stationary turret, then Banner would have been a major damage dealer in the Battle of Wakanda.

Despite the criticisms, if you want to get vibranium in the Marvel universe, you definitely can't bypass Wakanda.

In fact, using vibranium in armor is not a new idea; Tony Stark did it in the MCU movies as well.

The Black men of Wakanda simply believed that since the vibranium had fallen right into their backyard, it was rightfully theirs. They had amassed their wealth and built massive projects with the vibranium, so of course they had no reason to share it with anyone else.

As the saying goes, "possessing a treasure invites trouble," and Wakanda, fearing that vibranium would be coveted by others, simply declared that the total production of this magical metal was only so small, and that it had all been bought by Howard Stark during World War II to make that star shield.

So until the movie "Age of Ultron," Tony Stark in the film didn't know that vibranium existed in the world.

In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ultron stole vibranium from Ulysses Klaue, the world's only vibranium smuggler. It was then that the Avengers discovered that vibranium was not just a shield.

Therefore, at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Tony Stark upgraded to the groundbreaking "Mark 2 armor" to participate in the final battle.

The Mark 45 was the first Iron Man armor to use vibranium components, and based on the movie plot, it was clearly designed to fight against Ultron, who also used a vibranium body and was invulnerable to blades and bullets.

The Mark 45 also uses an arc-shaped reactor incorporating vibranium as its energy source. Thanks to the unique properties of vibranium, the power output of this generation of reactors is significantly enhanced compared to the past. This reactor upgrade naturally leads to a substantial increase in the Mark 45's basic firepower, strength, and speed.

Needless to say, the addition of vibranium components also upgraded the hardness and defensive capabilities of the Type 45 armor.

This is why viewers see that in the previous four Iron Man movies (Iron Man 1, 2, 3, and Avengers 1), each generation of Iron Man armor becomes tattered and battered after the final battle, with a large number of damaged mechanical parts and wires exposed, crackling and exploding with sparks.

However, at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Mark 2 remained as good as new, even after the final battle. The firepower of Ultron's army barely scratched the paint off it.

Even when Iron Man detonated the vibranium core at close range, the entire city of Sokovia exploded almost in his face. The debris from the explosion hit Iron Man directly, but in the end, the Mark 45 was still completely unharmed. Its defensive capabilities were on a completely different level from all previous armors.

Now that Tony has access to information about vibranium earlier than the original Tony, he naturally wants to use this most powerful material on his armor as soon as possible.

In fact, he hoped to use vibranium components when the Mark 7 began construction.

Vibranium had already been added to his to-do list. Tony knew perfectly well how xenophobic the Black people of Wakanda were, and getting vibranium from them wouldn't be easy.

Therefore, with his understanding of the plot, Tony knew that the easiest way to obtain vibranium on the entire planet was through Ulysses Klaue, the vibranium smuggler who first appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

It wasn't until the last two days that he finally started to find some clues.

"Major Hansen, the intelligence officer of the 101st Airborne Division stationed in the Middle East, mentioned in a report a day ago that he had spotted the highly wanted trafficker Ulysses Crow in his area of ​​service."

Jarvis laid out the intelligence files in front of Tony.

Stark Industries was once a leading arms manufacturer and a top-tier, close partner of the military. Therefore, Tony naturally had extensive connections within the military, which was a crucial part of his personal intelligence network.

Jarvis continued, "And Major Hansen pointed out that there is evidence that Crow has recently been associating with the Ten Rings."

"The Ten Commandments Gang?"

Tony raised an eyebrow.

He was very familiar with the name; of course he couldn't be. After all, the Ten Rings was the very terrorist organization that had taken Tony's original body into that cave, bringing about a major turning point in Tony's life and giving birth to Iron Man.

"What a small world," Tony muttered.

He stood up, waved his hand in the air, and pulled up a map of that area.

"Mark all the Ten Rings outposts nearby. If we're lucky, the person we're looking for is in one of them," Tony said.

“Yes, sir,” Jarvis said. “So, after we find Klaue, shall we buy vibranium from him, sir?”

"purchase?"

Tony gave him a strange look.

"He's a smuggler, Lao Jia. We're law-abiding businessmen, how can we buy things from someone like that?"

Jarvis hesitated, "Then, sir, you mean...?"

Tony stood up and walked to the neatly arranged metal hangars against the wall of the laboratory. Each hangar contained an Iron Man suit of armor.

He stood in front of one of the hangars, facing the Mark VI armor, watching his face reflected on the armor's smooth, reflective gold visor.

"We'll definitely use guns," Tony said.