I'll try my best to summarise my issues with advancing T'Challa's tech to certain levels.
It's very tempting to do so. There are very few characters like T'Challa that I know of. He's the leader of the most technologically advanced nation in the world, and is a genius capable of inventing technological marvels. Priest once posed that T'Challa can invent his own Iron Man suit if he wanted to. I don't think Priest went on to answer
why T'Challa chooses not to, but I think I would give same answer he would:
That's not who T'Challa is.
Right from a young age, T'Challa was trained to be the best
warrior he could possibly be in order to be worthy of the Black Panther mantle. Yes, Wakanda is advanced (or became advanced under his rule depending on your continuity) and he was given the best education possible with his mind being conditioned to perform at the highest levels. But the mantle of the Black Panther isn't passed down by mental tests or displaying what a person is capable of inventing. The mantle is won by besting the current Black Panther in ritual
combat. Good ole' fashioned hand to hand, martial arts fighting. Earning that mantle and becoming the Black Panther is (in my opinion) the very definition of who T'Challa is. Winning that mantle with his skills in combat and then earning the powers of the Black Panther (after being deemed a worthy warrior and person of upholding that mantle by the Panther God/Bast) is T'Challa's superpower.
The Vibranium Panther habit is his costume, and the symbol of his status as Black Panther and authority as King of Wakanda. Yes, the suit provides defence and offence like most superhero costumes do. But the suit is not his superpower. Kinetic energy is not his superpower. Advanced tech is not his superpower. T'Challa's superpower is that he is one of the best warriors walking the Earth because he he has been trained to possesses those skills, has the sharpest mind to formulate strategies and tactics on the spot and in preparation, and is further enhanced.
Sometime ago, MoS posted a poll on HEF allowing us there to vote for our favourite things about T'Challa and the BP mythos. One of the sections was for feats, which listed some of the most notably badass things T'Challa has ever done in comics. You had an option to pick three you loved I think, and I remember immediately picking T'Challa besting the Super Skrull in "See Wakanda and Die". That is perhaps T'Challa's most definitive and badass modern feat. In the issue where the feat occurs Wakanda's advanced tech is shut down by the invading Skrulls, leaving the Wakandans to fight with crude sword and shield. T'Challa comes face to face with a Super Skrull with the abilities of Captain America, Daredevil, Shang Chi, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Elektra and T'Challa himself
and wins by figuring out that the Skrull cannot use two powers at the same and there's a window of opportunity when he switches. He exploits the weakness and proceeds to brutalise the Skrull, ripping his arm off, breaking his leg and removing one of his eyes. That's what an enhanced and highly trained warrior would do, and that's what T'Challa is.
Now suppose the conditions were different, and in that same fight versus the Super Skrull T'Challa has energy daggers and the energy spear, Dboi's guantlets, the bead tech I've suggested, kinetic energy hadoukens and claw attacks, and all the other tech advancements. I mean, why not use all those things in whatever combination to defeat the Skrull, right? It makes sense too, as the Skrulls has a whole bunch of enhancements like Luke Cage's skin and the Iron Fist technique, so why not match that with advanced weaponry? Sure it can lead to a cool fight and give great tech feats, but it all just leads to a conundrum:
- First, it's a question of "Who did it? The tech of T'Challa?" Giving T'Challa such powerful tech means he will be dependent on it.
- Second, the question then becomes "Why doesn't he use it all the time?" It's like Iron Man choosing to take out goons with punches and kicks, but saves his repulsor rays for bigger threats, when we can just use the repulsors all the time. Someone will be right to ask why T'Challa doesn't just start a fight with energy guantlets, or just stand in one place so he can absorb enough energy and do a hadouken.
- Third, you then have a point in which T'Challa has lost his purpose as a character. If you can give him such tech upgrades, why not go all out? If you make kinetic absorbtion capable of giving T'Challa burts of speed, then why can't he find a way to release it bit by bit so he runs like a speedster? If you're gonna give him energy guantlets, why not give him energy armour or something as well, complete with an energy absorbing sword?
Thus, you end up with a character that's no longer "Black Panther" but might as well be "Vibranium Man", "Kinetic Man" or "Wakandan Tech Man" since his approach to fights
depends on exploiting the unique properties of Vibranium and whipping out the fanciest of technology.
Back to my favourite feat of T'Challa when he beat the Super Skrull, the alien tells him that he has trained his entire life to face the true Black Panther. T'Challa responds with a quote that every person working on a project in the BP mythos needs plastered on their wall:
"Then you have already lost. For I have trained my entire life to face the unknown."
Emphasis on the word "trained" because that evokes the image honing one's skills. Considering that T'Challa was first and foremost trained to be a warrior, this is what makes him special. So T'Challa doesn't "have their right gear for the right time" to face the unknown. What he has are his skills. His mental and physical conditions to be one of the greatest warriors on Earth. On the battlefield his mind is clear, sharp and focused, and his mastery of combat is almost unparalleled. Add to the fact that he is beyond the confines of human capability, he becomes the most dangerous man alive. The suit is just protection and weapons.
So when giving T'Challa tech upgrades, this discipline should be kept in mind. His tech gear in my opinion should bring in abilities T'Challa does not otherwise possess or can't use with his powers and skills. Why does he need energy knuckles when he punches people harder than any normal man could (with a fist already covered in Vibranium)? Why does he need energy gauntlets if his claws should be able to exploit weakness in almost any armour or flesh? Why does he need kinetic energy for bursts of speed when he's been known to fight fast enough that human eyes can't follow and runs at 50mph? Why does he really need anything that just hits harder when he's been known to wrestle down a charging rhino? He doesn't need things like that.
Which is why I like the beads as tools and can tolerate the energy daggers. T'Challa on his own can't shut down machines, so give him EMP beads. T'Challa on his own can't take control of technology, so give him remote access Kimoyo beads. T'Challa on his own can't provide quick medical assistance, so give him stabilising beads. T'Challa on his own can't counter energy signatures, so give him energy daggers/beads. That's functionality, and how he uses these can emphasise how good of a trained warrior and superhero he his, rather than diminish his abilities. I also prefer handheld grenade or throwing knife-like gear as it hearkens back to Ninjutsu techniques that undoubtedly would have been part of T'Challa's training.