Originally Posted by
Redjack
Well.
1) 10k years is canon now. Nothing can be done about that.
2) Wakanda is an entirely inwardly-focused society. Unlike Sparta or Rome, it is NOT organized around warfare or expansion (the concept of a Wakandan star empire is entirely antithetical to its millennia of culture). While their technological advancement FAR outstripped that of all their most "civilized" neighbors, ridiculously early in human history, the FACT is innovation is born of necessity.
Wakanda had no enemies to challenge it, neither human-made nor environmental. No enemies or obstacles means no need to innovate. Thats how humans work.
Therefore, Wakandan tech advancement MUST come in fits and starts, burning fast and hot for relatively short periods, plateauing for vastly longer stretches, then rapidly leaping forward again in order to adapt to an unforeseen change in the outside environment.
The notion that the Chinese developed gunpowder before everyone else (not QUITE true) and never used it for weapons (also not QUITE true) illustrates culture is also a force that shapes the direction of a given technological innovation.
3) Given the level of technology we see the Wakandan society at in modern Marvel (movies OR comics), we have to conclude the Wakandans, while vastly technologically superior to every other society on Earth, can only maintain that lead for so long. Moreover, that lead is currently shrinking, FAST.
In the 20th century alone, (in considerably less than a century, actually) humankind advanced from steam engines and literal horse power, to humans walking on the moon and human-made devices leaving our solar system for parts unknown. Computer processing speed and memory capacity has moved even faster.
Wakanda enjoyed a long, comfortable technological lead in a world that couldn't threaten or compete with it. Until the world started to catch up. By my calculation Wakanda has less than a century before the Great Powers of the outside world match them, technologically. Their primary edge then would be the uniqueness of Wakandan tech, based, as it is, on Vibranium, which makes it as alien to the outside world a Shi'ar tech would be.
I know a lot of folks need Wakanda to be perfect and superior in every instance of every conflict but, satisfying as that might be for some, to me it makes for a pretty boring story-base.