Avengers: Doomsday Spotlights, Part 22 – Shuri

In 2020, we not only lost one of the best iterations of Black Panther but also an incredible human being, Chadwick Boseman. To mirror the actor’s death, T’Challa contracts a deadly disease some time after the events of “Avengers: Endgame.” Shuri tried to make an artificial heart-shaped herb to heal him, but she unfortunately couldn’t save her brother in time. Even two years later, tragedy would not be finished with Shuri just yet. After the Wakandans enter a war with Namor and his underwater Talokanil army, a deadly encounter led to the death of Shuri’s mom, forcing the young woman to take up the mantles of Queen and Black Panther. Despite strong urges to kill Namor in retribution, she instead chose to show mercy and forge an alliance with the sea-dwellers. 

Origins

Like most heroes, Shuri’s story would begin in tragedy. Her stepfather, King T’Chaka, met his end at the hands of the villain Ulysses Klaw, prompting her stepbrother, T’Challa, to leave Wakanda and study abroad while their uncle, Y’San, took over as King and Black Panther in T’Chaka’s place. If this were the MCU, Shuri would’ve been content to sit on the sidelines and remain the family’s super-genius scientist. But in the comics, despite the devastating circumstances, Shuri saw an opportunity to challenge her uncle for the right to rule and be guardian. However, upon arrival, she was both surprised and disappointed to discover that not only had T’Challa returned, but also beaten her to the punch and won both titles instead. Even though T’Challa unwittingly stole her dreams, Shuri’s ambition did not wane in the slightest. Instead, she studied nuclear physics, survived a deadly encounter with Killmonger and his forces, and even helped T’Challa fight back against the Skrulls during the “Secret Invasion” storyline. Needless to say, nothing kept the young princess down or held her back. 

However, her ever-growing drive would truly be put to the test when Dr. Doom entered the picture. After refusing to join Norman Osborn’s Cabal, Dr. Doom almost killed T’Challa and left him in critical condition. While T’Challa was stabilized, Wakanda was essentially left without a ruler. Since the X-Man Storm could’ve technically taken up the responsibility (since she was married to T’Challa at the time), she was not born of royal blood and did not possess the approval of the panther goddess Bast. Therefore, she encouraged Shuri to undergo a hastened trial to become the next Black Panther. However, even in this dire situation, things like this could not be simplified. Even when Shuri climbed a mountain, fought through a group of panthers, and found and ingested the heart-shaped herb, Bast still declared she was unworthy of the mantle and power. But Shuri, as ambitious and stubborn as ever, would not take no for an answer. Becoming the Black Panther, regardless of Bast’s ruling, she joined with several heroes (including Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Fantastic Four) to fight back against Doom. But the heroes would only succeed once they enacted the barely recovered T’Challa’s plan to make all Vibranium across the world inert. 

From there, Shuri continued to travel and study, growing in her role as the Black Panther. Meanwhile,  T’Challa made a full recovery and became his own kind of Black Panther. However,  things would take a tragic turn for the worse when the Cabal turned their sights on Wakanda. The battle was brutal, and Shuri knew she could not risk her step-brother’s safety. To give him time to escape the conflict, Shuri held off one of the Cabal members, Proxima Midnight, and was killed during the duel. A long time afterwards, T’Challa discovered she was in the Plane of Wakandan Memory (or the Djalia) and brought her back to life, and her time in the realm also granted her extra abilities (more on that later). Regardless, she relinquished her role as Black Panther, instead becoming the living embodiment of her people’s history and joining the Wakandan council. Personally, I love seeing how Shuri grew from a princess gunning for the crown and Panther title to someone who took on a more humble position for the sake of her people; simply put, it’s very inspiring. 

Powers, Abilities, and Weaknesses

Before the heart-shaped herb or Djalia, Shuri has always been powerful in her own right. In this case, her greatest superpower was—and still is—her mind. Marvel states that Shuri was naturally smart enough to operate on the same level as people like Tony Stark or Reed Richards. But thanks to being born and raised in one of the greatest and most scientifically advanced nations on the planet, her intelligence is all the more evident. In fact, Shuri worked her way up to becoming Wakanda’s Chief Scientist Officer, developing or improving many of the technologies it has now. She has designed everything from weapons to communication systems to surveillance systems, all in a way no one else can replicate. Also, Shuri is one of the foremost researchers in Vibranium, meaning she has a more intimate knowledge of the mineral that few others can claim.  Stark, Richards, Banner, and Pym are all amazingly brilliant in their own ways, but not even they can confidently say they know everything about Vibranium. Aside from her scientific knowledge, though, it cannot be forgotten that Shuri is also a genius on the battlefield. Thanks to her combat training, Shuri can instantly analyze combat scenarios, integrate her technology with her fighting style, and create and execute tactical decisions on the spot. She can also assume command if necessary, which is especially noteworthy when you consider how effectively she led Wakanda in T’Challa’s absence. 

However, despite how smart Shuri is, most people tend to focus on that more than the rest of her abilities. For starters, there’s the Vibranium-woven suit that she wears. As most of you know by now, the suit is incredibly durable, as it can protect Shuri from gunfire, swords and other melee weapons, and even most explosions or energy attacks. And as Chadwick Boseman demonstrated, the suit can also absorb and redirect kinetic energy, turning the opponent’s own power and strength against them. But the suit also grants her enhanced mobility, camouflage and stealth, specialized lenses equipped with night and thermal vision, and even generates energy weapons (like daggers). What makes the suit especially lethal is when you combine her combat training with the abilities of the heart-shaped herb. This special plant is almost like a biological version of the Super-Soldier serum, as it drastically enhances the consumer’s senses, strength, speed and agility, and even accelerated healing. In other words, when Shuri consumes this herb, she fights with enough speed and strength to rival some of Marvel’s greatest hand-to-hand fighters or even opponents outside her weight class, and all while channeling a weapon she literally wears on her body. Finally, though, there’s an extra set of powers that come much later after her time as the Black Panther, all thanks to her time in the Djalia. After her stepbrother brought her back, Shuri discovered that she now has a deeper connection to her ancestral history (almost like Aang and the Avatar line), telepathic control over crows, and can temporarily transform her skin into stone. Shuri was already invulnerable without the stone skin, but if her Vibranium suit fails for whatever reason, now she has additional defense or even extra “oomph” to her punches. And like Sam Wilson, she can use her crow-control to perform reconnaissance or even command the birds to fight or interfere with opponents on her behalf. As for her ancestral connection, the knowledge and memories of her ancestors grant her advanced insight during combat, and for tactical or moral decisions, which often determine the outcome of a battle before or after it starts. 

But even with such impressive natural and supernatural skills, there are some things that not even a genius like Shuri can account for. For example, while her Vibranium suit makes her mostly invulnerable, there are still some things that can break through the metal: high-frequency soundwaves, overwhelming forces, cosmic energy or magic, and in some extremely rare cases, even Adamantium can cut through it. There is also a very rare kind of Vibranium known as Anti-Metal, which can liquify any known metal by weakening its atomic structure, so it stands to reason that any opponent equipped with this metal could disarm Shuri very quickly. But of course, as previously established, Shuri doesn’t need a Vibranium suit to fight. That’s why her greatest weakness is her own pride and ambition, which often blinds her judgment. Even before the suit, Shuri aimed for the crown, risked her own life to fight villains against her stepbrother’s orders, and even continued risking her life on multiple occasions to prove herself. In fact, she should be lucky that Bast didn’t punish her after defying her decree that the princess was unworthy, as challenging a Marvel cosmic deity usually never ends well. Now, sometimes, her risks pay off, and her ambition drives her to keep going and grow into a better person. But it has also made her reckless and headstrong, and it took a humbling from Bast and a resurrection for her to realize it. 

Greatest Feats

Despite what would be regarded as a serious character flaw, Shuri proved her worthiness even long before earning the rights to Black Panther. One such time occurred when Ulysses Klaw rounded up a group of villains and other forces and attacked Wakanda. T’Challa responded in kind by gathering his own allies (including Black Knight) to defend Wakanda. Still, Klaw secretly dispatched the villain Radioactive Man to the Great Mound (essentially Wakanda’s Vibranium mine). Shuri suspected something was wrong inside the Mound, so she tried warning her stepbrother. However, being occupied with the more prominent conflict, T’Challa dismissed her concerns. Despite this, though, Shuri braved the danger herself and entered the Mound, encountering the nuclear supervillain. The odds seemed impossible: Radioactive Man (obviously) possessed radiation and energy manipulation, as well as super strength, making him a walking nuclear reactor. In contrast, Shuri was still a normal human: no heart-shaped herb, no Vibranium panther suit, just herself and her skillset. But that didn’t stop Shuri from attempting to thwart the villain anyway, yet she still struggled to break through RM’s defenses. That is, until she eventually obtained Black Knight’s Ebony Blade (which can cut through pretty much anything) amidst the chaos and literally sliced her enemy in half. Even though Radioactive Man is not one of Marvel’s most powerful villains, it’s still too dangerous for any non-powered (or otherwise at least protected) hero to pick a fight with a guy who has “radioactive” in his name. Perhaps it was reckless, and she did have some assistance from a powerful weapon, but she still dominated that fight like a total boss! Unfortunately, most people tend to forget this part of her character in favor of her genius, but Shuri is just as capable on the battlefield as well as in the lab. 

But even in the Marvel universe, not everyone would see it that way. As previously mentioned, Dr. Doom once planned to attack Wakanda, and Shuri attempted to receive Bast’s blessing as the new Black Panther, but the panther goddess refused purely out of jealousy and spite. However, before Shuri went off to fight Doom, something else happened that finally earned Bast’s (begrudging) approval. The event in question occurred when a secret cult brought forth a vampiric cosmic entity known as the Devourer of Totems, Morlun. Also known for relentlessly hunting multiple versions of Spider-Man across the multiverse, Morlun was now attracted to the spiritual totem energy radiating off of Shuri, so he set his sights on her. However, since Bast already refused Shuri the Black Panther mantle, she didn’t have any of the enhancements that come with it. Once again, Shuri finds herself in a “David vs Goliath situation,” but unlike her encounter with Radioactive Man, she now faces an entity of immeasurable power and hunger. But with the backing of a witch doctor and other Wakandans, Shuri donned the costume and charged into the fight. The battle was extremely difficult and hard-fought, but no matter what kind of punishment Morlun dished out, Shuri took it all in stride and kept pushing herself forward. Finally, though, Shuri and the witch doctor were able to banish Morlun to limbo, a hellish dimension filled with monsters and spirits that not even Morlun could immediately break through. By the end, the witch doctor saw her courage and willingness to die for Wakanda and declared her worthy of being Black Panther. This moment wasn’t just about Shuri becoming Black Panther or even defying the odds; it was about refusing to let even someone as powerful as Bast keep her from growing or deciding her path. Shuri forged it all by herself, despite the physical and spiritual worlds going against her. 

Fighting two incredibly strong opponents is one thing, but what happens when you’re forced to fight in a war for your own country? Extremely befitting of the upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday” film, Shuri would find herself in this exact situation when Dr. Doom decided to invade Wakanda. After T’Challa somewhat recovered from his brush with death, Doom rallied up a group of Wakandan rebels (the Desturi) and combined their forces with those of his Doombots. In response, Shuri and T’Challa pretended to abandon Wakanda to draw the enemy forces closer. Next, Shuri rallied her own group: the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, War Machine, and even Deadpool. As the heroes launched a massive counterstrike, Shrui coordinated everyone by having them systematically target many of Doom’s operations, including Doombot networks, Doom’s finances and tech, and, of course, fighting directly on the front lines. The massive counteroffensive was overall successful as the heroes pushed Doom’s forces back, but surprisingly, Doom pushed back and way harder. It got to the point where T’Challa enacted the only plan that would make Doom leave: making all Vibranium on Earth inert. Despite the economic and social risks, Shuri agreed and helped T’Challa achieve this goal to drive the tyrant out of their land. Fighting Doom by himself is, at best, foolish (and cataclysmic at worst). But when he declares war on a country, there is no hope. He will out-think and overwhelm anyone who gets in his way until they’re under his boot. But Shuri wasn’t just “anyone who got in his way,” and she wasn’t the headstrong, reckless young princess either. She evolved into a true leader, uniting and leading super-powered forces and fighting for her people. And even when faced with insanely detrimental consequences, she did not hesitate to “pull the trigger” if it meant saving Wakanda. Of course, Shuri would still be just as reckless afterwards, but this moment brilliantly portrays her potential as a leader and true hero, and it cannot be understated or forgotten. 

Conclusion

Overall, the MCU did a good job showing how physically and emotionally strong Shuri is, but I can’t deny that I wish we had as much time to explore that part of her as the comics did. Even so, it does not ruin the experience, especially when watching Shuri go through such a heartbreaking journey in “Wakanda Forever.” She lost her brother and believed it was her fault for not saving him, lost her mother right in front of her, encountered Killmonger in the Ancestral Plane, and made the hard choice to spare the man who killed her mother. I honestly don’t know how she was able to ally with someone like that, and it’ll be interesting to see Shuri and Namor’s dynamic once Doom sets his sights on their universe.