Eyes of Wakanda Is Just A Taste Of A Better MCU Adventure
Marvel’s new animated anthology explores Wakandan history to mixed effect.
Marvel’s Black Panther saga won’t ever be the same after the passing of Chadwick Boseman, the star once poised to carry this cinematic universe into a new phase. That said, it remains one of the most important pillars for the franchise, thanks to writer-director Ryan Coogler and his fierce commitment to building out the world of Wakanda. Once an isolated African nation with Star Trek-level technology, Wakanda opened its borders and revealed some of its secrets at the end of the first Black Panther, but plenty still remain. How long have Wakandans lived among us? How far have the Hatut Zeraze (or War Dogs) travelled, and what sacrifices have they made to keep Wakanda’s secrets?
It’s these questions that Eyes of Wakanda aims to answer. The four-part animated anthology is unlike any offering from Marvel thus far: a surprising feat, given that it’s the 54th MCU project joining the franchise. Unlike other animated shows under the Marvel banner, it’s a canon addition to the main timeline. But it’s also more interested in looking back than in pushing this saga forward, filling in the gaps of a fictional history that made Wakanda the most untouchable — and the most isolated — power on Earth.
When it comes to the latter, this new series mostly succeeds. Eyes of Wakanda is a visually intriguing, narratively diverting journey to the past, but there’s a sense that it’s fighting against time in more ways than one.
The nation of Wakanda is the most advanced in the world thanks to its cache of vibranium. The ore landed on Earth via meteorite in prehistoric times, and by the time Eyes of Wakanda begins in 1260 B.C., our heroes have already used it to craft indestructible weapons and armor. Wakanda’s dominance and secrecy are first threatened by one of its own, a former War Dog who breaks protocol and rank to form his own pirate nation. The traitor known as the Lion (voiced by Cress Williams) takes an army’s share of vibranium weapons and uses them to conquer a small slice of the Mediterranean Sea. He also recruits a band of mercenaries from every corner of the globe — a Viking shieldmaiden, a samurai, and a Samoan warrior, to name a few. It falls to a former Dora Milaje, Noni (Winnie Harlow), to defeat these pirates and restore the artefacts they stole... before they fall into even more dangerous hands.
The Lion kickstarts a century-spanning conflict, but Eyes of Wakanda can’t take it beyond the surface level.
Eyes of Wakanda reveals just how active Wakanda was in the world before T’Challa (Boseman) opened its gates in Black Panther. The War Dogs are embedded in societies everywhere, and have been for years, by the time Noni faces off with the Lion. It’s an intriguing thought, as is the Lion’s attempt to turn Noni against Wakanda and its strict isolationism. He’s like a proto-Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) in that sense, with a dogma that’s equally skewed. He conquers nations in the name of freedom, and his ultimate goal is to unite the world under one banner, to “share” Wakandan wealth from sea to shining sea.
It doesn’t take long for a compelling thesis to emerge, but with only four episodes to dive into Wakanda’s pre-history, Eyes of Wakanda can only give us a bite-sized version of it. It’s more focused on action in its first half: Noni’s stalwart loyalty to Wakanda turns her into a near-unstoppable machine, but it doesn’t make her very interesting. The same could be said for the agents who follow in her footsteps to recover Wakanda’s loot. They never waver from their objective, and aside from a few glimmers of doubt or regret, they never challenge Wakanda’s prime directive. It’s not always easy to watch them sabotage and backstab to further the cause of their homeland, especially given the toll of Wakanda’s isolation on Africa and its diaspora.
The Lion might have been wrong in his efforts to conquer the world — and his actions set off a chain of events that the War Dogs spend centuries correcting — but Black Panther revealed that Wakanda’s leadership was wrong about a lot of things too. That knowledge creates an uncomfortable irony as Eyes of Wakanda hopscotches through history, its lack of friction evident in both its story and in its weightless animation style.
A new Iron Fist — and a new Black Panther — are two highlights of Eyes of Wakanda.
Eyes of Wakanda mostly steers clear of Wakanda’s checkered legacy: its other chapters cover the end of the Trojan War, a brief dalliance in 15th-century China, and the sacking of Ethiopia in the 1890s, skirting past any eras that would demand too much accountability for Wakanda. There’s a chance that future seasons could tackle the nation’s inaction during the Slave Trade — it’d go a long way in introducing more conflicted, compelling characters — but Marvel may not be equipped to tackle those themes in the way they deserve.
The MCU is notoriously averse to tackling systemic issues in any truly meaningful way, but Eyes of Wakanda does make the best of its surface-level stories otherwise. Its fourth and final episode might be its greatest, thanks to a time travel twist. It comes the closest to exploring what (if anything) Wakanda owes its neighbors, reaffirming the importance of Black Panther along the way. Episode 3, meanwhile, may be the most fun, with the introduction of a new Iron Fist and an endearing romantic subplot creating a zippy, diverting adventure. Eyes of Wakanda is brief enough to finish in a single afternoon, and you won’t regret the time spent with it — but the series could be so much more, if Marvel lets it.
