The mission of Marvel Animation is to flesh out the corners of the MCU in ways that are interesting and entertaining, if not entirely necessary or relevant to the main onscreen adventure. On paper, Eyes of Wakanda is the exact kind of project that a lot of people will be interested in, exploring some of the historical adventures of the ancestors of Wakanda. These are the characters that exist in the backdrop of the ancestral plane that T’Challa and Shuri visit in the Black Panther films, generations of protectors for the Wakandan name and the vibranium technology that they hold precious in their secret country. Marvel has decided to explore this Wakanda backstory with this relatively brief four episode miniseries.
The recent comp for Eyes of Wakanda is Hulu’s Predator: Killers of Killers. That acclaimed anthology film took the classic iconography of the Predator and dropped the alien bounty hunter into different parts of history. Eyes of Wakanda does the same, with each thirty minute episode hopping through different periods of time in the distant past. The first episode takes place in 1260 Crete, the next in the Trojan War conflict of ancient Greece, another in historical China, and so on and so forth. These provide the series with a diversity of backdrops to explore.
But the show’s ability to showcase these settings contrast with a disappointing lack of creativity in the storytelling and character department. Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever are some of the most special movies in the MCU because they have characters that are uniquely heroic and villainous. Their motivations and flaws are deeply rooted in the cultural context of not only the Wakandans, but of black people around the world. Those are very smartly written stories with a lot of care and personality to them, which is not a quality that these episodes possess.
It is unfair to compare the work of these showrunners to Ryan Coogler, but all four episodes rely on very tired archetypes that we’ve seen in dozens of other projects. For example, the lead of Episode 1 is Noni, a very powerful and skilled assassin from Wakanda who is tasked with a mission to retrieve Wakandan technology from a warlord. The setup is cool and leads to some strong fight sequences in the 29 minutes allotted, but we learn little about Noni other than she’s a “loose cannon” who doesn’t play well with others, to the point where she rejected the structure of the Dora Milaje.
There have been so many of these hotshot, rulebreaker characters throughout all of fiction, and Eyes of Wakanda doesn’t do anything new with those cliches. A lot of them repeat throughout the other three episodes, which makes for a bit of a dull experience at times. There are a lot of cool moments in this miniseries, particularly the return of characters like Iron Fist to the MCU. But a lot of the opportunities are wasted, as by the time we get attached to what these stories are trying to accomplish, they’re over. I almost wish this had just been a singular movie, similar to Killer of Killers.
At least the animation is solid. It’s hard to explain the look of the episodes, but I would say the closest comp is the CG Star Wars Clone Wars series. The action moves fluidly, and is surprisingly adult and intense at times. There’s even spatterings of blood throughout the violence, as the show tries to strike a balance between kid-friendly and adult. There’s clearly a bit of an anime influence in the designs, and at the very least, there’s enjoyment to be had in watching the characters crash into each other in vibranium-based combat.
Eyes of Wakanda’s release date was unceremoniously moved up with little fanfare or promotion by Marvel, and it feels like the company wants to use the new goodwill built up by the successes of The Fantastic Four: First Steps to pull more eyeballs into a show that might have been completely forgotten or ignored otherwise. You can see why Marvel wanted to try and ride on the coattails of higher profile projects with this one, because while Eyes of Wakanda is a perfectly decent watch, it’s far from memorable. Even at a relatively brief runtime, the show feels like it’s running out the clock by the end.
All four episodes of Eyes of Wakanda are available now on Disney+.
