Just like What If…?, Eyes of Wakanda leans exhausting into the fantastical and remixes items of the bigger MCU canon in a manner that makes it come throughout like Marvel-approved fanfiction. However the brand new sequence options a lot stronger visuals, and every of its 4 episodes inform self-contained narratives which have much more nuanced concepts about justice and morality. And after so many movies and sequence in regards to the multiverse, Eyes of Wakanda is an efficient reminder of how fulfilling Marvel’s tasks will be when the studio brings its storytelling all the way down to Earth.
Whereas there’s a sure diploma of connective tissue between its episodes, Eyes of Wakanda zooms in on a sequence of very completely different, pivotal moments from the nation’s historical past. The sequence opens within the late thirteenth century, at a time when it’s extensively understood inside Wakanda how necessary it’s that outsiders stay at the hours of darkness in regards to the kingdom’s existence.
Within the incorrect fingers, Wakanda’s superior expertise and huge shops of vibranium might plunge the world into absolute chaos. Although different nations are ill-equipped to take them on in battle, the Wakandans are cautious about sustaining their secrecy. However they acknowledge the worth in figuring out what’s taking place all over the world, which is why they recruit folks like Noni (Winnie Harlow), a failed Dora Milaje, to change into Struggle Canines — operatives tasked with finishing up covert missions past Wakanda’s borders.
Whereas Eyes of Wakanda frames most of its featured leads in a heroic mild, it’s clear that showrunner Todd Harris is thinking about utilizing the sequence to interrogate the moral implications of Wakanda’s method to statecraft. Within the earliest days of the Struggle Canines’ existence as a company, they symbolize a really actual worry of what may occur if Wakanda and its creations have been found. A couple of items of stolen Wakandan tech are all it takes for one traitor (Cress Williams) to persuade foreigners that he’s a god who has a proper to enslave mortals. However as time goes on, the Struggle Canines’ missions to recuperate misplaced vibranium artifacts change into extra like self-centered quests for glory than makes an attempt at conserving the world protected. It’s not all the time clear that what they’re doing is morally sound, and there are a number of cases the place operatives’ emotional entanglements with outsiders come near placing everybody at risk.
As a result of it’s a sequence about extremely skilled warriors, Eyes of Wakanda is a contact extra brutal than Marvel’s earlier Disney Plus sequence. The present is peppered with blood-smattered motion sequences the place characters are maimed and, in a single notable occasion, killed with an axe to the top. However there are additionally components of caprice woven all through — particularly in a single episode set in Historic Greece that unfolds like an interpolation of The Tune of Achilles.
Not like What If…?, which was centered on increasing Marvel’s multiverse, Eyes of Wakanda places extra of its vitality into highlighting actual items of African historical past that impressed Black Panther’s lore. There’s nonetheless loads of larger-than-life sci-fi zaniness, although, which retains issues from getting too dry. Out of all of the latest animated anthology tasks at present streaming, Eyes of Wakanda really feels most like Hulu’s Predator: Killer of Killers in the best way it retains issues quick and candy earlier than bringing all of it full circle. It makes for a strong little bit of Marvel storytelling — the sort that the studio most likely needs to make extra of now that it’s attempting to prioritize high quality over amount.
Eyes of Wakanda additionally stars Lynn Whitfield, Jona Xiao, Steve Toussaint, Anika Noni Rose, Patricia Belcher, and Gary Anthony Williams. All 4 episodes are actually streaming on Disney Plus.
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