‘Eyes of Wakanda’ Review: A Powered Up History Lesson

Wakanda is arguably one of my most favourite locations in the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Their world design and technology never fails to amaze me and with the announcement of Eyes of Wakanda, I was thrilled to return to this beautiful nation.

Eyes of Wakanda is the history of the Hatut Zaraze, which has since then been renamed to the War Dogs. This secret group is tasked with retrieving Vibranium Artifacts that have found themselves outside of Wakandan borders and risk exposing the nation. It’s the first animated project set directly in the MCU timeline.

Marvel Animation has the wonderful opportunity to showcase many different art styles throughout their lifespan, and I’m grateful that Eyes of Wakanda is one of them. I really adore this look. Some moments even feel like pieces of artwork. The only downsides I found were some character’s faces looking a bit off alongside a pinch of wonky movement/ here and there. This series also brings back my favourite type of mid-credits, featuring concept art from various moments of the episode, allowing me to appreciate it even more.

The intro is also a great aspect of the show; it visually feels very ancient and depicts tidbits from each episode in the series. I loved both the intro and outro themes attached. They both felt very powerful, something that could really get stuck in your head.

As I mentioned above, I really love the world design and technology of Wakanda. Both of which were showcased really well during the series. Wakanda looks like an absolute paradise throughout each episode and they didn’t skip out on the locations that the War Dogs are assigned to either. Each location looks grand and a visual spectacle. On the technology side of things I was amazed about how advanced it all felt especially for those time periods whether it’s advances in medicine, communication, weaponry or otherwise. 

With those points out of the way it’s time to talk about the main event, the episodes. I won’t lie immediately after the final episode, I wasn’t sure about each episode. I felt the artifacts lacked the “threat” proposed by the synopsis, but I soon realised that’s because I only expected the artifacts to be weapons of destruction. After I had some extra time to digest the series, I saw each episode from a different perspective. While yes, episode one is exactly what I thought the series would follow, someone wielding artifacts to cause destruction and rule. The remaining episodes go in different directions.

Episodes two and four showcased how Wakanda directly influenced history whether by their own hands or through the artifacts. Meanwhile, episode three depicts Wakanda’s biggest fear, being exposed to an outsider. Overall, I enjoyed the episodes, four being my favourite but that’s a direct result of the influences of episodes one to three and even previous Wakanda-based projects like the Black Panther films. I will admit that every episode should have been longer, not only because of it going by so quickly, but the episodes needed some extra backstory. Each story begins at the peak of their existence, we never really see how it came to this point, nor how the artifact got there.

Episode three was also a huge one for me as it was the debut of one version of the Iron Fist, an original character named Jorani. Ever since the Iron Fist series cliffhanger, I’ve been craving more of the hero, and I was pretty satisfied with what we saw in the episode. 

Overall, I can confidently say that I did enjoy the four-part series despite its occasionally wonky animation and its need for more backstory. Should season two be greenlit, I’d love it if we could have a reveal that Wakanda had secretly encountered Talokan before, had episode one been set a few hundred years later, that would’ve been a perfect opportunity.

Eyes of Wakanda is directed by Todd Harris, the series stars Winnie Harlow as Noni, Cress Williams as the Lion and more. All four episodes are now streaming on Disney+.

Watch Eyes of Wakanda below on Disney+:

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