Road to Avengers Doomsday: Eyes of Wakanda
In anticipation of Avengers Doomsday, I have decided to watch through the entirety of the MCU in chronological order. In this watch through, I will include shows that many fans deem “not canon” like Agents of SHIELD, Cloak and Dagger, the Runaways and Hellstrom. Because at the end of the day, there's no concrete evidence to argue that they are firmly not canon and all are considered to exist within the MCU. Since this is a chronological watch through, I will begin with Eyes of Wakanda.
Eyes of Wakanda is largely an anthology series of four episodes centered on the Hatut Zaraze (War Dogs) and their actions in specific moments of history in their various orders and operations to ultimately protect Wakanda. The animation style took some getting used to, for me. It kind of reminds me of Star Trek Prodigy in that realm. I enjoy that the series gives us a different view of Wakanda that isn’t from the perspective of other MCU heroes or the Black Panther. It focuses heavily on covert operations and espionage elements. I like the different time periods that these episodes are set in. They are time periods that are rarely featured in movies, video games and other media. In that regard, it kind of invokes Assassin’s Creed.
Into The Lion’s Den is the first episode which focuses on a former Dora Milaje being tasked with tracking down and stopping a rogue War Dog Nkati (the Lion) in Crete in 1260. I like the seeming reversal of roles as it is a Wakandan who is terrorizing the outside world instead of the outside world attacking and trying to conquer Wakanda. The Lion has an interesting band of villains seemingly from different parts of the world. The Lion is essentially the inverse of the Black Panther, which, again, is an interesting role reversal.
Legends and Lies is a little more straightforward and dwells on infiltration and torn loyalties between the War Dog B’Kai and his friend Achilles during the Siege of Troy, 1200 BC.
Lost and Found is probably my second favorite episode set in 1400s in China. Here the War Dog Basha finds himself facing the Iron Fist. Another interesting narrative twist here is that an outsider successfully infiltrates Wakanda. This is also an episode that highlights an intrinsic hypocrisy of the Wakandans as their motivations and isolationism creates a conflict with another culture who has grown to revere their vibranium artifact that they are seeking to recover to preserve their anonymity. The show doesn’t really give a clear cut answer to this conflict, but it is something worth considering and you may find some historical and contemporary parallels to this today.
And lastly The Last Panther is the episode that kind of brings everything full circle. Set in 1896 during the First Italo-Ethiopian War, the War Dogs Kuda and Prince Tafari are faced with the dilemma of recovering a Wakandan artifact or allowing a horrifying history to unfold. So this is a time travel story in a way. A Wakandan Queen hailing from a presumably alternate universe/timeline at this point, insists that a Wakandan ax must be recovered by other nations so that the events of Black Panther can play out and change Wakanda’s backward isolationist views as those traditions and views are ultimately what dooms the world in the future. So there’s some foreshadowing clear and subtly here as well as this theme of how something seemingly so small and insignificant can have an impact on a larger development in the future. My only issue with this is why Prince Tafari just accepts this and doesn’t change Wakanda’s policy himself when/if he becomes King or influences the Wakanda political sphere to prematurely change. Time travel stuff is always going to be flawed.
Overall, the series is quite good. I would have liked to have seen more but the animation studio closed down after this season (not a good sign) and while this doesn’t kill the potential for future seasons, it does kind of complicate it. But Marvel has been on a strong animation kick of late so I suppose there’s hope. But the show was good in that it stood on its own, for the most part. Tackled a lot of themes that the Black Panther movies don’t address fully (an even more historically complicated Wakanda, innate hypocrisy and contradictions etc.) and helps further contextualize Wakanda’s role and place in the MCU.
Rating: 4/5
Eyes of Wakanda is largely an anthology series of four episodes centered on the Hatut Zaraze (War Dogs) and their actions in specific moments of history in their various orders and operations to ultimately protect Wakanda. The animation style took some getting used to, for me. It kind of reminds me of Star Trek Prodigy in that realm. I enjoy that the series gives us a different view of Wakanda that isn’t from the perspective of other MCU heroes or the Black Panther. It focuses heavily on covert operations and espionage elements. I like the different time periods that these episodes are set in. They are time periods that are rarely featured in movies, video games and other media. In that regard, it kind of invokes Assassin’s Creed.
Into The Lion’s Den is the first episode which focuses on a former Dora Milaje being tasked with tracking down and stopping a rogue War Dog Nkati (the Lion) in Crete in 1260. I like the seeming reversal of roles as it is a Wakandan who is terrorizing the outside world instead of the outside world attacking and trying to conquer Wakanda. The Lion has an interesting band of villains seemingly from different parts of the world. The Lion is essentially the inverse of the Black Panther, which, again, is an interesting role reversal.
Legends and Lies is a little more straightforward and dwells on infiltration and torn loyalties between the War Dog B’Kai and his friend Achilles during the Siege of Troy, 1200 BC.
Lost and Found is probably my second favorite episode set in 1400s in China. Here the War Dog Basha finds himself facing the Iron Fist. Another interesting narrative twist here is that an outsider successfully infiltrates Wakanda. This is also an episode that highlights an intrinsic hypocrisy of the Wakandans as their motivations and isolationism creates a conflict with another culture who has grown to revere their vibranium artifact that they are seeking to recover to preserve their anonymity. The show doesn’t really give a clear cut answer to this conflict, but it is something worth considering and you may find some historical and contemporary parallels to this today.
And lastly The Last Panther is the episode that kind of brings everything full circle. Set in 1896 during the First Italo-Ethiopian War, the War Dogs Kuda and Prince Tafari are faced with the dilemma of recovering a Wakandan artifact or allowing a horrifying history to unfold. So this is a time travel story in a way. A Wakandan Queen hailing from a presumably alternate universe/timeline at this point, insists that a Wakandan ax must be recovered by other nations so that the events of Black Panther can play out and change Wakanda’s backward isolationist views as those traditions and views are ultimately what dooms the world in the future. So there’s some foreshadowing clear and subtly here as well as this theme of how something seemingly so small and insignificant can have an impact on a larger development in the future. My only issue with this is why Prince Tafari just accepts this and doesn’t change Wakanda’s policy himself when/if he becomes King or influences the Wakanda political sphere to prematurely change. Time travel stuff is always going to be flawed.
Overall, the series is quite good. I would have liked to have seen more but the animation studio closed down after this season (not a good sign) and while this doesn’t kill the potential for future seasons, it does kind of complicate it. But Marvel has been on a strong animation kick of late so I suppose there’s hope. But the show was good in that it stood on its own, for the most part. Tackled a lot of themes that the Black Panther movies don’t address fully (an even more historically complicated Wakanda, innate hypocrisy and contradictions etc.) and helps further contextualize Wakanda’s role and place in the MCU.
Rating: 4/5
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I did a similar watchthrough & write-along back in 2020 to keep myself occupied during quarantine, & that ended up turning into [a blog](https://mcuchronological.wordpress.com/) I've been continuing for almost 6 years now.