It’s been almost a decade since Chadwick Boseman debuted in Captain America: Civil War and brought Black Panther to the MCU for the first time. After three more live-action appearances in Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame, and a voice-only role in What If…? his time as the iconic superhero ended with the actor’s tragic passing. From there, Letitia Wright’s Shuri took on the mantle, becoming the 7th iteration of the Black Panther in the franchise (including Bashenga, Killmonger, and two variants in What If…?) And 3 years on from Wakanda Forever, the MCU has just added a new Black Panther to the timeline.
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Marvel’s new Black Panther spin-off explores four important points in Wakandan history, and four separate missions by Wakanda’s roving War Dogs (the secret intelligence service who operate outside of the secretive country’s borders) to retrieve lost Vibranium relics. Lupita Nyong’os Nakia would, of course, continue that groups missions later in the timeline, but these early missions prove even more crucial to Wakanda in the final episode of Eyes Of Wakanda, and the reveal of a new hero. Warning: from here on, this article contains SPOILERS for Eyes of Wakanda episode 4.
Eyes of Wakanda episode 4 introduces The Intruder, an unnamed Black Panther who is Queen of Wakanda (voiced by Anika Noni Rose) in the 24th Century (some time around 2396, in fact). She travels back in time 500 years to find the key point on the timeline where a key event created a branched timeline that doomed Earth to an invasion by Marvel Comics villains The Horde (who would go on to destroy the Earth). Only by ensuring that a Vibranium axe is not taken back to Wakanda is that possible, because it’s the same axe that Erik Killmonger steals in Black Panther, setting off a chain of events that eventually open Wakanda’s borders and creating a global alliance that ultimately saves the Earth from The Horde.
The new Black Panther comes with a heavy weight armor and nanotech mask that appears to have been developed specifically for time travel. We see her first more traditional Black Panther armor on the battlefield too (below). The upgrade, naturally, comes with Vibranium upgrades, including retractable claws, but this new Panther also comes with new powers. Not only can she use her Vibranium-derived powers to transport the minds of 19th century War Dogs Tafari and Kuda to a vision of her future timeline, but she can also use an invention called a Quantum Scanner to actually jump through time. In other words, she’s basically both the most technoclogically advanced, and the most purely powerful Black Panther seen so far.
Eyes Of Wakanda is a creative, intriguing expansion of Black Panther’s lore, and the final episode is easily the stand-out, thanks to the ties back to Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. The animation is beautiful, the action is brilliantly choreographed, and the new characters are compelling, but it’s definitely the reveal of a new Black Panther, and her ties to Killmonger that are the biggest selling points.
All four episodes of Eyes Of Wakanda are available on Disney+ now.
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Image Courtesy of Madhouse
