Spoilers ahead for WandaVision and Avengers Endgame!
If you’re a fan of the MCU, then you’re probably familiar with their newest, and only show (so far) on Disney+, WandaVision. This series has taken the world by storm with it’s unique formatting, direction and writing. It’s unlike anything we have seen from the MCU, and that’s what makes it so great. In the show, we follow a whole slew of characters both old and new, with a particular focus on Wanda Maximoff and Vision, a few weeks after the events of Avengers Endgame.
WandaVision is unique in its own way for many reasons. The first few episodes follow a typical sitcom style taking inspiration from the 1960’s until today, laugh track included. It emulates the styles of iconic TV shows like The Dick Van Dyke Show, I Love Lucy, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Brady Bunch, The Twilight Zone, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Full House, Malcolm in the Middle, Modern Family, and The Office.
While aspects of the aforementioned are inspirations for stylistic choices throughout the first six episodes, it doesn’t feel cheap or lazy in any way. In fact, there is a clear explanation for why these choices were made, which are showcased through flashbacks of Wanda’s life in episode eight.
At the heart of the show is the arc of Wanda’s grief. While it is a show about superheroes, and there is a villain to be defeated (a few of them actually), that’s not the point of the series as a whole. In fact, I would go as far to say that the villain of the series is Wanda herself, and the internal battle she is facing throughout the arc of her grief.
WandaVision uses the five stages of grief as a catalyst for it’s storytelling. Wanda shows signs of denial by creating a world where she didn’t lose Vision and they can live their happily ever after, a world in which the loss never happened in the first place. Then we see her anger peak through when she lashes out whenever something threatens to ruin her new reality. Wanda begins to bargain with the agents of S.W.O.R.D. even after she becomes more aware of what she has done, proving she is willing to make sacrifices to alleviate her pain, even temporarily. We see her portray signs of depression, most notably in episode seven where she struggles to take care of her own needs as well as the needs of her children. Finally, we see her reach acceptance in the finale, where she is able to let go of the world she has created, knowing that it wasn’t a permanent solution and that she was hurting others as well as herself by forcing the false reality to be real.
Wanda’s refusal to accept reality and her lack of control within WestView is what makes her her own worst enemy. Her power is the biggest obstacle that prevents her from healing. This flaw within her character is what makes this story so compelling in the first place. It shows us, as viewers, that even superheroes feel immense pain, which seems obvious, but isn’t something we have seen from the MCU before. WandaVision is the most grounded and relatable story we have ever seen from Marvel, which is why it is such a game changer.
Anyone who has experienced loss on the level that Wanda has, understands her pain and motive for creating WestView. She gets to live the life she always imagined she would have with Vision, has a family, and eventually gets to say a proper goodbye, something she didn’t get in Endgame. This is reinforced in episode nine when Monica Rambeau says “Given the chance, and given your power, I would bring back my Mom, I know I would.” It’s something that most people can relate to, even the other characters within the show. WandaVision showed that even heroes can do villainous things, but that doesn’t ultimately make them evil. Who knows what the future of the MCU looks like for Wanda, now that she is canonically the Scarlet Witch. All I know is that getting to see my favorite superhero face her grief, confront her trauma, and heal properly was so special.
WandaVision is just the start of Marvel Phase Four, it broke some serious boundaries in the span of nine episodes. Most importantly, the forefront of the show was a female lead, focused on confronting personal loss, something I hope to see more of from the MCU in the future. I’m so excited to see what the future of Phase Four holds for the MCU, I can only hope it’s as good as WandaVision.
