Well, well, well. After a whole year absent of anything Marvel, the fourth phase officially kicked off with their first ever television series, WandaVision! And the stars of this series? Wanda and the very much dead Vision…or so we think? I would suspect that it comes as no surprise to audiences that Vision is in fact still dead, and that this is just Wanda’s way of coping with her grief. But she does so in a very interesting…and morally questionable way.
The series first couple episodes are presented in black and white, and also adopt a sitcom style comedy that both Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany totally nail. You get tastes of I Love Lucy and Dick Van Dyke before transitioning to color and being introduced to The Brady Bunch-type tribute. My personal favorite that was covered was a Malcolm In the Middle-esque 90s Halloween themed episode! Their Modern Family tribute also seemed pretty spot on. Aside from Wanda and Vision taking on these sitcom decades, so does the entire town they live in. It seems like it’s own world that’s totally separated off from the rest of reality.
And really, it is. Alternating between Wanda and Vision’s mundane daily life, S.W.O.R.D has set up base just outside of town trying to figure out how to take Wanda down. Well, not everyone at S.W.O.R.D. Monica Rambeau, Jimmy Woo, and Darcy Lewis are all aware that Wanda has built this world to cope with the blow that Visions being taken away by Thanos in Avengers: Endgame. The three of them try and work stealthily against the rest of S.W.O.R.D. set on taking Wanda down, but ultimately get sucked into West View and morphed into Wanda’s reality.
Slowly but surely as time goes on, Wanda isn’t able to grasp control of her powers. But before her world comes tumbling down, she also gets to have twins, which, based on some fan theories I read about, may be the first two kids part of some young Avengers storyline that existed in the comics. She also gets her brother, Pietro back, only, her brother has been recast in the most fun meta cameo I could ever think of! That’s right, X-Men’s Evan Peters, who also portrayed Quicksilver, shows up this time, and while that throws Wanda off, she doesn’t really question it much further. Eventually, Vision becomes aware that something is not quite right and discovers that her control of the people of the town are being tortured.
Wanda’s world gets rocked when she learns her nosy neighbor Agatha, is actually Agatha Harkness, a powerful witch who is able to absorb other witches’ powers. When she reveals herself to Wanda, the real battle begins. The two face off all over town, then Wanda has to face off against angry townsfolk broken of Wanda’s hold on them. As Wanda goes to revert the town back to normal, she realizes that when she does she will lose her perfect world with her twins and Vision. But really, Agatha sucks and Wanda soon harnesses her powers and becomes officially, the Scarlet Witch. She traps Agatha into her role as the nosy neighbor then comes to terms with letting her family go.
By episodes end, she’s off the grid and hiding in a cabin somewhere trying to learn to control her powers. Elsewhere, Monica definitely crossed over the boarder Wanda created too many times and it’s altered her DNA. I imagine we’ll see her and Captain Marvel hang out sometime soon? A part that confused me a bit was when White Vision came to town and faced off against Wanda’s Vision. The two battled, but eventually Vision was able to convince the cold and calculating White Vision that he has memories. When he taps into them he flies away…so I’m not totally sure what happened to him or where we’ll see him next. Because I imagine we will, right?
Look, I don’t read comics or dive too far into fan theories. I read other people’s reviews to get that kind of information if I want it, but what I did gather is that eventually things don’t end quite so well for the Scarlet Witch, and based on what she can do in terms of morphing time and space that she could be interacting with Doctor Strange in the near future. Who knows though really? As far as I know, the second Doctor Strange movie is at least a whole year out. Regardless of all that went on this season, I was thoroughly entertained! I loved the risk they took in tackling a new genre. Sure, there was still a heavy dose of drama and action by the end of the series, but they really leaned into the comedy and it worked! More of this for Falcon and the Winter Soldier please!