Thursday, March 18, 2021

Wandarin’ 'Bout Vision

 

Yeah yeah yeah, of course there's a spoiler warining.
How could anyone talk about this series without spoilers?

Welcome to our world once more, normal people!

Infinity War and Engdame introduced all of you to what we're all used to in the interconnected world of superhero comics, and their regular, giant crossover events.

Wandavision has now introduced you to what happens when you go back to "regular" stories, expecting everything to cross over and finding out it doesn't always.

Seriously, you all have jumped WAY too deep into the geek pool on this Marvel Universe stuff.

There are far too many people who've never read a comic book in their life that predicted Agnes was really "Agatha Harkness."  
"I knew it!" they all shouted, when a very cool character, but one who bears very little resemblance to the comic book version, was revealed.

Hey, I'm not complaining, its nice to finally have large groups of people to discuss this insanity with, but you might get more enjoyment out of reading actual comics, than internet arguments is all I'm saying.

However, for all of you new people upset that its wasn't Nighmare, or Mephisto, or Dormamu, or a reveal of the Mulitverse...

Normally, even though there are cross references to other parts of the franchise, the important thing is telling a self contained story.

In this case, it was all about Wanda's grief triggering powers she had suppressed as analogies for how depression and loss are handled in real life.  In that respect, it was excellently done.

Trust me, this was executed much better than in the comics, where Vision's dissection and white version came out of nowhere, because the writer ignored years of the Vision's characterization as having sentience consciousness and emotion, by stating Wanda shouldn’t be in love with, and I quote, "a toaster."  It eventually led to Scarlet Witch being the lead in several stories of Marvel's patented, "Extremely powerful hero loses control and must be stopped by her (mostly male) teammates because she's an over emotional woman."

If you think you're upset, remember this couple along with Hawkeye and Mockingbird, were my favorite pairings when I started collecting comics, and their forced break ups IN THE SAME COMIC BOOK TITLE were done so poorly I stopped reading Marvel Comics for about a decade.

What we got in WandaVision was a self contained character analysis, with springboards for multiple other series, movies and characters.

Be happy for getting a cool series that paid tribute to the history of sit-coms in fun ways, when the story could have been handled in a short and depressing film.

Be happy that White Vision was immediately re-granted his memories, and probably his emotions, instead of years of wandering, and frequent re-destruction for him, and multiple mental breakdowns for her.
Aside- when my daughter read the fantastic original Young Avengers series, I forgot to warn her Vision dies, because it happened so often I take it for granted now.

Be happy that we got Darcy and Jimmy Woo as great side characters that can be carried on elsewhere. (In their own investigative series, he added hopefully)

Be happy that Monica is on her way to being Photon/ Spectrum, a truly awesome hero. 
Another Aside - WOO HOO!  When I was reading West Coast Avengers my friend Lee collected the regular Avengers title, with Monica, as "Captain Marvel" in a major role.  We would swap issues to keep informed about the other coast of the team. (Especially the annual softball games which were a hoot!)  I'm very excited to see one of the most fun and powerful members of that era's group show up. 

Be happy there's already a tease that the twins will return at the age we saw them, leading much more quickly into the Young Avengers, which they are clearly building to with Cassie Lang, Billy and Tommy already on screen, America Chavez and Hawkeye Kate coming soon, and a Secret Invasion show that would be a perfect introduction platform for Skrull / Kree  Teddy.  Trust me, the alternative is seeing the twins as shrieking babies growing out of the arms of the demonic Master Pandemonium, and no one needs that again. 
Hey kids, comics!

It was a fun ride, that told a full story, and left many threads open for many journeys to come in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,  both announced (Doctor Strange II) and in yet to be announced projects.

Woo Hoo!

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