WandaVision – Nerds on Earth https://nerdsonearth.com The best place on earth for nerds. Thu, 08 Apr 2021 12:03:14 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://nerdsonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/cropped-nerds_head_thumb2-100x100.png WandaVision – Nerds on Earth https://nerdsonearth.com 32 32 All the podcasts from NerdsonEarth.com, under one umbrella. We create short run podcasts for nerds, covering D&D, Marvel, Starfinder, and more! You vote for your favorite shows and they just might get a second season. WandaVision – Nerds on Earth false episodic WandaVision – Nerds on Earth jason.sansbury@nerdsonearth.com podcast All the podcasts from NerdsonEarth.com, the best place on Earth for nerds. WandaVision – Nerds on Earth https://nerdsonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/noe-podcast-logo.png https://nerdsonearth.com/blog/ Marvel Movies Are The GOAT And Now There is Disney+ https://nerdsonearth.com/2021/04/marvel-movies-are-the-goat-plus-wandavision/ Thu, 08 Apr 2021 12:00:00 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=35506

Looking at the MCU by the numbers only further confirms that its the greatest cinematic accomplishment of all time!

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is the greatest accomplishment in the history of cinema and pop culture. And that’s no exaggeration or fit of hyperbole. Sure, a smattering of hipster nerds on Twitter act like there is something better than the MCU, but those takes age about as well as a tuna sandwich left in an impounded Dodge Charger in Macon, GA, over the course of a summer.

Any sensible person acknowledges the MCU is the GOAT.

To be clear, I’m not talking about any movie that includes Marvel characters, I’m talking about the wholly Marvel written, directed, and produced films, beginning with Iron Man in 2008 all the way through Spider-Man: Far from Home and now into Disney+ shows like WandaVision. This is a claim that I’ve made before but it’s worth revisiting and I’ll sum up my argument here, as I know you won’t review the syllabus.

First, Marvel is new to the business. Iron Man dropped in 2008, meaning the franchise is barely over a decade old. Other movie franchises are undeniably successful, but some like Fast and Furious are 20+ years old, while others like James Bond or Star Wars are over four decades old! For Marvel to release what will be 23 films in a little over a decade is impressive.

Data from Box Office Mojo as of Avengers: Infinity War. The MCU’s numbers only skyrocketed after Endgame.

Second, Marvel is the most financially lucrative franchise of all time. MCU movies have made 9.1 BILLION dollars in U.S. theaters (adjusted for inflation), dwarfing Star Wars by more than a billion. And when you include international theatre money, Marvel’s worldwide total balloons to 22.5 BILLION, which doubles Star Wars’ 10.3. That gives the MCU an insurmountable lead when you take a glance at their upcoming slate. It’s not even close at this point. (Full data here.)

Third, Marvel movie quality is shockingly consistent. Sure, Marvel cranks them movies out and they make money, but are those darned movies any good? After all, you are an artist; the currencies of this world mean nothing to you! It’s only artistic integrity that drives you!

Well, out of the 23 current MCU movies, there are eleven…ELEVEN!…of them that have a Rotten Tomatoes score at 90 or above. By golly, that’s darned good, folks. What’s crazy is that the last 2 releases are 90%, so it’s not like we are seeing any drop-off in quality whatsoever.

What’s more, the lowest rated Marvel movie according to RT is Thor: The Dark World at 66%. That’s not a great score, but it’s hardly a stinker as compared to many franchise movies. Besides, that 66% even feels like an outlier as most of the other non-90s films hit in the solid 70s or even high 80s. (For example, the brilliant Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2 “caps” at 85%, which is silly low for a movie with that much heart.)

But do other franchises top those Rotten Tomatoes scores? Outside of a couple franchises, it’s not even close. The Harry Potter franchise actually had a higher overall aggregate score until Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther edged Marvel higher, so it competes in terms of quality. The Star Wars franchise scores positively as well, except the Prequels pull down the overall aggregate.

By comparison, the X-Men, Batman, Spider-Man, and Transformers franchises have some real stinkers. Batman v Superman got an embarrassing 27 tomatoes, X-Men: Apocalypse came in at 48, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen got a 19.

In short, Marvel has proven they’re a 90% free throw shooter, so even if they clank one off the rim, you better bet the next nine will be nothing but net. (Full scores here.)

In summary, the MCU isn’t done yet. Black Widow is on its way. Hey, maybe it will be one of the rare mediocre Marvel movies, but its sure to increase the MCU’s financial lead, if nothing else. Plus, you know in your heart it’s going to be good.

And Shang-Chi and the Eternals will follow, bringing even more new characters. Maybe they will only carve out a small little corner of the the MCU. But is there anyone alive who doubts that Shang-Chi has the potential to be an international hit?

What, we haven’t mentioned WandaVision?!? Good news! Disney is giving some nerds a new thing to complain about, which is that the storylines from the Disney+ Marvel shows will carry over into the movies. This messes up my box office math, those complainy McGees will tell you, as Disney+ viewership isn’t expressed as a box office figure.

But complaining about Disney+ in this way is how you can be correct by the letter of the law and still be charged with public indecency. You know, like when you’re caught wearing pants made of clear plastic. Yes, you’re wearing pants, but you are also still nude. Not that that has ever happened to me. That you can find out.

But I’ll play that game and we won’t talk about box office revenue with WandaVision, we’ll just talk tomatoes. WandaVision – despite being an experimental mash-up of sitcoms and superhero drama – is at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. It was a hit, pure and simple. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is in a similar position, despite being an entirely different genre.

The result: The Disney+ offerings are only further cementing the MCU’s status.

Even if Thanos returns and re-blips all the heroes away again, he still can’t wipe away the remarkable feat that Marvel has pulled off in a decade’s time. Truly, whether you judge them by quality, through the lens of capitalism, or the best way, which is by the amount of joy they’ve brought you–the MCU really is the GOAT.

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WandaVision To Doctor Strange: Rise Of The Darkhold https://nerdsonearth.com/2021/03/darkhold/ Wed, 17 Mar 2021 12:00:00 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=35386 scarlet witch darkhold

Could the Darkhold debuted in WandaVision be the MCU's next Infinity Gauntlet-like threat? We survey the comics to unearth possible tie-ins and inspiration.

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scarlet witch darkhold

Could the Darkhold be the new Infinity Gauntlet of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an artifact that in the wrong hands *ahem* could mean disaster for not just the universe, but the entire multiverse? 

I think it’s worth wondering if maybe the Darkhold will pop up in future MCU projects, both on Disney+ as well as in the movies. Will it be as ubiquitous as the Infinity Stones? I don’t know. But, I mean, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness is certainly a prime candidate for future Darkhold storylines, as is the upcoming Blade project. There is some real potential here, is what I’m saying. 

50% of these characters were featured in WandaVision.

Much like 6-issue storylines that make up a story arc that is ultimately collected in a graphic novel, the MCU certainly has story arcs that run across different properties. Consider these announced projects just in regards to supernatural storylines: 

  • WandaVision – Streaming on Disney+ beginning January 15, 2021
  • Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness – Theatrical Release March 22, 2022
  • Moon Knight – Streaming on Disney+ in 2022
  • Blade – Theatrical Release TBD

WandaVision already featured the Darkhold. Could we be witnessing the rise of the Darkhold in other MCU properties? Well, it turns out that some storyline inspiration has been staring right at us the entire time in the form of Doctor Strange: Rise of the Darkhold, a nearly 500 page tome that collects oodles of comics which feature the Darkhold. 

It would be easier to get Nerds to agree on the inclusion of Evan Peters in WandaVision than to find Avengers / Doctor Strange: Rise of the Darkhold in a dead tree version, but Amazon sells the Kindle version here and all these issues are available on the amazing Marvel Unlimited app. Here is what is collected: 

  • Marvel Spotlight #3-4 (1971)
  • Werewolf by Night #1, #3, #15 (1972)
  • Tomb of Dracula #18-19 (1974)
  • Marvel Chillers #1-2 (1975)
  • Avengers #185-187 (1979)
  • Doctor Strange #59-62, #67, #81 (1983)
  • Thor #332-333 (1983)

It also includes a smattering of content from Dracula Lives #6, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22, X-Men Annual #12, and Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #9-13 and #15. Basically, Avengers / Doctor Strange: Rise of the Darkhold tries to collect all the storyline appearances from that era that involves the Darkhold. 

The most relevant of those above issues are Avengers #185-187, as those issues give the origin story of Scarlet Witch. Those comics are also bonkers, as the High Evolutionary mixes a cow with a human who then becomes Wanda’s midwife. Dark Wanda comes into play, there is Modred…anyway, it’s bonkers.

Avengers: Age of Ultron and WandaVision told a much better – and certainly more streamlined – tale for Wanda’s backstory. But the Darkhold was present in both the comics and the show. And the mid-credits sequence of Wanda at a cabin looked to me to be Wundagore Mountain, the key location in the comics. 

Doctor Strange #59-62 are the other relevant issues in the collected edition, although many others feature more Darkhold backstory if you are a completionist. The Doctor Strange books feature Dracula, which very well could be the thread that conjoins the Blade movie into all this. But Mephisto is in the shadows in those tales and fans were clamoring for that character to be unveiled in WandaVision

Take, for example, this synopsis from Doctor Strange #59: 

“Doctor Strange recalls his first fight with Dracula, which he believes should have killed the vampire permanently, but upon turning the Eye of Agamotto on himself, he remembers a more recent encounter that Mephisto had made him forget. He agrees to help Hannibal King in tracking down Dracula to end his threat once and for all. Meanwhile, Dracula has taken control of a cult of Darkholders, who summon the Children of the Night to help search for the one true Darkhold. The Children immediately sense Strange and King conspiring to oppose them and fly to attack them. The Children of the Night are defeated and Strange learns that the Darkhold must be found, but the Darkholders have also come much closer to pinpointing its location.”

  • Mephisto is mentioned.
  • Darkholders Cult could provide interesting foot soldiers in the MCU a la Hydra.
  • Hannibal King could be introduced in Moon Knight or another Jimmy Woo-like side character like him. 
  • Dracula, of course, ties into Blade. 

At the center of all that is the Darkhold. Will any of these storylines be pilfered, plundered, and prioritized for the MCU? Who knows? But we do know that Kevin Feige and the rest of the Marvel team love to begin with these old Bronze Age storylines, then remix them for today, just as they did for WandaVision

If you want to be the hipster Nerd who reads the book before they watch the movie, then look up Doctor Strange: Rise of the Darkhold. You can get it here for the Kindle or it is also available via Marvel Unlimited. 

Sources

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Discussing WandaVision https://nerdsonearth.com/2021/03/discussing-wandavision/ Tue, 09 Mar 2021 12:52:49 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=35276

We discuss WandaVision. How did our "pre-season" predictions stack up? What's up with the red herrings? What were the highlights of the show? Where does Marvel take it from here? All that, and more!

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We discuss WandaVision. How did our “pre-season predictions” stack up? What’s up with the red herrings? What were the highlights of the show? Where does Marvel take it from here? All that, and more!

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Recap and Review of WandaVision, S1E9: “The Series Finale” https://nerdsonearth.com/2021/03/recap-and-review-of-wandavision-s1e9-the-series-finale/ Fri, 05 Mar 2021 13:13:14 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=35171

Nerds on Earth recaps and reviews episode 1.9 of WandaVision – "The Series Finale" – on Disney+.

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There are so many dangling threads as we come into the last episode of the series. How much are we going to get resolved? How much will carry forward into other MCU properties?

Let’s find out!

Recap of WandaVision S1E9 “The Series Finale”

We pick up right where we left off, with Agatha Harkness and Wanda in a stand-off. After blasting Agatha, they both send the boys, Timmy and Billy, to their rooms.

(And here is where I make a confession: writing recaps of fights is hard. There is a reason boxing columns are always about big overarching ideas, even if the truth is the one guy just got his tail whipped by the other guy. So rather than try to go blow by blow, let’s talk big picture.)

Agatha has picked this fight for the very reason she is the kind of witch she is: she want to absorb all of Wanda’s power, to take it away from what and who she calls “the undeserving.” And we see some of the effects of it. The flashback showed us what happens as Agatha absorbs power: people decay, ending up almost mummified.

Early in the fight, we see the first signs of this in Wanda as her hands go dark. After Agatha tries to cut a deal, offering Wanda the chance to keep Westview if she will give Agatha the power, Wanda blindsides her with a car.

But then Ghost Vision shows up. And while no one thought it would be all hugs and kisses, Wanda is surprised as his embrace of her face becomes him attempting to crush her skull.

But, then we get the second fight that is going to key to the episode: Vision versus Ghost Vision. Agatha reappears and like a tag team wrestling match out of control, they partner up and head to different parts of Westview to rumble, as Wanda declares “This is our home” and Vision answers “Let’s fight for it.”

We get a cut away scene that shows us what has happened to Monica. Pietro has her captured in his mancave. When she makes an escape attempt, he stops her. While this doesn’t all happen chronologically, overtime, we learn that Agatha’s house isn’t Agatha’s at all but belongs instead to a “Ralph Bohner”. (I know I always find it helpful when real estate documents are just left on the coffee table in the mancave. Wait, you don’t store yours there? Weird.)

So, Ralph is Pietro and Monica is able to free him when she rips off the purple conch shell necklace at Agatha was using to control him. (More thoughts on this post-recap.)

Because the Visions are fighting up in the sky. Ghost Vision is talking about how Wanda must be killed and the other Vision removed. And we are able to track it all outside at SWORD tent, as Jimmy Woo is in custody and the acting director gives him a speech about the ends justify the means.

But Woo assures him, justice will come, as he cleverly takes a phone and a baby pin off the desk, and calls for backup, even after he told the deputy it was on its way.

Turns out, Jimmy Woo isn’t just using those hands for upclose magic!

The Wanda v. Agatha fight has a turn, as Wanda searches downtown Westview and sees the faces of the people she has been holding hostage. Agatha shows up and gets all exposition-y, letting Wanda know that the magic book the Darkholde, the Book of the Damned, has a whole chapter on the Scarlet Witch inside it.

But Agatha is like the cool English teacher that let you use the CliffNotes on books like As I Lay Dying, which everyone thinks is great but really is unreadable rubbish covered in Southern cliches. (The book, not the teacher.)

The key points:

  1. The Scarlet Witch is not born, she is forged.
  2. She does not need a coven or need for incantations.
  3. Her power exceeds that of the Sorcerer Supreme.
  4. And she is destined to destroy the world.

Agatha then cuts loose “Dottie,” who it turns out is really named Sarah. And Sarah is desperate to get her daughter out of her locked room, suggestions plot ideas to Wanda; she just wants to hold her daughter. Agatha then cuts the strings on more of what she calls “The Meat Puppets” and they surround Wanda.

The two Visions are fighting and blasting their head lasers at each other, while the brothers watch from their room. When they sense their mom is endangered by the crowd downtown, they head out.

But Wanda, at first refusing to believe the crowd, eventually decides that she can let the crowd go. And we see her use her enormous power to open up part of the hex, so they can flee.

Of course, this also opens the door for Sword to swarm in. As the Visions fight, Ghost Vision seems to have the upper hand, as his head laser proves more powerful. The Vision eventually crashes near Wanda, and she stops the open door, as both her husband and her now arriving children are disintegrating while she is undoing the Hex, even if for a moment. So, Wanda closes up the Hex and they have a family moment.

Agatha attacks and siphons more of Wanda’s powers and both her hands start to look dead, as SWORD arrives. Vision is quickly slammed into the Library and, for the first time, he is able to gain the upperhand, when he is able to get the Ghost Vision to question his orders to “Destroy the Vision” by pointing out that Westview Vision is but a temporary construct.

And while the boys handle SWORD, Hayward gets out of his car and goes to shoot the twins. Only Monica shows up first, using her new light powers to stop all the bullets but one, which Billy stops. And when Hayward goes to run away, Dr. Darcy slams into his card with the Funnel of Love food truck, pinning him in.

Meanwhile in the library, the two Visions have a discussion around the thought experiment The Ship of Theseus, that is used in identity philosophy. The idea is that a ship and its pieces are replaced as it is slowly due to rot. And if the rotten pieces were used to restore it, which is really the ship?

It is a classic argument that leads them to believe that neither is fully the Vision, but Ghost Vision allows Vision to restore memories to himself. (A good reminder all: Back up your data!)

Ghost Vision gets all the memories back but none of the emotional connecting pieces, declaring himself to be the Vision and flying off.

Wanda ambushes Agatha and drops her in the flashback we’ve seen before. (It has been awhile when Wanda used these powers, which are the first we saw she had in Age of Ultron.) Agatha seems frightened but then the rising dead witch bodies turn on Wanda, calling her the Scarlet Witch, the Harbinger of Chaos.

Then a red glowing tiara appears. Agatha offers to fix the Westview spell, giving Wanda and her family a place to stay forever, if Wanda gives the power. Wanda breaks through and the fight continues over Westview.

But every other shot, Wanda seems to be missing, hitting the walls of the Hex. Meanwhile Agatha just keeps soaking up power, seemingly becoming more and more powerful, then revealing that she cannot fix the Westview spell.

But when she goes for the grand finale, Wanda reveals that those misses were putting magical runes on the walls of the Hex, meaning only her powers would work inside it, learning from the lesson of Agatha’s basement last episode.

Then Wanda transforms into a new outfit, seemingly embracing the moniker of The Scarlet Witch. Fight won, Wanda curses Agatha to the nosy neighbor role, only no one will communicate with her moving forward.

Vision and Wanda then take their family home, both knowing what has to happen, and Wanda begins to undo the Hex, restoring Westview slowly to what it is supposed to be. Inside their house, Vision and Wanda tuck their kids into bed, saying how proud they are of the boys and Wanda promises a family is forever. And then she thanks the boys for choosing her to be their mom.

As Vision and Wanda embrace, they have a few more words, in part ending with the Vision having tears, which is an iconic moment from the comics, after Wanda reveals that Vision is the piece of the Mindstone that lives in her, as well as her sadness, her hope and, mostly, her love.

Vision’s response is “We have said goodbye before so it stands to reason we will say hello again.” And the Hex is undone.

Wanda leaves the lot of land where she started the Hex, and as the townspeople scorn her, Monica expresses sympathy and understanding; if she had Wanda’s powers, she would bring her mom back. Wanda expresses sorrow for the pain she has caused and promises to learn to understand this power that she has, flying away in her new Scarlet Witch garb.

And then we get two cut scenes. In the first scene, Jimmy Woo is handling his business, but Darcy is gone because “Debriefs are for the weak.” Monica is summoned into the theater and once inside, it is revealed the agent she is talking to is a Skrull and an old friend of her mother wants to meet with Monica. And when Monica asks where, the agent simply points to the sky.

In the post credit scene, we see a cabin off by itself and we see Wanda, enjoying a warm drink but inside we see the astral form of the Scarlet Witch, hard at work, learning from the Darkholde. But she comes to life when hearing the voices of her kids asking her for help!

Thoughts on WandaVision S1E9 “The Series Finale”

So, let’s be honest here: there are going to be people who really do not like this finale. Their favorite plot threads didn’t get resolved, yada yada yada.

But this is an incredible end to a fantastic season of televison. The reality is that you cannot leave so many pieces out there and not have some that you don’t resolve. But with that in mind, there are some things that I wanted to point out.

So, maybe the Multiverse thing was a trick? No one loved the idea of the X-Men’s weirdo universe smashing into the MCU. But with the revelation that Pietro is wannabe actor Ralph Bohner, does that undo the rest of the theories and speculation? (I suspect this may be what we see people the most ticked about.)

Frankly, I kind of like that there isn’t a clear resolution one way or another. Kevin Fiege and team can give themselves some room to play around with it one way or another.

The Scarlet Witch stuff. This gives us the appropriate amount of terror and intrigue moving forward and clearly helps us set up what is coming with her and the Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Strange. And her messing around with the Darkholde just seems like it is going to be trouble.

The sacrifice that Wanda makes in the end. All of this is Wanda’s responsibility. She has done all the things that are happening in Westview. Agatha just showed up to siphon power, not launch or start anything.

So, in some way, Wanda is the Big Bad of the season. But in others, her sacrifice of her Westview family at the end is iconic. And Paul Bettany, in playing both Visions is amazing. That tear Vision cries works because Bettany makes it so.

And what are we to make of the new Vision arriving at who he is and then flying off? Is he going to self destruct himself? Is he going back to Avengers life? What about him having all the memories but none of the emotional connection? That storyline has been well mined in comics and could be good.

The Trio. Listen, if they wanted to give a spin-off series to Jimmy Woo, Dr. Darcy and Monica, I wouldn’t be mad. I was disappointed that we didn’t get much more from them in this finale, but I do love seeing them onscreen.

And who was Jimmy Woo trying to meet with in Westview at the start anyways? Remember, he had someone in the city; if we assume similar to Ant-Man on his probation, who could it be? Monica is going to get involved in the upcoming Skrull plotlines, which is great and it likely helps launch her into Captain Marvel 2 as well!

And what about her fictional children calling for help at the end? Was Wanda just re-visiting old memories?

And the line of Wanda telling Agatha that she knows where she is if she needs her seemed ominous from a character standpoint but awesome from an audience standpoint. It WAS Agatha All Along, you know?

And, finally, about the Finale: The episode title seems pretty matter of factual: “The Series Finale” aka “This is a one and done show, y’all.” I don’t know if I really believe that and you can easily call the next season “The All New Wanda and Vision Show” or similar. Goodness knows that they have been doing it in comics for years!

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Recap and Review of WandaVision, S1E8: “Previously On” https://nerdsonearth.com/2021/02/recap-and-review-of-wandavision-s1e8-previously-on/ Fri, 26 Feb 2021 14:04:10 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=35091

Nerds on Earth recaps and reviews episode 1.8 of WandaVision – "Previously On" – on Disney+.

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Last week ended with the first big bop of 2021 and it told us something that many had suspected: It was Agatha All Along. That brings us to a two episode sprint to get to the end of this series and for us as an audience to see what is truly going on.

  • Will Wanda and Vision break free and be able to live in love and peace?
  • What is happening with their children?
  • Is Agatha the sole source of the Westview situation or is there someone else hard at work?
  • And do we get any kind of television homage in these last two stories or is it hold on to the ride story and plot from here?

Let’s find out!

Recap of WandaVision S1E8 “Previously On”

And, as the title of the episode suggests, we are getting started with a flashback, but not one we have seen before. This one goes all the way back to 1693 in Salem, Massachusetts.

But it is a witch trial of another kind, as Agatha is tried not by the Puritans but by her own coven of other witches. Her crime: trying to use powers above her level. Her eventual confession does nothing to stay the trial, which is led by her own mother.

Having found her guilty, they begin the punishment, with blue power coming from each of them, blasting into Agatha, who is tied to a post.

Only, the punishment does not work. Agatha seems to instead feed off their witch energy with her own purple powers, leaving all of them as corpses. She promises her mother that she can be good, but Agatha is not to be believed, doing the same to her mother as she did to the others, removing from her mother’s corpse the brooch we have seen her wear in other episodes of WandaVision.

The story then moves back to what we ended last week with, Agatha and Wanda having a conversation in the basement of Agatha’s house, where Wanda went looking for her children. When Wanda fails to read Agatha’s thoughts and then her power to blast her fails, Agatha mocks her by pointing out the basic runes that protect Agatha in the basement, one on every wall.

After mocking Wanda’s lack of magic knowledge, Agatha gets to the point–when Wanda cast her spell over Westview, that amount of power got Agatha’s attention.

When Wanda doesn’t give her any answers, Agatha, using the threat of harming Billy and Tommy, starts a series of re-reruns, only these are of real life scenes from Wanda’s life.

The first scene is from Wanda’s childhood in Sokovia. As the family gathers around the television to watch American shows, Wanda picks an episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show. But in the midst of the laughter and smiles a bomb hits their family home. And we watch as a heartbroken young Wanda uses her power to stop a bomb from exploding.

Once Agatha determines that scene isn’t telling her enough, the scene changes into the next stage of her life, where Wanda and Pietro were experiments under Hydra’s control. We watch as Wanda is in a room with the staff that Loki used in the first Avengers movie. As we watch, the stone unhinges itself from the staff and while floating in front of Wanda, it explodes into a yellow light when Wanda touches it.

The tape of the experiment doesn’t seem to show her interaction with the Infinity stone but it is nothing for Agatha to theorize that the stone’s contact with Wanda kicked her basic level baby witch powers into overdrive. But it still is not enough, so they take the next life re-run on.

This scene is now of her and Vision at the Avengers compound. While watching a sitcom, Vision offers to comfort Wanda and help her. Wanda resists that effort and is short with him but we can tell her pain over losing Pietro is real, especially as she begins to speak about how she is really feeling.

Vision tries to offer her some words of comfort and then go on to watch more television. But Agatha still isn’t getting what she wants. So she pushes Wanda to talk about how Wanda dealt with her pain when the Vision wasn’t around to comfort her.

That leads us to the footage we have only seen previously without sound, of Wanda going to visit the headquarters of SWORD. In it, we see her patient but firm demand to have the Vision’s body, as his next of kin. But the Deputy Director Hayward shows her the stations where they are dismantling the Vision.

After some discussion, Wanda gets to the body of the Vision and when her powers try and interact, she sadly says “I can’t feel you.” Walking away, she jumps into her car and while driving through Westview, we see the characters we have seen before in the sitcom episodes of the show.

And we finally see why Westview, as Wanda looks at the lot where Vision had started to build them a house, with a deed and building plan in her hand where he had written “To Grow Old In.”

The heartbreak becomes too much and falling to her knees, Wanda unleashes her full red power. We watch as she shapes Westview for the first time into what she wants it to be, not what it was or is, going all the way back to the first sitcom set.

But even more so, we see Wanda, as yellow power comes through and reconstructs the Vision himself.

When she snaps back form this memory, Agatha gives her a sarcastic slow clap from an audience spot before teleporting. Wanda then hears her boys yelling for help from outside. Rushing out, she sees Agatha holding her sons hostage.

And with a short diatribe, we learn that Agatha “knows” who Wanda is, and the chaos magic that she uses is far too powerful, even if she is “The Scarlet Witch.” We get the closing credits.

Thoughts on WandaVision S1E8 “Previously On”

I suspect that people are going to really like or really dislike this episode. And truthfully, I can see arguments on both sides. If you were fired up and completely ready for a rapid move towards resolution, you are waiting at least one more week. But, I also think this episode helps us get a clear understanding of what is going on in some deeper capacities.

I think the flashbacks were great character building for Wanda. Certainly these at least are all moments we have heard about but to see some of them lived out in a more dramatic way before us helps us move to understand what we get when we hit that moment of Wanda unleashing all of her angst on the world. In some levels, it helps us understand what she did even if we cannot justify it.

But some of the scenes are limiting in some ways as well. For instance, Acting Director Hayward just seems to be another butthead with a big gun who is too dumb not to pull the trigger. His whole “I cannot let you bury that much Vibranium” line is crap which we all know. (See note below.)

Seeing Agatha drive the story forward was interesting. I think we can see that she isn’t the ultimate evil of the scenario; she just loves draining magic from other users, so when someone like the Scarlet Witch shows up, she has to take note.

So what are some of the dangling questions as we head to the season finale?

  • Is the title the Scarlet Witch meaningful to all witches and warlocks? And maybe a Sorcerer Supreme, like Dr. Strange? I am curious to see if they lay this one as a name across time or specific to Wanda.
  • When do Monica and Pietro get to come back into the action?
  • And thanks to the post credit scene, we now know that we have 2 Visions, the one that Wanda created and has been interacting with and the one that SWORD put back together and is releasing sans pigment. (The “Ghost” Vision.)
  • What about the boys? With the push seeming to be full on for the Young Avengers, I cannot imagine that we don’t get to see one more age up for them.
  • Is Pietro alone going to be the dangling plot thread that connects this movie with the Multi-verse, and hence, the Dr. Strange movie?
  • Was that really all we get from the “aerospace engineer” comment?
  • What happens when full pigment Vision catches back up with Wanda? There has been one epic line from the various trailers that we have not heard spoken yet. While it certainly isn’t impossible that Marvel put the line in as a decoy, I think it is going to be real.
  • The call out to the specific Dick Van Dyke episode is a nice hat tip. That episode is titled “It May Look Like a Walnut”. The gist of that episode is about a show Rob watches where human beings losing autonomy when they are attacked by walnut looking aliens.

There was post-credits scene this week. We see SWORD prepare to deploy a new weapon, a Vision that they had to siphon magic off of a transformed drone in order to power. They give us “Ghost Vision.”

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Recap and Review of WandaVision, S1E7: “Breaking the Fourth Wall” https://nerdsonearth.com/2021/02/recap-and-review-of-wandavision-s1e7-breaking-the-fourth-wall/ Fri, 19 Feb 2021 12:25:52 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=35018

Nerds on Earth recaps and reviews episode 1.7 of WandaVision – "Breaking the Fourth Wall" – on Disney+.

The post Recap and Review of WandaVision, S1E7: “Breaking the Fourth Wall” appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

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After last week’s excellent Halloween episode, I had to ask a very scary question in the Nerds on Earth Discord: What if this show doesn’t resolve itself? Now, do I ask that because I still wear the scars of 6 seasons of Lost?

No, even moreso, with what we know is potentially coming, I worry the end of this season of excellent television is Dr. Strange swooping into Westview, NJ and “please stand by” pops up to tell us all to see what happens in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Thankfully, after this episode, I feel better that the season will have some resolution via the next two episodes, albeit with some dangling plot threads that will tie into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. More on that speculation later.

Recap of WandaVision S1E7 “Breaking the Fourth Wall”

This episode opens in a whole different way, with Wanda directly addressing the audience. To be honest, it didn’t feel real clear to me what the sitcom inspiration was until the credits rolled and we get that it is supposed to be an homage to The Office. The major vehicle that they are going to use is that the cast can chat directly with the audience for the first time.

And in Wanda’s case, she is, uh, a little bit off. While attributing it to having a “case of the Mondays,” she confesses to feeling remorse about expanding “the false world we created” in a fit of anger.

The twins even come to ask her help, because their game controllers go from the modern controller to Uno cards in just a few seconds. Interestingly, Billy complains about it being noisy in his head, but she blows him off.

When she does eventually come downstairs, we watch as the milk goes from almond, to regular to old style bottle, each time under the effects of Wanda’s red magic. While she sees it, once she takes a bite of the massive bowl of Sugar Smacks and determines it tastes okay, she moves on.

Outside of the Hex, we discover that the signal that had been broadcasting the television show has gone dead and SWORD is readying to launch a team into the Hex.

Inside the new walls of the Hex, the Circus that Wanda created out of the previous SWORD facility brings together the “new clown,” Vision, who appears none the worst from his horrific injuries the previous night and The Escape Artist, Dr. Darcy, who was sucked into the Hex as it expanded the night before as well.

But Vision remembers seeing her from the night before while she has no memory at all of seeing what happened.

The twins express a few other concerns, namely where their dad is and what Uncle Pietro said last night, about the Vision not being able to die twice. Wanda is having none of it and gives a speech that is basically telling them to figure it out on their own because she doesn’t have answers.

As you can imagine, it doesn’t go over great with the tweenagers but…Agnes comes to the rescue of Wanda, scooping the boys up to give their mom some alone time despite the twins protestations.

But Alone Time for Wanda goes quickly astray. Various parts of the house and decor move backward and forward from the various television sets we’ve seen and when she tells the camera she is fine, repeatedly, it is getting hard to believe her.

Meanwhile, the two parts of the Trio still outside the Hex are still working on their rescue plan. First, they discover the files Darcy sent after cracking the last firewall, which shows Project Cataract was a plan to redeploy the Vision, not to decommission him.

It turns out the director just wants a weapon. But they also are able to pick up the sweet vehicle that Monica thinks will let her breakthrough the Hex, as they are loaned it from Major Goodner, a woman soldier that was friends with Monica’s mother.

Inside, Dr. Darcy gets zapped with Vision’s yellow energy and comes to herself. Dr. Darcy smacks the Ringmaster in the face as they steal the Funnel of Love food truck and head out to get to Vision’s house, as he is worried about his children.

But as we will see over the rest of the episode, the world seems to be conspiring against them. They face traffic lights, construction, and school lines. But the delays allow Dr. Darcy to help Vision know and understand his own history, starting with Jarvis, his sacrifice at Wanda’s hand, her seeing that reversed by Thanos, only to then watch him die again. It is much to take in but in the end, Vision decides to fly towards home.

Meanwhile, Wanda confesses that she doesn’t know what is going on with her powers when a voice offscreen asks her: “Do you think this is what you deserve?” She chides the voice saying he isn’t supposed to be seen and we get an immediate commercial for Nexus, a depression drug,

At Agnes’ house, we see the boys crowded up with her on the couch. Billy says that he likes it here, because it is quiet. And that Agnes is quiet, on the inside. Agnes seems not to know what to do other than assure them that their mom is going to be fine.

Meanwhile, Monica attempts to go into the Hex but it spits out the new vehicle, actively fighting against letting anyone inside. And half of it had been turned into a truck.

But even though she dodges the vehicle, she ignores Jimmy Woo and runs into the wall herself. And we watch as she tries to push through the Hex wall. As she goes through we see and hear memories that all come together and Monica, with glowing blue eyes, has made it into Westview, now with the ability to see other kinds of energy. So off she runs to Wanda’s house.

Vision is “not amused” by his wife’s antics that are keeping him from getting home.

Monica reaches Wanda’s home but receives a less than warm welcome. While she tries to explain some of the concerns (and disavow having anything to do with the Pietro situation), Wanda attacks. But when she flings Monica to the ground, the blue energy now associated with Monica rematerializes and they both acknowledge that something else is going on.

But just when Monica seems to be starting to get through to Wanda, Agnes shows up, comforting Wanda, walking her to her house. Offering her a cup of tea, Wanda sits, takes a deep breath and then asks where her boys are.

Agnes says that they are probably just playing in the basement. Wanda heads down that way and discovers vine covered hallway and enters it, coming out the other side where there is a large collection of various things, most notably a glowing red book.

We get what so many people have thought was coming: the reveal that Agnes is actually the witch Agatha Harkness, as her purple magic goes over Wanda and we get her own sitcom jingle: “Who’s been messing up everything? It was Agatha all along.”

We end with Agatha’s confession of killing Sparky and a hideous witch’s cackle.

And…there is a mid-credits scene as well, as we see Monica snooping around Agnes’ house, finding an entrance when Pietro comes up behind her!

Thoughts on WandaVision S1E7 “Breaking the Fourth Wall”

So who is Agatha Harkness? Like most characters in the Marvel Universe of comics, she has a long and complicated backstory that veers from the side of good to the side of evil and back and forth.

The basics of her story is that she was a witch that was tried at the Salem Witch Trials in the 1600s and survived. Along the way, she held such roles as governess for Franklin Richards, the first child of the Fantastic Four’s Reed and Sue Richards.

Now, in the comics, she plays a vital part in the children of the Scarlet Witch and the Vision, saying that using magic and parts of the villain Mephisto’s soul allowed Wanda to conceive. From there it gets even more convoluted but the main thing is that she is pretty much tied to Vision and Wanda after that point.

What does that mean for the show? Who knows!

There has been some speculation that we will get to see Mephisto before the series end. That is fueled in some part by Paul Bettany claiming that he gets to work with an actor he never has before and who has some experience in the sitcom world.

A lot of speculation is that Mephisto may be played by Bryan Cranston, who would be a diabolically good fit. Regardless, we now know for certain that this isn’t JUST Wanda at work but more going on there. Where will it lead us in the next 2 episodes?

Remember all the hype around the Aerospace engineer? Well, this is an example of one of those things that if the showrunners could do over, they probably would. Where they wrote a simple part, who to my knowledge doesn’t exist in the MCU or Marvel Comics, the nature of the show had everyone jumping and looking for clues.

The conversation between Dr. Darcy and the Vision is potentially very enlightening. On some level, I had assumed that the Vision had some idea of his past. To have him be essentially a tableau rasa opens up so many potential doors. Just the questions he asked like “But, what am I now?” could go a long way to determining if he lasts past the end of this series. It was reassuring and hopeful to hear what Dr. Darcy said about the love that Vision and Wanda have for each other.

Something to pay attention to now especially is the colors and their association with powers. The most obvious is the red aura that comes from Wanda. But in earlier episodes we see yellow from the Vision when he “frees” the captives. Monica’s powers have had a blue reveal in this episode and Agnes’ big reveal included purple touches. That could be nothing more than to give each character a distinguishable different tone, but it could also be important down the line!

Finally, here is my speculation on the dangling thread that will need to be resolved at the end of the series, going into the Multiverse film: Pietro needs to get home!

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Recap and Review of WandaVision, S1E6: “All-New Halloween Spooktacular” https://nerdsonearth.com/2021/02/recap-review-wandavision-episode-6/ Fri, 12 Feb 2021 13:23:29 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=34912 wandavision episode 6

Nerds on Earth recaps and reviews episode 1.6 of WandaVision – "All-New Halloween Spooktacular" – on Disney+.

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wandavision episode 6

With last episode’s stunning reveal of Wanda’s brother come back from the dead (and another multiverse!), what is going to happen inside the Hex that consumes Westview? And with Vision slowly becoming aware that things aren’t right, what will he do?

In the midst of all that, what will become of Jimmy Woo, Dr. Darcy, and Monica and their plan to breech the Hex with an aerospace engineer designed vehicle?

Recap of WandaVision S1E6 “All-New Halloween Spooktacular”

In a move that I did not see coming, this week’s sitcom theme is pulling from the beloved show Malcolm in the Middle, simply sliding Uncle Pietro into the older brother roll and the twins falling in line. And, again, the show does a fantastic job with the theme song and opening credits!

It is Halloween! And, remember, it is the first Halloween for the now pre-teen twins. When Wanda shows in a spectacular red outfit that causes the question “Are you Red Riding Hood?”, Vision follows behind in weird green and yellow number, claiming to be a Mexican wrestler, although he points out to Wanda that was all that was in his closet.

wandavision episode 6

Vision heads for the door but not before Wanda chastises him. Pietro steps in to take the boys trick or treating, so Vision can take his turn on the neighborhood watch, looking to bust teenagers with toilet paper.

In the midst of that, we get the sidebar conversation with the camera, as the twins talk about how things have been a little tense with their parents, especially as Uncle Pietro has turned out to be a “man-child.” But Pietro does seem to want to help, quickly finding matching blue and white costumes for him and Timmy, who dubbed himself the “cool twin” earlier in the episode. But it ends with an ominous note as Vision tells his wife, “Wanda…be good.”

wandavision episode 6
Uncle Pietro and the “cool” twin, Tommy

Outside the Hex, we get a confrontation between our illustrious Trio (Jimmy Woo, Monica Rambeau, and Dr. Darcy) and Commander Hayward, who just used their seemingly peaceful mission to talk to Wanda to try and take her out.

But after asking which one is the sassy sidekick, and insulting Monica that she would not have been able to take over if she had been there when her mother died, Hayward orders them off base. But once outside and away from everyone, Jimmy and Monica take down their escort, while Darcy declares,

“Why didn’t anyone tell me the plan?”

Inside the Hex, Pietro unleashes the twins to go crazy on the candy but faces Wanda’s questioning about their history and past. But he knows she is testing him, and he doesn’t blame her. He wouldn’t want to ask a lot of questions either if he had found his perfect place.

It goes amok when Wanda talks to Herb, who is rocking a sweet Frankenstein costume. In his brief conversation, the candy all disappears, the jack o’ lanterns are all smushed and then everyone is silly strung, all at the hands of the twins and Uncle Pietro, who is using his superspeed to make it happen.

But the big reveal is that Vision isn’t on neighborhood watch duty.

Instead we see the Vision moving further out of town, where the fast and furious Halloween adventure seems to be moving much slower. In fact, some of the people seem to be just doing the same thing over and over. One particular lady is just going through the motions of hanging a spider web yet not accomplishing much. After watching her, Vision sees a solitary tear run down her face.

As Pietro and the boys are returning the candy, Wanda and he discuss history. He seems to recall being shot in Sokovia (as seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron) and then the next thing he remembers is Wanda calling to him. And he came because he knew she needed him.

But they are interrupted with the revelation: Tommy has his uncle’s superspeed powers, so they are off to get more candy. He tags in with his brother as they repeat what their mom has told them before: “Don’t go past Ellis Avenue.”

“Don’t go past Ellis Avenue.”

Outside the Hex, the Trio has worked their way back into the base and are quickly breaking through firewalls to try and get more information. First discovery: Hayward found a way to look past the energy wall protecting Westview, largely by tracking the decaying vibranium that helps to make Vision. They also discover via computer what Vision is discovering on the inside: The people near the edge of the Hex are barely moving.

At this point, Vision is walking around cul de sacs where literally no one is moving or even really acknowledging his existence. He flies above the city and gets a view of how things seem more active and drift outwards to less and less life. But, when he finds Agnes in her car at a stop light, he uses the gift we have seen before, the ability to remove them from the Hex matrix.

wandavision episode 6

The freed Agnes recognizes him and asks if he is here to help as an Avenger, but the Vision has no idea what she is talking about. And it only turns darker as she asks if she is dead, because she knows that he is. She is shouting “Dead!” at him when Vision says he will reach those outside of Westview.

So, he puts her back on the matrix after she begins laughing and cackling in a maniacal way. And the Vision, with a renewed sense of purpose crosses Ellis Street, headed for the energy wall.

Outside, Monica gets word that her way back in, presumably the ride they discussed last week, will be arriving soon. But Darcy warns her, having discovered more information, most notably that the passing through the wall is changing and damaging her DNA.

But Monica has empathy for Wanda and won’t quit until she has helped her. Darcy votes to stay, wanting to keep hacking down deeper into the files.

Pietro and Wanda then have a sitdown and in the discussion, Pietro asks where Wanda has been hiding all the children. She is flummoxed at what he is saying but he is pretty clear that he doesn’t blame her. She is, in essence, using them but also making her life better.

Wanda confesses to knowing that she is doing it but not knowing how it started or if she did start it. Her first memory is of feeling completely alone. And then she briefly sees Pietro with bullet holes and as a zombie version before declaring she is fine.

Darcy is hacking away and discovers a file named Cataract and sends it to Agent Woo. She then sees that Vision is trying to breakthrough the wall surrounding Westview. But its pull on him is strong, and it begins to rip him apart slowly.

Back in town, Billy’s power manifests, and he is able to see and hear what Vision is, knowing his dad is in trouble. Wanda coaches him through the use of his powers. As Vision cries out “Help! The people need help!” Wanda blasts Pietro for saying that her dead husband cannot die twice.

wandavision episode 6

Darcy is furious that no one is helping Vision and is chained to a car by SWORD agents. But Wanda decides to change the game and begins to expand the walls of the Hex, as we watch command tents become circus tents and soldiers become clowns and many other changes as a deep red energy sparks behind Wanda’s eyes.

A very scared and running away Commander Hayward asks, “Can anyone read me?” as Darcy is sucked into the Hex!

Thoughts on WandaVision S1E6 “All-New Halloween Spooktacular”

So we are really moving full tilt now but that doesn’t mean less mysteries. If anything, it adds more. So here are some interesting things to think about coming out of this episode. And while this may have some speculation, wild and otherwise, be mindful it could spoil things in upcoming episodes!

Last week, I made the joke that you cannot spell Hayward without HYDRA. So, is he really evil? This week’s episode makes me more conflicted on this. While he was jerk, maybe he was trying to protect Monica from what she is facing coming from the test results. I find it hard to imagine that next week he will want to take the same approach based on what he just saw.

But what else does he know? Darcy’s last file discovery that was the most protected was a file named Cataract. And you know what cataracts do? They change people’s vision. That, coupled with how he was willing to let the Hex destroy Vision makes me think that something else is coming. Are there more Visions? Did they place this one in Westview, or is the raid video we saw of Wanda fake?

Gosh, I love the shout out to comic outfits when we can get them in the MCU. This Halloween episode was an awesome way to see what these would look like in the modern world. I did hope for more Marvel properties in the backgrounds of shots but I didn’t seem to see too many. And RIP Stan Lee. This episode would have been when he made his guest appearance.

And the twins are moving evermore towards Young Avengers status. Billy will eventually take on the name Speed and Wiccan is the soon to be name for Tommy. And I am here for it. Young Avengers could be an amazing arc for the MCU!

Did you pay attention to the movie theater and its showings? This time it was the Disney owned properties The Incredibles and The Parent Trap.” It is an interesting side commentary. The Incredibles is easily due to the speed powers that are in both. The Parent Trap is a little more interesting. Who has ideas about what it means?

wandavision episode 6

This week’s commercial was interesting. For the first time (?) a product didn’t do what it was supposed to. Yo-Magic was available to the claymation desert island survivor but he could never quite make it work in time to save him. When will Wanda’s powers fail her? Or are they already? We do see the glitches on the outside edges of Westview now. Were they always there and we were just not looking?

Quick note on the aerospace engineer: Monica said she needed to go meet-up with “her guy.” Change your theories in terms of who it could be.

And finally, what do we do with Agnes? If she is Agatha Harkness, this felt like this would have been a great time to reveal it to Vision and start an alliance. While we got the cackling like a witch, I am just starting to feel strung along with no reveal ever coming.

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WandaVision: Who is the Aerospace Engineer? https://nerdsonearth.com/2021/02/wandavision-who-is-the-aerospace-engineer/ Wed, 10 Feb 2021 13:00:00 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=34854

Who is the aerospace engineer mentioned in WandaVision? We've got five plausible theories - each with their own exciting merits and potential!

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One of the best parts of the show WandaVision has become the trio that the show has introduced in the last few episodes. FBI Agent Jimmy Woo (who we met as Ant-Man’s handler in Ant-Man 2), astrophysicist Darcy Lewis (who worked the case on the first two Thor movies) and Monica Rambeau (who we saw as a child in Captain Marvel) have formed a little pact that are dedicated to figuring out what is really happening in what Dr. Lewis has called “The Hex.”

And this group is seemingly working in opposition to SWORD, which based on its trickery in last episode seems to think killing Wanda is the only option.

In this week’s episode the trio are trying to figure out a way to enter the Hex and come up with the plan that Monica articulates: “What I need is a 10,000 pound fallout shelter, comprised of lead for photons, cadmium for neutrons, tantalum for seismic blasts, on wheels.

After batting around the idea, she then says “I know an aerospace engineer who’d be up for this challenge.”

And that has everyone racing around, speculating on who this aerospace engineer could be, as the promo seems to show said vehicle at work and crashing the wall soon.

Now, the following is all speculation but I could be naively stepping into a real plot and, so, potential spoilers coming up. As you build a list of characters for the role, scientist, smart, tied to the Marvel universe seem to be the key components. And in thinking about that, here are some candidates.

Who is the Aerospace Engineer in WandaVision?

Ben Grimm or Reed Richards

We know that there is a Fantastic Four movie on the horizon, as Marvel reacquired the property from Fox. And, as much as it was thrilling to see the X-Men tie-in via multiverse at the end of episode 5, the Fantastic Four movies are not good and shouldn’t be used. And I am hoping they use a solution that has the FF show up as wise, grizzled veterans, not an origin story set in contemporary times.

Most speculation is Richards but I threw in Ben because I think you could do a very interesting plot twist, where Ben sees what will happen to them via the multiverse in the Hex but never warns them.

Abigial Brand

In the comics, Brand has been the leader of SWORD and they have worked hard to show the current SWORD leader is interim and I cannot see him keeping his job once the Hex thing is sorted out. While she is a powered character in the comics, she doesn’t necessarily have to be here. Also, she is tied to Carol Danvers, which explains how Monica knows her. I like this option, but she may not be science-y enough for some folks.

(And this is deep diving nerd-y but when you watch the Spanish version, Monica uses the feminine “ingeniera aeroespacial” when she says she knows someone.)

Erik Selvig

Now, this one makes more sense if Dr. Darcy was recommending him for the job from their Thor days, but he is an astrophysicist and has been a part of hero stuff before. Plus Stellan Skarsgård’s performance of dry humor would go well with the trio. I imagine this reveal would be met with sadness by some fans but I would be for it.

Dr. Jane Foster

Now, you really want to juice up the MCU fandom and prepare for what we think is coming in the upcoming Thor movies? Bring back Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster. Speculation is that the main story that they will be mining for the next Thor movie(s) is the recent run where Foster becomes Thor. This would be a sure fire way to introduce her back into the universe. Again, it would have made more sense if Darcy had recommended her, but I am for this one!


There are tons more potential answers but part of what has made this season of WandaVision so great has been looking for clues and trying to guess what is next! What about you? Do you have a great idea for who our aerospace engineer could be?

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SIX MOVIES AND A SEASON: WandaVision, Community, & Trauma https://nerdsonearth.com/2021/02/six-movies-and-a-season-wandavision-community-trauma/ Tue, 09 Feb 2021 13:00:00 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=34875

WandaVision is doing some really heavy lifting! We break down what it's setting up for Phase 4 as the cracks begin to show in the perfect sitcom world.

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Disney+’s WandaVision is a bonafide pop-culture event. Wanda and the Vision’s surreal, tragic love story has gripped us here at Nerds On Earth in a way rivaled only by the twists and reveals of The Mandalorian. (The House of Mouse really has assembled the Holy Trinity with Kevin Feige, Dave Filoni, and Jon Favreau, haven’t they?) 

The WandaVision hype is justified—the sitcom homages are pitch perfect, Vision’s confusion is balanced by a solid dose of action, and Elizabeth Olsen is simply a revelation. This gem of a show deserves more than gushing superlatives, though, for three reasons:

  1. WandaVision’s connective tissue opens up a panorama of possibilities.
  2. The show has a TV twin, one with a shared reverence for pop culture.
  3. It demonstrates how pop culture provides a lens for processing trauma. 
WandaVision
Can we all agree that Elizabeth Olsen deserves some hardware come awards season? (Image via YouTube)

So Much With So Little

Marvel has emphasized the importance of WandaVision for years now. Marvel Cinematic Universe mastermind Kevin Feige was talking about the show even before COVID-19 sent the planet for a long and torturous loop. Halfway through the season, it’s now clear that Feige wasn’t exaggerating: WandaVision is the launching point for Phase 4 of the MCU, the huge multi-film-and-show slate set after the events of Infinity War and Endgame

WandaVision has a lot riding on its costumed shoulders. It juggles both short- and long-term implications, setting up storylines that won’t be resolved (or even revealed) for years. The show does a lot of heavy lifting in just nine episodes; the astounding thing is the absolute mastery with which it does so. Consider Firefly (14 episodes), Twin Peaks (48 episodes), or Freaks and Geeks (18 episodes)—these legendary shows told amazing stories in a compacted format, but none of them did it, or introduced as much additional content, in as short a lifespan as WandaVision

Image via CNET

The last two episodes alone have opened enough cans of worms to send fans high into the thin, glorious air of the nerdosphere. Only halfway through the show we can legitimately consider several different, equally awesome futures: 

  • The fifth episode’s shocking reintroduction of Pietro Maximoff, Wanda’s dead brother, is more than an emotional gut punch—it’s the cleverest bit of corporate and storyline synergy in modern entertainment history. Pietro is played in the scene by Evan Peters, the actor who played Quicksilver in the X-Men films made by 20th Century Fox, not Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the actor who played Pietro in the Disney-produced Avengers movies. 
  • Casting Peters in WandaVision allows Disney a nifty explanation for why the old X-Men never got to meet Thor or Groot: they exist in a separate universe! Thanks to Wanda’s immense powers (and the background info established in Endgame), those universes are starting to collide. Evan Peters/Quicksilver is just the first sign of crossovers to come.
  • That multiverse sets up Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and the next Spider-Man movie (rumored to be an absolute clown car of Spider-people and villains from the various film series).
  • Monica Rambeau’s throwaway reference to an “aerospace engineer” she knows tees up the introduction of any number of new characters: Riri Williams (the teenage superhero Ironheart, who has her own upcoming Disney+ show), Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four (rumored to be played by John Krasinski), or even relative obscurity the Blue Marvel.
WandaVision Quicksilver reveal
Image via Collider

“Wanda & Abed in the Morning!”

Part of WandaVision’s strange charm are the loving homages to classic TV sitcoms. We’ve seen the show openly copy (and affectionately spoof) The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, The Brady Bunch, I Love Lucy, Family Ties, Full House, and more so far. Every new tribute reminds me of another TV wunderkind: Community. The perennially on-the-edge-of-cancellation NBC comedy became legendary for its elaborate homage episodes. There were riffs on Armageddon, The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly, Goodfellas, and even My Dinner With Andre. And like WandaVision, its recreations were tonally and visually spot-on.

Some of Community’s tributes were pretty detached from the show’s reality (I’m talking about you, “Regional Holiday Music”), but the best served as important additions to the show’s storylines and character development. Many of Community’s TV and movie references are driven by Danny Pudi’s Abed Nadir, the show’s emotional heart. Abed’s lack of social skills and inability to process emotions (heavily implied to be caused by his undiagnosed Asperger’s syndrome) cause him to lean heavily on pop culture tropes.

Image via Tumblr

The movies and shows Abed loves help him understand his loneliness, emotionally frigid home life, and maternal abandonment issues caused by his parents’ divorce (for which he blames himself). Abed can work through the trauma only by viewing it through the lens of pop culture. As he says, “It’s TV; it’s comfort. It’s a friend you’ve known so well and for so long you just let it be with you.” He separates himself from the pain of real life by thinking of himself as a character in a movie or show. Remind you of anybody in WandaVision?

“It’s TV; It’s Comfort.”

We’ve learned over the first half of WandaVision’s run that the show is an intricate simulation, one either created or (partially) controlled by Wanda Maximoff. It’s increasingly obvious that Wanda, unwilling or unable to process the Vision’s death (and her part in it) at the hands of Thanos, has chosen instead to create a “perfect” sitcom version of what their lives together would’ve been like. Like Abed, Wanda cannot or will not engage with the painful reality of her trauma: Vision is gone, and he can’t be brought back. 

Instead she retreats into the comforts of TV sitcoms, with their laugh tracks, squeaky clean kitchens, lovably odd side characters, and small troubles always resolved by the time the credits roll. The tropes of classic television provide a framework against which Wanda can project her grief, morphing to fit what might have been and reassembling the broken pieces of her life into something better. (WandaVision even gives us Jeff Winger-esque characters who point out the false reality that Wanda has established in Randall Park’s Agent Woo and Kat Dennings’ Darcy Lewis. They function as in-universe audience members of Wanda’s “show”.)

Image via the Los Angeles Times

But TV is no substitute for real life, at least not for long. Abed can’t ignore his mom’s refusal to spend Christmas with him, even with a rad claymation Christmas special; Wanda can’t deny that Vision is dead, even if she can roll credits over his befuddled anguish. As he shouts, “I can’t remember my life before Westview. I don’t know who I am! I’m scared!” the repressed power in their confrontation and the rising panic in her eyes show that Wanda’s grip on this perfect TV reality is slipping. Sooner or later, she’ll have to face the trauma of Vision’s death. In the meantime, let’s use the lesson we learned from watching Abed on Community: just sit back and enjoy the show.

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Review and Recap WandaVision S1E5: “On a Very Special Episode” https://nerdsonearth.com/2021/02/review-and-recap-wandavision-s1e5-on-a-very-special-episode/ Fri, 05 Feb 2021 17:08:02 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=34817

Nerds on Earth recaps and reviews episode 1.5 of WandaVision – "A Very Special Episode" – on Disney+.

The post Review and Recap WandaVision S1E5: “On a Very Special Episode” appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

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After last week’s arrival of bundles of joy and a fuller picture of the circumstances around Westview, you have to approach this episode wondering what exactly they were going to do. Would be it an homage to television again? Would it be SWORD focused?

wandavision episode 5

The truth is they split the difference and double-sized the kids! We open with what is very much an homage to the 80s sitcoms and I think that the clearest one is the show Family Ties.

Recap of WandaVision S1E5 “On a Very Special Episode”

We open with new parents Wanda and Vision unable to get the babies Tommy and Billy to sleep. Agnes comes in ready to dispense neighborly advice. But Vision raises objections and, it gets weird.

Like an actor turning to a director and asking if they are going to do a second take, Agnes talks to Wanda but Vision is fully aware and unwilling to let the issue go until the kids age themselves up to a pair of adorable five year olds.

But the throughline is laid: Vision knows this world isn’t right.

(Quick shout-out here: these television theme songs have been crushing it. Like the shows themselves have been an homage to each generation of television, the theme songs have been spot on. Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez are the songwriting duo recruited for the task and for good reason. With stellar work on Disney’s Frozen (“Let It Go”) and Pixar’s Coco (“Remember Me”), the duo has just magnificently leaned in and made great theme songs in what could have been a throwaway gag. Proof that Marvel is willing to invest to make its works the best and spend the money to get the talent to do it!)

The show then breaks into the outside world, where we see Captain Monica Rambeau wrapping up her tests after having been ejected from Westview. FBI man Jimmy Woo welcomes her and introduces her to Dr. Darcy and they form a trio.

At the debriefing, we learn pretty quickly that our illustrious trio want to investigate what is going on while most everyone else, including acting SWORD director Taylor Hayward, sees this as a pretty cut and dry case of Wanda being the villain, which means they cut straight toward solution of how to stop her. And to be fair, they are aided in their opinion when we see footage from 9 days ago of Wanda breaking into the SWORD facility to free Vision’s body.

But the trio persists and Rambeau works a theory that Wanda is changing things just enough so they belong in her television world but not changing them entirely. She proves her case by showing that her groovy outfit from inside Westview maintained its kevlar properties, stopping the bullets that she fired at it.

Back inside the Westview world (or “The Hex” as the trio calls it), Vision goes to work and is hooking up his computer company to the internet for the first time. And the first email they get? It is all about the Westview situation and it only deepens his questions.

Eventually, he touches his colleague and learns the truth: this world is being controlled by his wife and these people are starting to get desperate to leave her control. Vision then undoes his relief and things go back to “normal” in the television year.

Back at home, the kids have negotiated getting a dog, but only after they age themselves up to 10 year olds. And while Vision is out at work, they get a lecture about the value of the family, learning that they have an uncle, but not learning that Quicksilver is dead. (Reminder that he sacrificed himself saving lives in the film Avengers: Age of Ultron.)

But then there is a noise outside and we shift to the outside group, seeing that they have sent an age appropriate drone into the Westview bubble. Captain Rambeau tries to communicate with Wanda but then she is shocked to learn that the drone is armed with a weapon, that others try to use on Wanda.

Needless to say, Wanda is not pleased and for the first time, we see her breech the walls of Westview, dragging the drone behind her. Her message to the gathered group is clear: Do not try and enter Westview and disrupt her family.

She even turns those with rifles and scopes pointed at her to the SWORD director, but doesn’t fire. And, to be noted, she does not directly deal with Captain Rambeau’s important claim that Wanda knows she is an ally who wants to help. (Monica’s claim is strengthened by the fact that though through her through the wall of Westview, Wanda protected her as she was ejected.)

Wanda returns to the bubble, where things seem to be fine, except that the dog escapes and eats the wrong flowers and dies in Agnes’ yard. The discussion there is incredible. First, Wanda stops the boys from aging up to avoid the pain, having seen them nod to each other and seemingly start the aging process. When one of the boys says “You can fix anything Mom. Fix the dead.”

That statement really seems to throw Wanda for a loop. But she doesn’t heal the dog and later Vision comes back to the home. Vision discusses what he has learned but Wanda clearly wants to avoid it and we even see the television show credits roll but Vision is relentless.

As Vision is pushing his point home that Wanda cannot do this to all these people and of not knowing what he was before Westview, the doorbell rings. Wanda promises that she isn’t responsible for it. And when she answers the door, it is an unexpected guest.

Thoughts on WandaVision S1E5 “On a Very Special Episode”

wandavision episode 5 quicksilver

So, that guest at the door at the end was Quicksilver. Which seems like a “Of course. If she resurrects an android, she can resurrect her brother.” But, welcome to the multiverse friends, because this Quicksilver isn’t the brother we saw from Avengers: Age of Ultron; no, this Quicksilver is the character that was portrayed in the Fox X-Men universe. (Dr. Darcy commented on it as “She recast her brother”.)

Knowing that Scarlet Witch is supposed to be a key part of the upcoming Dr. Strange movie that is centered on the multiverse, this is going to get very, very wild. Throw in the Spider-Man rumors of actors who previously played the role of Peter Parker being in the Spider-Man movie upcoming and Spidey’s involvement on the same Dr. Strange movie, it is about to get so wild. So, so wild!

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