Disney+’s WandaVision unleashes the weird, untapped power of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
The greatest strength of the Marvel Cinematic Universe—especially post-Avengers, when its basic structure and rules has been been established and widely accepted—is the potential to do new things and tell new kinds of stories. Marvel Studios hasn’t historically always taken advantage of that potential, but the best and most beloved films in the MCU are the ones that take characters we know from previous movies and use that existing familiarity to gently push them into unexplored territory. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a superhero movie, sure, but it’s a superhero movie that plays like a conspiracy thriller. Thor: Ragnarok is deeply invested in the Asgardian mythology that was a bore in the preceding two Thor movies, but twists it into a gleeful sci-fi romp that doesn’t take itself too seriously. WandaVision, the first Marvel Studios series on Disney+ and (thanks to the coronavirus) the first new addition to the MCU at all in over a year, just might be the ultimate expression of this potential.
Case in point, the last time we saw Vision (Paul Bettany) was when Thanos ripped the Infinity Stone out of his head and killed him in Avengers: Infinity War. The last time we saw Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) was in Avengers: Endgame, when she used her magical abilities to remind Thanos of just how damn powerful she is. Compare that to WandaVision, in which Vision accidentally swallows gum in one episode, which screws up his robot machinery, which then threatens to derail his performance at a big charity talent show with Wanda. It works, and the reason it works is because—as absurd as it is, even for this unusual couple—we know who Wanda and Vis are.
It starts pretty silly, but in its early going, WandaVision actually serves as an elaborate tribute to television history. The first episode is essentially an homage to The Dick Van Dyke Show, right down to Vision phasing through an ottoman in the opening, and the second episode (the one where Vision swallows a piece of gum) transforms into an installment of Bewitched or I Dream Of Jeannie. Those two episodes are an absolute delight, with hoary old sitcom gags that somehow kill—chalk it up to the aggressive laugh track or the fact that Kathryn Hahn really knows how to deliver a joke about her unseen loser husband—and it’s all a nicely weird, novel way to have fun with these character that we usually only get to see when they’re fighting Ultron drones or members of Thanos’ Black Order.
