WandaVision has hit Disney+ as the start of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
It has been a huge hit, with critics praising its ingenuity with a high 94% fresh rating, but many fans dismissing it, with a lower 79% rating.
For fans who were expecting a paint-by-numbers superhero series similar to the movies that came before it, the new MCU show has been confusing at best.
With fans online asking why it was set up like a sitcom, and others thinking that Marvel has finally lost its mind and ruined the characters, here is what it is set up like a sitcom and what it all means.
Why is WandaVision set up like a sitcom?
WandaVision is not like anything comic book movie/TV fans have ever seen before. However, there is a method behind the madness, and it is actually quite brilliant.
Fans who think it is stupid to see the two superheroes in a sitcom setting like Dick Van Dyke are not seeing the big picture here and likely have no clue what is wrong with Wanda Maximoff.
This was all shown in the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Wanda and Pietro Maximoff were twins who lived in Slokovia with their parents during a time of war. Their home was bombed and their parents were killed. Wanda saw, at this time, a Stark International made bomb was what killed her family.
Wanda was a young girl and developed a hatred for Tony Stark.
This was worse because, as young children, Hydra under the leadership of Baron Von Strucker captured the twins and experimented on them for years, unlocking powers inside both Pietro and Wanda.
Wanda never had a real childhood or a real life. She went from a wartorn country to becoming a lab rat. When she was finally set free, it was to kill the Avengers.
She finally realized that Hydra was the bad guys and helped the Avengers, but then her twin brother — the only family she had left — died in battle.
She had no childhood, no real life, and now her entire family was dead.
She took the side of Captain America in Captain America: Civil War and ended up under house arrest for daring to go against Tony Stark and the U.S. Government. However, she and Vision escaped and went on the run together, as she finally fell in love.
Then, Avengers: Infinity War came along. Thanos murdered Vision in that movie, and once again, Wanda lost everything.
She had no real childhood, no family life, all her family members were dead, and the one person she loved above all others died as well.
Wanda Maximoff believes she deserves a good life and for someone who never, ever, lived in the real world, the only “real life” she can see came from TV shows, and with classic sitcoms as the best example of a happy content life with friends, neighbors, and family, that is where she now lives.
The sitcom world is the only thing that does make sense for someone with the trauma of Wanda Maximoff, someone who just wants to be happy for the first time in her life.
What is WandaVision leading to?
The idea is that WandaVision is based on two different comic book storylines.
One is 2015’s Vision, where Vision created his own family by building them, the same way he was built. They tried to live a happy life in Richmond, Virginia, trying to fit in with their neighbors. However, tragedy struck and Vision lost his family outside of his daughter, Viv.
The second is House of M.
In the West Coast Avengers comics, Wanda created twins in Thomas and William. However, they were not real children and when she lost them, her mentor Agatha Harkness wiped them from her memory.
Wanda ended up slowly losing her grip on reality and eventually created the House of M, where everyone lived a perfect life. However, with some heroes knowing this was not real, they set out to bring things back to normal and ended it.
Wanda responded by saying three words: “no more mutants” and she wiped out over 95% of the mutant population’s powers. There are rumors that she could do the opposite here and create mutants in the MCU.
Years later, a comment retriggered the memories, she realized her children had been taken from her, and she went crazy. She ended up attacking the Avengers and killed two members (Ant-Man and Hawkeye) before finally shutting down and going into hiding.
Yes, seeing WandaVision in the sitcom world is strange and bizarre, but it makes sense considering her strong desire to be happy. It is also something that is almost assuredly leading to a very bad ending for Wanda Maximoff.
WandaVision is currently streaming on Disney+ with new episodes every Friday.