Four words:

‘Crisis on Infinite Earths.’

Um.

Okay, maybe I can expand on this a bit, huh? I guess, let’s start at the beginning.

If you’re somewhat like my wife and myself, you’re looking forward to each episode of the Disney+ mini-series, WandaVision, each week. If you’re exactly like us, you wait up until 3 AM EST so that you can watch it as soon as it’s been uploaded to the streaming site at midnight on the West Coast of the US. I wouldn’t expect that second one, but I’m certain that, if you’re reading this, you are probably waiting for each episode while speculating as to what’s going to happen next.

Each week, YouTube and social media explode with theories and speculation as to ‘What it All Means™?’ and ‘Who is This Introducing to the MCU?,’ etcetera. Many of these are, frankly, ridiculous. 

‘Will Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine Show Up on WandaVision?’

No.

‘Are we in House of M?’

No.

‘Will We See Netflix’s The Defenders on This?’

No.

‘When Will Mephisto be Revealed as the Villain?’

Never. Piss off.

‘Is Reed Richards the Real Father of Wanda’s Twins?’

No… I mean, what?! Where’d…? Get out of here, you!

*Ahem*

Okay.

Over the course of the last 13 years, Marvel films have been able to hang their hat on being cutting edge with genre cinema; most especially in the realm of superhero films, of course. Sure there have been some elements of the MCU that have been less than perfect, but I feel that the worst MCU (*cough* Dark World *cough*) film is still better and more rewatchable than most other superhero flicks.

Sticking around after Iron Man greeted us with a Sam Jackson Nick Fury; something that us comic nerds knew was a thing in the comics but seeing it was… fucking magical, wasn’t it? This led to everyone sticking around after the credits of Marvel films to see what teaser would occur (and sometimes didn’t!). 

Marvel launched a regular series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and, despite some early solid buzz, AoS didn’t hold the appeal of more than the most robust fans (or, frankly, those like me who appreciated that every. Single. Mention of a character was some Easter Egg from the comics and loved that shit). For those that did hold on, that first season had a moment where a regular, super-of-the-week format ended with a teaser, like the show always had. However, instead of teasing the next episode, this teased a moment in Captain America: Winter Soldier where Nick Fury is being chased by assassins. Winter Soldier was coming out the weekend following the airing of this episode and, sure enough, that film blew up S.H.I.E.L.D.! The following episode of Agents found that Everything Had Changed and the cast was thrown into turmoil as the fallout form Winter Soldier was shown from the ground up!

It was an amazing achievement, but both of these were really just the warm-up for the MCU.

Infinity War and Endgame changed everything. The casts being massive and filled with top actors is, of course, one awesome element of that pair of Avengers films, but that wasn’t the real miracle of it. If you watched Infinity War, you know that the big twist was the lowest point for Earth’s heroes (and if you didn’t… how did you find this?), which makes the win in Endgame so much more amazing.

Marvel has been breaking ground since 2008, so why, I ask, would they stop when they start streaming original content on the premiere streaming service for their parent company?

In 2019 to 2020, the CW network aired a crossover across all its various superhero shows. Starting in Supergirl and going through Batwoman, The Flash, Arrow, and ending in Legends of Tomorrow, DC made a television version of their groundbreaking crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths and it was pretty cool.

It wasn’t as spectacular as any Marvel Cinematic Universe epic, but it had pathos, major character death, and it introduced a whole host of variations of DC characters from around the DC Multiverse (remember that term, I’m coming back to it) and from DC live action (and even a little bit of animated) universes. Before we knew it, Robin and Hawk from the DC Streaming (now HBOMax) series Titans had lent a hand, Superman from the film Superman Returns (conveniently played by CW mainstay Brandon Routh, but originally having been Christover Reeve!) was one of the major characters, Clark Kent from Smallville (Tom Welling) had declined to join them, Kevin Conroy (the voice of Batman on The Animated Series and most everywhere else) played a Batman who tried to stop them, Black Lightning from that unrelated CW show, Huntress and Oracle from the defunct Birds of Prey show, Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, Stargirl and the J.S.A. from the upcoming (at the time) Stargirl show, and even Lucifer had poked their head in to see what was what.

In one fell swoop, DC had established that each and every live appearance of a DC character had been all in the same Multiverse (implied, if not shown); an impressive feat but absolutely cemented this when the Flash from the series (Grant Gustin) came face to face with the Flash from the current crop of films (Ezra Miller) in an awkward exchange that established the Man of Steel, Batman V. Superman, and Justice League flicks all happened within the same space as everything else!

DC, which has been behind Marvel in nearly every move on television and in film, pulled off something that Marvel had never attempted, not had they really shown the impotence to attempt.

Or do they.

In 2017, Marvel’s owner, Disney, acquired 21st Century Fox. This brought a great deal of properties under the Disney umbrella. Among these were the film rights to both the X-Men and Fantastic Four properties. This was important.

In the 1990s, Marvel sold off a lot of film rights to those properties that were seen as having value, like Spider-Man to Sony or Hulk to Paramount. These deals included the main character as well as any characters that could be considered part of that property. This was nebulous, which led to some confusion, later. Key among these deals was the sale of film rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, considered to be among the most potentially profitable properties Marvel owned, to 21st Century Fox. Fox used these rights to produce a series of X-Men films; most of which are forgettable; and three Fantastic Four films which were, well, detestable.

So, in 2017, Disney buys Fox and Marvel Films reacquires the rights to the X-Men and the FF and, ever since, every nerd worth their salt is waiting for these to be incorporated into the MCU, proper.

Enter: WandaVision.

The comic book version of Wanda Maximoff is capable of incredible feats of reality manipulation, including creating alternate realities and combining realities from across the Multiverse. For most of their existence, it was believed that Wanda and her twin brother, Pietro, were mutants, and, in fact; from an early retcon of their origin; the children of Magneto. During this time, Wanda altered the main Marvel timeline to put mutants in control in an event called House of M, which involved both the X-Men and the Avengers.

Furthermore, comic book Wanda (called the Scarlet Witch) has a history of being manipulated my various evil male characters. Beginning with her first appearances and Magneto, to the demonic Chthon; from the Mephisto-empowered corrupted human Master Pandemonium (the only reference to Mephisto in Wanda’s background, by the way) which was facilitated by the Master of Time, Immortus; to Doctor Doom (and a ‘mysterious entity’ that possesses her); to Quicksilver, himself (the architect of House of M).

It’s also been announced that Wanda will be a major character in the upcoming sequel to Doctor Strange film, entitled Doctor Strange: The Multiverse of Madness, which a lot of fandom has been taking as proof that Wanda will be key to doing a Spider-Verse film and, of course, incorporating the former Fox properties.

So, it’s probably natural for the fans to expect that same kind of story.

But DC just did it.

Marvel Studios has not followed the trend, especially when it comes to twists in massive properties and, with WandaVision being the first thing since the pandemic started; the first in a year-and-a-half; it seems unlikely that they would suddenly shift gears and emulate Marvel’s biggest competition. The idea that the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Deadpool, Daredevil, the Defenders, etc. might arrive in the MCU proper thanks to a major television event seems unlikely; maybe even impossible.

Will we see all these characters in the MCU, at some point? Sure! These are huge potential money makers based on comic book popularity. However, the direction of the MCU has proven that 

Instead, I believe what we are seeing is parts of a whole. In the third episode of the series, we are told that ‘It’s all Wanda,’ which seems like a red herring, to me. Even at the point of this past week’s episode, the push on the idea that Wanda is responsible is at the hands of the most reprehensible character on the show, Tyler Hayward, who has been shown to have some other agenda with Vision. This tells me that, if it’s not a lie, it’s probably wrong.

However, I find it unlikely that Wanda is being manipulated by any character. Manipulation infers a type of control that is not abject control. Rather, I find it likely that Wanda has been mind-controlled and is pushing to regain control over her own mind.

By whom?

Well, it seems likely to me that it has something to do with the pair of actors in all the commercials, who seem to be using those to reinforce that control.

And I think that’s the big reveal: who the villain is. I think it’s unlikely to be Marvel’s version of the Devil, Mephisto; nothing like that character has really been a part of the MCU, unless you include Thor and the other Asgardians, who are really just aliens. A Mephisto appearance where he is simply a powerful alien rather than the literal devil would be reductive of this character, but I kind of don’t want to see him, regardless of how well the introduction could be.

We’ll know it all in a couple weeks. From then on, we can keep buying up red-string and tack boards and create whatever mad theories we would like.

Before I leave, let me drop a couple my wife and I have been speculating over:

• Pietro is the Beekeeper: We never see Agent Franklin, the S.W.O.R.D. agent, for absolute certain, after he emerges from the sewer having been transformed into a beekeeper from the hazmat suit he had been wearing. When that occurs, Wanda states, ‘No,’ and the world rewinds so that that this event never occurred. The face of Agent Franklin is never seen, but he clearly has been integrated into the world Wanda has created. My guess is that he was the recast of Pietro, meaning Agent Franklin is played by Evan Peters.
• Monica’s Aerospace Engineer Friend is Talos the Skrull’s Daughter: In the closing moments of the film, Captain Marvel, a young Monica Rambeau can be seen bonding with the daughter of the Skrulls Talos and Soren; a daughter who shows a desire to return to Earth and see her friend as well as some passing interest a spaceship toy. Monica has twice noted someone who has a background in aerospace who is a friend of hers who she can call on for assistance and my wife thinks that it’s possible this is Talos’ daughter. It would make sense, but the name of this character has never been revealed and, with Secret Invasion coming up, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Veranke

So, there’s some fun speculations, of our own!

Enjoy the next couple weeks of the show that has managed to bring together all sorts of Marvel fans to do something that is truly important…

Argue over continuity.