Marvel Cinematic Universe, Phase 4 & Beyond (and a chance to change your vote)

fyi there is once again a mid-credits scene

Anybody else completely uninterested in Morbius? Just not a fan of Jared Leto, and looks like he's going full-on Depp in an over-the-top interpretation.

I'd be surprised if anybody at all is interested in Morbius

i only recognize one Dr. Morbius and it ain't jared leto

I'm a bit miffed that it wasn't Agatha all along.

Re: Morbius, I'm frankly shocked that one of Sony's (non-Venom) dumbass Spidey-adjacent projects actually made it to completion. I doubt that even most Marvel fans care enough about Morbius (a character that hasn't even been featured in the actual comics much over the past decade or two beyond a very brief solo series) to give a shit that he's getting his own movie.

So there's Double Vision now

That means Agatha's husband is Lou Gramm. Didn't see that coming

Meantime, new interview with Anderson-Lopez/Lopez

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/arts/television/wandavision-agatha-all-along.html

("Meet" probably the most famous songwriting duo on Broadway/at Disney etc? Change that headline.)

Honestly this week's episode was among other things just an amazing tonal shift after having said song in my head off and on throughout the week.

original is commercially available but not the trap mix? c'mon folks.

trap mix is fire

I was kinda disappointed by this episode... I mean, at least the revelation that Wanda did actually (though unknowingly) create the simulation means that there'll be no Mephisto, but everything else is straight from the comics: Abnett & Lanning's miniseries (Wanda as the Nexus Being) + Byrne's West Coast Avengers (Wanda's kids aren't real and she goes koo-koo from the loss and becomes a villain) + Avengers Dissassembled/House of M (Wanda goes koo-koo again and creates an illusionary world where nothing bad happened). They even gave us Byrne's pale-skinned, emotionless Vision, for chrissakes! I was hoping this story to be a bit more imaginative and less derivative, but everything that happened here was pretty much what people had speculated before the series even began.

The only thing I liked was that Agnes/Agatha turned out to be more interesting than what the previous episodes twist made us think. She probably isn't even a villain rather than anti-hero, and she sought out Wanda because she suspected Wanda might be the Scarlet Witch/Nexus Being, which means she's a danger to the world and needs to be contained, or at least taught how to properly control her powers. So Agatha may become her mentor like she was in the comics after all.

yeah, I don't think she's going to be a Big Bad, which is good....

yo this episode is lit

Hmm, well, I guess this episode answered a few questions, but its main point seemed to bringing Wanda the character more in line with her comic book counterpart.

I have always liked the Byrne and Bendis versions of Wanda so I have no objection to her selfishly enslaving the town’s citizens. The way the story is going does seem to suggest her kids are imaginary, or at least created by her magic rather than being “real”

Also please release the trap mix

but its main point seemed to bringing Wanda the character more in line with her comic book counterpart

Not a mutant, just a boring ol' witch.

How did her brother get powers, though?

Presumably they're both mutants, like in the comics. Wanda was born with chaos magic and Pietro with super speed.

And the Mind Stone just awakened/enhanced those powers.

Great episode. Killer acting by the stars per usual. I loved the trip through unseen moments between the movies.
Don't miss the mid-credits scene, again!

Agatha definitely an interesting villain(?) as the intro is definitely... open to some kind of interpretation. Glad they went this route (maybe?) rather than keeping her as evil as the end of the song implied. Also, did they use some funky de-aging tech or was it just incredible makeup for her flashback?

Also please release the trap mix

RELEASE THE SNYDER MIX

I dunno, I could easily wind up being wrong, but I think there's still some shit we don't know about what's happening and I don't think it's necessarily gonna shake out in the the way that us comics nerds might predict.

Like I don't think Wanda's suddenly a mutant now.

good stuff. kinda bummed it’s almost over.

to the extent that the color coding means anything, it seems meaningful that Wanda’s zip zaps are always red, but the Vision she law of attraction manifested zip zapped to life in mind stone yellow? presumably that Vision + zombie Vision is how we get our Vision back?

Did not really like this episode, much much much too much emoting and "OH THE POWER OF GRIEF OH THE POWER OF LOVE" in extruded MCU product mode, which is exactly what I have been liking this show for not being -- BUT all that said, on a very basic level of story-writing they continue to take this places I had not anticipated -- I had not at all considered the idea that the whole Vision-corpse stealing thing was fabricated and that we'd be set up for an epic Vision-Vision battle in the final ep. That is extremely satisfying.

Oh shit, that's an h, not a b. Well, sorry for bolded spoilers.

Which, speaking of which, I am totally not getting spoilers for this on Twitter, Mandalorian was much worse in this respect! I wonder what this says about my feed.

Anyway, after all the endless theorizing about Agnes I like that she's apparently neither the Big Bad nor a secret ally, but just an opportunistic witch who eats other witches' witchcraft and was drawn to the presence of a witch so powerful. They found an unexpected (to me) way to go.

In particular, “What is grief if not love persevering?” is exactly the kind of dire line this show has mostly avoided grinding into the screen. Come on.

I’ll allow it. Vision is explicitly naive and corny like that.

I thought that line was really, really wonderful

Just watching a little YT blurb on the Loki show and not only does it look worthy of the same love WandaVision is getting, the logo that I thought was "well, that's ... interesting", now is obviously tied to the MCU early Loki working as a Time Agent against various other Loki versions , that again, I'm just impressed and so, so happy that there's such an attention to setting up the stories, environments, and the characters, as opposed to just hand-waving over powers and character actions that the non-MCU and DC seem to do. Years of Nicholas Hammond bad rope tossing devotion pays off.

Xpost me too.

Yeah, that Vision line was great. Don't know why you'd hate on that of all things.

epic Vision-Vision

I've seen people suspecting that Bettany's hyping of a big guest star in the final episode might be him cheekily alluding to ... himself, as other Vision.

A couple of other things about this episode. One ... no song, right? Two, no Monica or Pietro, right? So ... where are they? Or I guess where is *she*, assuming Pietro was not real or was Agatha in disguise. (Have there been no scenes with Agatha *and* Pietro*?) If the kids are not real, then how did Agatha get them, hide them, capture them? I can't believe there is only one episode of this left, or am I right that it's definitive that there *is* just one or maybe *two* left (which is kind of a cool advantage of not doing this on a standard network)?

Lotsa questions to be answered, and still wouldn't be shocked if this ends on an unresolved cliffhanger, with Wanda in another time/dimension, by force or choice, to be addressed in Dr. Strange 2 or something.

I was skimming reviews of this episode and the person writing for Indiewire has very clearly never seen an episode of the Dick Van Dyke show

The walnut episode is comedy cannon ffs!

it's possible to be under 49 and also not to be American

One ... no song, right?

no period sitcom, no period sitcom theme. you got two last week!

Two, no Monica or Pietro, right? So ... where are they? Or I guess where is *she*, assuming Pietro was not real or was Agatha in disguise. (Have there been no scenes with Agatha *and* Pietro*?) If the kids are not real, then how did Agatha get them, hide them, capture them?

a lot of this is explicitly addressed in expository dialogue in the episode. the vast majority of the characters in other episodes do not appear in this episode, especially the "present day" setting in the episode. Pietro is a major character in this episode (but Fietro, if you will, is not).

“What is grief if not love persevering?”

Nothing dire about this line at all. I know at least three people who've already spoken about how much having a feeling distilled down into those few words really meant a lot to them.

I guess it might be dire if you're an asshole, though.

That line was excellent and this was a highly moving episode; I’m seeing a lot of criticism coming from people intimately familiar with the comics it turned out to be very heavily based on, which, fine... but this added dimension of the sitcoms and her grief is really hitting home. The acting has been excellent, the sets amazing, and the show has not made a single misstep. It’s a small miracle.

I agree that the parts about Wanda's grief were the best in the episode. The movies, having multiple main characters and being structured around action scenes, barely even touched the fact that her parents, her twin brother and her partner have all been killed tragically, and what that must've been like for her. So it's great that a series like this has space to address the grief, and the idea that sitcoms were comfort food for her during hard times, and that's why she made Westview like it is, was great.

If the kids are not real, then how did Agatha get them, hide them, capture them?

enjoyed this episode a lot but also enjoying the thought that marvel studios spent $200m solely to give mcu wanda a reason to use her superhero name

man this episode made me cry so much

i have zero connection to the comics so it was all just character for me & i loved it. just the unfolding of how completely she turned inward in her grief, and the added detail of why she chose that location was such a gutpunch

and that line grief is just love persevering is <3
i have some dear friends who have struggled for years w the loss of a loved one & that line just crystallizes what that process really means & why some ppl do struggle for a long long time

I was hoping this story to be a bit more imaginative and less derivative, but everything that happened here was pretty much what people had speculated before the series even began.

People have speculated a lot of things though - remember the aerospace engineer that was definitely going to be Reed Richards? The choices they make touch on the comics, but have made this actual great story that's in front of us.

she sought out Wanda because she suspected Wanda might be the Scarlet Witch/Nexus Being

I think that's a little more than the episode says, she seems just drawn to powerful magic and realises after taking a trip through Wanda's head that this is what's going on.

It's worth acknowledging the other person in the two-hander - Elizabeth Olsen is great, but Kathryn Hahn keeps up with her.

I am amused that for all the furious speculation that I've seen (here and elsewhere) I've not seen anyone prior to this notice that the footage of Wanda stealing the Vision doesn't show Wanda stealing the Vision.

I was hoping this story to be a bit more imaginative and less derivative, but everything that happened here was pretty much what people had speculated before the series even began.

People have speculated a lot of things though - remember the aerospace engineer that was definitely going to be Reed Richards? The choices they make touch on the comics, but have made this actual great story that's in front of us.

Familiar to a very small percentage of the viewers, though.

T-dogg has been posting excitedly itt for months about the ways he thought or anticipated this was differing from the comics, the context of disappointment is personal