{"id":203,"date":"2021-02-04T16:51:04","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T16:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dantejspado.com\/?p=203"},"modified":"2021-03-23T21:41:28","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T21:41:28","slug":"marvels-unexpected-formula-for-success-in-wandavision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/04\/marvels-unexpected-formula-for-success-in-wandavision\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel’s unexpected formula for success in WandaVision"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Dante Spado<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, I was a little skeptical of WandaVision<\/em>. I\u2019m a huge Marvel fan, dating back to when I had a huge bin of superhero action figures as a kid. I\u2019d use my imagination and make up all sorts of scenarios that my action figures were in. I\u2019d have them team up to fight bad guys, fight each other or even do my own crossovers, like having the Green Goblin fight Wolverine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never did I have them pretend to be in a sitcom<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the first two episodes brought new life to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), they just didn\u2019t FEEL like Marvel. They felt more like a (well-done) fan-made spinoff. By the end of the third episode, I came around to the sitcom idea and became invested in and intrigued by what was going on in Westview. Then the bombshell fourth episode had me singing the show\u2019s praises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fourth episode finally took us outside of Westview and helped shed some light on what was going on in Wanda and Vision\u2019s new home. The way they did it was so incredibly effective, and it reminded me, after a year-long hiatus<\/a>, why Marvel is so good at what they do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter Jimmy Woo, Darcy Lewis and Monica Rambeau. Three minor characters who have only appeared in the MCU in small ways. Heck, Darcy hasn\u2019t been in anything since 2013\u2019s Thor: The Dark World<\/em>. That was almost eight years ago. Eight! Yet when she came in, it was like I was seeing an old friend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Darcy Lewis with Thor. Photo credits to Marvel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By giving these minor characters the front stage, Marvel helped me feel more comfortable with what was going on. If they were three new, random characters, I know for certain I would not have felt this way. But, by playing off previously established connections and bringing in characters who the audience is familiar with, no matter how small their role was before, the show became much more grounded in the MCU. Suddenly, I felt like I was right alongside Jimmy, Darcy and Monica in figuring the mystery of Westville out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though Captain Marvel <\/em>came out in 2019, seeing Monica all grown up brought on a sense of sweet nostalgia. Seeing Darcy after she and Jane seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth in the third Thor<\/em> movie was also a great surprise, and strengthened WandaVision<\/em>\u2019s place in the MCU by going back to a character who was introduced in Phase 1. Lastly, Jimmy Woo\u2019s connection fit perfectly, entering the story from the angle of working a missing person\u2019s case for the FBI. In addition to his previous entanglements with Scott Lang in Ant-Man and the Wasp, <\/em>it\u2019d almost be weird if he WASN’T there, yet I never expected him to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jimmy Woo in Ant-Man and the Wasp<\/em>. Photo credits to Marvel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By bringing in characters from other parts of the MCU, Marvel gave the audience something to feel comfortable in order to combat all the weirdness going on, a sort of security blanket to fall back onto. I now know it\u2019s okay that I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on because THEY don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on either. By seeing them have some of the same questions I have, such as, \u201cis Vision dead?\u201d makes me feel like I\u2019m part of the team. That\u2019s exactly what Marvel wanted, and they did it masterfully by giving the side characters the center stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dante Spado Initially, I was a little skeptical of WandaVision. I\u2019m a huge Marvel fan, dating back to when I had a huge bin of superhero action figures as a kid. I\u2019d use my imagination and make up all sorts of scenarios that my action figures were in. I\u2019d have them team up to fight bad guys, fight each other or even do my own crossovers, like having the Green Goblin fight Wolverine.  Never… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions\/321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}