Marvel's WandaVision

[tripplej]

Welcome to WandaVision. Coming soon to Disney+. Marvel Studios' captivating new series "WandaVision" stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, and marks the first series from Marvel Studios streaming exclusively on Disney+. The series is a blend of classic television and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Wanda Maximoff and Vision—two super-powered beings living idealized suburban lives—begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.

[AVSCraig]

Ha ha - that looks wild. 

[tripplej]

It does look interesting.. I don't know the history of "WandaVision" so I will wait for Barry to provide some historical input.

[David Vaughn]

That does look like fun. 

[Paul Heroy]

Definitely look forward to that. When I was into the comics in the mid to late 70s these 2 were one of my favorite superheroes. Always thought the Scarlet Witch had one of the strongest powers and the Vision's is up there too, and just really cool.

[David Vaughn]

Olsen is quite easy on the eyes as well, which never hurts

[Barry]

In the beginning: Comics books, as we know them, were invented with New Fun Comics in 1935 for National Allied Publications (We know it today as DC comics). In June 1938, Superman, the first successful super-hero was released and it changed the industry.

Magazine Publisher Martin Goodman, in 1939, publishes “Marvel Comics” #1 featuring, among others, The Human Torch, an android that can burst his body into flame. He was a big hit. A character named the Vision was introduced in issue #13, created by Simon and Kirby, the Same creators of Captain America.

By the end of the 1940s super-heroes, with a couple of exceptions (Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman), has all but disappeared from comics.

So in 1961, Martin Goodman decided to return to super-heroes, after learning that DC’s Justice League was a big hit. In 1963 Goodman introduces the X-Men, five teenagers, mutants, with super-powers, created by Stan Lee and the aforementioned Jack Kirby. In X-Men #4 the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are introduced and the sole female member is mutant Wanda, known as the Scarlet Witch. Se creates havoc using wehat they called her “hex power” by waving her arms, in a manner that was not closely defined.  As with many popular villains, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby makes heroes out of them so that they can appear and sell in more comics.  She, and her brother Quicksilver, join the Avengers as heroes in issue #16, May 1965.

In real life, asst. editor Roy Thomas, now writing the Avengers, asks Stan Lee if he could bring back the Vision. Stan says okay, BUT he has to be a new original character, after all the old one failed.

So Roy Thomas creates Ultron, who you saw in the second Avengers movie. Actually in the comic Hank Pym (Ant-Man) invents the robotic Ultron who turns out to be evil in issue #54, July 1968. Ultron then invents the Android, Vision four issues later, to destroy the Avengers. He doesn’t. Instead, by dealing with the Avengers, he develops humanity.  In due time, the Scarlet Witch falls for him and they become a couple. They amrry a few years later in Giant Size Avengers #4.

The BIG SURPRISE: IN Journey to the Center of the Android, the Avengers discover that the Vision was made up of components from THE ORIGINAL HUMAN TORCH, from 1939. So He is technically, Marvel’s first super-hero!

Of course he dies in Avengers Endgame, but death is not fatal in comics. And we will see how this plays out.


Sadly, for me, just as Roy Thomas “remade” the Vision twenty five years after it’s original creation, Marvel and DC have constantly “remade” changed and altered their characters origins and history over the last forty years so nothing is consistent anymore.

See  below how the "new" Vision is shown to look like the original one.

[AVSCraig]

Interesting reading Barry. Thanks. I never read any of these comics, so it's nice to get a little background. 

[David Vaughn]

Thanks Barry. Very interesting. 

[tripplej]

Thanks Barry once again for your historical perspective. Glad you can help explain all of these characters to us.

[tripplej]

The first two episodes premiered today.. Anybody catch them?

[claw]

The first two episodes premiered today.. Anybody catch them?

I tried but gave up on both episodes.   They are like poor imitations of I Love Lucy.   

[David Vaughn]

I tried but gave up on both episodes.  They are like poor imitations of I Love Lucy. 

I watched them both and to sum up in a word....bizarre. There are 7 minute shorts of both the main characters (Wanda and Vision) and if you pay close attention, there are some Easter Eggs in the dialog explaining "where" they are in the show. I'll give it a few more episodes to see where it's going, but I've read that Episode 3 has an "aha" moment that will make the first two more coherent.

If you noticed, the sets changed from episodes 1 to 2, which I bet has some significance. I think the set from the first set was the Dick Van Dyke show (1950s) and the second was from Bewitched (1960s). My guess is they will keep moving through TV ages as the show goes on. Will The Brady Bunch be next or All in the Family? 

I'll give it some more time and hopefully it ties together in the end. 

[claw]

I will give it another go.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/noradominick/wandavision-details-easter-eggs-episode-1-episode-2?origin=web-hf

[tripplej]

This series is not like every series we have seen with a start, middle, and end in regards to the plot. Here, the plot is not told yet and we are given hints essentially of who they are and where they are. But it is all a mystery till further episodes are given. Essentially, we are detectives trying to piece together not only the main characters but also the side characters in addition to the overall plot and where they are all in the overall Marvel universe!