The MCU keeps doing its women dirty

“You break the rules and become a hero,” Wanda Maximoff tells Stephen Strange in a heavily memed moment early in Doctor Strange, in the Multiverse of Madness. “I do it, I become the enemy … That doesn’t seem fair.”

That self-serving quote from the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie doesn’t really hold up if you think about it for more than two seconds. It’s a false equivalency between two characters who are inherently on unequal footing. Wanda took advantage of her grief to enslave a whole town, and Stephen Strange made an attempt to save the world by sacrificing half of it. Within the movie’s framework, her logic doesn’t make sense. Her grievance points to a trend in how female characters across the MCU are treated. As a micro observation, it doesn’t work, but on a macro level, the connotations point to a problem. Doctor Strange violates many new rules, but it’s not a problem. Multiverse of Madness and still rises as a hero, Wanda becomes a simplistic, one-note villain — and becomes the latest MCU woman to fall.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and MCU movies in general.]

Image: Marvel Studios

This is what you see early. Multiverse of MadnessWanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), is the central villain in the story. On a quest for a place where she could imagine the children she imagined, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) is the main villain. WandaVision actually exist, she’s hellbent on capturing multiverse-hopping teenager America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) and stealing her powers. Wanda is the Scarlet Witch and has some of her most terrifying scenes. Her motivations are more precise than any other MCU villains. The fact that she turns into a villain isn’t necessarily the issue. But her full plunge into evil speaks to an unfortunate trend in how the MCU treats female characters: They’re rarely allowed to be the same type of heroic as their male counterparts.

That’s slowly changing as new heroes get added to the ever-expanding MCU roster. But Wanda is the last of Marvel’s Phase One and Two heroines, all of whom met similarly tragic, ignominious ends. That doesn’t make for a good track record going forward, especially given how the male heroes of the same era have held up.

I think I’ve seen this film before

Image: Disney/Marvel Studios

With more women heroes in the MCU than ever, there will be a new lineup. Hawkeye’s Kate Bishop, Captain Marvel 2,’s Carol Danvers, and Ms. Marvel’s Kamala Khan all ready to save the world. But the MCU wasn’t always so inclusive. Two whole MCU phases had only three women who could be suited heroes, not civilian love partners or side characters.

They all have dark pasts. They all joined groups that were primarily men-oriented. (Natasha was already part of the group by the time Wanda arrived, but she’s still the one woman among five men.) They all had the opportunity to be heroes and to play an important role in their respective teams’ success, but all three are dead. The Gamora, who had gone through character development, died in Avengers: Infinity War. Her villainous, still-loyal-to-Thanos time-traveling past self is still running around. Similarly, it’s possible that Wanda only appears to be dead, or will be brought back through multiverse magic.)

Image: Marvel Studios

Tony Stark was also killed in the line, however, the MCU still has many men of color who are ready to help if one of its members is wounded in combat. It is also quite jarring to see how deaths in the MCU are handled, even if you ignore the census discrepancy. When Tony Stark dies, he gets a well-witnessed hero’s sacrifice that saves the world. His death is greeted with an elaborate funeral, complete with Marvel cameos. The entire MCU experiences the consequences of it. Peter Parker spends his next movie unpacking Tony’s legacy, reminded of him at every turn.

Clint, Wanda and Natasha Romanoff will be there to comment when Natasha dies. Avengers: Endgame. She’s largely forgotten by everyone else. Disney Plus’ Hawkeye eventually gave Clint more space to process that grief, but the only person who shares his feelings is Natasha’s long-lost sister Yelena — a character only introduced after Natasha died, in her belated solo film. Granted, it’s not like a lot of the other heroes felled in battle got a huge funeral attended by every on-screen character, since the MCU seems more focused on plotting out the next thing than on giving characters space for emotional catharsis. But still — only a handful of people mourning one of the original Avengers?

We still don’t know the greater ramifications of Wanda’s and Gamora’s deaths — or if they are even really deaths. (Though Scarlett Johansson’s messy break with Marvel makes it less likely that she’ll be resurrected somehow.) They never had the opportunity to be the same heroes as their male counterparts. There’s no hero’s journey for them, just a tragic ending, often as footnotes in someone else’s story.

It all is the WandaVision

Image: Marvel Studios

It is particularly frustrating in Wanda’s case, considering how much screen time and attention she’s gotten compared to the MCU’s other female characters. PreviousDoctor Strange, in the Multiverse of Madness, Disney Plus’ first original series, WandaVisionThe show was about Wanda, who took control of her town to make it into an absurd sitcom. Wanda did not face any consequences for her actions. This was frustrating to some viewers.

But in retrospect, the reason Wanda didn’t deal with consequences or make amends in WandaVision is because the series was apparently a villain origin story — even if that was unclear at the time because the ever-churning MCU machine relies on never fully showing its next move. Even if Wanda didn’t give up on her grief during the show, it at least felt like she’d learned not to let it consume her and the innocent victims around her. Was that the line about love persevering if Wanda didn’t realize that her grief is love without a place to go?

Because Wanda was the center of the show, and because it focuses so clearly on her pain, she became a sympathetic character — and also the female MCU character with the most dedicated, central screen time. Her popularity grew and she became a favorite of fans. It was partly because audiences had the opportunity to get to know her in ways they didn’t know Gamora and Natasha. Carol Danvers has yet to meet her. Thor’s Jane Foster. Part of her struggle is her feeling of loneliness and loss, which attracted fans who could identify with her. At the time WandaVisionWanda became one of few MCU characters to have a story.

Image: Marvel Studios

The way she became a villain isn’t the problem. (Though the fact that she seemingly forgets about her lost love, Vision, and focuses solely on finding her children speaks to a stereotype of female characters only becoming significant and heroic when they’re acting as mothers.) The frustrating part is the fact that she became the only one of the three original MCU female heroes to get a chance at becoming a worthy hero with a full character arc — and instead, she turned into a villain to be thwarted. She learned all of the lessons that fans believed she had at the conclusion. WandaVisionThese were red herrings.

“That doesn’t seem fair,” Wanda tells Doctor Strange, and she’s right. It isn’t fair that Wanda, Natasha, and Gamora all die (or “die”) so the men around them can rise and soldier on. It isn’t fair that the only one of them to have a story of her own — the story of a lonely woman trying to understand powers she never asked for, and processing the grief of losing everything she ever loved without having anyone to lean on — becomes a bad guy so Doctor Strange can have a reason to hop around the multiverse.

The MCU has tentatively stated that future plans will rectify this. Kate Bishop, Jane Foster and Thor will most likely assume the Hawkeye roles. Thor: Love and Thunder. Yelena may become a hero. Black Panther’s Shuri will supposedly be spotlighted in the sequel. Monica Rambeau, Kamala Khan and Carol Danvers will join the cast. Likewise, Ant-Man & The Wasp’s Hope van Dyne, Thor: Ragnarok’s Valkyrie, Black Panther’s Okoye and Nakia, Guardians of the Galaxy’s Mantis and Nebula, and Eternals’ Thena, Sersi, and Makkari might eventually get the chance to evolve into dynamic heroes. This is a shame, because the original heroines must have fallen for this to occur.