I have some mommy issues with Doctor Strange 's Wanda
Warning: This article contains spoilers about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
First off: I adore my two kids. The thought of losing either of them is the worst thing I can imagine, and being a mother is the most important thing I will ever do. So I can certainly empathize with desperate, complicated moms in movies. In fact, I kind of gravitate to them (bowing down to you, Aurora Greenway). But as I watched the story arc of Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (played with ferocity by Elizabeth Olsen) unfold in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — which grossed $185 million during its Mother's Day opening weekend — I found myself getting more and more agitated. Here's why:
Marvel Studios
Wanda is the worst helicopter mom ever.
The crux of Wanda's story in the film is that she wants to get to a universe, any universe, where she can reunite with her twin sons Billy and Tommy. (Never mind that in WandaVision she seemed to have made peace with releasing the residents of Westville from under her control, and consequently, her fantasy children.) So she sets her sights on teenager America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) whose superpower is being able to hop between universes via star-shaped portals that she creates when she's really, really stressed. Wanda's plan: harness America's power (killing her in the process) to not only get to her boys, but protect them from any future ills (sickness, injury, accidental death and dismemberment? — she'd be able to step into another dimension and find a cure).
I can't think of any mother who, theoretically, wouldn't want the same guarantee that her kids are safe and protected at all times. But at the expense of killing another child, and in Wanda's case, ruthlessly murdering dozens more? The tunnel-visioned character ends up being either unreasonable or a Stepford wife-in-mourning. For her, there is nothing in between.
Marvel Studios Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange faces the 'Multiverse of Madness' in the sequel.
Doctor Strange continuously fails upward, with few repercussions.
In MOM (yes, we will be using this apt acronym moving forward), we learn that an alternate universe Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) caused an incursion to defeat Thanos, destroying a parallel version of Earth that was on a collision course with his world. When he faces the llluminati in this film, they — Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Reed Richards (John Krasinski), Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell), Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) and Black Bolt (Anson Mount) — inform him that not only was he was executed in that universe for what he had done, but that they don't trust him to do the right thing in his current universe. So he's in danger there too.
Just kidding, he's not! Despite the fact that Doctor Strange, you know, killed millions of humans, Professor X, much like hiring managers across corporate America, overlooked the shortcomings of the privileged white male candidate before him and gave him the job (of stopping Wanda on her warpath). As The Scarlet Witch tells Doctor Strange: "You break the rules and become the hero. I do it, I become the enemy. That doesn't seem fair."
Why no multi-motivation?
Wanda had to kill the love of her life, Vision (Paul Bettany) in order to save him from Thanos, who was after the Infinity Stone embedded in Vision's head. Wanda then had to watch again when Thanos turned back time and killed Vision again for the stone. Don't forget, Wanda also lost her twin brother Pietro/Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) when he was shot in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and her parents died when she was a child when there was an explosion in their apartment building. My point? All of these events must've been pretty darn traumatic.
Yet to watch MOM, the only driving force behind Wanda's increasingly unhinged actions is love for her children. She's basically defined by her motherhood and nothing else — as she memorably says: "I'm not a monster, Stephen. I'm a mother." Not a partner, a sister, or a being even more powerful than a Sorcerer Supreme. Meanwhile, pretty much every evil male in the MCU's motivations are as varied as the characters themselves: daddy issues, lost loves, power plays, bad childhoods. While I'm not suggesting that Wanda/Scarlet Witch go the Ayelet Waldman route — it would be great if she had a little more nuance.
Marvel Studios
Wanda is supposedly the most powerful being in the multiverse, yet has no agency.
This is the most chilling takeaway, especially in the wake of the Roe v. Wade opinion leak, which happened, ironically, while I was taking in the movie at the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness premiere in LA last week. Of course, the film was in the can long before anyone knew about the Supreme Court goings-on, but the parallel is striking: Whether she's blinded by delusional love for her imaginary children or possessed by the Darkhold, Wanda is not the one in control of her choices or ultimately, her power. But somehow Doctor Strange (or should we say Zombie Strange?) is able to harness the Book of the Damned magic without destroying himself?
In a cinematic universe where mothers are either saintly (see Black Panther's Ramonda, Thor's Frigga) or more saintly (Shang Chi's Ying Li, Guardian of the Galaxy's Meredith Quill), Wanda/Scarlet Witch is best positioned for a more dimensional role. But that doesn't mean it happens in MOM. Perhaps in another future universe.
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