WandaVision - Marvel’s Joker Rebuttal
The word on everyone’s lips so far in 2021 is “WandaVision” and for good reason! The show tackles a lot of hard-hitting topics that a majority of us are facing— particularly grief and the loss of loved ones. Considering how the past year has been, it makes sense for all of us to relate to a woman who builds her own sitcom dream life to escape grief. A major discussion I’ve seen on a rise on social media, articles, reviews, and fan posts alike is the morality to Wanda’s actions in the show. I warn you all now that this post is NOT a spoiler-free one— we are going all in on this one baby!
Wanda is a complex character to be acquainted with. While she has become that of a relatable character, the question still remains: are her actions justified? While it’s easier to just label characters as “good” or “bad” as a modern film viewer, many films and shows released in the past ten years particularly have started to break that mold and are showing us the grey area most characters truly lie in, grounding their actions to be a bit more human. In the late 2010s superheroes have even taken this turn with more anti-hero films and shows being made. Deadpool, Birds of Prey, Daredevil, The Boys, and others have explored the nuances of heroic figures in media. The WandaVision showrunners were very self-aware and understood that the show lives in that same gray area. How do we as people react to a woman rejected by society facing mass amounts of grief?
While watching WandaVision, I couldn’t help but find similarities between Wanda Maximoff’s actions to that of Arthur Fleck from Joker (2019). Besides the obviously similar horror genre tropes, many television references, and anti-hero themes, both of these stories illuminate the journey of two different individuals rejected completely by society who have to redefine their version of happiness in the pit of rejection. Yet in comparing these two characters, I can only find myself seeing WandaVision all the more refreshing and new in terms of perspective. I think the primary reason for this is because WandaVision shows this story from a woman’s perspective.
Both character’s tales and their influences can be traced back to that of the Greeks. Arthur’s story definitely comes from lessons we have learned from the rejections of a few different Greek philosophers like Socrates and Diogenes of Sinope as well as some characters from Greek plays like Antigone. You could even argue that the concepts of societal rejection at its earliest came to fruition in storytelling from Enkidu from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Needless to say, it’s not a new concept but it’s definitely one that still draws audiences in. Wanda, however, brings back a story we rarely see discussed often in a respectful manner— a woman rejected from society. The biggest influence at hand here could very easily be the Greek play and myth of Medea: a woman having to face the loss of her husband (in Medea, Jason refuses her love) as a mother. Wanda’s tale does take a new turn to that of Medea’s in how the show does inevitably end, grounding the “woman rejected from society” tale for new age audiences.
In WandaVision (here’s where our main spoilers come in folks), Wanda is forced by Agatha to face her wrongdoing towards the town that she has put under her control. She must rewrite her actions all the while facing the idea of losing her husband and kids in the process. In Medea, when Medea is forced into exile, she kills her children out of anger, grief, and protest. To present such an ending here in WandaVision would have been terrifically dark. Wanda instead uses her wits and new knowledge to stop Agatha and then says goodbye to her husband and kids in a gentle manner so she can bring everything back to the way it was. Definitely feels a bit more ‘Disney-fied’ than its predecessor, but I think this ending is one of the best we could see in these kinds of tales. In times where we all face similar scenarios, it’s comforting to see Wanda pull herself out of her struggles (with a LOT of work) in a way that is realistic to us all. She faces her actions, fixes them, and isolates herself afterward to better understand herself and her powers.
By framing these tales in womanhood, and even motherhood, we open the window to the many struggles women face from toxic femininity. Wanda fits herself in the bubble that was projected onto women through television since the beginnings of these shows. Wanda forces herself into the mold that just isn’t her, whether she just wants to admit it or not. She never got to start her life with Vision and have kids, so she takes them through decades of television married life in just one week assuming that this will fix all of her problems. It’s an easy escape handed to her by the one constant influence in her life-television and the women she’s watched on it. This same kind of tale would lose a lot of substance if told, for instance, in Vision’s perspective as the societal expectations laid out for him as a man would be a lot more broad and free. That looming pressure would be narrowed down to that of expectations of the human experience alone for him, unlike Wanda who faces the added layers of womanhood and motherhood.
I find that the specific ending choice is incredibly impactful, especially once you put it alongside that of Joker. That film has a very nihilistic approach to the conversation as Arthur devotes his life to crime and chaos by the end of the film. The film devotes its entire point to explaining why one would simply turn to that kind of lifestyle (even though that entirely defeats the point of the Joker’s character origins, but we will save that for another day and another future blog post). What we can take from preceding Joker renditions however is that the backstory doesn’t matter as much as the actions taken against the situation the character is handed.
The Man Who Laughs (1928), the German expressionist film that the character, the Joker, was based on, tells the same societal rejection tale but focuses on how Gwynplaine escapes the wrath of society. WandaVision does the same and for good reason. We can very well assume the backstories of these characters in a scene or two as to why they are rejected since that is something we already see commonly occur. Those details aren’t what we need to be handed to us. The tale we need to see and learn from is how one tries to dig out of the pit of despair and how far they will go to achieve their happiness.
At the end of the show, Wanda isolates herself away from the world as she educates herself on her powers. I would call this a very situational form of finding one’s true self, even if she’s astro-projecting and spellcasting. She is allowing herself space to grow as an individual without the influence of others and their actions to affect that, which is an incredibly beautiful and important new concept to present audiences. I would even say a vital one for the year 2021. Many people have been forced into tight-knit situations with loved ones this past year and might have been heavily impacted by the time alone together with them. Whether it be significant others, family, friends, or even roommates, there is no denying that everyone has changed from major world events this past year. And for any one reason or another, we might need to rehabilitate self-identity in the process as the people around us change as well as come and go. To show audiences that the best space to learn the most about yourself is one with just yourself in it is a powerful message that I’m sure many need to hear. A moral like that is the strongest kind to stick with audiences now and even in years to come. So thank you WandaVision, for showing us to take some serious me-time into consideration to heal from the hurt.
