Marvel’s most complicated mother could use a little more nuance.
Warning: This article contains spoilers aboutDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
First off: I adore my two kids.
Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff in ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’.Marvel Studios
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).
Here’s why:
Wanda is the worst helicopter mom ever.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange faces the ‘Multiverse of Madness’ in the sequel.Marvel Studios
she’d be able to step into another dimension and find a cure).
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.
Marvel Studios
For her, there is nothing in between.
Doctor Strange continuously fails upward, with few repercussions.
So he’s in danger there too.
Just kidding, he’s not!
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.”
Wanda then had to watch again when Thanos turned back time and killed Vision again for the stone.
All of these events must’ve been pretty darn traumatic.
Yet to watchMOM, the only driving force behind Wanda’s increasingly unhinged actions is love for her children.
I’m a mother."
Not a partner, a sister, or a being even more powerful than a Sorcerer Supreme.
Wanda is supposedly the most powerful being in the multiverse, yet has no agency.
But somehow Doctor Strange (or should we say Zombie Strange?)
is able to harness the Book of the Damned magic without destroying himself?
But that doesn’t mean it happens inMOM.
Perhaps in another future universe.
