As human beings, there are feelings inherent to who we are that we experience regularly. Pain, both physical and emotional, is a struggle many of us are faced with. But the capacity for joy is also a part of being human.
We can’t experience either, however, if we don’t really live, if we’re not engaged in life abundantly. This means giving of ourselves and not getting hung up on ourselves. This sort of selflessness defines many heroes in real life. Joan of Arc, with confidence instilled by God, led armies into war. Fr. Damien journeyed to the isle of Molokai, where he served the lepers without concern for his own health. Maximilian Kolbe became the victim of a starvation penalty at Auschwitz – and of his own free will.
Throughout our lives, whether young or old, we eagerly look for figures of whom we might say, “Here is a true hero.” This sense of selflessness is crucial to any hero including fictional ones. If a character is going to be convincing, it must be nearly as genuine as a real person.
There are many superheroes in the fantastic universes out there that strive for selflessness. Captain America knows what it’s like to fight Nazis; he knows what it’s like to see innocent people abused and cut down. He is a hero because he moves past his self-doubt and sees others with inherent worth. At the end of the day too, he is human. He knows what pain and loss taste like.
In fact, by the end of Infinity War, there is no one who has gone untouched by loss, no one left who hasn’t seen a friend or loved one fade away. Then Endgame sort of undid a large portion of the grief Thanos had inflicted upon the cosmos as many of the characters who had vanished with the snap returned again.
But there was no such “resurrection” or return for Wanda Maximoff’s love interest, Vision. Since the Mind Stone is what animated Vision and gave him his intellect, he didn’t fall into a pile of dust like his fellow Avengers. He had the Mind Stone torn from his forehead. Thus far, in the Avengers films, the Mind Stone hasn’t been replaced, and Wanda’s grief has not been consoled.
For Stark’s family, Iron Man’s sacrifice is one that brings honor and closure. For Captain America, his time-traveling task of returning the Infinity Stones to their proper dates facilitates the manifestation of his dream: to marry Peggy Carter and live happily with her. As for Wanda, she has to build her life from the ground up.
After the loss of her brother Pietro, her relationship with Vision is a great comfort. There is no one she has grown so close to or as fond of as her significant other. But the tranquility she found with him was upset when his life was snatched away with the Infinity Stone plucked from his body by Thanos.
With the weekly airing of installments of WandaVision on Disney Plus, we are able to see a more intimate side of Wanda, her hopes and aspirations. But just what are we looking at? Perhaps Wanda or someone else has fashioned a web of illusions around her, clouding her psyche and numbing the pain of loss. Reality is replaced with the classical American TV experience replete with the traditional schtick, neighborly conviviality, and transformation to color that was so iconic of decades past.
Some have complained the show is too slow for their taste, and I can sympathize with this. But I think, more importantly, we can and should sympathize with Wanda. After all, this is what she’s always wanted: a husband, a family, a life aside from war and strife. Obviously, Wanda’s circumstances are a bit over the top; taking on the guy who obliterated half the universe is kind of daunting. But her desire to settle down and see love blossom in her own life is one we all share. The family life is always attractive.
In order to experience the beauty of real relationships, Wanda needs to escape from this escapism, this fantasy she is trapped in. Right now, the MCU is in a bittersweet stage of its history. It’s comparable in a way to Tolkien’s epics, so often filled with anguish and sorrow. Yet, hope, like the sun, rides unwavering above every shadow, though it may go unseen. In “Modernity in Middle-Earth,” Patrick Curry writes that “hope enables and encourages people to act.” It was hope that led the Avengers to give it a second go at attempting to defeat Thanos. And with this, despite their losses, they emerged victorious.
Central to Christianity, and developed earlier in Jewish tradition, is the idea of bodily resurrection. Like the Avengers who returned to their former selves in Endgame, a worldly resurrection was granted to people like Lazarus and the daughter of Jairus during Christ’s ministry. But even these miracles pale in contrast to the Resurrection which Jesus Himself embodied. Lazarus did not live forever; he died a mortal man. The Resurrection Jesus offers is that of both body and soul raised into eternal life.
This is the Christian hope: realizing what Christ has done for us, that He is Victor over sin and death, and that we, who were created for union with others, may be reunited with the righteous people we met during our earthly lives should we come to Paradise.
The union of connection and love that Wanda so strongly pines after can be recognized in hope, and it can only be lived out in reality.
*Dedicated to Riley Funk.
John Tuttle
John Tuttle is a Catholic journalist, blogger, and photographer. He has written for Prehistoric Times, Culture Wars Magazine, Those Catholic Men, Catholic Insight, Inside Over, Ancient Origins, Love They Nerd, We Got This Covered, Cultured Vultures, and elsewhere. He can be reached at jptuttleb9@gmail.com.