WandaVision’s 7th episode is just around the corner and we cannot hold our excitement at all. The very reason for this feeling is simply because the show is too good. Nothing goes back to the light-hearted sitcom feel of the show. Rather it is all intense, and honestly a little too intriguing. WandaVision, Marvel’s first Disney+ series, has kicked off Marvel’s Phase 4. While WandaVision has been full of surprising twists and turns, we can now, at this point of time, except something stupendous to go down.
If you remember episode 6, then you must clearly remember how Wanda, out of an attempt to save Vision when he escaped Westview. As he tried to do that, we saw Vision was about to die. Even then, Vision did not yell out for help, he rather said, “Go help”, in an attempt to save the SWORD agents. Then, Wanda expands her horizon of the HEX around Westview and hence, a lot of new characters were added during this as the HEX sucked most of the SWORD agents in it. But during this, we saw that the HEX also sucked in Darcy Lewis. So where do we go from here? Well, we have stumbled upon a crazy theory.
Firstly, we have to understand that Wanda’s ultimate HEX can cause alterations in the DNA and cause powers. In episode 5, Monica was informed that her medical tests upon leaving the hex have been ruined by some kind of interference – a brain scan that shows nothing at all, and blood tests that need to be repeated. Episode 6, sheds some light on the implications of this – it is revealed that the blood test shows changes to Monica’s physiology, with cellular changes “at a molecular level”. Monica has a comic counterpart that has used a variety of code-names, the most frequently used being Spectrum and Captain Marvel.
The barrier was shown to be destructive to Vision. This is because Wanda changed the rules of the HEX after SWORD sent in an armed drone. Monica’s cellular changes do not appear to have injured her in any way. With the exception of her time in the hex when she was directly controlled to behave as a sitcom character, Monica’s patterns of action are consistent, and she has not expressed any physical symptoms apart from some minor injuries when she was thrown out of the hex by Wanda. While her behavior is hard to determine from the relatively brief screen time that she has received outside of the hex and the related mind control, the effects of her cellular re-write appear to be tied to her potential acquisition of powers.
Now the question that intrigues us is, what superpower could Darcy have? We know Monica has superpowers in the comics as well, but Darcy doesn’t. With Wanda’s twins – Billy and Tommy teased to be Young Avengers, and other references to the formation of such a team in upcoming projects, it would not be unreasonable to assume that any powers she receives might be more subdued, helping her to continue to assist in a support position.
If WandaVision is a precursor to adding mutants to the MCU, then Darcy’s powers could be limited but useful to her. As an astrophysicist, Darcy could gain control over cosmic energy, or find her already prodigious intelligence enhanced. A fight with base guards when Darcy, Monica, and Jimmy were being thrown out of the base left Darcy standing by, wondering why nobody told her that there was going to be a fight – possibly implying an unconscious desire to gain physical abilities, which hex exposure could grant.
If you remember Darcy’s characterization in Thor when she first appeared, she was put on the screen as impulsive, headstrong, and occasionally a bit reckless. hence again, that is a fair description of Iron Man, Thor, and Captain Marvel, and while other characters in the MCU have questioned their judgment, they have certainly used their abilities heroically. Using an idea that is sometimes brought up in regards to the Marvel mutants, however, it seems most important that whether or not Darcy gains superpowers, that her intellect and personality remain the most important parts of her character.
It can be easy to view a character’s powers as the most important thing about them, but an early theme of the MCU, particularly in Captain America and Thor, was that what was important was the person behind the powers, and Darcy is already a compelling and interesting character. WandaVision will reveal if Darcy gets superpowers, but the core of her character should remain the same.
WandaVision is currently streaming on Disney+.
