As I toil away watching breakdown after breakdown of each new Doctor Strange trailer, it occurs to me that many don’t do the same “work”, don’t have the same deep knowledge of the characters, or haven’t watched every MCU tv show or movie. The horror. I mean I suppose whatever you fill your day with can be just as fun, but ew. All kidding aside, I am VERY aware that not everyone pumps their veins full of this nerd/dork/geek shit as some of the rest of us, so I’m going to offer some help. Let’s pretend you’re about to be dragged to the new Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness movie and haven’t watched the Disney+ shows and have maybe only watched a Marvel movie here and there (*shudder*). You might be saying to yourself or anyone around you, in a moral superior tone, “I don’t know the first thing about what’s happening in these Marvel movies & I can’t be expected to consume every bit of comic knowledge”. First, congrats…no one cares. We get it, you’re not one of us. Got it….now what? Disney magically stops making superhero movies because you didn’t get it? Pfffft. I digress…help, yes, that’s where we’re at…I am here to fill in some blanks or background info that MIGHT help you actually enjoy this movie out loud, instead of in your head dare you admit it was fun to a nerd with ears.
Let’s begin:
1. WandaVision: Didn’t watch the show? No problem. Here are the basics…Wanda Maximoff is a witch. A super-duper powerful witch (Scarlet Witch) who is going through a slight grieving process that involves A LOT of rage. She’s lost the love of her life, lost her children, and basically did a little hocus pocus on an entire town to make believe everything was peachy keen. The ruse came crashing down on her, she discovered she was a crazy powerful witch and dipped with a book called the DarkHold to see if she can find her kids in another dimension. We last saw her in what, us nerds believe, is Mount Wundagore. (Deep cut, Wundagore is where she was birthed & a baddy named Chthon wrote the DarkHold…oh and sprinkled a little magic on Wanda)
2. Doctor Strange/No Way Home: Didn’t see No Way Home? You’re killing me, but (sigh) no problem. Doctor Strange, since his first movie, has been KIND of dicking around with space, time, multiverses, spells in an almost haphazard way. Did it save the world from Thanos and Dormamuu? Sure. Should he have? Ehhhh…arguments can be made, he probably shouldn’t be casting a spell, reversing time, or looking to the future to solve problems. But he has and now we’re here. He tinkered a bit and now the multiverse is sorta cracked and hemorrhaging super people…good and bad. So, he’s gonna be in a wee bit of trouble about this.
That’s a tiny summary of what you might not have known, or hell, ever wanted to know, but now it’s in your brain, so you’re welcome. Now…would you like a little preemptive knowledge about some characters or things us nerds have been talking about before the movie comes out? Stuff like: America Chavez, the Illuminati, Chthon, or others…if so, drop your questions or comments down below and I’ll help in the most condescending way only I can. I KID! Nothing but love and sunshine here. ;)
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