9 Questions After Watching Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
This week’s release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness marks the first Marvel Studios film of 2022 (we refuse to acknowledge Morbius). Phase 4 is now 5 feature films and 6 Disney+ series deep. But there are a lot of lingering questions.
Phase 4 kicked off with the first Disney+ Marvel series, WandaVision. This highly acclaimed series takes place immediately after the defeat of Thanos and picks up the story of Wanda Maximoff—still bereft with grief from having to watch her beloved Vision die. Twice. Throughout the series we are painted a picture of someone possibly messing with Wanda and imprisoning her in a sitcom in a town called Westview. We learn that in fact it was Wanda who was creating this fictional sitcom world (despite the catchy song it really wasn’t Agatha all along for the major plot points). During the show we see a conjured up Vision and Wanda live happily ever after, sort of, with their two sons, Billy and Tommy.
Long story short—seriously just go watch the show—Wanda fights Agatha, learning she is a powerful witch, and gets access to The Darkhold. An evil book of chaos magic that Agatha was coveting. With her kids gone and Vision now dead for a 3rd time…sort of (where the fuck is White Vision??) she is left as the prophesized Scarlet Witch trying to find her kids throughout the multiverse.
So, that’s one multiverse problem, let’s get to the next one.
When we last left Loki he was being choked out, and not in the sexy fan-fiction kinda way, by Thanos in space. However we did see in Avengers Endgame a variant of Loki hauls off with the Tesseract during the events of Avengers 1. Thus begins the Disney+ series “Loki”.
Loki teleports somewhere and is immediately picked up by the TVA (Time Variance Authority). We learn they are a whole organization dedicated to keeping the sacred timeline (our known MCU world) in order. Led by Owen Wilson, Loki learns of variants, specifically his own variant, Sylvie, are running amok leaving the TVA to “prune” them. Loki eventually falls for Sylvie and vows to take down the TVA with her. We learn that it’s actually being run by “He Who Remains,” played by Jonathan Majors. In the comics he is often referred to as “Kang The Conqueror.” Sylvie kills Kang which in turn shuts down the TVA, sort of, leaving the multiverse to be unmanaged and causing all sorts of trouble.
That’s multiversal issue number 2.
Enter Spider-Man: No Way Home. Here we see Peter Parker’s identity revealed to the world. A distraught teen, he approaches Dr. Strange who attempts to cast a spell—against Sorcerer Supreme Wong’s better judgment—to make everyone that knew he was Spider-Man forget, except MJ…and Ned…and Aunt May….and, DAMMIT PETER. You distracted the all powerful wizard and now he did the spell wrong, or something. Needless to say we see a convergence of all past live action Spider-Men and their villains. In the end Dr. Strange manages to close the multiversal portals and correctly erase everyone’s memory of Peter Parker ever existing (Couldn’t he just have everyone forget Mysterio existed?).
And there is multiversal issue number 3.
It’s important to note the animated “What If…?” series also dealt with multiversal problems, but none have translated into the MCU as of now.
Now that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is released let’s talk about a few lingering questions. This article contains spoilers, you’ve been warned.
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
The film tells the story of the aftermath of Doctor Strange messing with the multiverse. Which is odd, because he technically didn’t mess with it at all. Here are the burning questions we have after watching this film.
Why is all multiversal trouble pinned on Strange when he did minimal meddling into it?
We’ve clearly seen Wanda AND Loki messing with the Multiverse but for some reason Dr. Strange is pinned as the guilty one. While addressing the Illuminati they even say he’s the larger threat but every reason they give shows examples of him attempting to STOP the multiverse from collapsing. When Strange 616 is apprehended we literally see Wanda crossing the multiverse and killing people while he is asking for help getting back to his own universe to stop her from doing so. What the heck, man?
Why does every other Dr. Strange look exactly like our Strange?
As seen in Loki and Spider-Man, variants across the multiverse can look like anyone without restriction of gender-identity, race, and in Loki’s case, species. So why is Dr. Strange the exact same person in all the universes we see? We even see that in the Illuminati, Maria Rambeau is Captain Marvel instead of Carol Danvers. So it can even be a whole new person.
Why did they hire the person who created the Loki series to write this without ever using a single plot point or reference to the Loki series?
The biggest question is why were none of the other instances—aside from Wanda (sorta)—of multiversal trouble ever talked about? Aren’t the events in the ending of Loki a HUGE deal? Shouldn’t there be way more visual fallout from the death of “He Who Remains”. When exactly did that take place? Before, during, or after the end events of WandaVision?
Why was The Darkhold even relevant?
The Darkhold is painted as this all powerful evil entity of a book in the end of WandaVision. In MoM it is mentioned but brushed aside in a weird way, but its effects are still lingering, I guess? We learn The Darkhold book is actually just a transcription of a Darkhold tower. In the end Wanda, after seeing the error of her ways (again), destroys the tower, along with the 616 version of herself, thus destroying all transcriptions of The Darkhold across all multiverses. But this comes after Dr. Strange used the power of the book to “dreamwalk” which is essentially inhabiting another version of yourself in another multiverse for a short period of time. In the end of the movie we see that he is now still feeling the negative effects of the book and we get the introduction of Clea, played by Charlize Theron, who in the comics is the future Mrs. Strange.
Why waste America Chavez as a damsel in distress character?
In the comics America Chavez is a badass super-powered individual who can punch holes in reality to travel the multiverse. In this film she’s relegated to a redemption item for Dr. Strange, to finally show Christine that he can be selfless. It’s a whole lot of “but I can’t control it” “Yes you can” “Oh, you right”. Sam Raimi has a history of damsel in distress syndrome in his films, so I wasn’t entirely surprised, but disappointed nonetheless.
Why does phase 4 feel so disjointed?
With the exception of WandaVision and Dr. Strange, and to me even that is a stretch, why is NOTHING else that we’ve seen happen in the other films being talked about or referenced at all? Hello, why wasn’t Shang-Chi called to Kamar-Taj? We know that he is in contact with Wong as of the post credits scene of his film. What about the events of The Eternals? We aren’t going to talk about the appearance of a celestial? Moonknight literally changed the entire sky and introduced that Egyptian gods are real…but we’re gonna ignore that too? In the end of WandaVision we see a White Vision, who now has all the memories of his predecessor, just…fucking off around the world? Not coming to Wanda? Or trying to stop her?
Will we actually see John Krasinski as 616 Reed Richards?
Or was this all just a fan service nod? Like, don’t tease us like that. This was probably the biggest crowd reaction in my showing. Lots of applause and excitement, which was definitely all warranted.
What was with the ending/mid-credit scene?
(No image here because the movie literally came out yesterday)
The last scene of the movie shows Strange walking out of the sanctum in New York only to hear a horrible sound and drop to his knees. We then see a third eye open on his forehead, which we learned in the movie means The Darkhold has him. But the Darkhold is destroyed, so what gives? BUT, we then see in the mid-credit scene seemingly the same Strange walking the same path as Clea jumps out and says she needs his help, does he still possess the power of the Darkhold? He says yes, the third-eye opens, and they jump through a portal she creates. Either of these scenes would’ve worked, but them being back to back made them not make sense. Were these different Doctors Strange? Or was the end of the film in the past and the mid-credit scene the present? Too many lingering questions, and not the wondering kind—the logistic kind that imply sloppy writing.
WHERE WAS DEADPOOL?
Such a missed opportunity for a funny cameo. Just a few seconds of:
Chavez/Strange cross through worlds and land in front of Deadpool and Blind Al who are sitting on the couch.Deadpool “I think the acid just kicked in”
Chavez/Strange then portal out…
…would have absolutely killed it for comedic value.
What lingering questions do you have?
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, directed by Sam Raimi, is in theaters now. Arguably the best performance of Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch (with her best portrayal of Wanda being in WandaVision), but severely wasted with a confusing mush of a plot and over the top Raimi camp. Like, we get it Raimi, you like decaying flesh and jump scares and that worked for Evil Dead that one time. But this is a big universe that needed a little more care to it. Even the really emotional scene of Wanda seeing her kids again was handled so quickly and poorly it barely had the weight it needed.
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