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When it comes to fictional portrayals of mental health and trauma, the accuracy and importance is sometimes second-place to the story. Especially in genre movies and TV shows, the focus is typically on the dynamic between good and evil. While this has typically been the case within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are some changes occurring in the superhero franchise.
Kevin Feige and the writers of the Phase 4 television shows have put a newfound focus on mental health and in particular processing trauma. The focus of this blog will be on Wanda in WandaVision, Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki in Loki. Even though the Scarlet Witch is the only show that had processing trauma at the heart of it’s show, the other two Marvel and Disney+ shows have been doing their own unique work in breaking the stigma of mental illness and raising awareness for mental health.
It is only fitting that we start with the show focused on trauma in its roots, and the first show to be released. Within WandaVision, Elizabeth Olsen’s Maximoff twin stood out for her titular role and was rightfully lauded for it. A big part of this was because of her responsibility to bring her iconic Wanda to her next character evolution. As someone who just lost the love of her life, and with her powers, Wanda Maximoff accidentally creates a halcyon bubble around a suburban New Jersey town. This whole show had one of the Avengers in the argument of strongest, showing various signs of vulnerability and weakness. Wanda’s issues with losing Vision led to her being in a deep state of denial and filled with wishful thinking.
The repercussions of the younger Maximoff twin’s grief is the biggest talking point since that is the whole Hex business and why S.W.O.R.D. was trying to hunt her down. My biggest gripe is that Wanda really never had any comeuppances for her horrible behavior to all the townspeople. Genuinely, I do not know what the writers could have done while still having Wanda be a free person for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Maybe this will occur in future projects, but I was let down by the conclusion of her story.
The next television series had some trouble with its story. Due to the ongoing pandemic, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier had to have their overall plot rewritten. Initially, this show’s story dealt with a virus that the Flag Smashers were trying to help oppressed and marginalized people gain healthcare and vaccines for. The one part of this show that did not suffer as much as the character developments that the showrunners intended for Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes. In terms of the former Falcon, this whole show saw the former paratrooper becoming comfortable with picking up Captain America’s shield and fulfilling Steve Rogers’ wishes.
This theme is brilliantly apparent when Sam and Bucky are practicing throwing the iconic shield in New Orleans. Wilson talks about being a black man in America and how the stars and stripes does not mean the same thing that it did when Steve first became Cap, or it means the same thing for black folks in this country. Although I am far from the right person to talk about this, the response to this scene from black folks has been relatively positive. This show also saw Sam Wilson coming to terms with mourning the man he looked up to as a hero and Avenger, while still balancing his familial obligations. Even though the story was cut up, rewritten, and pieced back together, I did admire the work that the showrunner’s did to make sure Sam Wilson’s story did not suffer as much, culminating with his speech in the finale to the international bureaucrats.
While Bucky’s character evolution does have a lot in common with Sam’s, the former Winter Soldier’s past is the main focus within this series. While being purposefully on the nose, Bucky’s experiences with going to therapy in this show have the Brooklyn native going headfirst into his brainwashed and villainous past. His list of former Hydra members that he is bringing to justice is a start, but that does next to nothing for Bucky’s internal struggles and pain from his former life. We see Bucky’s struggles when it comes to confronting his past with his interactions with Yori Nakajima and Barron Helmut Zemo. When it comes to Zemo, he is aided by his Wakandan allies, but Bucky still makes the conscious decision to not choose violence and murder when stopping the Sokovian murderer.
Yori Nakajima is where Bucky struggles more, and honestly, rightfully so. We see a flashback of the Winter Soldier putting an end to a Hydra opposer, but we also see Hydra’s human weapon murder some innocent bystanders. One of these victims is Yori’s college-aged son. Multiple times throughout this series we see Bucky have the opportunity to come clean to Yori, but his shame and fear prevent him from moving on. Audiences eventually find out that coming clean to the elderly Yori is the final person Bucky Barnes has to make amends with to complete this chapter of his recovery. After his missions with Sam, and listening to his climactic speech, Bucky finally takes that leap and stops letting his fear dictate his happiness. Going forward now, Bucky Barnes will hopefully be able to live his life without any sort of connections to Hydra and his Winter Soldier past.
Finally, there is the god of mischief Loki…in Loki. As I said in my review for Poptized, I strongly believe that this series is the best one from premiere to finale. The story made sense all the way through and every plot development served a (glorious) purpose for a future scene or episode. While we have seen so many iterations of this bisexual Norse god, I can happily admit that I am not bored of him yet. Marvel has somehow found a way to keep evolving this character into multiple versions, and a good chunk of credit has to be given to Tom Hiddleston. In this series, however, we see a classic Loki who believes he is the only one who can rule Midgard, evolve into a romantic softie who still has some mischievous roots inside of him.
Along the way of this version of Loki, we instantly see him confronted with an identity crisis in the form of Mobius M. Mobius and the TVA. Sexy Owen Wilson’s Mobius shows Loki the scenes that audiences recognize with his adopted mother dying and Thanos strangling him to death. This leads to the Frost Giant-born, Asgardian-raised god to question his “glorious purpose” and if his actions are actually good for him, the world, and the limited amount of people close to him. So throughout the series, Loki takes a hard look at himself and must find some answers to his existential questions. I’m not sure if it is because this show came at a point in my life where I was struggling with my own “glorious purpose,” but I know that I really love this show.
While these are not the first MCU projects to have elements of Mental Health within their story (Thor, Iron Man 3, Spider-Man: Far From Home) these shows put a much larger focus on it than anything before. I do not know how much this will carry on into movies, especially since Black Widow didn’t have this same feeling, but I will always cherish these three shows for what they did for mental health.
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