Scarlet Witch’s return is everything that’s wrong with the MCU

The biggest story out of VisionQuest‘s finale wasn’t the long-awaited reunion between twins Tommy and Billy Maximoff (Ruaridh Mollica and Joe Locke). Nor was it Vision (Paul Bettany) and Ultron’s (James Spader) touching heart-to-heart about grief. Instead, it was the resurrection of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) at the hands of Dr. Doom (Robert Downey Jr.), which occurs during the second of VisionQuest‘s two mid-credits scenes.

In theory, the return of Scarlet Witch is an exciting one, as she’s one of the most powerful heroes in the MCU. Now that she’s apparently under Dr. Doom’s thrall, that will spell major trouble for the Avengers in Avengers: Doomsday. Powers aside, Wanda is also one of the MCU’s most compelling characters, with Olsen’s grief-stricken turn in WandaVision earning her an Emmy nomination.

Yet the reality of Wanda’s return is that it, like much of the MCU post-Avengers: Endgame, is downright exhausting.

Wanda’s return is proof that the MCU has no stakes anymore.

Wanda is the latest MCU mainstay to return from the dead. In addition to the return of everyone who got blipped by Thanos, characters like Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) both stuck around after their deaths in Avengers: Infinity War thanks to some timeline meddling. Vision’s complicated return also resulted in three MCU spin-off shows.

For Doomsday, Marvel is also bringing back characters and performers who received fitting send-offs in Avengers: Endgame. Chris Evans is returning as Steve Rogers, again likely due to timeline meddling, while Robert Downey Jr. is back, this time as Dr. Doom.

While I’m often excited to see these characters, Wanda included, the trend of constantly bringing everyone back is a tiring one. It’s proof that the MCU has lost all sense of stakes: No one can be killed. Anyone can come back to be smashed together in a massive crossover event like Doomsday.

These constant returns also retroactively cheapen the most impressive feat in the MCU: Tony Stark’s (Downey Jr.) mass resurrection of everyone who’s been blipped. When half the universe, including some of Marvel’s most beloved heroes, turned to ash at the end of Infinity War, it marked Marvel’s heaviest moment to date. To reverse it would require a similarly heavy sacrifice, leading to Tony’s death. Now, though, Marvel is bringing everyone back with the ease of a Dr. Doom spell, or some timey-wimey hand-waving. Next thing you know, Tony will be back. At this point, why not?

Bringing Scarlet Witch back in a credits scene highlights Marvel’s homework problem.

Keeping up with all the intricacies of the MCU has always been a daunting task, but it truly became a chore after Endgame. Now, instead of just watching Marvel’s films, viewers also had to keep up with each TV show in order to understand what the hell was going on.

VisionQuest was already a fairly egregious example of this, as audiences had to have a solid understanding of WandaVision and Agatha All Along prior to watching, not to mention 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. It exacerbates the problem with its mid-credits scene, which treats Wanda’s resurrection — one of the biggest MCU moments in recent years — as a simple teaser, instead of a pivotal story beat that deserves more fleshing out. Will Doomsday dive deeper into Dr. Doom’s journey to resurrect Wanda, or will it just skip over it entirely and carry on with her being alive as if nothing’s happened?

If so, that will be extra confusing for the casual Doomsday viewer who might not be aware of Wanda’s return. Then again, they might have forgotten about her death, because there have been 10 other movies to keep track of in the four years between Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Doomsday.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness certainly did Wanda dirty with her villain arc and choice to sacrifice herself, so a part of me is ready to embrace what could be a new, more fulfilling arc for her. Yet a larger part of me is simply ambivalent, as I have been for much of Marvel’s Phase Four and beyond. If you can’t trust your own dramatic choices to stick, how can you expect me to care?

VisionQuest is now streaming on Disney+. Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters Dec. 18.