The Superiority Of Magic In The MCU
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The MCU was originally a fairly mundane universe. While Thor was and still is “a god,” he was also one alien being of many, and was assisted by technology so advanced that it might as well have been magic, alongside dips into magic by some characters, such as Loki. It took until Doctor Strange, eight years into the franchise, for a properly identified magic-user to appear, and even then, he remained an isolated case.
But in recent years, magic and its users have taken key roles in the franchise through Disney+ and in films past and present. Ironheart is just the latest example, and there is a growing pattern in all of these depictions: displays of the supremacy of magic over the mundane and the technological of the MCU, and its role as a leading force in the future of storytelling. CultureSlate investigates this element of the MCU today, but also suggests a way it could eventually change.
WARNING: This article contains MAJOR spoilers for Ironheart.
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The Latest Example
Image Source: Marvel on X.com
Riri Williams is a prodigy with a vast understanding of technology and methods to break down ways to tackle even the most difficult challenges. Her genius also allows her to build Iron Man-level suits with considerable speed. But when faced with a magical foe in the form of Parker Robbins, aka The Hood, she is completely outmatched. Not only can she not determine any chemical or technological way to destroy the hood he wears, which she learns is from another dimension, but she despairs and has frequent panic attacks because of this inability to overcome the magical object and its sinister bearer.
In the end, it is not from technology that Riri finds an answer, but magic. Recruiting another young prodigy, this time from the world of sorcerers and witches, Zelma Stanton uses a ritual to empower Riri’s latest suit with magical power drawn from another realm. This event appears to extract a cost in the form of N.A.T.A.L.I.E., Riri’s new AI, accidentally created with the personality and appearance of Riri’s deceased friend Natalie. So, not only does Riri need to use magic to fight magic instead of her technology, but a highly sophisticated AI is seemingly wiped out, accepted as payment for the price of the suit’s empowerment, without any chance of copying or saving it.
The Evil Stranges & The Wandas
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But Ironheart is not alone in showing the superiority of magic over technology. Shows like What If…? and WandaVision give us a range of magical beings performing enormous, sometimes even monstrous, feats that defeat heroes, villains, and all manner of technology and empowered individuals. First to discuss are the apparently many different evil versions of Doctor Steven Strange, who cause chaos and havoc across the multiverse. Strange Supreme from What If…? Seasons 1 and 2 destroyed his universe without any resistance from any force except another version of himself and consumed dozens of monstrous beings.
Later, he began a tyrannical quest to resurrect his world through the sacrifice of others, all while no force of technology could stop him, and he trapped hundreds of threatening variants of mundane, magical, and technological foes alike. Two heroes, working with some of the most powerful objects in existence, eventually stopped him, but he is just one example of this level of unstoppable evil. Another version of Strange, who killed his world and wallowed in the ruins, was seen in the film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and was ultimately defeated when he went toe to toe with the Prime Timeline’s Strange.
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The other half of this equation is the incredible power of Wanda Maximoff. As the Scarlet Witch, she has immense power over reality, which is put on full display in Multiverse of Madness after the Darkhold corrupts her intentions to rebuild her lost family. She unleashes nightmarish forces to pursue America Chavez, a key part of her plan, and her powers are so great that she is able to seemingly fool Doctor Strange by casting a grand illusion around the farm she has taken possession of.
This same power is later unleashed on Kamar-Taj, and we see Wanda jumping universes to other versions of herself, dispatching an array of heroes in the process of her rampage against the Illuminati of this alternate reality. She effortlessly defeated heroes augmented both genetically and technologically, even when projecting herself a reality away from her own form. Meanwhile, another version of Wanda, from the 1602 universe, successfully called for help to her collapsing reality and constantly fought back against its decay, displaying incredible feats of power to preserve her small corner of the multiverse.
Various Other Examples
The wider MCU is full of other examples of magic trumping other magic, or technology, as well as the prominence of magic users. Wong, for instance, has been a frequent character across various MCU properties, often playing small but important roles. Loki repeatedly uses illusions and other conjurations of magic across his film appearances and in his own show, as do the variant versions of him that he encounters, often defeating TVA technology and agents due to these magical skills. Then, we have shows like Agatha All Along, which put witches and their ways of magic front and center with very few mundane or ordinary characters in the main cast. This show seems to be building up a reunion of the Maximoff-Vision lineage with VisionQuest currently in production and focused on Vision, but also an eventual storyline with Ghost Agatha guiding Billy in his quest to find Tommy, likely ending with a reunion with some variant of Wanda, also surely on its way.
Finally, there is also the upcoming arrival of Doctor Doom, a character well known in the comics for blending magic and technology together much as Riri Williams has in Ironheart. To what extent his MCU counterpart will do the same is unclear (they’re going to have to explain how Doom is wearing Tony Stark’s face somehow, and what better than a bodily possession spell), but ultimately, magic is helping lead the MCU forward. It is playing a big role in storylines where people might not expect it to, and that seems likely to continue.
A Lack Of Knowledge
The magical side of the MCU will likely continue to expand and receive focus in the coming years. The cosmic side of Marvel has been well taken care of in the past, while the mundane/technology side is handled with considerable frequency. But will techies like Riri ever properly beat it? Maybe. The very end of Ironheart ends on what appears to be a flashforward in time, showing that Riri has seemingly dedicated herself to “hacking the magic” as she says. It seems likely then that the only thing technologically-minded figures like herself or someone like Reed Richards for example, need to defeat magic is time and knowledge. We still do not know if what we saw at the end of that show was reality, or some vision of a possible future Riri imagined. But even so, it showed her putting her mind to defeating magic, and that is something that we just might see more of as the years go on.
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Source(s): Ironheart, Loki, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, What If…?, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
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