Barnabas File

Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen None of us really knew what we were getting into when we started watching Marvel’s WandaVision on Disney+.     If you stuck with it through all nine episodes, you have been rewarded with one of the most moving and human stories in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.       One of the aspects of the MCU that sets its characters apart from other franchises is their humanity.  They may be gifted with superpowers, but they are ultimately human (even the synthetic life forms).  For me, it is not the big action sequences that draw me in and keep me involved but the intimate human moments of love, loss, sacrifice, and remembrance.  The pivotal scenes in the final episode of WandaVision are not the battles but the goodbyes. Someone observed that Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) is the most traumatized character in the MCU, but there is plenty of trauma to go around there.  Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.)...

In the film series that Marvel Studios has developed over the last few years, Captain America has usually been my favorite—traditional, heroic, and a little out of step with the current culture.  With the new TV series “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” however, my new hero is Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) who has emerged as the leader of a special team of agents.  The unique thing about Agent Coulson is that he died in “The Avengers” film (2012) and has been miraculously resurrected for this new gig.  (In science fiction, it is rare for anyone to stay dead.) Although portrayed in the Marvel films as a rather drab company man whose primary role was to deliver files and provide a little comic relief, everyman Coulson is the linchpin of the new series (which has been renewed for a second season).  He was the average guy who had the opportunity to interact with larger than life superheroes but that status has been called into question with his return to life.  C...