What the Movie Madness 68 "Final Four" Says About Us Right Now

Captain Marvel is the only #1 seed in the Final Four. Scarlet Witch (#4),
Wonder Woman (#7) and Loki (#3) round out our finalists.

What a delightful thing, in this year in which so many of us have felt so powerless over our own fate, to see three extraordinarily badass female heroes and one antihero with a serious sense of humor make it to the Movie Madness 68 Final Four. These may not be the heavy hitters many expected to coast to the finals; but soak in that what we ended up with represents a moment that is a microcosm of a much larger story. Here is a short breakdown of what may have driven us to this end. 

A Moment for Formidable Women

 Let's all collectively appreciate that from a field of 64 emerged a Final Four with three female superheroes unlike any we had growing up. I'm proud to be a mother in this moment, excited to see my daughter seeing herself in these three women and my four-year-old son asking to play with his sister's Wonder Woman action figure.

All Of Them Are Strangers to Their/Our Current World Order

A demi-goddess warrior. A veteran pilot imbued with Kree blood and photon blast fisticuffs. A vengeance-fueled mutant with reality warping abilities. And the black sheep Norse God whose moral compass is as shifty as he is. None of them belong to the world they seek to save. And we might all feel that way right now; like a foreigner moving through a virus-torn world where nothing feels quite right. Speaking of which...

None of Them Wear Masks in Their Current Cinematic Form

Maybe we're sick of the masks and disguises. Maybe we want to gaze upon our champions and vigilantes as they are, vulnerable and known, for their faults and their strengths, for their failures and their victories. Maybe knowing these characters such as we do, such as they are, pushed them ahead of the competition just a little. Which leads me to my next point...

There Is No Black & White, Only Gray in Their Origin Stories

Our current Covid reality in an Election year is polarizing. And like all of us reconciling our values and virtues with our human frailties and hearts, these heroes have made mistakes. Straight up villains and seemingly faultless heroes went the way of novelty characters this year.

Captain Marvel

Free from Kree brainwashing but still pumping Kree blood in her energy manipulating body, who will Captain Marvel become?

Carol Danvers fought alongside Kree villains in the beginning of Captain Marvel, imprisoning and driving innocent Skrull adults and children into space refugee camps before she stopped keeping her (literally planet-moving, ala Thanos) potential all bottled up inside. Her timing in "Avengers: Endgame" is something some of us lament... how could she arrive RIGHT before Tony Stark was to die in space, only to arrive just before his sacrifice vs. Thanos? Can't save 'em all, she said, after all she isn't one of Earth's Mightiest but the cosmos' Mightiest, and as far as we know in the MCU, she's still on her own out there in space. As she's been rumored to be the leader of the new generation of Avengers, we can't imagine she'll be alone much longer. But is she leadership material?

Wonder Woman

Golden Eagle armor in Wonder Woman: 1984 trailers suggests she's embracing her origins; does that make her less of a human than ever in the modern world?

Wonder Woman's mother and sisters in Themyscira possess the fortitude to help defend Earth from its enemies, but she is the only one of them who left. She may be the thread that binds Superman and Batman together but she possesses a little of both of their flaws... a truly bleeding heart and a peacekeeping mentality. She tends to walk the moral high ground but we've seen her mature from running headfirst towards German machine gun nests to leading a team of enhanced beings. She has a natural aptitude to inspire, like Superman, but she understands what drives a vigilante like Bruce Wayne to operate from the shadows thanks to her loss of Steve Trevor. We're meant to get the impression from the trailers for Wonder Woman: 1984 that Diana will have to make a selfless or selfish decision to keep what she most desires. 

Loki

"The sun will shine on us again, brother," but what will that look like with Loki's best deeds undone?

Loki does what Loki wants. He has done terrible things to fill the void in his heart created by being cast out as King of Asgard, and when he sees nothing but the shadows of his father Odin and brother Thor around him. And as much as he wants Thor and Odin to think him fierce and fearsome, he's still the boy who grew up loving them within. Self-preservation is his natural state, and we saw that play out to a delightful and hilarious extent in Thor: Ragnarok. But at the end of that film and at the beginning of Infinity War, the God of Mischief had mended fences with his brother and even willingly lost his life for him. We'll have to see if the OG Avengers Loki who escaped during the Time Heist in Endgame is going to re-emerge or if he'll have some heightened awareness and appreciation for all his future character has gone through. 

Scarlet Witch

"You took EVERYTHING from me." And no amount of rage can bring that back, so where will Wanda go next?

Scarlet Witch has lost everything she has ever known and loved in the span of less than a decade: her home, her family, her twin brother, and now her true love. The family she found in the Avengers before Captain America Civil War is in tatters: Black Widow who mentored her is dead, Captain America is like 90 years old, even Iron Man who locked her in her room for her own protection like a kid whose misbehaved on social media is dead. So what's left for Wanda, aside from vengeful rage? Will her surviving ties with Hawkeye who seems eager to fill that big brotherly void out of obligation, and Falcon and Winter Soldier, and perhaps her friends in Wakanda be enough? What Wanda Maximoff becomes is on thin ice, like many of us feel nowadays ourselves. 

Stay Tuned...

Just like so much is up in the air for our characters, it's a real fight to the bitter end to see which of these undeniable Battle Royale heavyweights make it out alive. Wonder Woman takes on Scarlet Witch, and Loki will face Captain Marvel as the field is whittled down to our final two.