Last week’s premiere of Marvel’s WandaVision on Disney+ has spawned multiple fan theories and predictions for the TV series. According to Comicbook.com, a small easter egg in the second episode may have hinted at a formidable foe from the comics.
According to Comicbook.com, the second episode opened like a 1960s sitcom with seamless animation and a catchy theme song. Reminiscent of Bewtiched’s animated intro, viewers witness Vision arise to proceed through his morning routine. As he phases through walls to get his day started, he descends to the lower level of the house. Hidden in plain sight in the floorboards are a helmet and some bones. Comic fans have linked this clue to a major villain from Marvel Comics known as the Grim Reaper.
WandaVision centers on the power couple of Wanda Maximoff and The Vision from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Taking place after the events of Avengers: Endgame, the show finds Wanda and Vision, played by Elizabeth Olsen (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War) and Paul Bettany (Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Age of Ultron) living anew in suburbia. But beneath their sitcom-like utopia is an unsettling reality shielding all inhabitants from some dreadful truth.
The Grim Reaper aka Eric Williams first appeared in Avengers Vol. 1 #52, according to Comicbook.com. No matter the storyline, the Grim Reaper always targets the Avengers whom he blames for his brother, Simon’s death. He would later appear in Avengers Vol 1. #78 and in several issues of Vision and The Scarlet Witch.
According to Comicbook.com, Simon Williams was a superhero known as Wonder Man. Wonder Man first appeared in Avengers Vol 1. #9, sacrificing himself to save Earth’s mightiest heroes. However, he wouldn’t stay dead as his likeness and soul would return in various ways. His body would be used multiple times to mold the being known as Vision, specifically his mind in issue #52. Then, in Avengers Vol. 1 #151, it was revealed Wonder Man never died but was in a coma-like status. Resurrected, he would rejoin the Avengers and battle against his brother, Eric.
Ultimately, Simon would again be used to save Vision and craft a new artificial Wonder Man, according to Comicbook.com. Eric despises the use of his fallen brother, charging these Avengers of being “pretenders to the name of Simon Williams.” He lays out multiple attempts to kill Vision and the Wonder Man duplicate throughout Vision and the Scarlet Witch. He even perishes himself when he tries to copy Simon’s consciousness into a new body in Vision and the Scarlet Witch Vol 2 #12.
According to Comicbook.com, the Grim Reaper is revived, only to meet his match during Tom King’s (The Sheriff of Babylon, Batman) run of The Vision. In the first issue of volume two, the Grim Reaper is murdered by the Vision’s A.I. wife Virginia.
New episodes of WandaVision are available every Friday at 12 a.m. PST/3 a.m. ET on Disney+.