Magic in the MCU

[lynnenne]

Hello, and welcome to your weekly Sunday discussion post! This week's topic is about magic in the MCU.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has a number of magic users: Loki, Frigga, Doctor Strange, Wanda Maximoff, the Ancient One, Wong, etc. But their powers seem inconsistent from one moment to the next. We've seen Wanda move cars with her mind. Why couldn't she use the same power to rip Thanos' head off? We've seen Strange open a portal beneath Loki's feet; why couldn't he have done the same to Thanos and sent him to the outer edge of the universe? Or into the vacuum of space?

How powerful is magic in the MCU? What exactly can it do? What can't it do? Do the inconsistencies bother you, or do you just hand-wave them away? 

Comments

[sholio]

Haha. Yes. Welcome to my pet peeve in every superhero universe. Although it's not so much that it bothers me if it's inconsistent from character to character, as an underlying-worldbuilding issue; that, I can deal with (although it's starting to get to the point where the MCU has added enough different kinds of magic users that it's starting to get harder to handwave). In other words, I'm okay if Strange and Loki don't seem to follow the same physical rules as long as they're consistent within their own movies.

No, what drives me bonkers is when it's inconsistent on an individual character level. Whether it's magic or mutants or even technology, they're really terrible about giving characters useful abilities and then forgetting to use them strategically. When you've got people who can do things like Wanda and Strange can do, there have got to be more useful ways to use those abilities than just "punch things." And that applies to tech as well. Like my husband said when we were watching Infinity War, with all Wakanda's tech, is sending out tanks really the best they can do? Where's their air support? What about taking the shield/cloaking tech and deploying it strategically instead of just putting up a big shield?

To be fair, I do enjoy the exhilaration of those fights; I tend to like the lower-powered fights better because they make more sense, but even among the high-powered big-hero fights, I also particularly enjoyed the fight against Thanos on Titan because they did deploy things like Mantis's empathy/"sleep" thing. But even in that case - well, first of all, it all does ultimately come down to punching Thanos and that's A TERRIBLE IDEA when the guy can go toe-to-toe with a shipful of Asgardians, and second, what about the other abilities they have? Strange can rewind time - why can't they do a series of little timeskip do-overs every time they start to lose? Tony jury-rigged armor from a box of scraps, and now he's on a high-tech junkyard planet - why can't he build something? If Thanos is durable enough to withstand having a ship flown into him, then punching or shooting him is going to have zero effect no matter what, so you need a better strategy, and if not, then figure out a way to drop a ship on him!

... I mean, I realize the answer just comes down to "because our target audience wants to watch superheroes punching each other." But yes, like you pointed out with Wanda, if a character has TK strong enough to pick up a car, there are a lot more things you can do with it (can't she just immobilize him long enough to get the gauntlet off? For that matter, couldn't they use Wakandan shield tech to pin him?). That lack of strategy and coming up with different ways to use the characters' powers, or even remembering that they have them from movie to movie, is .... yeah. >__>

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Um, let me get some magic in here. Yeah, Okoye's "What was she doing up there if she could do this?" applies not just to Wanda. Sometimes, I get it, like Dr. Strange in Thor 3. But a lot of the time, it's Plot convenience and really, cannot they eschew such corner trimming?

The bracer/shield/claws Infinity War outfitted Steve Rogers with Just, no. People running at each other is not sound tactics with the sort of weapons in play. (Black Panther it worked because there plenty of the combatants looking to win but not necessarily to kill.) I was okay in the theater with the scrum because it was entertaining and there was some fan service that I'd slogged through the years to finally get.

I think there's an implication that Wanda's TK is stronger the angrier she gets. Which, yeah, that's really 21st century of everyone. Not.

[gold_pen_leaps]

On the plus side, magic in fanfic can be whatever the f*** I want. Canon's incompetence is freeing.

[luthienberen]

I fall into the camp of "mostly hand-wave them away". I love magic more than sci-fi so tend to be more forgiving. That said, when I say "hand-wave" it is usually in relation to discrepancies between various magic users in the MCU. I assume the differences originate in the sources for their powers so make allowances.

My hand-waving stutters when the character's powers are inconsistent and not due to character growth (such as, said character has learned more about their powers and consequently is stronger / wiser / more capable of adapting their magic to the needs of the moment), but due to plot devices.

Really, my issue is similar to what sholio mentioned above. Strange, Wanda etc. have these powers but all of a sudden their powers are limited when facing a non-Infinity Stone Carrying Thanos?

The beneficial thing to this inconsistency is that it allows us lots of leeway with fanfic!

[glitteryv]

I do think that 99.99999999% of the time magic is super dependent on plot necessities. Frex, we see Wanda come v. close to kicking Thanos' butt in EG until he literally has to shoot everyone on the battlefield (including his own troops) to stop her.

As for Strange, maybe he did foresee what would've happened if he'd portaled Thanos elsewhere among those 14.6 million possibilities?

Overall, I feel super okay with how handwave-y magical characters are conveniently underwpowered or superpowered throughout the movies.

My take on magic in the MCU is that there will always be consequences for using it. Per what I've seen of it so far, there's a strive for balance. So, characters don't have limitless power forever and most Earth-based magical characters (so far) haven't reached their potential.