Clement M./ Unsplash
By Jared Broussard, MA, LPC
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a cultural phenomenon, with record-breaking films and tv exhibits reaching a numerous variety of individuals. With Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania popping out quickly to kick off Part 5 of the MCU, it feels significant to replicate on the position that psychological well being has performed within the MCU to this point, particularly within the lately concluded Part 4 that contained a large number of films and exhibits, with quite a few them focusing much less on saving the world, extra on the psychological and emotional difficulties that come together with making an attempt to shoulder the burdens of being a hero. Whereas not all the time completed completely, the MCU has made appreciable efforts to assist enhance the attention and understanding of advanced points by shining a light-weight on the heroes and the struggles that make them extra human to the remainder of us.
Scarlet Witch / Wanda Maximoff
From a younger age, Wanda Maximoff skilled an immense loss and trauma. As a baby, Wanda and her brother Pietro had been subjected to the horrors of army air-raid bombings that claimed the lives of their mother and father. Via this expertise, the MCU was capable of give a glimpse of the experiences and grief that people in war-torn locations are compelled to endure.
Wanda’s character can also be proven later within the tv present WandaVision going via the levels of grief as she mourns the surprising passing of her associate, Imaginative and prescient. After the occasions of Avengers Infinity Struggle & Avengers Endgame, the present WandaVision exhibits Wanda grappling with the lack of her associate and grieving the lack of their future collectively. She makes use of her powers to create a sequence of warped realities modeled after sitcoms she watched as a baby, during which she lives out her goals of constructing a household with the person she loves.
The viewers bears witness as Wanda heartbreakingly negotiates the levels of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, and despair. Via a lot of the sequence, Wanda is in denial, however by the tip, she is compelled to simply accept the lack of Imaginative and prescient and their future collectively and return to actuality. Nonetheless, in Physician Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity, an enraged Wanda is prepared to do no matter it takes to make her want for a household actuality—a illustration of the “what if” within the bargaining stage. Grief, superhero or not, is a common human expertise that hardly ever goes in a straight line. As a substitute, individuals typically discover themselves transforming varied features of grief.
Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier
Bucky Barnes is a person riddled with guilt due to the quite a few assaults and assassinations he was tasked with when captured and brainwashed by the villainous group HYDRA. After discovering a solution to rid himself of HYDRA’s psychological programming and regain company, he was proven experiencing PTSD signs in response to the flashbacks, nightmares, and reminiscences of the individuals he damage whereas performing because the Winter Soldier.
He’s additionally the primary character within the MCU to be proven participating in particular person remedy, which might help cut back the stigma that makes it troublesome for people to hunt the psychological well being remedy they might want.
Thor Odinson
The nerdy coronary heart in my chest will all the time have a delicate spot for the Norse God of Thunder. His character arc all through the newest phases of the MCU solely brought about my love for this character to develop. After the traumatic and tragic loss on the finish of Avengers Infinity Struggle, Thor is proven going via an intense depressive spiral and grief over having didn’t cease the Mad Titan Thanos. This offered an illuminating glimpse into the method of despair and the battle in working via the ideas, emotions, and feelings that come together with it. In Thor’s case, he resorted to isolation and self-medicating with meals and alcohol to keep away from processing grief, disappointment, guilt, and disgrace related to Thanos’s win in opposition to the Avengers.
Thor ultimately achieves a deeper understanding of himself and is later proven in Avengers Endgame to nonetheless be worthy of wielding the hammer Mjolnir. This lovely message communicates to the viewers that even after we endure the adversity that inevitably arises in life, we’re nonetheless able to nice and typically even heroic issues.
Hawkeye / Clint Barton
Clint is a personality that grows and develops layers of nuance and complexity because the MCU progresses, particularly in his character’s illustration within the Infinity Struggle and Endgame films and his Part-4 tv present, Hawkeye. Within the beforehand talked about films, Clint is subjected to the horrific lack of his complete household due to Thanos’s use of the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out half of the universe’s inhabitants. As did Wanda, Clint falls right into a deep and vengeful despair whereby he isolates from his friends and different help networks. This flip of occasions is one most of us can join with, as all of us have needed to cope the ache of shedding a liked one.
All through Hawkeye, Clint processes his grief and PTSD. A recurrent theme is Clint processing all of the occasions that occurred throughout his tenure within the Avengers, particularly through the battle in New York from the primary Avengers film, together with the lack of his shut good friend Natasha Romanoff (AKA Black Widow) within the Avengers Endgame.
Clint’s story and character arc are significant for the viewers because it drives house the message prevalent all through Part 4 of the MCU: that despite the fact that the heroes of the MCU exhibit powers and talents out of this world, on the finish of the day they’re all nonetheless topic to the identical difficulties and struggles all of us face as we attempt to make our method via life.
Jared Broussard, MA, LPC, is a Employees Clinician on the Pathfinder program at The Menninger Clinic. He’s at present pursuing his doctorate in behavioral well being from Arizona State College.
