WandaVision Episode 4: Ready, AIM, Theorize

Some names popped up over and over again during the early episodes of WandaVision, but there’s one organization we haven’t discussed yet: AIM

However, before we dive into this week’s theories, let’s take a second to recognize exactly where the show fits in the timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel Studios has previously confirmed that WandaVision took place just after Avengers: Endgame, but thanks to a sad revelation about Monica Rambeau’s mom, Maria Rambeau, who plays at the start of the fourth episode, we know it’s been about three weeks since the blip. (Remember the ‘blip’ is how they referred to the big Thanos benchmark events that unfolded Avengers: Infinity War.)

Three weeks is a relatively cool time for people – especially those who have returned to Earth after turning to dust. For Wanda, it’s been exactly three weeks since she turned to dust, returned to fight Thanos, and apparently moved to New Jersey to start a new life in a fictional town. The last three episodes focused entirely on his point of view, but Episode 4 introduces – or, rather, represents – a couple of key characters who act as our eyes and ears in Westview, trying to figure out what Wanda is doing and who may be in control of her.

[Warning: Consider this your warning about inevitable WandaVision episode 4 spoilers. Turn back now or forever hold your tweets about spoilers.]

Courtesy of Marvel Studios

We’ve talked a lot about Mephisto in these columns, a demonic devil who has deep connections to Wanda, Vision, and the larger Marvel Universe as a whole. There is another theory we need to discuss today and while I think it’s less likely, there are too many possibilities to ignore its potential. I’m so excited to write these next few words: let’s get back to Iron man 3.

Iron man 3 introduced Marvel Cinematic Universe fans to a company called Advanced Idea Mechanics, better known as AIM Directed by Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian in the movie, AIM’s role in the comics is slightly different, and that’s is where some theories lie. In the comics, AIM is sort of a think tank owned by many of the world’s smartest scientists who believe in mastering and using technology to gain indescribable power. There are three specific reasons why some fans think AIM has some connection with WandaVision and, more importantly, suggestions on what that might mean for the show’s big bad reveal:

• The first appearance of a bee costume in WandaVisionsecond episode of
• Strucker watch
• Hexagons

The bees? Pearls? The bees!

A man in a beekeeping costume emerging from a sewer in the middle of an empty suburb late at night would be unusual in any world, but in Marvel, the bee costumes are deeply tied to AIM Men The organization’s seemingly disposable handhelds are called “beekeeper guys,” like our sister publication Polygon points out. A man coming out of a sewer to see what happens with Wanda in his own fictional reality might refer to a henchman finishing a job for AIM Now, episode four explains his appearance – he’s a man named Franklin – as a SWORD agent entering Wanda’s Prism to try to get in touch with the mutant. Hence the SWORD logo on the back of his costume – but why does he appear as a beekeeper in Wanda’s universe?

As actress Kathryn Hahn recently said in an interview with TVLine, “There are so many layers” to what’s going on in the show. Agent Franklin could simply be a SWORD lackey sent to try to get in touch with Wanda. But Marvel also has a history of organizations run by shady personalities. It’s there that WandaVisionSWORD Acting Director Tyler Hayward’s new character is partly my own instinctive feeling of “I don’t trust him” that comes with being a longtime Marvel fan and being still mad at the name Alexander Pierce. Something about this guy seems right of. He’s also a Marvel Cinematic Universe original, so there’s no comic book precedence to inform our hypothesis.

Could Hayward be a member of AIM? If so, could AIM use one of its most deadly creations – the Cosmic Cube – to help warp Wanda’s reality? This is where one of our other connections comes in that could tie AIM into the new world of Wanda.

GOAL? Hydra? What?

In the second episode, we get an advertisement for a fictitious product called the Strucker Watch. The ad appeared to incorporate Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, a Hydra sleeper agent within SHIELD who is seen holding custody of Wanda and her twin brother Pietro in a Winter soldier post-credits stage and Age of Ultronfirst battle. In the comics, Baron von Strucker helped start AIM, using it as an organization to create top-secret and dangerous weapons for Hydra during World War II.

Coincidence? Maybe, but it’s Marvel Studios. Nothing is ever a coincidence. It’s not like either WandaVision tries to get away from his Hydra connections. The third episode contains an advertisement for Hydra Soak, which refers to a blue soap created by the evil organization that is used to place false memories in people’s heads, according to Agent Coulson in a Season 4 episode of Agents of SHIELD If AIM and Hydra are involved in warping Wanda’s mind to create a false reality, the only reason to do so is to use Wanda until she can become – or produce – a weapon they have. need.

Guarding Wanda because of her weapon potential is the same reasoning behind the much more popular fan theory that Mephisto is the figure behind Wanda’s current self-imprisonment. It’s still my favorite theory, especially since Marvel Comics put Mephisto in a popping promo for the ‘next big thing’ just like WandaVision started to roll, as IGNby Joshua Yehl pointed out on Twitter.

If Mephisto seems to be the most likely candidate for WandaVisionThe big villain reveal (or at least part of the villain reveal), it might seem odd that people are still talking about AIM.This is where geometry comes in.

Image: Marvel Entertainment

Hexagons for everyone

WandaVision has an affinity for shapes – especially hexagons.

Variants of the AIM logo were designed in a gold hexagon. Do you remember the reference “beekeeper”? The honeycomb also takes the shape of a hexagon. A subtle reference to shape throughout the series might hint at AIM’s work in play. The hexagons might just be a rad shape. WandaVisionThe corn team, again, is Marvel Studios. There are seldom any coincidences.

Monica Rambeau wears hexagon-shaped earrings in the third episode of the series, for example. Then the fourth 3D episode renders the fake city of Wanda, which is shaped like a hexagon. Episodes fade away as hexagons, not circles traditionally associated with older shows that end. Not to mention that Jimmy Woo basically writes on his giant whiteboard clues “what’s going on with these hexagons?”

The hexagon could be a reference to the number of dots on the shape – six – which is also the number of Infinity Stones. (Sight is, of course, efficiently fueled by the Spirit Stone.) Or the hexagons could be a subtle play on the prefix hex, a Germanic term meaning witchcraft. Wanda is a witch, and we’re pretty sure her neighbor Agnes really is the old witch, Agatha Harkness. Or the hexagons might hint at the correlation between the number six and the devil (666), which may be a subtle nod to Mephisto. There are a lot of possibilities here.

What if it was AIM?

I really don’t think AIM is the big bad, so it’s just a fun speculation, I don’t believe it will come to pass – what if it all leads to MODOK?

By now you might be wondering, “Why are there so many acronyms in Marvel names?” Reader, I have the same question. MODOK is pretty nifty, however! MODOK, which stands for Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing, was at one point the frontman of AIM, and he’s the type of guy who can bridge the early stages of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the coming Cosmic Phase – not to mention MODOK has deep ties to the Avengers and X-Men universes.

Part of the reason I’m pretty sure it’s not MODOK, other than it doesn’t really line up, is the lack of interaction between him and Wanda. Of course there is a Avengers vs. X-Men moment, but we do not set up Avengers vs. X-Men. At least not yet. Whether all of this is happening – or all of it is happening to some extent – is part of the mystery that makes WandaVision so funny. Over the weeks we will have a clearer answer as to who is behind this whole ordeal. Who knows? Maybe it was just Wanda from the start.