Mental Health and the MCU

As you know this month is MHAM (Mental Health Awareness Month). What you may or may not also know is that part of this blog is also dedicated to another passion of mine: Marvel, or the MCU. There are actually some characters in the MCU that deal with the topic of mental health, so what better way to combine these two passions in an “incursion” of a post?! I will do deeper into how these selected MCU characters deal with mental health based on the movies/shows they have appeared in. I should warn you though, that there will be major SPOILERS from the latest MCU movie, The Thunderbolts*. If you haven’t watched the movie, go watch it and come back to the rest of this post. Otherwise, we shall move forward.

1. Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch

This wouldn’t be a true MCU/Mental Health post if I did not include the Scarlet Witch herself. Wanda Maximoff is one of the few MCU characters that deals with mental health. This character has gone through a lot in the MCU from losing her parents, brother, Vision (twice), and her two children. She even tried to suppress all the trauma and grief by making her own reality through a sitcom-like land, but that ultimately failed. I actually went into this in full detail in my post of comparing the Scarlet Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West. Overall, I feel like many people can relate to Wanda when it comes to mental health especially grief. I mean, episode 8 of WandaVision was so emotional and heartbreaking. Even Scarlet Witch actress, Elizabeth Olsen, dealt with mental health struggles herself. I just hope that Wanda comes back to the MCU so she can go through her healing process after all she has been through because to the honest, that ending in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness did not do justice for her. I know there is more for her ahead of the MCU.

2. Moon Knight

This next MCU character is very interesting as this one deals with a different type of mental health. For those of you who don’t know Moon Knight, he is comprised of three alter egos which are Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley. The reason is because he deals with dissociative identity disorder (DID) which is a multiple personality disorder. The entire series displays the character dealing with this as he constantly switches from his alternate personalities of Marc and Steven. There is even one episode where Marc Specter goes through childhood trauma witnessing his younger brother die and enduring physical abuse from his mother. That is where his alternate personality of Steven Grant comes in as a way to comfort Marc, but he does not remember the childhood trauma. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see the third identity of Jake Lockley as it was only teased in the post-credits scene of the final episode. I am also not sure where and when Moon Knight will appear next in the 616-MCU (he appeared in one episode of the third season of What-If in an alternate reality). However, it was great to see Moon Knight struggle with his alternate personalities throughout the show. Even the end of every episode included a website to mental health resources.

3. Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier

Just like Wanda Maximoff, Bucky Barnes also had his fair share trauma at the hands of Hydra. As the Winter Solider, he was mind-controlled to assassinate a lot of people including Tony Stark’s parents. Even after he was cured of his mind control, he had PTSD through nightmares of all the people he assassinated. That explains why he was going to therapy in The Falcon and the Winter Solider. By the end of that show, he was able to get through his PTSD and make amends to all the people he wronged. I think he is okay now based on what we saw of him in Captain America: Brave New World and The Thunderbolts* (not spoiling anything here, yet). Overall Bucky is one of the many MCU characters to sympathize with the most because of what he went through after being taken at the hands of Hydra.

At this point, if you have gotten this far in this post, going forward there will be MAJOR SPOILERS from The Thunderbolts* so please leave now if you haven’t seen the movie, then come back to read the rest of this post.

4. Yelena Belova

The entirety of The Thunderbolts* is centered around Yelena (sister of Black Widow) dealing with her trauma while working with the team to take down Sentry, or Bob (more on him later). In the beginning, she says she feels empty which stems from mourning the loss of her sister, and being a Red Room assassin. She tries to distract herself by taking on special ops assignments which makes her kill more people. However, it doesn’t make her feel any better which is another thing she admits before the final act of the film to the Red Guardian, and includes that she also feels alone. When she is in the void, she is able to fight past her “shame rooms” in order to comfort Bob. She ensures him that he isn't alone, and that she will always be there for him (literally).

5. Sentry, aka Bob Reynolds

Speaking of Bob/Sentry, let’s talk about how he relates to mental health in the same movie. It all started when Bob dealt with domestic violence and being addicted to meth. That caused him to participate in this medical trial that would seemingly help him, but no it gave him the powers of Sentry. From there, when he touches Yelena, John Walker, and Val they all get stuck in a trauma/shame room. It gets worse when he becomes the entity known as, the Void where he is consumed entirely in darkness. Then, he takes it out on the public by turning them into dark shadow which eventually takes over the entire city of New York. That is when Yelena (and the others) goes into the void to get Bob away from his dark alter ego. She tells Bob that he can’t hold all this darkness in, and that we have to work through it together. Bob is able to defeat his void ego by initially fighting it, but before the void consumes Bob, Yelena and the others all give him a hug to restrain him. Unfortunately, Bob is not completely cured of the void as he has no memory of what happened. However, the void represents depression and trauma. We can’t entirely get rid of it, but we can find ways to manage it so it doesn’t take over us. We shall see what becomes of Bob/Sentry in the upcoming Avengers Doomsday which happened to be teased ahead of The Thunderbolts*.

Those are the MCU characters that deal with some sort of mental health. I really love that Marvel creates characters that deal with similar things we all go through. It just shows that these heroes are human like us. I think it was quite a coincidence that The Thunderbolts* came out during MHAM, but I don’t think the entire plot was meant to be centered on mental health. However, I just thought it was a nice touch considering these characters are a bunch of “misfits” trying to redeem themselves. Marvel, if you happen to come across this please continue to create characters, storylines in your movies or comic books that deal with mental health and thank you for creating these meaningful characters.

For information on mental health resources near you, please visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI at NAMI.org 

If you or someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, please call or text the National Suicide Lifeline at 988.