WandaVision Episode 4 took its first big steps this week from the skewed sitcom life, with major new developments in the layers of the modern Marvel movie setup.
We especially looked at what – in the comics – is one of the most amazing secret organizations of the Marvel Universe. And that can only connect to the future of Captain Marvel, Nick Fury and the Skrull Empire.
[Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for WandaVision through episode 4.]
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Image: Marvel Studios
WandaVisionThe strongest hint for the existence of SWORD comes in the third installment, where it spent much more time on Geraldine’s character as she befriended Wanda and helped free her twin sons. But other members of Westview say Geraldine is strange and new to the city. She is also different from other citizens. So far, she’s the only one who seems to have memories of Wanda’s life as an avenger.
Geraldine tells Wanda that she remembers when Ultron killed her brother Pietro, and Wanda became upset and suspicious. We do not see exactly what happens next, but the next time we see Geraldine, she is pushed out by a glittering bulwark around Westview, while armed, uniformed people surround her.
One of the things Wanda becomes suspicious of is Geraldine’s pendant, a tear with a raised sword in it.
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Image: Marvel Studios
The mix of sword images and a shadowy military group points in one direction for Marvel Comics fans: SWORD.
WandaVisionIn its fourth episode, ‘We Interrupt This Program’, we step outside Westview to show us the almost immediate reaction of SWORD, the Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Department, to the disappearance of Westview, a small (fake) city in New Jersey .
Founded by Maria Rambeau, a good friend of Captain Marvel, who first appeared in Captain Marvel, SWORD is apparently a government agency dedicated to detecting and dealing with extraterrestrial threats to the earth, which makes you wonder where exactly it was when Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War – but maybe WandaVision has plans to address it. Let’s talk about SWORD in the original Marvel Comics for now.
What is SWORD?
First, the acronym of SWORD is a little different in the comics: the Sentient World Observation and Response Department. In other words, it’s a peer to SHIELD that focuses only on the alien nature, just like in the show.
The profile of SWORD does not weave as large as SHIELDs in Marvel Comics history, although it has played an important role in arches such as Secret Invasion, which happens to be one of Marvel’s upcoming exclusive Disney Plus series.
SWORD at the moment in the comics also developed into the space exploration and diplomacy arm of the mutant government of Krakow. It is such a recent development that it can not be expected to have any connection with it WandaVision, even though Wanda and her brother Pietro used to be mutants in the comics. But this is cool.
SWORD, beyond WandaVision
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There are many indications that we will see more of SWORD after that WandaVision.
Monica Rambeau of Teyonah Parris, who we now know is a major player in SWORD, enters her role in Captain Marvel 2. And Monica could have kept in touch with Nick Fury ever since Captain Marvel. The last time we saw SHIELD’s smoothest agent in Spider-Man: Far from home, he was in deep space on a Skrull ship. Samuel Jackson will eventually return to the role for Secret Invasion, and Parris will be seen again in the subtitles Captain Marvel 2. It’s possible, just like the Marvel way WandaVision lays the foundation for both future installments of the MCU.