WandaVision Easter Egg Could Reveal an Avengers Enemy as the MCU's Newest Villain

A blink-and-you'll-miss-it Easter egg could reveal the Marvel Comics villain behind WandaVision. In Episode 2 of the Marvel Studios series that premiered Friday on Disney+, a Bewitched-style animated opening takes viewers through the suburban life of newlywed couple Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany). When the crimson creation uses his powers to phase himself through his bedroom wall, activating the illusion that allows him to appear as a human computational worker, Vision goes intangible and sinks through the floor. Descending through the innards of his home, the Vision quickly passes human bones and the headdress of the Grim Reaper.

In the Marvel Comics, the Grim Reaper is a costumed supervillain named Eric Williams. He's the brother of Simon Williams, the Avenger known as Wonder Man, who died saving Earth's mightiest heroes in his first appearance (Avengers Vol. 1 #9). As the Grim Reaper, Eric attacked the Avengers to avenge his brother — first in Avengers Vol. 1 #52 and as a member of the Lethal Legion in Avengers Vol. 1 #78 — before learning that the synthezoid Vision was given intelligence using Wonder Man's brain patterns.

When Simon returns to the Avengers alive (in Avengers Vol. 1 #151), revealing that the drug that appeared to kill him instead left him dormant in a death-like coma, he joins the team and battles his brother when the Grim Reaper puts Wonder Man and Vision on trial (Avengers Vol. 1 #160).

In Vision and the Scarlet Witch Vol. 1 #3, Simon provides Vision with a life-saving power transfusion after his "blood brother" goes comatose following a battle with the radioactive villain Isbisa (Vision and the Scarlet Witch Vol. 1 #2). The Grim Reaper uses this opportunity to attack the Avengers, once again vowing to use his razor-edged scythe to slay the "pretenders to the name of Simon Williams" and avenge his brother.

Lashing out at "artificial" Avengers Vision and Wonder Man, the Grim Reaper accuses them of the unforgivable crime of "stealing" Simon's soul. After his defeat by the Vision, Eric returns and attempts a similar plot (in Vision and the Scarlet Witch Vol. 2 #1). When the West Coast Avengers thwart Eric's attempt to transfer Simon's consciousness into a duplicate body, the villain falls to his death but is reanimated by the cult priestess Nekra (Vision and the Scarlet Witch Vol. 2 #12).

The revived Grim Reaper continued his attacks on the Avengers for years, dying and returning multiple times, until he's beaten to death by Vision's android "wife" Virginia (The Vision Vol. 2 #1). The Vision from writer Tom King is one of the Marvel comics that loosely inspires WandaVision.

Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Kathryn Hahn, Teyonah Parris, Kat Dennings, and Randall Park, new episodes of Marvel's WandaVision premiere Fridays on Disney+.

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