WandaVision Sets Up Classic Scarlet Witch Storyline With Bizarre Marvel Character

Marvel's WandaVision debuted on Friday with the first two episodes of the inventive Disney+ series and straight out of the gate, the series is full of little Easter Eggs and references that have fans not only trying to figure out exactly what's going on in the unusual series but sort out potential connections to the comics as well. As it turns out, the second episode of the Marvel Studios series contains one that may just be a nod to one of the strangest Scarlet Witch stories from the comics -- and one of its strangest characters as well.

Warning: potential spoilers for the first two episodes of WandaVision below.

During the opening credits of Episode 2, which in keeping with the series' vintage sitcom themes is animated in a nod to Bewitched, Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) is seen shopping in the grocery store. On the wall behind her are ads for various items in the store and in the center is one for "Bova Milk", complete with a plaid-clad cow on the carton. For comic book fans, that's no innocent poster and may just be a reference to a key part of Wanda's comic book history. In comics, Bova Ayrshire is quite literally an evolved cow. The High Evolutionary created Bova as one of his New Men, giving Bova a humanoid form and intelligence. She comes into Wanda's story before she's born when a pregnant Magda Lehnsherr fled her husband who had "strange and frightening powers". She arrived at Mt. Wungadore pregnant and Bova served as her midwife, delivering Magda's twin children -- Wanda and Pietro. Bova would also take them in and care for them for a short time before the High Evolutionary gave the twins to the Maximoffs.

Given the unusual and rapidly sinister-seeming elements of WandaVision, it's probably safe to assume that the nod to Bova as well as some other Easter Eggs in the first two episodes are not just there for humor and nods to the comics. There are a variety of theories about what's really going on swirling among fans, one of them being that this strange world in Westview that Wanda and Vision are in is a manifestation of Wanda's trauma. It's a theory that the fake commercials in each episode could give a bit of credence to. The first commercial, for a Stark Industries "Toastmate 2000" and the second, for Strucker Watches, both feel a bit like references to Avengers: Age of Ultron in which audiences learn that Wanda's world was literally and figuratively blown apart but Stark-brand mortars that killed her parents and left her and her brother trapped for days. As for the Strucker reference, it was HYDRA's Baron Wolfgang von Strucker (played by Thomas Kretschmann in the film) who took and experimented on the orphaned Maximoffs.

While one can argue that Bova, who has not previously been mentioned as part of Wanda's MCU origin, wouldn't necessarily be a "trauma" much of Wanda's early history remains a mystery. Perhaps in this telling, Wanda and Pietro are with Bova longer than they are in comics before the High Evolutionary gives them to the Maximoffs, prompting feelings of early abandonment. There's also the idea that even very early trauma can have a lasting impact on a person, even if it's something they don't have a clear memory of.

Whatever the reason for the Bova nod, it will be interesting to see where WandaVision goes next.

WandaVision is now streaming on Disney+. If you haven't signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

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