It should surprise literally no one that I'm a comic book nerd. Since the age of 13, as I entered the scary world of my freshman year in high school, I found a sense of identity I couldn't find anywhere else in the pages of Brian Michael Bendis's “Ultimate Spider-Man.” It was an, at the time, brand new reimagining of a character, and therefore a perfect jumping on point for me.

Like so many other major nerd properties, I was aware of Spider-Man long before I ever picked up a comic because in the near half century since Stan Lee and Steve Ditko had set pen to paper, Spider-Man, and Marvel as a whole, had go on to pervade the culture and risen to icon status. Ask any child, they can tell you about our pop cultural icons long before ever viewing the source material. What child can't identify Darth Vader on sight?

The 1994 Spider-Man animated series gave me a firm knowledge base to draw from so that when I did finally pick up Bendis's reimagined story, I knew the basics. Peter Parker became a superhero in high school. He was nerdy, down on his luck, and struggled for everything he had. To my younger self, the stories were a balm in a very painful age.

Soon after I would go on to find my favorite superhero, Captain America, and eventually dive all the way in with The Punisher, Daredevil, The Fantastic 4, The Avengers, and others. Marvel's own vision of New York was a magical place that I could escape to every Wednesday evening. Laying on my bedroom floor I could disappear to Earth 616 and go on all manner of complex and beautifully rendered adventures.

Around that time, a new event was brewing. Something happened called Avengers Disassembled. I hadn't followed it closely at the time but I caught the gist from the guys behind the shop's counter, when they deigned to condescend to me. Several major characters had died. Someone named The Scarlett Witch had lost her mind and, without knowing it, single handedly brought Earth's Mightiest Heroes to their knees.

So, began the days leading into the House of M. The Avengers & X-Men needed to decide what to do with Wanda Maximoff, The Scarlett Witch. Reluctantly, it was agreed that with both her powers and mental state as unpredictable as they were, Wanda was too dangerous to be left alive. I won't dive too deep here as this is clearly the doorstep Kevin Feige is leading us toward in the MCU.

That's kind of my point, honestly. For thirteen years now, I've watched as stories specific to the era when comics were most dear to me have been adapted for the screen. The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Extremis, Ragnarok, all were written and released in my formative years and I've gotten to watch with unbridled glee. My friends can attest to the emotional mess I devolved into at Captain America's final utterance of the long teased battle cry, “Avengers, Assemble!”

However, there has always been a nagging factor in the Marvel renaissance of comic book adaptation. The rise of the faux expert. Those more tuned to their word count than their actual subject. These were the people who said with astonishment that Captain America: The Winter Soldier “carried a complexity and seriousness more at home in 70s political thrillers than its source.” I can tell you with absolute certainty that this writer had never read comics. And if they had it was nothing more complex than Archie.

The Winter Soldier storyline was written by multi award winning writer Ed Brubaker. His vision of the Star spangled man has informed every choice made for Chris Evans's run as the character. From The First Avenger to the upcoming Falcon and The Winter Soldier series, Brubaker took us there first and he did it with an adeptness that is almost criminal to ignore.

It feels like there's a reflex to assume that comic book stories and characters are as two dimensional as the pages they're printed on. Again and again, I've read industry think pieces asking what Kevin Feige's secret is. How did he succeed so drastically where so many others failed in the ongoing quest for superhero the cinematic franchise?

In truth there is no secret. He stayed true to the books. He respected the source and put those stories on the screen. Before the birth of Marvel Studios, it seemed that each and every comic book movie had been a fight between the fans and the producers. The fans, often among those working behind the scenes, wanted to see the stories they loved, but the producers strode in with condescension, confident in the idea that they knew how to make movies. They would say what sold better. What would please more audiences, and so they would bend and twist and break those stories and give us things like Judge Dredd. Everything about it a slap in the face to anyone who read the book. And when those adaptations failed, it was because of the source and never that of producorial over reach. Clearly. I mean, they know how to make movies right? And that right there is the problem. Comic book adaptations don't follow the same rules as other movies. They are their own beasts.

Think back to an age before 2012's The Avengers. Right up until the movie's release, critics swore the movie would fail. That no one would want to watch all the movies that came before. That it was impossible to do a multi franchise spanning cross over. It simply couldn't be done. It took about a week for every studio to decide they needed their own cinematic universe.

We can discuss later about whether or not this new wave has been a boon to the industry as a whole. But, yet again, there is this urge to assume that comicbook movies can be normalized. What works for comic movies must work for all movies. A slight graduation from the previous line of thinking that what works for all movies must work for comic movies.

So, here we are, a few days following the finale of WandaVision. Marvel's mind bendy horror story. What is to be the birth of a deeply complex antagonist. Once again the web is awash in think pieces. People claim that the story fell flat. That it ran from its grander ideas is favor of a fairytale ending. The problem is, the story isn't over. How are we now 13 years into the MCU and people still don't understand how this works? Where those self satisfied critics who “know how movies work" saw a fairytale ending, I saw something terrifying in its implications. The safety measures have been disengaged. What comes next will be a wild, mind shattering series of films and shows that will leap through time and realities. WandaVision is the opening volley of a story guaranteed to wrench your heart and destroy your expectations. The implications of the shot I chose to headline this piece are massive. The Darkhold, Astral Projection, the subtle twisting of Doctor Strange's theme music. All of which are intrinsically important. None of which are “just fan service.” When I look at this shot, I see an event as impactful as the smiling face of Thanos in the final shot of The Avengers.