You know what they say: if at first you don’t succeed, ruin another great character.
Look, I have nothing against Joe Locke. In fact, I’ve enjoyed his performance across Agatha All Along, and this week’s episode in particular. There’s a special kind of awkwardness that a boy exhibits before his bar mitzvah, and Locke nailed it.
We’ve all heard the joke about the amount of Jews in Hollywood, and yet, somehow, I get the feeling that not a single one was present when this week’s episode was filmed.
Maybe if there had been, they would’ve said, ‘Hey, having a Nazi kidnap a Jewish child isn’t the best idea.’
'We wanted to change the world'
Those who watched WandaVision – which, if you’re watching Agatha All Along, I assume you have – will remember a moment that too many fans have swept under the rug.
When Agatha asked Wanda why she chose to join an ‘anti-freedom terrorist organization’ (read: actual Nazi science division), Wanda said, “We wanted to change the world.”
An eerily similar mindset to some other terrorists I know, but I digress.
While many online have praised this ‘Jewish representation,’ though, I hardly think it counts when the actor isn’t even Jewish (the fact that this must be pointed out in 2024 is quite sad, frankly); the truth is, its only good representation by the standards Marvel has set.
That is to say, not good at all.
Somewhere in the multiverse exists a world where Billy Maximoff and William Kaplan find common ground with their Judaism, and Billy could be a child to both Wanda (maybe not a Nazi this time) and this family that Wanda ‘Someone Named Eva ’-ed.
I know it's not exactly 'woke' to care about Jewish stories (hi, Sabra), but if the goal was redemption… try again, Marvel.