Color in the MCU: The Visual Language of Magic

SPOILER ALERT — I will be talking later on in this article about WandaVision, and I’ll put more spoiler warnings there. Anything between now and then will only spoil films that have been out for a year or more.

If you watched Avengers: Infinity War and/or Avengers: Endgame, you are one of the hundreds of millions of humans on the planet who are familiar with the Infinity Stones:

From Left to Right: Time (green), Power (purple), Space (blue), Mind (yellow), Reality (red), Soul (orange) [Source: MCU Fandom Wiki]

These magical MacGuffins showed up across multiple movies throughout the early phases of the MCU before they came together on one blinged-out gauntlet during Avengers: Infinity War.

And while these stones are no longer in existence in the MCU as it currently exists, their impact remains through the use of color as a visual language, as I’ll outline below.

Wanda Maximoff was the subject of experimentation using the Mind Stone (yellow), but her powers have always been displayed as red. This is because her powers are related to manipulating Reality (red).

Wanda’s association with red energy first appeared at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Similarly empowered by the Mind Stone, Pietro Maximoff developed super speed. This was shown as blue, because his ability relates to manipulating Space (blue).

Pietro is followed by swirls of blue in Avengers: Age of Ultron

Doctor Strange’s powers come from his understanding of spirit, and therefore they are most often shown as orange, relating to the Soul (orange).

Doctor Strange conjures up orange shields in Avengers: Infinity War

Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) was empowered by the Space Stone (blue), but she glows yellow when she finally taps into the strength of her willpower to overcome the Kree Supreme Intelligence. Danvers’ sheer stubborn refusal to give up or give in to adversity throughout her life is her greatest power, and it is what relates her abilities to the Mind (yellow).

Captain Marvel glows yellow after fighting off the Kree Supreme Intelligence through sheer willpower

SPOILER ALERT — WandaVision e6 Spoilers Follow

In WandaVision e5, both Evan Peters’s “Pietro Maximoff” and Tommy Maximoff have super speed, and again we see blue streaks being used to highlight that these powers are related to Space (blue).

Behind Tommy Maximoff are the telltale blue wisps of a Space-related ability (from WandaVision Episode 6)

SPOILER ALERT — WandaVision e7 Spoilers Follow

When Agatha Harkness is revealed to be a magic user in WandaVision episode 7, the color of her magic is purple. This possibly indicates that her magic is associated with Power (purple), and it may answer the question that has plagued WandaVision: where did Wanda get the power for her Hex?

Agnes (aka Agatha Harkness) conjures purple energy in WandaVision episode 7

Also in WandaVision episode 7, Monica Rambeau is empowered in an as-yet undefined way. However, she has shown in a couple places that her color patterns may diverge from what we’ve seen. Her eyes when breaks into the Hex are a blue but maybe with a tinge of green.

Then, when she lands after confronting Wanda, she lights up with a blueish tinge.

Finally, when she opens the basement to Agatha’s, her eyes are purple BEFORE “Pietro” shows up. As this character is explored, we’ll see if Marvel continues to use the color language they’ve been developing throughout the last decade.

Monica’s eyes glow blue after re-entering the Hex

She’s gonna do it… Monica’s superhero landing glows blue

Monica’s eyes turn purple as she adjusts to looking into Agatha’s basement

What does all this show? It shows a dedication by Marvel and Disney to keeping a consistent visual language throughout their many creations. This language can grow and evolve, as it may be doing with Monica’s undefined power set, but it’s a brilliant choice to reinforce concepts across the franchises by using simple color patterns.

Thank you for reading. This is a departure from what I’ve been writing about, but I’m a huge MCU fan and comic book nerd, so I’ll likely write more about topics like these going forward, too.