WandaVision: Glamor And Illusion Are Real Characters In The Marvel Comics
The second episode of WandaVision gives new meaning to the word "magic." The storyline features Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) attempting to fit into the suburban society of Westview by volunteering to perform a magic act for the town's talent show fundraiser — an event which Wanda sees as their chance to "appear as normal as possible" to their new neighbors. With the help of some elaborate costuming and props, they plan to make their debut as a magician named Illusion, and his trusty assistant, Glamor.
Of course, things go a bit off the rails for them when Vision accidentally swallows the gum he chews in order to appear normal around his colleagues at work, and it literally gums up the works of his robotic body, leaving him a rambling, uncoordinated mess. As a result, Wanda has to use her very real witchcraft skills to quickly make Vision's impromptu levitation and super-strength tricks seem explainable to their human audience. Luckily for them, no one seems to notice Wanda's superhuman coverup effort, and their accidentally hilarious set ends up being a hit with even their biggest doubters.
Fans of the mid-eighties Marvel comics series Vision and the Scarlet Witch might recognize this scenario and the characters' stage names, as the second volume of that series introduced two friendly superheroes who were named— you guessed it! — Illusion and Glamor.
The real Illusion and Glamor, too, were just trying to fit in
Illusion and Glamor were first brought into the picture in Vision and the Scarlet Witch Vol. 2, #4. Illusion, AKA Ilya Zarkov, is a stage magician from New York City who moved to the suburbs in Leonia, New Jersey, alongside his wife Glamor, AKA Glynis. Like Wanda and Vision, the two work hard to fit in and conceal their true powers around their judgy neighbors. To avoid unwanted attention, they use sleight-of-hand — rather than displaying their real powers — during their magic shows.
In the comics, Scarlet Witch and Vision develop something of a bond with Illusion and Glamor, after the superheroes are targeted by people in their town for being "a mutant and a robot," and their house is torched. Illusion and Glamor ultimately work to protect Wanda and Vision from their aggressors in order to avoid finding themselves in the crosshairs next.
Illusion is gifted with the ability to control the molecules of things he touches for one minute of time, which extends to levitating or transforming objects, while Glamor can also manipulate the density and structure of objects, including her own body. These talents appear to be winked to by Vision and Scarlet Witch's wacky performance during WandaVision's second episode: at one point, Vision causes himself to float in mid-air, which Wanda quickly addresses by adding a rope and reeling device, and then he also lifts a piano, which Wanda then turns into a cardboard cutout and carries away from the stage herself.
This fun Easter egg to a little-known comics storyline, of course, is only one of many such in-jokes that the show has offered so far. New episodes of WandaVision can be streamed on Disney+ every Friday.