Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: What’s hidden in plain sight in the trailers
By Mike McNulty
America Chavez makes her MCU debut in Doctor Strange 2
The character of America Chavez, a.k.a. Miss America, is making her live-action debut in the movie, and, as the case with newer comic characters, you may not know who she is or what she’s all about.
For starters, she’s Marvel’s first LGBTQ Latina superhero. She also, before graduating to her own comic book series, first appeared in the pages of the limited series Vengeance as a member of the “Teen Brigade” before later joining the Young Avengers. As for powers, she not only has the usual super strength, flight, invulnerability, and energy punches, she can also travel to other dimensions via what she calls “star portals.”
That last bit is the most plot-relevant detail of the upcoming film, as it’s very like that dimension-hopping power that allows Strange and herself to hop around the multiverse. Not to mention, as we see in one shot, travel between a dinosaur dimension, a cartoon dimension, and a dimension where they begin to fragment into cubes. It’s also the reason why Strange and America could be teaming up in the first place, as it’s likely Wanda is after America’s dimension hoping ability for herself.
Moreover, America Chavez also comes from another dimension herself. In the comics, she was raised in a pocket dimension called the Utopian Parallel where she also obtained her powers. Here, though, it looks as though she comes from an alternate universe in which she was a protegee of another Doctor Strange, one who’s been officially dubbed as Defender Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), whom you can see in the Super Bowl teaser trailer spot.
This, in turn, also fits with a pattern from other recent Marvel Studios projects wherein they’re paving the way for the Young Avengers as the next generation of heroes. Just as Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) was set up as the mentor for Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) in Hawkeye, it looks as though this movie will follow a similar course with Strange and America Chavez.