- Name: Wanda Maximoff
- Code Names: Scarlet Witch
- First Appearance: X-Men #4 (Mar ’64)
- Powers: Hex magic
- Teams Affiliation: The Brotherhood, The Avengers
About
With over 50 years of continuous universe building, Marvel Comics can take characters in pretty bonkers directions. As all progress eventually gets regressed to the mean, momentous events get recontextualized, retconned, or just plain ignored. Too much of this going on unchecked can jettison a character’s entire history and put them in a position where there is no satisfying way to recover them. At some point, only time and distance can save them, and while many characters have had a tumulus path to the present, none were more chaotic than the Scarlet Witch.
Wanda Maximoff was born alongside her twin brother, Pietro, on Wundagore Mountain. A cow woman named Bova was the midwife. The twins were left abandoned at the home of the High Evolutionary and kind Bova found a home for them with the Romani couple Django and Marya Maximoff. They traveled throughout the years, Pietro keeping an ever watchful eye on his sister. Anti-Romani villagers attacked the Maximoffs and Pietro used his newly emerged super speed to save Wanda’s life, but only hers. The two struck out on their own, keeping a low profile, but Wanda’s hex magic set a barn ablaze and drew the attention of a mob. Though they feared for their life, the Maximoffs were saved by a strange man in a flowing cape. His name was Magneto and he offered them a new family, a brotherhood of mutants.
The twins were uneasy with Magneto’s rhetoric. He preached mutant superiority, forcing the twins to take mutant names like Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. He enlisted them in his terrorist takeover of Santo Marco, but Wanda didn’t want this life for herself or her brother. When Magneto was captured by The Stranger, the twins felt free of their debt to him and set out on their own. Then, known terrorist and member of mutant supremacy group, Quicksilver saw an ad in the paper about the Avengers looking for new members and sent a letter inquiring about admission. More baffling was that the Avengers accepted them!
Now I consider myself an expert on the X-Men, but not so much an expert on a bunch of Avengers comics I haven’t read so we are just going to hit the highlights of her time as an Avenger. The long and short of it is that Scarlet Witch began a relationship with her synthetic teammate, the Vision, much to the dismay of her brother. The two would eventually wed. She also received training from Agatha Harkness, a real witch who taught Wanda how to control her hex magic. Her brother also found love and soon fathered a young girl, prompting Magneto to reveal that he was actually Wanda and Pietro’s father.
Wanda soon became pregnant and gave birth to twin boys. This was unexpected as her partner was a robot and that isn’t where babies come from. Where these specific babies came from was the soul of the demon Mephisto, which caught the attention of Master Pandemonium. He stole the souls back and turned those babies into his hands for reasons that we never made clear. Agatha Harkness made a decision to erase the memories of the children from Wanda’s mind, a decision that would haunt the Avengers for years to come. To make matters worse, Vison was severely damaged and rebuilt as an emotionless android, essentially ending their marriage.
In an offhand conversation with the Wasp, Wanda learned of the existence of her children and vowed to bring them back. She aligned herself with Doctor Doom who channeled malevolent cosmic entity through Wanda and drove her mad. Losing control over herself and her powers, the Scarlet Witch utterly disassembled the Avengers. She caused the deaths of many long-time heroes, including her once husband Vision. Her father found her and took her to Genosha in a hopeless attempt to save her.
Quicksilver learned that the X-Men and Avengers were in discussions about what to do with Wanda, he feared they would try to kill her. He went to his sweet sister and asked her to reshape reality, to create a world where mutants weren’t hated and feared, where their friends could be happy, where their family could rule. In this world, ruled by the House of Magnus, things seemed alright, however, the Avengers and X-Men began to regain their memories and fought to turn the world back to the way it was. Wanda was overwhelmed by what she had created and set things back with a whisper. “No more mutants.”
She may not have realized what she had done but Wanda depowered all but 198 mutants on Earth. In fear or shame, she disappeared to Latvaria, as she began to repress the memories of what she had done. Over time she met two young boys, Billy and Tommy, they claimed to be the reincarnation of the twins she lost all those years ago and they wanted to help. She worked with Doctor Doom, trying to reverse the spell that caused the mutant decimation, but Doom betrayed her. He wanted to power to craft reality to his will and was only stopped by the combined might of pretty much every team in the Marvel Universe.
After some time she returned to the Avengers, though not everyone was willing to forgive her. With the Phoenix Force returning to Earth the Avengers ended up in a war with the X-Men (because no one can sit down and have rational conversations, can they?) Wanda stayed on the sidelines for most of it but showed up to save her teammates from a Phoenix powered Cyclops. The Avengers realized that her hex magic could counteract the powers of the Phoenix and made a plan for her to train with Hope Summers to eliminate the threat once and for all. And for the most part it worked. They banished the Phoenix and Scarlet Witch was able to restore the X-Gene. While it wouldn’t set back all the wrong she did, it was a good start.
That still wasn’t enough for some mutants. Wanda was asked to join Captain America’s Unity Squad, a team made up of both X-Men and Avengers. Rogue was less than thrilled to be working with someone she saw as a traitor to her race. After some time travel eliminated the more apocalyptic outcomes of their lack of teamwork, the Unity Squad was able to come together as a beacon that Avengers and X-Men could work together. This was just in time for Wanda to realized that she wasn’t actually a mutant or Magneto’s daughter. She continues to serve on various Avengers teams, cementing that her spot is there, not with the X-Men.
Must Read
I’m gonna level with you, I haven’t read much Avengers, or really anything before 2005. I’m betting her best stuff is somewhere there but I haven’t read it. Where Wanda is actually pretty cool is in the Silver Age Brotherhood. She is legitimately the most fleshed out character of that group and very engaging. So go read X-Men #4. Worst case, you get to look at some Jack Kirby art. That is what I can give you until I start my Jarvis Files spin-off.
Ranking
Just like her brother, ranking Wanda is hard because she isn’t really an X-Men character. She also committed genocide which doesn’t help matters. She isn’t as good as her brother because Pietro has at least worn the X. Her history puts her above a Fantomelle but I would rather see Shatterstar or Spiral at this point. I do think she is better than Karma because people tell more than one story with her. Because of that she is the new number 83 in the Xavier Files.
Scarlet Witch was requested by Patreon supporter John Bainton. Thank you for your support! If you have a request for how about you send it below? If you want to cut to the front of the two-year long line, we have a Patreon you can support Xavier Files for just $1 to get a line cutting reward.
Make sure you check out my podcast BATTLE OF THE ATOM. It’s where Bish & Jubez creator Adam Reck and I talk about every single X-Men story that ever existed and rank them from best to worst. Episode 34 is up and we talk NPR and X-Statix. Make sure you subscribe to any of the following platforms (or others, I’m not picky) Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS.
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Next week I’m just gonna someone at Random! See you then!
Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
