Scarlet Witch

The Scarlet Witch (Wanda Lensherr Maximoff) is a fictional character and a mutant in the Marvel Universe. The character first appears in Uncanny X-Men #4 (Sep. 1963) and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The Scarlet Witch is the daughter of master villain Magneto, the twin sister of Quicksilver and half-sister of Polaris.

Fictional character biography

The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's pregnant mother - Magda - takes sanctuary at Mount Wundagore in Transia, the home of the High Evolutionary, after seeing her husband Magnus use his magnetic powers for the first time. The twins are born, and as on Mt. Wundagore is the prison of the Elder God Chthon, his residual energies alter Wanda, which will later give her the ability to use magic in addition to her mutant abilities. Fearing that Magnus will discover the children, Magda leaves and dies of exposure. The births are attended by Bova, a genetically-engineered humanoid cow, who soon after assists World War II superheroine Miss America, also giving birth to twins. Unfortunately, both the mother and children due to radiation poisoning, deliberately caused by the villain Isbisa, the enemy of her husband Robert Frank, also known as the hero the Whizzer. Bova hides the truth from Frank and claims that only the mother has died, and that he now has twin children. Frank, however, is shocked at the death of his wife and flees at superspeed. ^[1] As Wundagore was no place for human infants, the High Evolutionary places them in the care of the gypsy Django Maximoff, who raises the twins as his own children. The twins are forced to flee a mob when Wanda is use her powers to protect herself, which unfortunately causes a fire that kills their adopted gypsy mother. ^[2] Once Pietro and Wanda reach adulthood, they discover that they are in fact mutants. Pietro possesses superhuman speed, while Wanda learns that she can control probability. When the pair display their powers in public, and are again attacked by a superstitious crowd, they are saved by their father - now the supervillain Magneto - although neither Magneto nor his children are aware of their connection. Magneto then recruits the pair for the first incarnation of his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The Brotherhood battles the X-Men on several occasions, although the twins become reluctant members and only remain because of their obligation to Magneto. When Magneto and his lackey the Toad are abducted by the cosmic entity the Stranger, the Brotherhood dissolves and the twins declare their debt to Magneto to have been paid. ^[3] Soon after this Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are recruited by the hero Iron Man to join the team the Avengers. Together with leader Captain America and former villain Hawkeye, the four become the second generation of Avengers, and are later dubbed as "Cap's Kooky Quartet". ^[4]

Avenging Days

After Magneto's abduction by the alien Stranger effectively broke up the Brotherhood, the twins relocated back to Europe but quickly returned to America with the intention of becoming Avengers and redeeming themselves for their actions while part of the Brotherhood. They were accepted by Captain America and became part of the team alongside Hawkeye, who would become Wanda's closest friend inside the team.^[5] The relationship was filled with turmoil though, from Vision's feelings that Wanda deserved a lover who was human and not an android to both Quicksilver and Hawkeye's objections to the relationship (Quicksilver's due to his disdain for his sister loving a robot while Hawkeye's objections came due to his own feelings of love for Wanda). Steve Englehart's creation Mantis also complicated things for a time, competing with Wanda as one of the potential candidates to become Celestial Madonna, and like Wanda drawn to Vision's strength. While Hawkeye quickly got over his jealousy and gave Wanda and Vision his blessing, Quicksilver disowned his sister for her marriage and only relented when the Titanian telepath Moondragon telepathically erased Quicksilver's disdain for Vision from his mind, after witnessing Quicksilver's bigotry in full display during an argument. Frustrated with the unreliable nature of her power, the Scarlet Witch finally underwent training in sorcery under the tutelage of a true witch, Agatha Harkness.^[6] The mental discipline of sorcery aided Wanda's powers of concentration, enabling her to exercise much greater control over her mutant "hexes" than ever before. She also learned that she had been blessed with an affinity for chaos magic. Wanda would ultimately marry Vision. For some time, Wanda believed herself the daughter of the golden age super-hero, the Whizzer, (Giant-Size Avengers #1). The revelation that Magneto was her biological father has been a source of much anger for Wanda, as she still harbors anger and fear towards him from their time together in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. (Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4, 1982). Ultimately while attempting to avenge the apparent death of Agatha Harkness, Wanda received an infusion of magic power that allowed her to became pregnant with twins, Thomas and William. She and the Vision retired from their careers as super-heroes to raise their children, but came out of retirement to join the Avengers West Coast.

Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch discover their origin in Avengers #185 (Jul. 1979). Art by John Byrne.

The West Coast Avengers

Wanda's happiness would be short-lived: Vision was kidnapped and nearly destroyed by a multi-national coalition of countries who were angry at his attempted takeover of the world through computers several years earlier. Vision was rebuilt, but his memory was blank, his body a ghostly white, and his human personality and emotions utterly erased. Wanda's family was damaged beyond repair. Wanda sought the one man who had a hope of restoring her husband's mind (even partially), his "brother" Wonder Man. Wonder Man's memory template had been used as the basis for Vision's mind years ago. Wonder Man was jealous of Vision's relationship with Wanda and felt that he should have Vision's place in her life. Wonder Man received support from Wasp in this notion, as the childless Wasp had grave doubts about Wanda's children. She counseled Wonder Man not to allow his brainwave patterns to be used to restore Vision. Meanwhile, Wanda's children began to blink in and out of existence, frightening the various nannies Wanda hired to help her watch her twins. Agatha Harkness returned; she had survived her apparent death but had been in hiding. She had new insight on Wanda's children. Agatha revealed that the energies used by Wanda to conjure her children into existence were fragmented portions of the soul of the demon Mephisto. Mephisto, through his minion Master Pandemonium, kidnapped Wanda's children and reabsorbed them into his being. With Thomas and William having effectively ceased to exist (inasmuch as they had ever truly existed in the first place) Agatha made a controversial move that would bear bitter fruit years later: she erased all of Wanda's memories of the twins in order to release her from despair and allow the Avengers to escape from Mephisto's realm. A guilt-ridden Wonder Man finally attempted to give his brainwave patterns to Vision, but his tardy offer was rejected. Enough time had passed since Vision's reconstruction to allow an emotionless, logic-driven personality to emerge and this personality felt no connection whatsoever with Wanda, even after Wanda was kidnapped as part of the Atlantis Attacks crossover. After rescuing her, Vision showed little concern for his mentally fragile wife, revealing that he was returning to the group's East Coast branch. Vision coldly stated that the East Coast team, which had lost several members, needed Vision more than his wife did, despite her pleas. A devastated Wanda had a complete nervous breakdown, making her vulnerable to a renewed bid by Magneto to reform the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants alongside Quicksilver. The family reunion was brief, however, as Quicksilver quickly revealed that he only played along in order to protect his emotionally damaged sister from Magneto. As the Avengers launched a rescue mission, Wanda fell into a trance and was kidnapped by Immortus. He revealed that he manipulated Wanda's entire relationship with Vision, in order to render Wanda emotionally vulnerable enough that he might easily use her as a vessel for a large amount of "Nexus" energy. Her probability powers made her a conduit for multiple parallel timelines. She was ultimately rescued and returned to the Avengers West Coast with help from Agatha Harkness, freed from the clutches of either Magneto or Immortus. Wanda remained on the Avengers West Coast, her friendship with Hawkeye helping her deal with the destruction of her marriage and the loss of her children (Wanda's memories of the twins were shown to be restored in Avengers West Coast Annual #7 and also referenced several times in Kurt Busiek's run in Avengers Volume 3). Adventures as a hero and a team player augmented her leadership skills. She also worked on her powers again, as they began to fluctuate due to a spike in the chaos magic energies of the Marvel Universe. Wanda eventually became the leader of the West Coast Avengers, just as her estranged husband Vision arranged for the group's dissolution. Wanda went on to become a founding member and field leader of the short-lived superhero team Force Works. Her relationship with Wonder Man remained on very tense terms but came to an abrupt end when Wonder Man died during Force Works' first adventure. Wanda and Hawkeye rejoined the Avengers when Force Works disbanded. Wanda and Vision (now having regained his emotions and memories of their marriage) even attempted to reconcile, but the two were quickly forced to "sacrifice" their lives to stop the evil that was Onslaught. They were exiled instead alongside their fellow Avengers and Fantastic Four members into an alternate reality for a year before returning to Earth.

Heroes Return

When she did return, Wanda was promptly kidnapped again by the sorceress Morgan le Fay, with the intention of using Wanda's powers to warp reality in her image (using a stolen Asgardian relic). To escape her clutches, Wanda restores Captain America's memories (who proceeds to restore other Avenger's memories, similar to the storyline in House of M) and eventually accidentally resurrected Wonder Man, now in an energy-based form. [1 During the final battle, Wanda watched helplessly as Vision was mortally wounded yet again. Le Fay destroyed the lower half of his body. Vision was still functional but put into a surgical repair device designed to fix his body. Communicating with his wife via hologram, the two had a tense confrontation where a distraught Vision begged Wanda to not visit him while he was in his damaged state. Vision would later state that he didn't want to put Wanda through any additional trauma caused by his injuries, but his actions put an end to their marriage for good. Around this time, Wanda visited Agatha Harkness and learned that her mutant powers were evolving to the point that she was able to channel Chaos Magic, a feat that was generally considered dangerous by most magicians. According to Agatha, Wanda could do just about anything with this magic, including raising the dead. After much deliberation and still hurting from Vision's rejection, she gave Wonder Man her love and restored him to life. The two became lovers, openly carrying on their affair in front of a restored Vision, who fled the Avengers briefly after a confrontation in which Wonder Man declared himself "the victim" in the three-way love triangle. Wanda waited for Simon to take their relationship to the next level. Unfortunately, while held prisoner by Kang, Wanda broke up with Wonder Man, whose dreams of the future did not include marriage and children. When writer Geoff Johns took over the Avengers book in 2002, Vision and Scarlet Witch reconciled off-panel and attempted once again to rebuild their relationship. Meanwhile, Wanda's use of Chaos Magic began to heavily affect her. She became consumed with chaos energy as a side effect of the mysterious Scorpio splitting the cosmic being the In-Betweener into the two aspects of his order and chaos based powers.

Avengers Disassembled

Main article: Avengers Disassembled

House of M

Main article: House of M

Powers and abilities

Initially, the Scarlet Witch had the ability to manipulate probability via her "hexes", which usually manifested physically as "hex spheres" or "hex bolts". These hexes were relatively short range, and limited to line of sight. Casting a hex requires a gesture and concentration on her part, though the gestures are largely a focus for the concentration. Despite this precision, the hexes are not necessarily guaranteed to work, particularly if Wanda is tired or using her powers excessively. If overextended, Wanda's can backfire, causing probability to work against her wishes or to undo previous hexes. The effects are varied but almost always detrimental to opponents, such as causing the robot Ultron to short circuit ^[7] or a gas main underneath the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to explode. ^[8] Writer Kurt Busiek redefined the Scarlet Witch's powers, and maintained that it was in fact an ability to manipulate chaos magic, given to her by the demon Chthon (imprisoned within Wundagore Mountain) when she was born. Busiek's upgraded Wanda's powers substantially, and she is shown as being capable of feats such as the resurrection of Wonder Man. Writer Brian Michael Bendis later revamped Wanda's powers yet again, and implied that she could in fact alter reality but did not always have control of her abilities. The possible repercussions were so great that at one point Dr. Strange is forced to shut down her mind.

Other versions

1602

In Marvel 1602, the Scarlet Witch character is Sister Wanda, a nun working for Inquisitor Enrique (Magneto).

Age of Apocalypse

During the Age of Apocalypse, The Scarlet Witch was a member of Magneto's X-Men. She died while defending the X-Men's base on Wundagore Mountain from an attack by Nemesis.^[9]

Exiles

Nocturne, a former member of the alternate-reality traveling Exiles, and now a member of New Excalibur, is the daughter of the Scarlet Witch and Nightcrawler in an alternate reality.

Heroes Reborn

Scarlet Witch was one of the Avengers in the Heroes Reborn universe, in which she was raised by Agatha Harkness. The Asgardian sorceress Enchantress falsely claims to be her mother.

Marvel Zombies

A version of Scarlet Witch helps Ash find the Necronomicon, and is later killed in the siege of Doctor Doom's castle by The Punisher.

MC2

An older version of the Scarlet Witch appears in the MC2 universe. ^[10]

Ultimate Scarlet Witch

The Scarlet Witch on the cover of Ultimate Power #6 (2006). Art by Greg Land.

In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Wanda Lensherr Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, is still the daughter of Magneto and the sister of Quicksilver. She has the ability to alter probability fields with her hexes. Wanda is originally a member of Magneto's team, the Brotherhood of Mutants. Following her father's apparent death, she and her brother lead the Brotherhood and guide the group away from her Magneto's mutant supremacist ideals and keep in touch with Charles Xavier to promote a more peaceful mutant-human integration. The siblings eventually agree to work for the Ultimates in exchange for the release of imprisoned Brotherhood members, although Nick Fury retains them in the black ops division of the team due to their terrorist past. When Magneto returns and takes back leadership of the Brotherhood, Wanda and Pietro flee to the Triskelion (homebase of the Ultimates) and side against him. The pair are then elevated to public status on the Ultimates, having proved their loyalty. Wanda was recently shot in the chest during a mission, and it has yet to be revealed as to whether she survived. ^[11]

Powers and abilities

The Ultimate Scarlet Witch has to "do the math" in order to use her powers - she must calculate the mathematical probability that the effect she intends to create will actually happen, with the more unlikely the effect, the more complex the mathematic formula. Unlike her Earth-616 counterpart, Wanda can fly, alter reality, create force fields, and teleport objects. A drawback is that Wanda must use her hands to channel her powers.

In other media

Television

• The Scarlet Witch appears in the 1996 animated television series Iron Man. She was voiced by Jennifer Darling.
• The Scarlet Witch appears in the 1999 animated television series Avengers. She was voiced by Stavroula Logothettis.
• The Scarlet Witch made both a guest and a cameo appearance in the 1990s X-Men animated series. She was voiced by Tara Strong.
• The Scarlet Witch makes ongoing apperances in the animated television series X-Men: Evolution. She was voiced by Kelly Sheridan.
• The Scarlet Witch was among the Avengers in the "Got Milk" TV spot in 1999.

Film

• In X2: X-Men United, the name "Maximoff" appears on a computer screen in list of mutant names.

Video games

• The Scarlet Witch is a playable character in the game X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse and is voiced by Jennifer Hale.

Toys

The Scarlet Witch was part of a short-lived wave of Avengers action figures released by Toy Biz in 1996.

External links

• UncannyXmen.net Spotlight on Scarlet Witch
• Scarlet Witch Message Board at the Second String Sanctuary
• Scarlet Witch, My Valentine! at Photon Torpedoes
• The Women of Marvel Comics Scarlet Witch Page
• Scarlet Witch on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki

References