Scarlet Witch

Scarlet Witch

Wanda

Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in X-Men #4 (March 1964) and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The character has since starred in two self-titled limited series with husband the Vision and appears as a regular team member in superhero title The Avengers.

Scarlet Witch is initially depicted as a mutant, born with the ability to alter reality in unspecific ways. Originally revealed to be the daughter of the Golden Age superhero Whizzer, it was later established she and her twin brother Quicksilver were the children of X-Men villain Magneto with his daughter Polaris being their half-sister. This parentage was their status quo until 2014, when a further retcon revealed that she and Quicksilver were in fact non-mutants who had been kidnapped and experimented on by theHigh Evolutionary, and then misled to believe that Magneto was their father.

The character was ranked 97th in Wizard's "200 Greatest Comic Book Characters of All Time" list, 12th in IGN's list of "The Top 50 Avengers", and 14th in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list. The character has also appeared in other Marvel-endorsed products such as animated films; arcade and video games; television series and merchandise such as action figures and trading cards. Elizabeth Olsen portrays Scarlet Witch in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, debuting in a mid-credits scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and playing a central role in Avengers: Age of Ultron and in Captain America: Civil War.

Publication history

The first appearance of Scarlet Witch
on the cover of  X - Men  #4
(March 1964)

Scarlet Witch debuted, together with her brother, Quicksilver, as a part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in X-Men #4 (March 1964). They were depicted as reluctant villains, uninterested in Magneto's ideologies. Scarlet Witch is depicted as a calm and submissive girl, as most female comic book characters of the time. Her costume was mainly composed of a red bathing suit with straps, opera gloves, short boots, a leotard covering her body, a superhero cape, and a wimple; everything colored in shades of red.

After several appearances as a villain in issues #5 (May 1964); #6 (July 1964); #7 (September 1964); and #11 (May 1965), Wanda and her brother were added to the cast of the superhero team the Avengers in Avengers #16 (May 1965). Scarlet Witch was a semi-regular member of the team until issue #49 (February 1968), and then returned in issue #75 (April 1970) and was a perennial member of both the main team and several affiliated teams such as the West Coast Avengers and Force Works until Avengers #503 (December 2004), the final issue of the first volume. Upon her return to the Avengers she was given a long-running love interest in the form of fellow Avenger the Vision. Writer Roy Thomas recounted

Fictional character biography

Avengers #16  (May 1965)
featuring the debut of Scarlet Witch
in The Avengers

The Avenger

Soon after Magneto's abduction, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch join the Avengers. Along with Captain America as leader, and former villain , the four become the second generation of the Avengers and are later dubbed as "Cap's Kooky Quartet".

Wanda is accidentally shot on a mission against Magneto. Quicksilver rejoins Magneto and leaves the Avengers with his wounded sister. After a pair of encounters with the X-Men, the twins left Magneto, but did not rejoin the Avengers immediately. Wanda and Pietro are then kidnapped along with several other mutants by the Sentinels, but are subsequently freed by the X-Men.

Quicksilver later returns to the Avengers and advises them that Wanda has been kidnapped and taken to another dimension by the warlordArkon. After being rescued, both of them rejoin the team. Scarlet Witch then falls in love with android teammate the Vision. Before long, the two develop a romantic relationship. Their relationship has a tumultuous start as both Quicksilver and Hawkeye object—Quicksilver cannot accept the idea that his sister loves a robot while Hawkeye loves Wanda himself. Despite this, the pair eventually marry with the blessing of the entire team.

Scarlet Witch begins to be tutored by a true witch, Agatha Harkness, which allows her even greater control over her hexes. Wanda and Pietro also meet Robert Frank, who believes them to be his children. This is later disproved when Wanda and Pietro are abducted by Django Maximoff and taken to Wundagore. Wanda is temporarily possessed by the demon Chthon, and after defeating it is advised by Bova that neither Frank nor Maximoff is their biological father. Soon after, while trying to track down Magda one last time, Magneto learns that he is the father of the twins. He immediately informs them of their relationship, shortly after the birth of Pietro's daughter Luna. Scarlet Witch and the Vision take a leave of absence from the Avengers, and she conceives the twin boys named Thomas and William. As the Vision is an android, she got pregnant using magic.Wanda gives birth, and, with the Vision, eventually leaves the East Coast to join the West Coast Ave

Powers and abilities

Scarlet Witch is able to manipulate probability via her "hexes" (often manifesting physically as "hex spheres" or "hex bolts"). These hexes are relatively short range, being limited to her 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 hexes can backfire, causing probability to work against her wishes or even undo previous hexes. Early in her career, Wanda's hexes were subconscious on her part, and would be automatically triggered whenever she made a particular gesture, regardless of her intent. These hexes would only manifest "bad luck" effects. She later gained enough control over her powers so they only work when she wants them to, and they are not limited to negative effects. She can use her hexes to light flammable objects, contain or remove air from a particular volume, deflect objects, stop the momentum of projectiles, open doors, explode objects, create force fields, deflect magical attacks etc. The effects are varied but almost always detrimental to opponents, such as causing the artifact the Evil Eye to work against the inter-dimensional warlord Dormammu, forcing the robot Ultron to short circuit, or a gas main underneath theBrotherhood of Mutants to explode. Scarlet Witch also has the potential to wield magic and later learned that she was destined to serve the role of Nexus Being, a living focal point for the Earth dimension's mystical energy.

Writer Kurt Busiek redefined Scarlet Witch's powers, and maintained that it was in fact an ability to manipulate chaos magic, activated due to the demon Chthon changing her mutation at birth into an ability to wield and control magical energy. This was offered as an explanation for her various feats that seemed to go beyond probability alteration, as well as why her hexes almost always have an effect that is favorable to her goals. During Busiek's run as well as the subsequent run by Geoff Johns, she was shown to be capable of large-scale spells given enough concentration and time to shape the chaos magic to a specific goal, including the resurrection of Wonder Man.

In House of M, her power was depicted as sufficient to rewrite her entire universe, and cause multiverse-threatening ripples. In The Children's Crusade it was revealed that this omnipotence was not part of her natural power level, but the result of a cosmic magical source that increased a magic user's powers to god-like levels. By the end of the event she had returned to her previous power level, able to alter probability and work magic, but not able to change reality at will.

She also has a degree of resistance to the Phoenix Force and can also cause pain to its hosts, such as Cyclops when he tried to stop Hope from going with her. However, this becomes less effective as the Phoenix Force portions are divided among those who have not yet been defeated. A vs X #12 confirmed that her powers involve chaos magic, and stated that she has "Mutant Magic", and the "primal source of her chaos" magic is cosmic.

Wanda is also an expert combatant, having been trained by Captain America, Hawkeye, and Wonder Man, as well as being an adept tactician due to her years of experience as an Avenger and her involvement in a variety of combat situations.