Scarlet Witch

• Core Identity: Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, is one of the most powerful and tragic figures in the Marvel Universe, a reality-warping nexus being whose immense grief and unstable chaos magic have repeatedly threatened the very fabric of existence.
• Key Takeaways:
• Role in the Universe: Originally a mutant villain, Wanda became a hero and a core member of the Avengers. Her true nature is that of a “Nexus Being,” a living anchor for her reality's stability, and a conduit for the primal force of chaos_magic, making her one of the most significant magical figures in existence.
• Primary Impact: Wanda is responsible for one of the most cataclysmic events in modern Marvel history: the “M-Day” decimation. Following a complete mental collapse, she uttered the phrase “No more mutants,” instantly depowering over 90% of the world's mutant population, an act detailed in the house_of_m storyline that reshaped the universe for years.
• Key Incarnations: The core difference lies in their origins. The Earth-616 Wanda has a deeply convoluted history involving being the supposed mutant daughter of Magneto, a genetic experiment of the High Evolutionary, and finally, the heir to a magical lineage touched by the demon Chthon. The MCU Wanda's origin is streamlined: she is a Sokovian woman whose innate magical abilities were unlocked and amplified by the Mind Stone during a hydra experiment.

The Scarlet Witch made her debut in the Silver Age of comics, first appearing in X-Men #4 in March 1964. She was co-created by the legendary duo of writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the architects of the burgeoning Marvel Universe. Initially, Wanda and her twin brother, Pietro, were not heroes. They were introduced as reluctant members of the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, led by their then-savior, Magneto. Her initial powers were vaguely defined as “hex power,” the ability to affect probability fields, causing bad luck for her enemies. This made her a formidable, if unpredictable, opponent for the original X-Men. However, Lee and Kirby quickly saw greater potential in the twins. In a pivotal move that would define her character for decades, Wanda and a reformed Pietro left the Brotherhood and sought redemption. They found it in The Avengers #16 (May 1965), when they joined the team as part of “Cap's Kooky Quartet,” a new roster led by Captain America that also included Hawkeye. This transition from villain to hero cemented her place as a cornerstone of the Avengers, where her powers and personal story would evolve dramatically from simple “hexes” to universe-altering magic.

Wanda Maximoff's origin is one of the most famously and repeatedly retconned histories in all of comics, creating a complex tapestry of magic, mutation, and manipulation. The MCU version, by contrast, offers a much more direct and emotionally-grounded narrative.

Wanda's origin has undergone at least three major revisions, each building upon or erasing what came before. 1. The Original Origin (Pre-1980s): For years, Wanda and Pietro believed they were the children of Romani parents, Django and Marya Maximoff. They were born on Mount Wundagore in Transia, a place steeped in dark mystical energy. Unbeknownst to them, the Elder God and arch-demon Chthon was imprisoned within the mountain. At the moment of her birth, Chthon “marked” Wanda, bestowing upon her a latent affinity for chaos magic, which he intended to use one day to make her his vessel on Earth. This latent power manifested as her mutant “hex” ability. After their powers emerged, they were driven from their village by superstitious locals and were eventually saved from a mob by Magneto, leading to their induction into his Brotherhood. 2. The Mutant Legacy Retcon (1980s - 2014): This became the most well-known and longest-lasting version of her origin. It was revealed that Django and Marya were their adoptive parents. Their true father was none other than Magneto (Max Eisenhardt). Their mother, Magda, had fled from Magneto in terror after witnessing his destructive power. Pregnant with the twins, she sought refuge at Mount Wundagore, where she gave birth and was assisted by the bovine evolutionist, the High Evolutionary. Magda left her children in his care and vanished. The High Evolutionary, fearing Magneto would find them, gave the twins to the Maximoffs to raise. This retcon cemented Wanda's status as a powerful mutant and the daughter of the X-Men's greatest foe, creating decades of rich family drama and ideological conflict. 3. The Post-Mutant Retcon (2014 - Present): In the aftermath of the AXIS storyline, a new, shocking truth was revealed. During an inversion spell, Wanda discovered that Magneto was not her biological father. A later solo series, Scarlet Witch, further clarified her history. Her true mother was Natalya Maximoff, a previous “Scarlet Witch” and a powerful sorceress. Her father's identity remains unconfirmed, but Django Maximoff was her mother's brother, making him her biological uncle. The High Evolutionary had indeed kidnapped the twins, experimented on them, and unlocked their latent magical potential, disguising the results as mutant X-genes to mislead everyone, including Magneto. This retcon severed her connection to mutantkind and Magneto but firmly established her as a legacy witch, whose power is purely magical in nature, amplified by Chthon's touch at birth and the High Evolutionary's genetic tampering. She is the Scarlet Witch not because it's a codename, but because it is an inherited title and a magical destiny.

The MCU provides a starkly different and more self-contained origin for Wanda, shaped by real-world film rights issues that prevented the use of “mutants” or Magneto. Wanda Maximoff and her twin brother Pietro were born in the fictional Eastern European nation of Sokovia. Their childhood was tragically cut short when a mortar shell manufactured by Stark Industries struck their apartment building, killing their parents instantly. A second, unexploded shell landed nearby, and for two days, the terrified twins stared at the Stark logo, waiting for it to detonate. This traumatic event instilled in them a deep-seated hatred for Tony Stark and, by extension, the Avengers. As young adults, seeking the power to fight back against what they saw as Western imperialism, Wanda and Pietro volunteered for experiments conducted by HYDRA under the command of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. Using the mysterious Scepter, which contained the Mind Stone, Strucker subjected numerous Sokovians to its energy. Most perished, but the Maximoff twins survived, their latent abilities unlocked and amplified. Pietro gained super-speed, while Wanda developed a range of psionic powers, including telekinesis, energy projection, and a form of telepathic hypnosis. Initially debuting as antagonists in Avengers: Age of Ultron, they allied with the sentient A.I. Ultron to destroy the Avengers. However, upon discovering Ultron's true genocidal plans, they switched allegiances, helping the Avengers save Sokovia, though Pietro was tragically killed in the battle. Wanda was then invited to join the New Avengers, beginning her journey as a hero. It wasn't until the events of the Disney+ series WandaVision that the true nature of her power was revealed. The ancient witch Agatha Harkness explained that Wanda's abilities were not created by the Mind Stone. Instead, Wanda was born a witch, capable of spontaneously wielding Chaos Magic. The Mind Stone merely amplified the immense power that was already inside her, making her a living myth: the Scarlet Witch, a being of spontaneous creation capable of rewriting reality, and prophesied to be more powerful than the Sorcerer Supreme. This re-contextualized her entire history, establishing her as a magical entity of immense significance, independent of HYDRA or the Infinity Stones.

Wanda's power set in the comics has evolved from a simple, specific ability to a cosmic, reality-defining force. Abilities:

• Chaos Magic Manipulation: This is her primary and most defining power. Chaos Magic is a primordial, powerful form of magic that allows its user to manipulate, warp, and reconstruct the very fabric of existence and reality. It is the power that underlies creation itself. Unlike the ordered spellcasting of sorcerers like Doctor Strange, Wanda's power is more instinctual and potent, capable of achieving effects that defy the known laws of magic and physics.
• Reality Warping: As a conduit for Chaos Magic, Wanda can alter reality on a massive scale. Her most famous feat was creating the alternate “House of M” reality across the globe and then erasing the powers of millions of mutants with three words: “No more mutants.” She has also resurrected the dead (Wonder Man), spontaneously created life (her sons, Thomas and William), and altered the fundamental laws of magic itself.
• Probability Manipulation (“Hexes”): This was her original power. She could subconsciously create “hex spheres” or “bolts” that altered the probabilities within a specific area, causing guns to jam, structures to collapse, energy blasts to misfire, or other unlikely events to occur. This has since been re-explained as an unfocused, low-level application of her greater Chaos Magic abilities.
• Nexus Being: Wanda has been identified as a “Nexus Being” for the Earth-616 reality. A Nexus Being is a rare individual who acts as a focal point and anchor for the mystical energies of their universe. They are critical to the stability of the timeline and can affect probability and the future. This status makes her a being of immense multiversal significance.
• Trained Witchcraft: Beyond her raw, innate power, Wanda was trained in the formal arts of witchcraft by Agatha Harkness. This allows her to perform more traditional feats of magic, such as casting protective wards, scrying, astral projection, elemental manipulation, and energy projection, with a level of control that her raw Chaos Magic sometimes lacks.

Weaknesses: Wanda's greatest weakness has always been her emotional and mental instability. Her immense power is directly tied to her emotional state. Periods of extreme grief, rage, or psychological trauma have caused her to lose control, leading to catastrophic events like Avengers Disassembled and House of M. Furthermore, her connection to Chaos Magic makes her a target for entities like Chthon, who seek to use her as a host. Personality: Wanda is a deeply complex character defined by tragedy. She is inherently a kind, compassionate person who desperately craves love, family, and a normal life. However, she is haunted by a lifetime of loss: the death of her brother, the dismantling of her husband The Vision, and the magical erasure of her children. This has left her with profound guilt and psychological scars, creating a constant internal battle between her heroic intentions and the devastating potential of her grief-fueled power.

The MCU's depiction of Wanda's powers followed a clear arc of escalation, beginning with more traditional superhero abilities and culminating in her destiny as a top-tier magical being. Abilities:

• Psionics (via Mind Stone): Her powers were initially presented as a suite of psionic abilities.
  • Telekinesis: The ability to move and manipulate objects and matter with her mind. This is her most common application of power, used for everything from levitation and creating shields to tearing apart Ultron sentries and even holding back Thanos.
  • Energy Manipulation: She can project powerful blasts of red, psionic energy, create protective force fields, and contain explosions.
  • Mental Manipulation: Wanda can engage in a form of telepathy, allowing her to read minds, communicate mentally, and, most potently, induce hypnotic states and project vivid, often terrifying, visions into the minds of her targets (as seen with the Avengers in Age of Ultron).
• Chaos Magic: As established in WandaVision, this is the true source of her power. It is an ancient and mythical form of magic that allows for spontaneous creation. Her grief over Vision's death triggered this power on a massive scale, allowing her to:
  • Reality Warping (The “Hex”): Manifest an entire alternate reality bubble over the town of Westview, rewriting its physical structure, its inhabitants' minds, and its very laws of physics to conform to a sitcom-inspired fantasy.
  • Creation of Life: She spontaneously created a new, sentient version of the Vision and her twin sons, Billy and Tommy, from nothing but magical energy.
• Witchcraft and Rune Magic: After defeating Agatha Harkness and acquiring the demonic grimoire known as the Darkhold, Wanda began to formally study magic. She learned to cast spells, use Nordic protection runes (which she cleverly used to neutralize Agatha's magic), and tap into darker arts.
• Dreamwalking: As seen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, her study of the Darkhold granted her the ability to “dreamwalk”—projecting her consciousness into the body of an alternate-reality counterpart, allowing her to act in other universes.

Comparative Analysis: The MCU effectively streamlined Wanda's powers for a cinematic audience. They began as visually clear telekinetic and telepathic abilities before layering on the more complex magical lore. A key difference is the catalyst: the Mind Stone in the MCU versus a combination of demonic influence, genetic engineering, and magical lineage in the comics. While the comic Wanda's reality-warping has affected the entire multiverse, the MCU Wanda's greatest feat, the Westview Hex, was more localized, though her potential is stated to be limitless. The MCU also accelerated her power growth significantly, taking her from a mid-tier hero to arguably the most powerful individual on Earth in the span of just a few years.

• The Vision: The single most important relationship in Wanda's life across both canons. In the comics, their romance was a landmark story, a union between a “mutant” witch and a synthezoid “man” that challenged the very definition of humanity. They married and, through Wanda's magic, had twin sons, leading to her greatest happiness and subsequent devastation when Vision was dismantled and their children were revealed to be magical constructs. In the MCU, their bond is a tragic romance, blossoming from a shared sense of being “other” and culminating in her having to kill him to protect the Mind Stone, only to watch Thanos resurrect and kill him again—the ultimate catalyst for her grief in WandaVision.
• Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff): Her twin brother and lifelong protector. For years, they were inseparable, their bond forged through a difficult and nomadic childhood. Pietro's fiercely protective nature often bordered on controlling, but it always stemmed from a deep love for his sister. His death is a major trauma point for Wanda in both continuities; in the MCU, his death in Sokovia is a foundational loss, while in the comics, her fear of him being killed by the heroes in House of M is what pushes her to create the alternate reality in the first place.
• Agatha Harkness: A complex and pivotal figure. In the comics, Agatha was an ancient and powerful witch who became Wanda's mentor, teaching her to control her unpredictable powers. She was a stern but caring teacher, though she made the controversial decision to magically erase Wanda's memory of her children to spare her the pain of their loss, an act with catastrophic consequences. In the MCU, Agatha is introduced as an antagonist who, while trying to steal Wanda's power for herself, inadvertently forces Wanda to confront her trauma and understand her true identity as the legendary Scarlet Witch. In both versions, she is the key to Wanda understanding what she truly is.

• Chthon: In the comics, Chthon is arguably Wanda's true arch-nemesis. He is the primeval Elder God of Chaos and the author of the Darkhold. Having marked her at birth, he sees Wanda not as a person but as a perfect vessel through which he can return to Earth and plunge it into chaos. Many of Wanda's most significant losses of control and power surges have been secretly influenced or directly caused by Chthon's manipulations from his prison dimension. He represents the dark source and ultimate price of her Chaos Magic.
• Her Own Trauma and Grief: Perhaps Wanda's most persistent foe is herself. Her history is a relentless series of traumatic losses that have repeatedly triggered devastating mental breakdowns. Her inability to process her grief in a healthy way, combined with her reality-altering powers, makes her a threat to everyone around her. Storylines like Avengers Disassembled and WandaVision are not about a villain trying to conquer the world, but about a deeply wounded person whose pain becomes a weapon of mass destruction.
• Doctor Doom: In the comics, Doctor Doom has a unique and insidious relationship with Wanda. A master of both science and sorcery, Doom has long coveted Wanda's power. During the Children's Crusade storyline, it was revealed that he manipulated a vulnerable, amnesiac Wanda, intending to marry her and siphon her reality-warping Life Force energy for himself. He was largely responsible for amplifying her power to the levels seen in House of M, making him a secret architect of her greatest crisis.

• The Avengers: Wanda's found family and primary heroic affiliation. She has been a member of numerous incarnations of the team, including the main squad, the West Coast Avengers, and the Avengers Unity Division. She views the Avengers as her home and its members as her true family, which made her subconscious attack on them during Disassembled all the more tragic—an ultimate act of lashing out at those she loved most.
• Brotherhood of Evil Mutants: Her first team in the comics, which she and Pietro joined out of a misguided debt to Magneto. Their time with the Brotherhood was short-lived, as they were fundamentally good people who were uncomfortable with Magneto's extremism.
• Force Works: Following the disbanding of the West Coast Avengers, Wanda was a founding member of this proactive, short-lived splinter group led by Iron Man in the 1990s.

This storyline represents Wanda's lowest point and the catalyst for a decade of Marvel stories. A casual remark by a teammate triggers Wanda's submerged memories of her magically-created sons, Billy and Tommy. The psychic trauma of remembering their existence and subsequent loss causes a complete psychotic break. Subconsciously, she begins to use her immense reality-warping powers against her found family, the Avengers. She manifests a zombified Jack of Hearts who destroys Avengers Mansion, causes a sober Tony Stark to become belligerently drunk at the U.N., manipulates Vision to crash a Quinjet and unleash Ultron drones, and creates a Kree armada that results in the death of Hawkeye. The event culminates in the complete dissolution of the team and marks Wanda as one of the most dangerous forces on the planet.

Picking up directly from Disassembled, the combined X-Men and remaining Avengers meet to decide the fate of the uncontrollably powerful Wanda. Fearing they will vote to kill his sister, Quicksilver convinces her to use her powers to prevent it. Wanda obliges by warping all of reality into the “House of M,” a world where every hero has their deepest wish granted and mutants are the dominant species, ruled by Magneto and his family. However, a young mutant named Layla Miller retains her memory of the original reality and helps the heroes break free of the illusion. The climax sees a furious Magneto murder Quicksilver for causing this chaos. In a state of ultimate despair, seeing how mutants and their conflict were at the root of all her suffering, Wanda whispers three words that echo across the multiverse: “No more mutants.” In a flash, reality is restored, but over 90% of the world's mutants are permanently depowered, an event known as “M-Day” or the Decimation.

This event centers on Wanda's “reincarnated” sons, Wiccan (Billy Kaplan) and Speed (Tommy Shepherd) of the Young Avengers. As Wiccan's own reality-warping powers grow, he sets out to find his mother, believing she can be redeemed. They discover an amnesiac Wanda in Latveria, engaged to Doctor Doom. The storyline serves as a major retcon, revealing that Wanda's incredible power surge during Disassembled and House of M was not solely her own doing. It was amplified by the Life Force, a powerful cosmic energy that Doctor Doom had manipulated her into channeling, hoping to steal it for himself. By the story's end, Wanda regains her memories and her powers, finally coming to terms with her actions and starting a long road to redemption by restoring the powers of some mutants.

The definitive story for the MCU's Scarlet Witch. Set weeks after the events of Avengers: Endgame, the series is a deep, allegorical exploration of Wanda's overwhelming grief following the final death of Vision. In a moment of unbearable sorrow, her Chaos Magic erupts, creating a pocket reality (the “Hex”) around Westview, New Jersey. She transforms the town into a series of idyllic, evolving sitcom settings, populates it with its mind-controlled residents, and manifests a new Vision and twin sons to live out the family life she was denied. The series masterfully peels back the layers of her trauma while simultaneously introducing S.W.O.R.D., an adult Monica Rambeau, and the witch Agatha Harkness. It culminates in Wanda battling Agatha, accepting the loss of her fantasy family, and finally embracing her mythic identity as the Scarlet Witch, taking possession of the Darkhold to learn more about her prophesied power.

• Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610): In this darker, more grounded reality, Wanda and Pietro's relationship is disturbingly incestuous. She is a core member of the Ultimates (this reality's Avengers) and her powers are based on complex mathematical probability calculations. She is brutally murdered by a volley of bullets, a death orchestrated by Ultron under the manipulation of Doctor Doom. Her death sends Pietro into a rage that is a key factor leading to the cataclysmic Ultimatum event.
• Age of Apocalypse (Earth-295): In the reality created when Legion accidentally kills his father, Charles Xavier, Wanda is a key member of Magneto's X-Men, fighting against the tyrannical Apocalypse. She is in a loving relationship with Rogue and is considered one of the team's most powerful members. Her death at the hands of Apocalypse's son, Nemesis, is a devastating blow to the team and personally shatters Magneto.
• Marvel Zombies (Earth-2149): When a zombie plague overruns the Marvel Universe, the Scarlet Witch is among the infected. As a zombie, she retains her intelligence and reality-warping powers, making her one of the most terrifying and formidable members of the zombie horde.
• What If… Zombies?! (MCU, Earth-89521): An alternate take on the zombie apocalypse, this animated version shows a zombie Wanda who was infected while trying to protect Vision. She is so powerful that she resists the Mind Stone's cure and remains a near-unstoppable threat, guarding a zombified Vision.

• vision
• quicksilver
• magneto
• avengers
• house_of_m
• chaos_magic
• chthon
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• doctor_strange

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