Wanda Maximoff, Scarlet Witch

Introduction

Earth-616 (Comics); Earth-199999 (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Creators: Stan Lee (writer); Jack Kirby (artist)

First appearances (Comics):

• Uncanny X-Men (1^st series) #4, March 1964

Other media appearances:

• In the MCU, Elizabeth Olsen portrays Wanda Maximoff. Her first appearance was in the mid-credits’ scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014).
• Do not forget to check out Wanda Vision, a Marvel Studios-developed series for Disney’s streaming service, Disney+.

MARVEL Lore vs MSF

According to the Comics Lore, Scarlet Witch combines her Mutant powers with her Witch training to achieve immense power. Her Mutant powers depend on percentages, while her Hex powers utilize those percentages into avoidable Elemental effects.

In Marvel Strike Force, Scarlet Witch’s power did not represent her Lore power for a long time. Only after introducing the Darkhold team, Scarlet Witch does become as important as she should be (but not in full).

When we talk about the connection between the game and Lore, we can find some similarities. Her knowledge of Witchcraft can be linked with her skill to prolong negative effects. Also, her Mutant ability to cause harm at some percentage is shown as a chance to passively spread negative effects every turn. Last but not least is her ability to manipulate Nature, Reality, and Souls which is represented in a skill that heals and equalizes the Health of all allies.

Scarlet Witch is an old character in MSF whose power did not represent her Lore importance for a long period. Recently this has improved, but still, she is not as powerful as she should be. Developers indeed tried to create her as accurately as possible, but it is still a long way from perfection and reality (like for many AAA Marvel characters in MSF).

Powers

Wanda Maximoff is immensely powerful and referred to as the most dangerous Avenger multiple times.

Below you will find a list of some of her powers and abilities:

• Witchcraft
• Chaos Magic
• Astral Projection
• Binding
• Energy Manipulation
• Flight
• Force Field
• Gravity Manipulation
• Illusion Casting
• Nature Manipulation
• Reality Manipulation
• Soul Manipulation
• Telekinesis, Telepathy, Teleportation…

Earth-616

Wanda and Pietro Maximoff were born to a nomadic Romani witch Natalya. Their birthplace can not be known for sure. Some sources suggest that they were born near the town of Novi Pazar, Serbia.

We do know that Natalya was afraid for Wanda’s and Pietro’s security with her, so she gave the babies to her brother, Django, and his wife, Marya. The High Evolutionary and his Knights abducted the twins and brought them to Wundagore Mountain in Transia.

Wundagore Mountain was Chthon’s prison. Wanda absorbed a portion of energy that the lord of chaos radiated through the mountain. Because of it, Wanda, once she grew up, would be able to practice magic.

After being taken to Wundagore Mountain, Maximoffs were back with their family. They had a happy childhood and traveled a lot. Witches from a coven noticed Wanda and wanted to recruit her into their coven. After an attack by Chthon’s followers, Wanda manifested her hex powers for the first time. Chthon reached her soul and made it clear that she was not allowed to join any coven.

Django, who still was taking care of the twins, was forced to steal food due to poverty. Enraged villagers caught him and attacked their caravan. Pietro used his super-speed to get him and his sister out of harm’s way.

In the dark

Using her powers, Wanda accidentally set fire to a village. The villagers attacked her wanting revenge, and one of the attackers addressed her as a “Scarlet Witch”. It was the first time someone used this term. It became her code name.

Wanda was lucky that Magneto arrived at the scene and saved her. Due to this development, Wanda felt indebted to Magneto. She was willing to serve under Magneto until she paid her debt off.

The twins got recruited to Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants as Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. They fought the X-Men many times.

During one fight with the X-Men, Pietro got caught. Magneto wanted to use a special weapon and destroy both X-Men and Pietro. He was ready to sacrifice Quicksilver. Scarlet tried to stop Magneto until Magneto threatened to kill her.

Namor helped Wanda by destroying the equipment before Magneto could use it. Professor X released Quicksilver to Wanda’s custody, and the twins left.

Soon after, they abandoned the Brotherhood of Evil and joined the Avengers. At the time, founding members were absent. Captain America was the leader of the new roster of heroes, including Wanda, Pietro, and the archer Hawkeye.

The Love

Wanda and Quicksilver were part of the Avengers until Scarlet Witch lost her powers. She set out on a quest to find the reason behind her power loss. She was unable to contribute to her team like before.

Once she regained her power, Maximoffs returned to the Avengers. She fell in love with Vision, Ultron’s creation. Vision proved to the Avengers that he was not evil, and they accepted him.

Scarlet Witch used magic to achieve pregnancy with her husband, Vision. She gave birth to twins, Tommy and Billy. Unbeknownst to Wanda, the energy she used to become pregnant came from Mephisto. The demon reabsorbed her children, ending their existence.

Agatha Harkness was afraid for Wanda’s mental health and cast a spell to make the Scarlet Witch forget about her children, to ease her pain. The spell did not last long, but Wanda suppressed the memory of her twins.

Training with Agatha would benefit Wanda. It helped her control Chaos Magic. Even when Agatha died, her astral form was helping Scarlet Witch. Harkness warned Wanda of immediate danger multiple times and took the best care of Maximoff she could from the astral plane.

Scarlet Witch acquired powerful and dangerous abilities. She could alter reality. In one particular situation, Wasp mentioned Wanda’s children. Maximoff brokedown. Scarlet Witch created chaos, and the fight broke out. Due to Wanda’s magic and spells She-Hulk killed Vision.

The regret

Wanda was unconscious, and during that time, Professor X wanted to discuss the possibility of killing Wanda Maximoff, as she was “too dangerous”. Quicksilver was furious that the Professor even considered it.

After gaining consciousness and realizing the scope of her destruction, Wanda wanted to undo the damage she had caused. Using her powers, she altered the reality. Mutants were a majority in this new world, with the human minority. Magneto was the ruler, and several other heroes were given what they desired the most, in the hope of preventing them from rebelling.

A young mutant, Layla Miller, managed to restore the memory of some heroes. They attacked Magneto believing he stood behind the altered reality. Wanda admitted to Dr. Strange her brother, Quicksilver, set the new reality in motion. Magneto confronted Quicksilver. He was furious that Pietro did everything in his name. Quicksilver paid for it with his life.

Wanda managed to revive her brother. She was enraged at Magneto and told him that Quicksilver only wanted to make Magneto happy and that his actions destroyed both Wanda and her brother. He chose the mutants instead of two of them.

Scarlet’s words “No More Mutant” bore heavyweight. Wanda returned the world to the way it used to be, only this time 90% of the mutant population got stripped of their powers. It was the worst day in the history of Mutants. Mutants and ex-mutants call this day, M-Day.

Before we get lost in this overwhelming story, let us check out the MCU version of Wanda Maximoff.

Earth-199999

Sokovia, a troubled country

In this dimension, Wanda also grew up with her twin brother Pietro. They were born to Olek and Iryna Maximoff in Sokovia.

In the MCU, Wanda is born with mystical powers and abilities to harness Chaos Magic.

Olek and Iryna were killed when twins were ten years old during the bombings of Novi Grad. Wanda and her brother spent several days trapped under the rubble. A missile labeled “Stark Industries” kept their company during that time. Maximoff twins hated Tony Stark. After this event, Wanda took part in anti-American protests in Sokovia.

The twins were recruited to the Hydra organization and were part of the experiment with the Scepter. Baron Strucker supervised the tests. Every single test subject died due to the experiments, but the Maximoff twins survived. The Mind Stone inside the Scepter awoke and amplified Wanda’s powers. Her brother developed super speed.

When the Hydra fell, Wanda and Pietro joined Ultron. Their hate towards Tony Stark was enormous. Luckily, when Wanda managed to look into Ultron’s mind, she saw the robot’s true intentions – to destroy everyone on Earth. The twins joined the Avengers during the Battle of Sokovia to stop Ultron.

Pietro died in the battle trying to save Hawkeye and the Sokovian boy archer was protecting. Wanda felt her twins’ death. She focused her anger on Ultron and ripped his “heart” out. If not for Vision, Wanda would be killed too.

The End Game

Vision and Scarlet disappeared and lived off the grid in Europe. They led a peaceful life until the ambush by Thanos’ followers. Once Avengers became aware of Thanos’ intentions, they moved Vision to Wakanda to extract the Mind Stone from his forehead. Wanda stood by Vision’s side while T’Challa’s sister Shurie attempted extraction of the Mind Stone.

The development on the battlefield forced Scarlet Witch to join the fight. When Thanos himself entered the battle, Wanda had to make a painful decision to destroy the Mind Stone and kill her lover, Vision, in the process.

Her sacrifice was not enough, sadly. Thanos used the Time Stone to resurrect Vision and kill him again by removing the Mind Stone from his forehead.

With the flick of his fingers, Thanos wiped out half of the living beings in the Universe.

Wanda got resurrected with everyone in the year 2023 because of Avengers’ actions. She almost ripped apart Thanos in the battle. He had to call in a missile strike to escape the wrath of the Scarlet Witch.

Wanda attended Stark’s funeral.

We believe that most Marvel fans watched WandaVision, an MCU series, but we do not want to spoil it for those who did not have time to watch it yet. Go, watch it! We will cover the events from the series on some other occasion.

Warning! Spoiler below!

Wanda and her tutor Agatha Harkness have an “interesting interaction” in the series. What do you think of it in the lights of the Earth-616 version of events?

Basic information

• Real name: Wanda Maximoff
• Species: Human
• Gender: Female
• Place of Origin: Wundagore Mountain, Transia
• Occupation: Witch
• Height: 5’7’’
• Weight: 132 lbs.
• Eyes: Blue
• Hair: Auburn