Why does everyone sh*t on the Scarlet Witch?

by 21-Jan-14

Does the Scarlet Witch ever catch a break?

The Scarlet Witch is dead. Rogue killed her in Uncanny Avengers 15. Oh, of course I know she’s not dead in the long run. By the time we get to the conclusion of this Ragnarok Now story the giant Ragnarok-reset button will get pressed, just like it always does, and none of the deaths of Wanda, Rogue or Wonder Man will be permanent. And the character will be in Avengers: Age of Ultron (and maybe also X-Men: Days of Future Past), so she’s bound not to be dead in the comics for long. But a part of me thinks that it might not be a bad idea just to leave her dead.

I say this as a fan of Wanda. I’ve always found her one of the most interesting Avengers – indeed, the characters who most embody the Avengers for me are Wanda, Cap, Hawk and Jan. Her romance with the Vision was touching. Stan Lee obviously liked her as well, hence her transformation from villain to hero in less than a year.

But over the last three decades, she’s been put through some terrible shit – and I’m not (just) talking about her costume’s evolution from sleek swimsuit to Victoria’s Secret catalogue item. Her husband was disassembled, and after being put back together has oscillated between acting towards her with utter indifference and being utterly vindictive. Her children turned out not to be real, and were taken from her, as were her memories. They eventually came back, but not until she’d gone mad and tried to destroy the Avengers, gone mad and reformed the world with mutants in charge, and gone mad and depowered every mutant. This recent “death” seems to be because Rogue thought she was going mad again.

Why does this always happen to Wanda? Is it because, with her powers being really almost limitless (manipulation of probability does mean you can just about do anything), writers just don’t really know how to handle her? Well, maybe, but I observe that this sort of shit doesn’t seem to happen as much to Doctor Strange.

Anyway, I would like it to stop, please. Though the damage has been done now.

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2 responses to “Why does everyone sh*t on the Scarlet Witch?”

  1. Luke Pitcher says:

    Indeed. That “quantum babies” business was one of the cruellest things that I have ever seen in comics, which is saying something.

  2. Susan Booth says:

    I love Wanda too, and have since she first appeared as a member of the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. She was particularly awesome in the Geoff Johns era of ‘Avengers’. However, having a particularly awesome and dangerous power does leave a character open to being used as a game-changing super-villain by writers, and those writers often have no compunctions about doing this to a woman (with the implication she can’t control power. Just ask Jean Grey.

    And now Wanda is/has been in the hands of Rick Remender, who I trust as adders fanged. (What was with Rogue – who also started out as a villain and was dating Magneto – being judgemental about Wanda?)

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