Author: livesque

Do you think Billy (or Tommy) will ever take on the ‘Scarlet Witch’ moniker? And what are your thoughts, in general, on Wanda not being the first to go by that name?

scarletwitching:

Billy? Maybe. Tommy? Probably not. He’s not a witch. 

I don’t like this new idea about where the name Scarlet Witch came from because this was already explained. In the first issue Wanda ever appeared in. And that explanation stayed consistent for over fifty years.

The story goes like this: Wanda accidentally caused a fire. Superstitious villagers declared her a “scarlet witch” and tried to kill her. We weren’t told if that was a common phrase where she was staying or if it was something one of the villagers made up. What we do know is that she adopted it as her mutant name. You could argue that it might be a term from local folklore or something she was already referring to herself as around town, but she was never shown using it before that incident.

The easiest explanation, though, is the best one: She called herself Scarlet Witch because that’s what the people who tried to kill her called her. She took what was meant to be an insult and an accusation and turned it into a point of pride.

There are two things to keep in mind here: 1) This was one of the defining moments of her life. It makes sense that she would look to this memory for inspiration on how to move forward. 2) Magneto is exactly the kind of person who would encourage impressionable young mutants to take insults from humans and “wear it like armor and it can never be used to hurt you.” Wanda, having had her life saved by this seemingly all-powerful man, would have been likely to listen.

I don’t buy the idea that she was already calling herself Scarlet Witch and decided to tell the local superstitious pitchfork-carriers this. Why would she announce herself as a witch to strangers? That’s certainly not how it was treated in earlier issues. There were attempts to explain the scarlet in the name, either as being connected to her red clothes or to accusations of sexual impropriety (à la scarlet woman), but none of them involved Wanda coming up with the name herself. There was never any hint of that at all.

I like the idea of a female legacy like this in the abstract, but The Scarlet Witch being that kind of legacy? Not so much. It doesn’t feel like a name anyone, even anyone in a particular family, could have. It feels specific to Wanda’s situation.* It’s full of mystery and innuendo (again, scarlet woman is the obvious connection), but it also just doesn’t sound like a nice thing to call someone. Scarlet has very particular connotations and red is the color of extremes and witch… rhymes with bitch. It sounds like exactly the name a teenage girl, having been driven from her home and forced to live on the edge of society, would give herself when she’s reborn as a supervillain. It’s not just a name. It’s a challenge. It says, “I know what people say about me, and I dare them to say it to my face.”

All of that is more compelling when tied to the specific incident of her almost being murdered, instead of being a thing her mom also called herself.

I’m not sure what we gain by throwing out the original story, with all its fascinating implications, and replacing it with something else. The key to making a mythos for a long-running superhero is to build on what’s already there, not throw it all away and start anew. But in this Age of Unnecessary Retcons, that seems to be the plan with Wanda.

*Yeah, I know there was June Covington, but whatever.

Hi, just a quick question, I started following this blog after Civil War, so I wanted to know what your policy on spoilers is? Are you a spoilers free blog, or spoilers with tags, or spoilers without tags? I just want to know because I’d like to go into Infinity War knowing as little as humanly possible!

EDIT: Well, I’m a dirty flipflopper. I was expecting we wouldn’t get much of substantial value until much closer to IW release–but with that not being the case, I’m diving headfirst into spoilerland. This blog will tag #infinity war, and #spoilers, but will contain spoiler content. 

I myself try to go into total blackout mode when actual story content starts appearing for a new movie, including staying off of Tumblr itself. 

The set photos we just got of Vision aren’t what I’d call story content, since we knew he was appearing in Infinity War anyway, but it is quite possible for set photos to contain spoilers (either directly or by inference), and those I won’t post (and try desperately to avoid if I can).

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I won’t share anything else from development besides some promotional photos and the two major theatrical trailers Marvel tends to release, which I’ll tag as #infinity war. If I end up cracking, the only thing you’ll see is my own content, which I’ll always stick it under a cut with tags!

After release I’ll tag for spoilers but be posting them without a cut for about two weeks.

compared to the movies, the X-Men Evolution adaptation of Wanda’s powers are much more faithful right? i remember watching the cartoon and loving her because of how confusing and hard to explain her powers were and how it was so unpredictable and entertaining to watch. Nowadays i know how different her personality and looks are from the comics and i know youre not a fan, but i still love that one version of her to this day, so id like to know your take on how her powers were depicted in the show

scarletwitching:

Evo Wanda is a good example of superpowers being an expression of the character, rather than a separate, secondary thing. She’s raw anger personified, and that is reflected in how her powers manifest. She just kinda does whatever, without much explanation, but it’s a destructive kind of whatever. There is no restraint because she’s all pain and no self control. They’re closer to 616 in a sense (and 616 Wanda’s powers are tied to her emotions, though not in quite the same way), but they’re doing thematic work that 616 Wanda’s powers don’t typically do.

She’s also a teen girl power fantasy in a different way than 616 Wanda has ever been. She’s all destruction, but it’s a pointed, deliberate destruction. She wants revenge and feels no guilt about that. She doesn’t want to hold back, which is why she resonated with young girls, who are so often told to not show emotion and not be angry and to make themselves smaller and quieter and less visible.

That’s why it’s extra awful that their only story ideas for her revolved around her being used and controlled and eventually mindraped into being a different character. She isn’t allowed to win. She’s a problem for the writers (too powerful, too self-possessed, too uncontrolled) the way that women who don’t conform to expectations are problems for society. Rather than give her something to do, they immediately grew bored because (and this is by admission of someone who worked on the show) they thought Magneto was right. They thought she was – this is an exact quote – “damaged goods.” They didn’t care about her journey, and they didn’t understand what was resonant or powerful about her. 

So they destroyed it.

you have inspired me into reading the whole Avengers v1, what are the best parts related to wanda for me to pay more attention?

scarletwitching:

The earliest stuff has its merits, but you really want to start focusing on Wanda towards the end of the Roy Thomas run. I’m not the biggest fan of how he wrote her either in the Silver Age or later on, but once her relationship with Vision starts to pick up, so does his writing of Wanda.

And then Englehart! You’ll know when Englehart starts writing (#105) because this is the first panel of his first issue and it really sets the mood. Some people think Englehart’s Wanda is unlikable, but those people are wrong. She’s getting the chance to focus on herself for the first time and figuring out who she is and what she wants. The journey is not meant to be smooth.

After Englehart’s run ends, there’s a lot of ups and downs.

Miscellaneous notes (in chronological order):

  • When she first shows up in Avengers with #16 and throughout the Cap’s Kooky Quartet era, the most interesting stuff is her interactions with other characters and the interplay between the team as a whole. 
  • Everyone but me loves the scene in Avengers #76 where she develops the world’s fastest case of Stockholm Syndrome and recites a Tennyson poem.
  • Please note how she (spoiler) kicks Loki’s ass at the end of Avengers/Defenders War (Avengers #118).
  • Wanda’s first origin (the one with The Whizzer) is in Giant Size Avengers #1.
  • Agatha Harkness shows up in #127. Wanda’s magic training is brief but important. Those are issues to pay extra attention to.
  • Don’t try to figure out what’s going on in the Celestial Madonna storyline. No one knows.
  • She marries Vision in Giant Size Avengers #4.
  • Gerry Conway wrote Avengers after Englehart, and he had no idea how Wanda’s powers worked. Ignore all the stuff he says about her having ESP.
  • The first Jim Shooter run has a, uh, very assertive Wanda. She yells at everyone, basically. I found this enormously fun. My Shooter tag has some examples with the issue numbers.
  • Her second origin (the one that introduces Chthon and establishes Magneto as her father) is Nights of Wundagore, #181-187.
  • There’s a recap of her history in Avengers #234.
  • Vision tries to take over the world in #252-254. That’s important for stuff that happens in West Coast Avengers. #252 is the issue where Wanda and Vision’s house is burned down by anti-mutant bigots, and her reaction (specifically the way that she has to suppress it) is a commentary on how minorities are expected to never be angry, no matter what happens, lest they be labeled One of the Bad Ones.
  • Do not let anyone tell you that you have to read The Crossing.
  • If you decide to read through the mid-90’s (totally understandable if you don’t), there are a couple of cool issues for Wanda: #397, which is her alone with Hawkeye, and #401, which focuses on her complicated feelings about Magneto.

Aaaand one small suggestion: Complete Marvel Reading Order has a list of Wanda’s comic appearances in 616, ordered by publication date. It goes to 2008 and includes writer and artist names next to each issue. If you want to know which comics she’s been in, this is the place to look.