Scarlet Witch is a superhero in a comic seriespublished by the Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and the artist Jack Kirby, Scarlet Witch first appeared in X-Men #4 in March 1964. She was initially portrayed as the supervillain, together with her twin brother, Quicksilver.
Wanda Maximoff’s Origin
The Scarlet Witch, also known as Wanda Maximoff, is a superhuman that is capable of altering probabilities. She was assumed to be Magneto’s daughter to his late wife, Magda. Being frightened of mutants, Magdadid not tell him about her pregnancy and fled from their house. Magda eventually found refuge with a benevolent cow-like humanoid named Bova, who had lived in Transia on Mount Wundagore. The Elder God named Chthon had altered Wanda at birth. He gave her the ability to use magic in addition to her mutant abilities, planning to use her as a vessel when her powers reached maturity. Fearing that Magnus would discover the children, Magda leaves the sanctuary during the blizzard. Because of this, Magda died during their escape. Bovathen, took on the responsibility for the motherless twins.
A short time later, Bova helped Miss America give birth to the child of her husband, named the Whizzer. Unfortunately, both child and mother died of radiation poisoning. When Whizzer arrived, Bova told him that Miss America had died. Bova gave him Wanda and Pietro, claiming that they were his children. However, Whizzer immediately returned them to Bova on Mt. Wundagore after he found out they were not his own.
Consequently, Bova found another set of foster parents named Django and Mary Maximoff, who had just lost their two children. Django worked as a doll-maker, but finding customers was hard for him. Eventually, Django had to steal food to keep his family from being hungry. As Wanda grew older, a boy of her age sexually harassed her. Because of this, she was forced to use her powers to keep him away. However, the villagers blamed Wanda for seducing the boy and attacked the Maximoffs, setting her family on fire.
Now, Wanda and Pietro believed they were the only remaining members of their family. The twins grew up taking care of themselves together. With this, Pietro became very protective of Wanda. Unbeknownst to the twins, Magneto saved them. Later on, they were recruited to the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.However, when Magneto is captured by a mysterious entity, the Brotherhood dissolves, and the twins claim that their debt to Magneto has been paid.
Scarlet Witch’s Character Evolution
The Silver Age
Scarlet Witch went through some important changes in her career. Wanda started her career on the side of evil as a member of the Evil Mutants Brotherhood of Magneto. However, in May 1965, she joined the Avengers just over a year later and became a heroin in Avengers comic series # 16. The distinction between good and evil on her actions is blurry, not because of morals. It was because of the reason that others had been concerned about the slight misuse of her powers.
The Bronze Age to Modern Age
Wanda has been a core member of the teams, Avengers and West Coast Avengers for many years. However, in the 2004 crossover storyline, her powers were radically altered as well as her place in the Marvel Universe.
Initially, her powers were portrayed as an ability to control the probability and to generate hexes on her opponents. Nevertheless, a breakdown caused by the realization that she had lost her children, had manifested her ability to alter all reality. Consequently, this caused the deaths of several characters as she was lashing out at her former friends.
Superhuman Abilities and Power
Scarlet Witch has the mutant power to affect the field of probability. She can create a hex-sphere, a finite pocket of reality-disrupting quasi-psychic force that can cause a disturbance in the molecular-level probability field. Among the many phenomena which she can cause are the rapid melting of gun barrels, the combustion of any flammable object, and the rapid rusting or decay of various organic and inorganic materials. These phenomena occur almost instantly after she has completed her hex. However, her hex-casting range is restricted only by her line of sight.
Her physical condition also restricts the reliability of her hex-casting power. Scarlet Witch can cast multiple hex-sphere in rapid succession and produce favorable results for nearly an hour when well-rested, or in good health.Some events, however, have shown that she has removed her limits altogether. Scarlet’s powers have evolved, giving her the mutant ability to magically alter reality on a vast scale.
Furthermore, Wanda can fly, transform people and matter, fire powerful magic beams, and disable other mutants’ abilities. Scarlet Witch could also bring the dead back to life. However, while it appears that Scarlet Witch might have depowered herself, an incident with Hawkeye shows that she may have retained her powers to alter reality.