I got a few asks about this topic, I guess Elizabeth Olsen was asked the Telegraph about how her casting as Wanda could be perceived as whitewashing. She said “I didn’t know people said it about my character, because she is from eastern Europe… I mean I look Russian when I’m in Russia [she studied theatre there for a time], so I didn’t know”. And, to be honest, I don’t know how she could better respond to this question...well, yes I do. But I just mean to say that what if she then asked the interviewer “So then how should I look?” or “What would a correct actress look like or originate from?” - then what would they say? If you’re asking John Wayne that same question about portraying Genghis Khan then there’s an answer. If you’re asking Benedict Cumberbatch about playing Khan Noonien Singh then there’s an answer there as well. The presentation of those actors isn’t congruous to what it should be or would be in even an approximate reality like Hollywood. 

When Elizabeth Olsen was cast, Wanda was (and IS, dammit!) the product of a Polish Romani woman and an Ashkenazi Jewish male- that product of the two could very easily be and often are fair-skinned or at least somewhat. I’ve seen all kinds of both, there’s no set way either can look which isn’t to say they aren’t still minorities, that they aren’t still discriminated against. Aaron Taylor-Johnson said he is Jewish once but as far as I knew when watching the movie the first time, he was just another Brit. It didn’t add or take away from his performance. 

Tony Stark is sort of the Howard Hughes-like playboy, he’s brilliant but his own worst enemy- people can get on board with that because it shows the existential cost of excellence and privilege. Then there’s Cap, he’s superhero pastiche in conflict with (but in continual acceptance of) the gritty reality of the world, that has obvious allegorical value. As for Hulk? Well, he’s the doctor Jeckel and Mr. Hyde dichotomy that is in us all. That trifecta works…but Spider-man/Peter Parker? What do we know of him other than that he’s a nerd who either loves Gwen Stacy or Mary-Jane and most definitely, always Aunt May…but in a different way. So not much. Obviously, he needs a reboot. Roll your sleeves up, let’s get to work!

Powers: Spider-man’s powers are just all too much, he can toss cars and hold sinking ships together, he’s never really in believable physical peril, he’s never gonna die for real and it’s a problem. Granted, there’s the radioactive spider-bite which is semi-sufficient and commonly accepted as the point of origin when it comes to his powers but does it hold a candle to a spider that’s simply…magic? It certainly explains a lot of feats, it accommodates a shitton that science can’t.

Deeper Origin: Okay, so with the placement of a mystical spider we need a greater presence, someone who orchestrated all this or else it isn’t believable. It was a magnificent plot construed to deliver Peter to the spider that bit him- it’s kismet. This must’ve been done with care or malevolence or both, we can just imply one or the other then play it by ear.

His parents have always been rather plain. Agents of SHIELD or something, right? It hardly adds gravitas to the mantle of THE Spider-man. What if this spider bite which is so long coincidence is now like an inheritance? He’s Spider-man like his father before him. Where have I heard that one before? Anyways, he’s more individuated by the whole legacy aspect of inheriting his costume, look, and powers by a father figure. It’s not his idea anymore like, at all. But he never had a very cool moment where he explained why he was Spider-man anyways so that’s not terribly important as collateral.

Dammit. Now that we’ve invented the cool, unnamed wizard father we still have Aunt May and…oh fuck, Uncle Ben. Okay, so two-fold revelation they knew he had these powers but thought he was still related to them…which he…isn’t now? But they were so selfish and jealous they never told him. Whew, I thought we were painted in corner for a second there. Let’s not dwell on the years of deception, maybe they just knew and were to lazy to tell him.

Relationships:

Gwen: Nobody ever undid all that fucking Norman Osborn crap or the spider babies it produced and that was years ago. Let’s have Peter remember that and then confront Gwen Stacy’s ghost and renounce his love. He has lamented over her for too long, it’s starting to define all his character’s pathos, if she’s sort of a shithead then it’ll make it easier for him to be more self-defined.

Mary-Jane: He’s been broken up with her for a long time but let’s put them together again in some situation just so that he can doubly emphasize this. Sure, One More Day was a decade ago but it needs to be said! “No longer am I just the husband of the famous, vaunted Mary-Jane Watson. I am Spider-man, like my father before me!”. It might need to be said a few times over a few years just to drive the point home, we’ll have to come up with a few iterations of that one.

Aunt May: She betrayed Peter when she lied about his origin. Fuck her. And Ben too. They’re monsters.

Madame Web: The whole father-spider-wizard thing works with Madame Web’s precognitive abilities and she has guided Peter in the past. What if it’s just Peter and Madame Web? Like, those two completely alone. Okay, cumbersome plot, she had precognition and so she knew the events that would draw him to her once again- OH! She knew. It was kismet, destiny, fate. So the years of lying about the wizardry and spider-dad sort of work because now it’s all brought Peter to the point he’s at…which is…..

Got an ask about what my MCU Dream Team would be and I was surprised that somehow I’d never thought of this before. I realized that a lot of my favorite MCU superheroes are ones with “red in their ledger” to one degree or another so I imagine this would be a Thunderbolts-like setup.

Scarlet Witch - In this dynamic, she’d be always at the center of moral dilemmas, having gone with and against the grain on two major occasions recently (Age of Ultron & Civil War). She’s the true wildcard in this dynamic because everyone likes her and trusts her, she has a subtle upper hand that one with her kind of power might take advantage of.

Dr. Strange- He’s mentoring Wanda...at least to begin with! His disciple begins to evidence frighteningly high levels of power and increasing command. He’s conflicted over whether or not he should tether her (spoilers, he doesn’t! A woman is allowed to be wildly powerful for once).

Winter Soldier - Bucky is almost squishy with regret, he feels like an albatross to all other heroes. He’s trying to redeem himself but he’s an emotional wildfire who may succumb at any given moment to his own torment.

Elektra - Elektra is among the darkest in the group but provides levity with her joie de vivre. She’s adaptable but not necessarily impressionable or susceptible to authority, she’s the one that slinks in with an unfiltered snipe when people begin to take themselves too seriously.

So here’s the most complicating factor in that theoretical- it was the 40s. It was the 40s even in the revised origin with Magda, the twins were kept in suspended animation subsequent to her fleeing and dying. So Wanda and Pietro would be in their 70s now and would’ve led entirely different lives.

Superheroes (in current 616 canon) were much a less a thing in the mid 20th century so they probably would’ve lived quite covertly. It’s possible that they might’ve been recruited to the original-original Avengers that Nick Fury (the first) assembled back in 1959- those Avengers hunted down residual Third Reich dweebs. It’s hard to imagine, I don’t love the idea of the original Avengers not being the original Avengers, much like I didn’t like the original X-men being made to not be the original X-men. In case you hadn’t noticed, I really despise retcons that rip out the foundations of characters/teams I love.

They would’ve been very different but not really for the better. Whizzer and Miss America would’ve remained dead and would’ve died with little relationship to the twins so there wouldn’t really be anywhere for them to go from there, me thinks.

Comics Alliance: One of the most powerful issues in this run is the Civil War II issue, and seeing the abuse in Wanda’s relationship with Pietro. Was it inevitable for Wanda to confront this head on? Has her road to redemption created more confidence? She has interesting power dynamics with the men in her life, including Doctor Doom, Magneto, and even Vision.

James Robinson: I think her road is moving on from all the “Magneto’s Daughter or not/Avengers Disassembled events” and stepping out into a future.

The idea of her dealing with Pietro, came out of me wondering what would be an organic Civil War II tie-in that didn’t take away from the series, and true to the feel of our book. Wanda confronting her brother (a war at home, so to speak), with more dialogue than fighting, seemed right. And some of the questions and statements about their relationship are things I wish she’d said to Pietro a long time ago. I didn’t want to delve too deeply into the men in her past, but I do feel she’s always been in their shadow. This series was about her stepping into the light.

From... Witchcraft & Redemption: James Robinson Talks Scarlet Witch

There’s something of a line in the sand between them, no doubt about that. As it stands, there’s still a divide between Marvel and Fox as far as the movies go and they both have their own separate plans for the next few years. That being said, Sony also had a slew of projects in development for Spider-man and we all know how that ended up. Also, a lot of the projects are introducing new characters who aren’t stationed in the current cinematic continuity - X-Force, New Mutants, Gambit, etc. Deadpool poses no significant threat seeing as how he’s fairly standalone and breaks the 4th wall constantly and Wolverine 3 will be the last time Hugh Jackman dons the claws.

Not to mention the Inhumans, who were somewhat like makeshift mutants for Marvel, no longer have their own movie....but still will have a presence in the next phase, apparently. In the comics, the Inhumans and the X-men have never been more inter-related so one has to wonder if that’s an experiment of sorts.

Also, most importantly, Marvel and Fox are developing an X-men TV show together. Now, I believe Bryan Singer is a consultant so it may be in the vein of the movies but Legion, which we know a little more about, is supposed to take place in alternate universe. Legion will take place in a world where mutants haven’t been exposed yet and it just so happens the new X-men series will be about “an ordinary family” in sort of an “underground railroad” adventure that involves young mutants...so, are they potentially set in the same out-of-cinematic-continuity world? One has to wonder. 

This new mythology is potentially MCU-compatible, right? We’ve also seen shows like Jessica Jones and Daredevil only slightly and sparsely reference the MCU but still remain encompassed by it. But where does this leave Wanda? Well, she will most certainly be in Infinity War which will premiere in 2018 (by then, this new X-men series will be at the end of it’s first season) so, if there is an adjoining of mythologies, she could be affected by it. Of course this wouldn’t mean we’d see Wanda interact with any Fox-owned cinematic characters as we know them. In other words, if you see Magneto he won’t be played by Michael Fassbender or Ian Mckellan but, really, they’ve both had such a good run that I’m okay with that. As for Evan Peters as Quicksilver, I like him as I liked Andrew Garfield as Spider-man but they had their glory as well.

I’ve gotten a couple questions about the Wanda/Pietro divide in the latest Scarlet Witch so I’ll address it as best I can.

I’ve just felt as though Wanda has become a very isolated character. In some ways, she’s gotten to show facets of herself in this solo that have been genuinely formative and interesting. But, at this point, it’s as though Agatha is the only person in her life which is not how I imagined this series would go. I pictured Wanda training Billy, I pictured interactions with old friends like Carol Danvers or Steve Rogers, I pictured Wanda finding the sense of family that she used to so heavily desire through other means than motherhood/domestication. To see Wanda at odds with Pietro is definitely disheartening, interesting in ways, but still very disheartening.

I think it shows a lack of faith in the character to always have her express her individuality through severance. I would’ve liked to see her and Pietro at odds but still around each other, still working things out- to me it’s far more interesting when characters have contentions but must stick it out with one another. If Pietro had a recurring role like that, I might’ve been more open to contention because I would know it’s going somewhere new, somewhere that develops both characters. Wanda doesn’t need to be in this vacuum with the ghost of some chick who is probably a Svengali shaping her into a WMD.

X-23′s first series (”Innocence Lost”) made me cry so much when I first read it. This poor little girl being forced to carry out vicious acts of gruesomeness, it’s incredibly dark and she ends up being coerced to do awful, awful things. The art is gorgeous too, kids are pretty hard to draw but Billy Tan drew Laura with all these expressions and poses that were just so on-point. 

That’s nice of you to say, thank you!

To be honest, I myself am conflicted about this. But one has to remember that the X-men movie lore was introduced during a time wherein superhero movies were nearly extinct. While people will credit Batman Begins, Spider-man, or even the first Iron Man with introducing the modern superhero cinematic experience- it was really the X-men. That movie predated all the others, it was a sleeper hit, and it was a critical success but, in order for that to happen, compromises had to be made. 

The original X-men movie is steeped in realism and earnestness because, at the time, there was no indication audiences would relate to a more classic template. The Superman films of the 70s/80s dovetailed into a descent of campiness as did the Batman films with films like Batman Forever and Batman and Robin- they were alienating to average viewers and just insulting to fans.

So when the first X-men movie started, it started with Auschwitz and a proposal to congress. Characters who were hard to adapt, who might’ve come out wrong and/or would have been too costly like Beast and Nightcrawler were cut altogether. Jean Grey became a doctor, Mystique became almost repitillian to make her powers seem more feasible, and Rogue was made to be more understated, less sassy and quippy.

The Nights of Wundagore arc goes from Avengers volume 1, issue 181 to issue 187. It gets Wanda-heavy around issue 185 and delves into the beautifully strange origin story of the Maximoff twins- this peculiar, tragic, mixed-genre origin was the first thing to attract me to Wanda. Hence, my bewilderment and rage at recent developments.

There are two volumes of Vision and Scarlet Witch which I also have a fondness for because, again, Wanda throws a genre hexbolt into any scenario. It’s all emotionally-driven storylines- the birth of Luna, Wanda’s pregnancy, the revelation Magneto is the father of the Maximoff twins. These are interesting stories because they get into the everyday life of a synthezoid and witch which is charmingly bizarre.

 Darker than Scarlet is another arc that informs a lot of what you’ve read already, it set the course for Wanda’s storylines going into the millennium. It’s not spectacular but I think it’s an interesting read because it does have some strong concepts. That’s Avengers West Coast issues 51-57 and 60-62.

I would also check out Volume 3 of Avengers to get a glimpse of the more modern day Wanda- the first 30 issues or so feature her quite prominently, it’s 90s Wanda.

Some stray issues-

Uncanny X-men Volume 1 #4- This is just Wanda’s first appearance.

Uncanny X-men Volume 1 #6- Magneto & Namor team up against the X-men, Wanda and Pietro are feature players and begin to show moral ambiguity leaning more towards superheroism,

Uncanny X-men Volume 1 #11- This is when they ditch the Brotherhood.

Avengers Volume 1 issues #16-30 - This covers the “Caps Kooky Quartet” era. You get to see Wanda’s thought-bubble lust for Steve and actually a few moments of triumph that display a changing of attitude towards female characters of that era like Wanda.

Avengers Voume 1 #91- Wanda confesses her feelings for Vision under duress.

So I’ve been thinking about this A LOT and I believe it has been the intention, across many story arcs, to make Agatha evil but it’s been dropped again and again and again. Yet this trail of suspicious forks leaves something very interesting off the beaten path, a path that runs adjacent to Wanda’s all along. In a way, it’s sort of brilliant because it’s one of the only revelations a writer could make that wouldn’t be from thin air, an uncharacteristically substantive twist revelation. I hope it’s true, I quite like this theory and its history. 

ENJOY!

EXHIBIT A: A Continued Vested Interest

She seems to gravitate both intensely and quickly to reality warpers. Before she ever even met Wanda, Agatha was the governess of Franklin Richards whose reality altering powers are on par with Wanda’s. The two even lived together for a period of time and, like Wanda, in spite of Agatha’s protectiveness and care- Franklin only grew more powerful and less able to control it. 

And while this might not necessarily be a machination originally related to Wanda, there were plenty of moments where Agatha evidenced a darker side…