#declan dane

I want Lore, Declan, and Modred back as big-time antagonists for Wanda and/or Pietro. They each tie into a different part of Wanda's background, and they each rival her in different areas-- Lore is a fellow nexus being; Declan is a witch with deep ties to Earth's folklore and mythology; and Modred is a devotee of Chthon. Wanda's newest enemy, Hexfinder, combines a lot of those attributes, but she also has her own unique backstory. These three, in addition to Hexfinder, make a well-rounded set of villains.

I realize that they're mostly Wanda's enemies, but Modred's gone after Pietro in the past, too. I'm hoping that Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver will expand the Maximoff family lore to will include Pietro more equally, moving forward.

As for friends and allies-- I would love to check back in with Holly LaDonna and the Zarkovs from Vision & the Scarlet Witch. Ilya Zarkov was actually killed in the 2004 miniseries Witches, but, y'know, it's comics-- death doesn't have to be permanent. Even if Ilya doesn't come back, Glynis would be a fun character to have pop back in to Wanda's life, just as a friend. As you know, I'm really interested in exploring the world of witches in Marvel comics, and Holly would be a cool character to do some worldbuilding with. Civilians like her and Darcy-- or even Zelma Stanton-- who don't ever become superheroes or have special powers, but do learn and practice magic, can provide different perspectives and more opportunities to talk about magical lore or theory. I think that's fun!

i really like how the art changes each issue, it makes each magic battle seem different, and that just fits since each one has different magic being used

“Green witch” might just be a title to make “scarlet witch” seem more appropriate in universe. Maybe the mcu is going to introduce a rainbow of sorcerers (mostly whitewashed but ignore that for colorful themes!)

They almost definitely aren't the same character, because the Emerald Warlock, in Scarlet Witch, is the alias of the Irish mythological figure Dian. I guess nothing's impossible with this franchise, but I have a really hard time imagining that they would re-interpret this character as a Puerto Rican woman named Rio.

Again, we don't know if "green witch," in this series specifically denotes plant- or earth-centered magic, but that if that is the case, it's kinda the opposite of Dian's whole deal. He actually casts a blight on Ireland that to kill all the plants and ruin the agriculture, which is a direct reference to the myth he originated from.

Now, the M C U loves to take characters and make them virtually unrecognizable-- almost as much as they love to completely miss the point of whatever story they're adapting. I truly wouldn't put anything past them.

Uncanny Avengers Annual (2016)

Fun fact, Pietro and Jericho have both met Declan, the Emerald Warlock who would later proclaim himself to be Wanda's arch-nemesis in Scarlet Witch (2016). He's posing as a good guy here, and never reveals his true intentions to either of them, but he secretly killed Jericho's friend Andre Gastrade later in this issue. UA Annual also establishes that Declan, who is also a centuries-old witch, is an old acquaintance of Agatha's.

If they EVER pick this thread back up, they could honestly do anything and I’d believe it. The only person who’s definitively off the list is the High Evolutionary-- thank goodness! The one thing we know about Wanda and Pietro’s mystery dad is that he killed Natalya. Dasha seems to believe that Natalya died fighting to retrieve baby Wanda and Pietro from Mount Wundagore. That may be true, but Natalya’s spirit claims that it wasn’t the Evolutionary who killed her. So, who was it? Was he on Mount Wundagore? Was he an associate of the Evolutionary? Whoever he was, he’s been set up as villain, which is funny because the whole story just redux of Erik and Magda. Their mom is dead, and she disappeared trying to protect her kids from their evil father. That’s a reductive take, obviously, but my point is that we’ve been hitting these beats since 1983.

My first thought was the sorcerer Modred, who is a devotee of Chthon and has faced off against both Wanda and Pietro on various occasions. Modred was actually in a magical state of suspended animation for several hundred years, and was revived well after the twins were born, but those comics are really old and I think that the editors would be comfortable tweaking the timeline. If we place Modred and the Darkhold on, or near, Wundagore during the twins’ infancy, he becomes a likely suspect, at least for killing Natalya-- he wouldn’t want to let Natalya interfere, once Chthon had set his sights on Wanda.

I also wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be Dian, aka Declan, the Emerald Warlock. Scarlet Witch never really explains why he’s so fixated on Wanda. His primary objective is to murder the descendants of the Tuatha de Danann, in order to break the curse that banished him from Ireland. The Maximoffs clearly aren’t on the list-- Wanda and Pietro are both alive when Declan returns to Ireland. So, why has he been tracking Wanda all these years? He’s spent a lot of his time stealing power from other witches. Maybe Wanda is just his latest target. Maybe, years ago, he targeted Natalya and had an affair with her in an attempt to get past her defenses. When Natalya got pregnant, I imagine Declan would have wanted to wait and see what kind of power the children would develop. Natalya would have eventually caught on to his game, and spend the rest of her life trying to keep her babies out of his grasp.

Magneto doesn’t fit very neatly into the new backstory, but I’m sure that Marvel could write him back in if they really, really wanted to. The AXIS retcon itself was full of holes, so it wouldn’t be very hard to walk back. Of course, at this point, I’d rather they just stay on one track, but I do prefer to read them as Erik’s children. You’d have to come up with a really good reason to make him kill Natalya, or even be in Transia during that time.

That's certainly what Robinson was trying to set him up for.

The 2016 Scarlet Witch series did a lot of work to refurbish Wanda's character and give her a fresh start. Wanda's new origins, along with the additional worldbuilding around witches and witchcraft, carved out a new niche for her and her family, restored a lot of Wanda's power and expertise, and provided material for future storylines. The Emerald Warlock is introduced as a villain whose origins and motives are rooted in that world, and whose actions go against the things that Wanda stands for as a witch. He declares himself to be her archenemy in #4, and the series ends with a very clear opening for him to come back.

Unfortunately, nobody else picked up any of that thread, or even acknowledged any of the new lore for several years. Orlando's Scarlet Witch has incorporated the mythology of Witchcraft and the Witches' Road, but so far, Declan's been left behind.

I do think there are still worthwhile and interesting ways to bring him back. I've shared several ideas for new stories on or about the Witches' Road, including one where Hecate returns as a vengeful goddess after Declan killed her in Scarlet Witch (2016). It would be pretty easy to incorporate him into any of those plots. Orlando has also introduced a lot of new settings and characters that I'm hoping he'll continue to revisit-- Declan could easily show up in places like Amanna or New Salem. I can definitely see him taking an interest in Amaranth, or trying to prey on young hereditary witches like Nico and Zoe, as he did in Scarlet Witch #15. He might clash with Hexfinder, or team up with Lore and Nicholas Scratch to make trouble in the Witches' Underworld.