#robintext

This is really extreme and unfair. I don't want to continue this conversation, as it's clear that you're not willing to engage in good faith, and frankly, after years of being clear about my background, I don't feel like I owe anything to an anonymous user who could very well be the exact sort of troll I was just talking about. But I suppose it would be helpful to clarify some things, since nobody ever reads my old posts.

I am a second-generation American of Cale Romani descent. I identify as a white-presenting person of mixed race. I have been consistently clear about this and there are photos of me on this blog. I'm not hiding anything. I am a Marvel fan and a long-time comic book reader. This page started out as a general fandom blog, but because I happen to be gitano, I am particularly invested in Romani characters and speak often about issues of Roma representation. I don't think that's weird or hard to understand, and I do still post about other stuff. I'm not trying to be a savior or spokesperson, I'm just talking about what I know and what matters to me. I don't think that Marvel comics are wholly or irredeemably racist, nor do I think that's a productive way to approach critical consumption. This is a massive literary canon and a reflection of many different aspects of American pop culture, and I prefer to engage with it as such.

People are entitled to have different opinions and feelings about these characters, and I've acknowledged plenty of times that I don't speak for everybody-- I've even expressed anxiety about drawing too much attention to comics when I know there are Roma who're sick of hearing about it! But I don't think that it's uncommon for marginalized people to have complex relationships with flawed or problematic representation. I, personally, like these characters and see value in them, but more than that, I think it's important to initiate critical conversations about them because they're very popular now, and they're going to exist in perpetuity, whether we like it or not.

I often make it a priority to direct those conversations towards actual Romani history, because I want readers to learn more about that and to participate in allyship beyond Marvel fandom. In fact, I've repeatedly said that I think fans' tendency to tokenize these characters is detrimental on all sides, and I do post about Romani issues outside of comics, but again, this is specifically a fandom blog, so that's what I focus on. If that's not getting across to you, either you aren't actually reading my blog and you just decided to bother me unprovoked, or I'm a much worse writer than I thought.

Possibly, but I can't really attest to what that would look like. Homeschooling, at least in modern America, still involves, like, textbooks and stuff. Education inequality for Roma is a serious issue, and we know that the Maximoffs were extremely poor, so they probably wouldn't have had access to those resources.

In looking back on Wanda and Pietro's childhood, I'm reminded of Peter David's racist remarks about Romani families, which were made at NYCC '16 in response to a question from Roma activist Vicente Rodriguez, regarding David's work with Romani characters like Quicksilver. David invoked an unfortunately common narrative about Romani culture-- that our children are routinely abused, kept out of schools, forced to work or beg at a young age, and pressured into early marriages. These are social issues that have more to do with poverty, segregation, and discrimination than actual Romani cultural values, but it has been very convenient for a very long time for racists to place the blame on us while obscuring the true history of our systemic oppression. This is a fundamental device of anti-romani rhetoric.

I'm bringing this up because I think a lot of people, whether they realize it or not, have internalized this view of Romani culture. While many traditional communities may seem closed off or insular, I think that the relationship between Roma and outside culture is misunderstood. Families like this don't want to stifle or harm their children, and it's not like we're behind the times-- we have feminism and other social movements. But it's hard for that kind of change and growth to take root in communities that are deeply oppressed, ghettoized, and routinely displaced. This is a documented issue, and you can see the same thing play out across race and poverty lines in America.

Well, I think you've kinda answered your own question. Wanda's had lots of costumes, but her most iconic ones can usually be attributed a specific artist's work on a specific book. She didn't really start changing up her look until the 90s, but I would say that her most iconic outfits, outside of the classic one, really are the Pérez dancer costume from Avengers (1998), and Kevin Wada's design from Scarlet Witch (2016). A lot of her other looks are more short lived, or just not well-remembered. The new one's made a big splash, but it's too soon to say what kind of staying power it'll have.

Some of those short-lived looks are actually my favorites, though, so I want to do a brief history of Wanda's costumes. This is only going to be from the main Earth-616 continuity, and, full disclosure, I'm cribbing most of these images from uncannyxmen.net's costume gallery.

The classic Scarlet Witch costume has had several variations over the years. She consistently wears some version of this outfit from the 60s through to the 90s, but there were often changes to the style and cut of her garments. She wore a wimple-like headpiece in her early appearances, and traded it in for the now-iconic M-shaped diadem in Avengers #36, published 1966. She also went through a few maternity versions of her costume during her pregnancy in Vision & The Scarlet Witch (1985).

Wanda's first major costume changes were actually the result of possession or mental manipulation-- when possessed by Chthon, Wanda takes on a ghastly appearance and her clothing transforms into a dark red bodysuit with a tattered cape, sans headpiece. [Avengers #186] Later, while under Immortus's influence, Wanda cuts her hair short, ditches the headpiece again, and dons a red-and-black costume with a dramatic purple cape. [Avengers West Coast #55]

Wanda began changing her look more frequently in the 90s. During the late run of Avengers West Coast through Force Works, she wore a red dress over a black one-piece, with a necklace, gloves, and boots-- no headpiece. This is the first real costume change that she made of her own volition. She also had a brief-lived costume which first appeared in The Crossing, that drew more inspiration from the magical characters in Doctor Strange.*

The Pérez design first appeared in the opening storyline of Avengers (1998). In an alternate reality conjured by Morgan le Fay, Wanda and Pietro both appear as sterotypical "gypsies." Wanda later adapted her her outfit from this world in a contemporary costume. This was intended as an earnest representation of Wanda's cultural identity, but it fell quite short of the mark. Alan Davis later designed a more conventional superhero suit combining many of the same elements, without being an ethnic costume.*

In the early 2000s, Wanda debuted a set of red body armor with that combined fantasy aesthetics with a superhero silhouette*. This what she's wearing during Disassembled, but it's not well-remembered, perhaps because of the understated color palette. Wanda returned in Children's Crusade wearing a slightly updated version of the classic costume, with a halterless one-piece and cowl-neck cloak. I think this is the version most people refer to when they draw her classic suit, so to that end, it might be the most iconic.

Wanda had another rapid succession of costume changes in the 2010s, starting with the knee-length red dress with built-in gloves she debuted in Uncanny Avengers (2013).* In the Uncanny Avengers 2015 miniseries, she and Pietro both donned new, but very short lived, futuristic costumes for a brief adventure into outer space.

Then, in late 2015, Wanda received her first solo title in two decades, and it came with full aesthetic overhaul. Kevin Wada designed a collection of looks inspired by witch-house and dark romance fashion trends. This was eventually streamlined into a cohesive superhero suit for other ongoing comics, with an ornate red bodice and jeweled diadem.

In 2022, Russell Dauterman designed Wanda's look for the second annual Hellfire Gala event, taking heavy inspiration from the silhouette of her Crossing costume and the darker, more ornate aesthetic of Wada's design. A slightly simplified version of this look became Wanda's main costume in Scarlet Witch (2023) Most notably, this design incorporates the same magical galaxy effect from her son Wiccan's costume into Wanda's skirt and hair, signifying her mastery of chaos magic. Whether or not this costume lasts, I believe that the dark, bejewelled aesthetic and galaxy effect will continue to define Wanda and Billy's looks for years to come.

I talked about this on my episode of Romanistan, so, if you'd like, you can give that a listen on Spotify or Apple.

I got into comics because I was a young gay kid looking for media about gay people, particularly, gay people my age. I lived in a very hostile and isolating environment, so I spent a lot of time seeking representation in film and literature-- especially books, because I could read them alone in my room and not draw any unwanted attention. But this was the 2000s, so that representation was a lot harder to find. I spent a lot of time on this one computer in the very back of my public library, looking at really janky neocities websites that would have, like, lists of gay books, or lists of gay characters on TV. It feels very strange and cringey, but that's just what it was like back then.

By thge mid-2000s, there were several notable gay Marvel character, and they were showing up in my search results. That's how I discovered Runaways and Young Avengers, and I really imprinted on Billy at the time because he looked like me, and reminded me, a lot, of myself-- a withdrawn, bullied, very geeky kinda emo kid with these witchy powers that I loved.

Eventually, I learned that he was related to a more prominent character called the Scarlet Witch, so I wanted to know who she was. I was shocked to realize that not only was my favorite gay character part Romani, like me, but he was part of a whole extended Romani family whose history and experiences really resonated with my own. It was one of the first encounters with Romani characters, especially in mainstream American media, that didn't just feel like a reductive trope. Of course, the more I read, the more flaws I found, but that's how I really developed my critical opinions about Romani representations as a young reader.

I feel like it’s going from “unique way to class Wanda’s powers and certain elements of her mythos” to “dark and scary magic that may or may not be used for evil contrasting standard marvel magic”

Do you have any thoughts on this?

You know, originally, chaos magic was pretty much how you describe it-- just generally dark and scary. Chthon and the Darkhold are often cited as the sources of most evil or malevolent magic in the Marvel world, including things like demons, lycanthropy and vampirism. That's their primary role in the Elder Gods mythology, and that's the version you'll see most often, up until the late 90s, especially in horror comics, such as Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sins. Even in the 70s Nights of Wundagore story, when it's first introduced as part of Wanda's origin, chaos magic doesn't have any of the characteristic elements we think of today.

The specific elements of chaos magic, as we understand it now, were first established in the Busiek run of Avengers. Throughout the early arc of this series, Wanda learns a lot more about the unique abilities that chaos magic affords her. Writers have continued to refer to this loose definition of chaos magic-- a volatile, primordial power that twists probability and transcends the boundaries of ordinary magic-- ever since, for both Wanda and Billy.

Unfortunately, that does tend to be distorted by Disassembled and HoM, which contradict basically everything about Wanda's powers. The past two decades have been a real mixed bag, but you already knew that. Fortunately, between Darkhold and Trial, the understanding of chaos magic was definitely brought back in line with Busiek's definition, while also giving Wanda more agency and control over the situation. But then again, unfortunately, giving Wanda total control over the Darkhold neutralizes a major power in the Marvel world. You can't take big bads off the board forever, it just creates narrative dead ends. So, I'm not really surprised that they're trying to bring it back in some capacity, but I am suprised that it's happening so soon. And like I said, I'm worried that Contest of Chaos will dilute Wanda's trajectory and Chthon's significance if other characters can just write their own Darkholds or whatever.

Natalya was a witch, and her magic was witchcraft. Robinson's Scarlet Witch spent a lot of time expanding witchcraft and its role in the Marvel Universe, with a particular focus on establishing witch lineages that are passed down, typically, from parent to child, and are represented by particular colors and symbols. All of this was done in service of setting up Wanda's new backstory. That was kind of, like, the point of the whole book.

I assume that the Maximoff family, and the other witch lineages introduced in Scarlet Witch (2016) exhist in the same space as Agatha and the various covens she's affiliated with, such as New Salem, or the Coven from Midnight Suns. I'm hoping that, as Agatha's role continues to expand, these two histories will be woven together more cohesively. Ideally, I would use this renewed focus on "witchcraft" to bring folk magic and other cultural practices into Marvel's worldbuilding in a more inclusive, authentic way.

As for Billy, his powers have always been magic. I don't think that was ever really a question until New Avengers (2015). A lot of what Ewing did with Billy in that series contradicted canon, and he's walked most of that back in the time since. Billy is pretty explicitly magical throughout Empyre, GoTG, and Last Annihilation, even if his approach to magic is frustratingly stagnant. It was clear that Billy and Wanda were operating with the same powers in Heinberg's YA and Children's Crusade. Gillen uses chaos magic and reality-warping interchangeably in his run of Young Avengers, but there's no doubt that it is magic.

Fandom engages with material both critically and transformatively, but disregarding foundational elements of the text out of hand just because you don't like them is neither critical nor transformative. Treating canon solely as fodder for fanfiction is terrible, terrible literacy practice.

Obviously, there's nothing wrong with fanfiction and AUs, but I find that the desire to "fix" Erik's relationship with the twins leads to revisionism, which is not the same thing. Flattening and sanitizing the complicated, painful parts of Erik, Wanda, and Pietro's lives is a disservice to the story, and a disservice to the characters. Try asking yourself how you can provide the characters with opportunities to work through their problems, rather than glossing over the problems altogether.

Also, we need to clear a couple things up--

The problem is not that Magneto was a "bad" father, it's that he was never really a parental figure to Wanda or Pietro in the first place. The twins were adults who were thrust into a parent-child relationship with someone they barely knew outside of one brief, traumatic experience when they were teenagers.

That this the nature of their relationship in the text. It is not a story about parental abuse. It's a story about finding out that a very notorious, frequently villainous member of your community happens to be your bio parent; reconciling your emotional baggage and conflicting ideals with said bio parent; and coping with the very uncomfortable legacy which has now been placed upon you.

My personal feeling is that I could take it or leave it, but my praxis is that you should always strive to improve representation rather than erasing it. Once you establish this sort of thing, you don't get to walk it back, and to DC's credit, they haven't-- it has been mentioned a few times in passing over the years, even if nobody's actually done anything of substance with it.

Every Romani comic book character-- and there are more of them than most people think-- is problematic. I am most drawn to those characters whose origins do contain some kernel of truthful representation, and I am most interested in storylines which provide inroads to constructive dialogues about Romani experiences.

From what I've seen, Nightwing doesn't really tick those boxes. The material which established his background was a mess, and I struggle to find any other textual examples of how Dick's heritage impacts any aspect of his character or storylines. In other words, it feels more like a trivia fact than anything close to actual representation-- but that doesn't mean we should just ignore it. If anything, I think there's probably a lot to learn from examining where things went wrong, and there is plenty of room for improvement.

Things are obviously even more complicated with beast being a fully blown supervillain now, but they also all-but-declared evil x-force villain Hank a different character than avengers Hank. I know it was a throw away gag, but I so wonder about that email from him to her in strange academy. What were his intentions there?

I'm going to be completely honest, Hank is one of those characters I just don't think about very often. I'd have to re-read a lot, and I mean a lot, of comics to make any kind informed statement about his relationship to Wanda prior to M-Day, so I'm not gonna do that.

I will say, though, that out of all the original X-Men, he definitely has the closest relationship to Wanda by virtue of proximity. He's certainly known her longer than most people, and we can definitely infer that they had a friendship just based on how well Wanda usually gets along with her teammates, and of course, their mutual affection for Simon. In fact, I'd say they have the potential to be great friends-- they're both people who are very good at overlooking differences, and at one point time, they were both written as very outgoing, charming individuals. She probably responds really well to his overly-genteel manner-- when Hank addressed her as "Dearest Wanda" in that email, I was like, "oh, of course this is how they talk to each other."

After the Decimation, Hank threw himself into researching the cause and trying to develop a cure. This was a big turning point in his life, as he ended up working with Dark Beast and crossing a lot of moral boundaries. His search actually led him to finding Wanda when she was living as an amnesiac in Transia, although it's not clear whether that was actually her or the Doombot. Although he certainly holds Wanda accountable for M-Day, he didn't betray her location to the X-Men, and later, during Children's Crusade, he was actually sympathetic to Wanda's circumstances and wanted to help her use the Life Force to undo the Decimation. Compared to most of the other Avengers and X-Men, I'd say he was one of her very few allies, and he's on the short list of mutants that I would expect to advocate for her, if only because he believed she'd be part of the solution, not just the problem.

Avengers: Children's Crusade #15

The thing with Hank's psychic backups is really weird, but it gestures at some of the more philosophical questions that Krakoan resurrection poses-- or at least, the questions it would pose if the writers would actually commit. If the "self" is a replicable, modifiable computer file, then the idea personhood begins to lose coherence. One of the things I find frustrating about the Krakoan era is that they don't often follow through on the bigger implications of their world-building, and this is one of those subjects where they'd clearly rather divert into cape-comic genre beats then get into the speculative philosophy. It's probably for the best.

Anyways, Beast. In Wolverine #31, we learn that Hank has built his own little clone lab and taken charge of his own resurrections. To that end, he basically stole his backup files from the Cerebro system, but, weirdly enough, he left the records of his time with the Avengers untouched. It's not clear whether or not the backups Hank is using to clone himself include that period, but we do know that if the Five wanted to resurrect him at this point, they'd be bringing back a version from before Krakoa-- which is to say, a version which hasn't yet taken the same moral downfall. If I had to guess, I'd say this is the loophole that they'll use to bring the character back without having to worry about "redeeming" him or reconciling his actions. This is a staple move for supherhero comics-- come up with an excuse to for the character to say "that wasn't really me"-- but I don't think we've seen it played straight with Krakoan resurrection yet.