When people ask me my favourite superhero I have one go too - Robin. But afterwards, I'm straight to Scarlet Witch. So when I went in 2016 at the age of 13 to see her continuation in Captain America: Civil War I was severely disappointed at the realisation of the MCU being action films starring diluted versions of my favourite characters. In the MCU, we begin with four short stories combined into a connected universe of crossover and event films expanding more and more. However, in the large pool of stories, characters, settings and concepts, they have the means to modernise, reimagine, and enhance and the more they adapt the more it lacks. Wanda is the biggest victim of this being Wanda Maximoff being portrayed more like a bland Eastern European Jean Grey.
In the comics, Wanda started as a villain in the X-men. A strong one at that but it was always treated as too much for her dainty little self to handle without the help of her overprotective brother- Quicksilver. They join the Avengers however he stayed in the X-men books while she was a big player in the Avengers where she got more of a sense of agency when she wasn't getting kidnapped and mind-controlled on several occasions. Even losing and re-earning her powers through magic which is rare for mutant-like-herself, developing and evolving. Then she found Vision, her android love interest and this was the third man in her life to define and shape her character. She then found herself making weird magic babies and wanting a normal suburban life with her husband after her life of villainy and heroics which was short-lived after the…end of her children in a very convoluted story she just became evil again and had the event erased from her memory. Then was just a basic good guy with nothing notable until her discovery of her dead children where she went crazy killing some of her best friends then rewrote reality. After that, she became more of an idea or concept than a character until recent years where her mental health and mysticism are highlighted.
In 2015, Wanda had her first appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron Joss Weadon created a creepy damaged version of Wanda Similar to her appearance in the X-Men: Evolution cartoon of the 2000s. Due to legal reasons, mutants are owned by Fox so she gained her powers from experiments done from alien stones found in the original Avengers film. Her Roma side is replaced with the fictional war-torn Sokovian nationality creating a divide between her and newly denounced weapons supplier Tony Stark who practically funded the war on her country. She then works with Ultron until his generic villain plan to destroy Earth is revealed and she joins the Avengers. She then had her brother killed and joined the Avengers.
Already I was intrigued by this dynamic hoping for it to be expanded, having her be the creepy goth girl aesthetic sticking out which would elevate her romance with Vision. As well as this she could believe in magic herself thinking the alien stones she got her power from just enhanced it creating a bigger divide with the science-based heroes around her as well as further elevating her interactions with the real magic characters introduced later in the series. At this point, the main selling points of these films were crossover and interactions. Her Sokovian backstory could also influence a critical dynamic between the Avengers and the government similar to what was established in Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014) where she was first teased in the post-credit scene. Where S.H.I.E.L.D the super government agency cannot be trusted with unlimited power and resources to do and govern over people as they wish as that much-unregulated power would- Oh no never mind it was the super nazi organisation taking control that was evil in that film, not the government. That was another issue Wanda could have solved in the MCU, its tendency to suck off the American military that partially funds these films. I'm sure that does not correlate.
When we see her again in Captain America: Civil War where she is the inciting incident, blowing up half a building in Lagos. The U.S. government wanted to oversee and control the Avengers and other super-powered beings. Here she doesn't have any strong opinion; she kinda just sulks in her room until her stand-in father figure Hawkeye convinces her to join the other side of the big superhero fight in the middle of the film. She is then in prison and on the run. So in this film where she drives the plot and the apparent new status quo of the cinematic universe, she cries in her room over the hundreds of people she kills and then flirts with vision.
During Infinity War and Endgame, she is in her honeymoon era with vision after their underdeveloped romance. This reflects her suburban housewife fantasy, of a quiet life with her man. Until the overarching plot messes things up.
We then have her limited series where she has a mental breakdown and creates a sitcom simulation of sorts. It has style, it has a story and it combines a unique concept with a classic comic story. This was what I wanted out of the MCU and out of Wanda. She creates this to grieve as well as her two children and the government she helped further demonises her which is compared to the old witch trials. They subtly link Wanda's comic want of a normal suburban life to sitcoms and how non-English speakers tend to learn English from them. This again links to the show and creates an interesting subversion and modernisation from the comics. By episode 5 I was beginning to see hope in the MCU and its adaptations. That was until the next episode in the finale where she is revealed to be some magical prophetic presence deemed "The Scarlet Witch" which means the whole time she just had random magical abilities. As well as this there is never a resolution for all the people she hurt and tortured for potentially weeks or months. It bleeds into her villain aspect but at least this time it is out of her own free will and not mind control or "craziness". That is until she leaves the town with a big evil book that enhances her new "crazy" villain persona in search of her children. Which...you know, goes against the entire point of this show where she grieves over her parents, brother, husband and children.
This carries to "Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness" where she doesn't even mention Vision except when she tells the man that sacrificed half the universe that he doesn't understand sacrifice. It lacks the potential character dynamics established before and she has resorted to being a one-note villain. However, it's very interesting because Wanda could have been the perfect supervillain as most stories including hers follow the characters developing through the different lessons and messages the stories try to portray. Especially in superhero media, we follow the exposition and then the inciting incident and by the end of the show or film, the character grows and uses this past to become better. The tragedy is played up to defend her actions but could instead help us understand why she wants to forget these lessons she's been made to learn. Therefore being the perfect opposition to these classic 5-point, 3-act stories that keep showing up and why they are still important.
Whether it's the 15 minutes of screen time for non-main characters or
the sudden limitations when brought in by Disney or the military funding for most action films posing them in a good light or (gasp) sexism, Wanda's character was wasted and ruined by this film franchise that promised to elevate its source material. Wanda is one of the many examples of character assassinations that happened in the MCU but the worst part is how interesting and complex she specifically could have been concerning Marvel and its world-building. In every film, there is an opportunity to use her to expand the ideas and themes and even validate why these films keep being churned out.
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