Wanda Maximoff is not a hero or a villain

After three episodes of classic sitcom High Jinks, the fourth episode of WandaVision finally revealed what really Happening: The Scarlet Witch has turned a New Jersey town into a classic TV reality where she and the resurrected Vision are the stars of the show. With five episodes left in the season, there are still many questions to be answered – we don’t know how the mysterious Westview Anomaly came to be, or whether Vision is still alive. But that much is clear: Wanda Maximoff is no longer a superhero.

The Scarlet Witch has been a bit of an anomaly, especially compared to the rest of the characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She is defined by her grief and a rare example of a villain turned hero. Her first real appearance in the franchise came in Age of Ultron, when she and her brother Pietro fought alongside the murderous robot (who apparently should be referred to today in Wanda as He Who Must Not Be Named). Seeking revenge after Stark Industries’ technology killed their parents and left them orphans, Wanda and Pietro were in opposition to the Avengers. They only switched sides when it became clear that Ultron’s evil plans went beyond killing Tony Stark and Co. to, um, wipe out the entire planet. Since then, Wanda has never really been a traditional hero or villain – she tilts between good and evil and always acts on the basis of her human emotions rather than a larger agenda or moral code.

Last week’s illuminating fourth episode was a refreshing turn for both Marvel and Wanda, because while she’s launching people through brick walls with little hesitation, that title of ‘villain’ still doesn’t quite feel right either. The MCU has had a much-mentioned villain problem in its more than 20 films, largely because many of its detractors were vague and simplistic, poorly drawn figures who are ultimately inevitable to be overcome. (For every Erik Killmonger there are different Malekiths, especially in the earlier stages of the MCU. Go ahead and Google “Malekith” to remind yourself who that is, I’ll still be around.) Wanda, meanwhile, is firmly in it a gray area in a universe of largely black and white characters. In WandaVision, her motives do not appear to be malicious in any way; she’s not just any villain who wants to see the world burn. But again, she’s acting in self-interest and trying to heal her pain by creating a world where it doesn’t exist in the first place. The problem with that is that apparently she’s been cast thousands of real people against their will to help her cope. Really think about it: So many have been displaced, turned into characters in a sitcom series directed by and starring a superhero who has lost his way.

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Wanda Maximoff has also always been one of the more complex characters in the comics, one of the few for which Marvel writers have researched mental health issues. She also started out there as a villain, as a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants, a group that essentially serves as the anti-X-Men, led by her father Magneto. And just like her eventual turn in the movies, she becomes an Avenger, although she is erratic, suffers from nervous breakdowns, and ends up being too powerful for her own good. The first half of WandaVisionThe only season is notably influenced by Tom King’s The vision and that of Steve Englehart The Vision and the Scarlet Witch Released with 12 issues in the 1980s. The first series focuses on Vision some time after he and Wanda split up as he tries to start a new suburban life with a family of synthezoids he created, including a new woman he built using Wanda’s brainwaves. The Vision and the Scarlet Witch, meanwhile, finds the newlyweds similarly moving to a New Jersey suburb as they hopelessly try to start a normal life together, away from the Avengers. And yet the comic that seems to serve as the greatest source of inspiration WandaVision is not about the superhero couple trying out suburbia; rather it is the popular crossover series House of M, putting Wanda Maximoff firmly at the center of the entire Marvel universe.

The 2005 series begins with Wanda giving birth to twins, with Vision and Doctor Strange at her side – before X-Men leader Professor Xavier orders her to bring reality back to what it was. Soon the world returns to its true state and reveals a harsh truth: Wanda is alone in the room with only Professor X, confronted by the fact that she recently killed Vision and several other Avengers.

Wonder

As a subsequent summary panel explains, six months earlier, Wanda suffered “a total nervous breakdown after losing control of her reality-altering powers,” and amid the ensuing chaos, Hawkeye, Ant-Man, and Vision were killed. As Wanda sinks deeper into depression, the Avengers and the X-Men come together to discuss the tragic possibility of killing her to prevent further destruction. (When I revisited the strip recently, I was quickly reminded how dark and even creepy, House of M is sometimes; the influences can continue to appear in the show as the MCU first dips its toes into the horror genre, as in the previous episode with a glimpse of Vision’s walking corpse.) But when the heroes travel to Genosha, the island nation and safe haven for mutants where Wanda rehabilitates, she’s gone. Within moments of their arrival, heroes begin to disappear; everything turns white; suddenly the entire Marvel comic book universe turns into an alternate reality shaped by Wanda’s vision of a better world. Wanda is reshaping the entire planet, along with the lives of all humans or superhuman humans, to create a new life in which she no longer suffers.

The scope of WandaVision is much smaller – it’s just a New Jersey town. And the content seems lighter: sitcoms are fun, right? But at its core, the series is just as dark and in the same way at the mercy of the faltering protagonist.

While it certainly looks like Wanda is taking a dark turn that only Vision can stop, there’s still a chance that WandaVision is not a story about Wanda’s transition to villain. A popular fan theory is emerging that she might be more of a red herring, and that her collapse could be – at least in part – the work of a demon named Mephisto. The demon is essentially little more than the devil in Marvel comics, known for making those classically sneaky, soul-swapping deals with desperate Earthlings. He has ties to Wanda in the comics – she used fragments of his soul to give birth to her twin brothers. (That didn’t work out very well either, as I mentioned a few weeks ago). There’s a potentially revealing line from the second episode where power-hungry city commissioner Dottie says, “The devil is in the details,” and in response, Agnes jokes softly, “That’s not the only place he is.” (We still don’t know much about Agnes. She is somehow one of the few Westview residents who knows what’s going on really happens in town – and also the only person Jimmy Woo couldn’t find an identification for.)

Regardless of where her path takes her, this iteration of Wanda Maximoff has been a revelation. Before this series was Wanda’s most memorable moment become the property of Thanos– now she’s becoming a fully-formed character, and frankly, one of the more complex heroes in the MCU. Elizabeth Olsen herself has said she had become familiar with her little corner of the MCU, but WandaVision has given her the lead role, and so far she’s done an exciting feat in anchoring the series and shaking Marvel out of its pandemic-induced dormancy. After a series of small pieces, Olsen has finally been able to bring a complicated and intriguing character from the comics to life in all her glory.

Wanda’s story won’t end at the end of this series, thanks to the fact that it’s ultimately tied to Marvel’s big-screen agenda. But WandaVision is writing an exciting new chapter – for an old character as well as the entire MCU.