Scarlet Witch and the Avengers Disassembled: How Magneto's Daughter Destroyed the Marvel Team

Scarlet Witch, daughter of Magneto, recently caused the destruction of the Avengers team, which was later split into two teams following the events of Marvel's Civil War. Read about her origin and other members of the Magneto Family.

Scarlet Witch, who's real name is Wanda Maximoff, is daughter to mutant master of magnetism Magneto, and Magda, a powerful gypsy witch and master of magics. This lineage gave Scarlet Witch her reality altering powers, which, as the Avengers learned, can be incredibly dangerous.

Scarlet Witch's Powers: From Probability to Reality

Scarlet Witch's reality-altering powers were developed out of her earlier mutant ability to control probabilities. This proved to be a great villain-fighting tool during her days on the Avengers team. For example, she could increase the probability that a stack of rocks would fall on her opponant in battle.

Throughout the course of her existence, it was disocvered that her powers shifted during bouts of emotional pain or instability. It has long been hinted at that Scarlet Witch is harboring some form of deep personal trauma, as some story archs suggest that her father Magneto allowed her to be molested as a child. These facts shed light on the idea the Scarlet Witch is a ticking time bomb.

Scarlet Witch Disassembles Avengers

Whatever pain and turmoil Scarlet Witch held came to a boiling point during the Avengers' major event that took place in the Summer of 2004: The Avengers: Disassembled. The series, written by Brian Michael Bendis, took place in Avengers #500-504 and saw the deaths of the Scarlet Witch's husband, Vision, and her fellow Avenger Hawkeye, all spurred purely by the dramatic and jaw-dropping slow mental breakdown of Scarlet Witch.

The Wasp Sets Off Scarlet Witch

It all started when fellow female Avenger The Wasp was spending time Scarlet Witch's house for an afternoon of girl talk. Airing her latest boyfriend grievances, the Wasp accidentally lets slip her fear of having kids because she was worried that something might happen to them like what happened to Scarlet Witch's kids. This seemingly meaningless day-to-day conversation set in motion the events that would completely destroy a team.

Scarlet Witch always wanted kids. The first warning sign that her powers were getting out of control came when kids of hers started appeared in the Avengers series. Childless Scarlet Witch wanted kids so badly that she unconsciously used her powers to conjure up some kids of her own. The only problem: they weren't real. Whenever she left for a mission they'd disappear, causing Scarlet Witch a lot of confusion. When her fellow Avengers figured out what was going on, they tried to make her forget about them, which she did. Until the Wasp casually mentioned them after a few poolside margaritas that fateful afternoon.

Scarlet Witch Blames Avengers for Lack of Children

In one violent afternoon following the Wasp's accidental mention of her kids, Scarlet Witch pitches an epic fit. Remembering the pain and loss after realizing she didn't have kids anymore or ever, Scarlet Witch decided to blame the Avengers for making her forget about them. The Avengers, including Iron Man, Hank Pym, and She-Hulk start experiencing some verrry strange coincidences in early issues of Avengers: Disassembled. Due to Scarlet Witch's anger at remembering how the Avengers made her forget her children:

The Avengers Disassembled storyline, driven by Scarlet Witch's madness, had far reaching consequences in the Marvel universe, with crossovers found in the X-Men, Fantastic 4, and Spider-Man books among many others. Afterwards, the shocked and confused remaining Avengers members reconvened and decided to get Scarlet Witch help through Dr. Strange and Professor X.

Oct 13, 2008 1:57 AM

Guest :

This - "It has long been hinted it that Scarlet Witch is harboring some form of deep personal trauma, as some story archs suggest that her father Magneto allowed her to be molested as a child."

Completely untrue. Magneto didn't even *know* Wanda when she was a child. He actually rescued his children [not even knowing that she and Pietro (her *twin brother*, who you neglected to mention) were his kids] when they were young from a mob, and that was their first meeting. No dark history of molestation here. And her powers are due to a demon choosing her as a host when she was born - it magnified them beyond a mere mutant ability and allowed her to become powerful enough to warp reality.

But all of this can be found on Wikipedia. I don't understand how there can be so many inaccuracies in a single article that could be easily rectified by a Google search. It's not even that big of a deal, really, but this article is so full of misinformation I have to wonder why you attempted to write it at all. This isn't even half-assed, it's 1/4 assed. Just a terrible, terrible article that will do more harm to the perception of the Scarlet Witch than anything the Marvel writers could come up with. A five minute web search would have turned up more substantial (and *true*) information than this article. Why does this waste of bandwidth even exist?

Oct 13, 2008 12:29 PM

Guest :

Actually, Magneto allowed the brotherhood to mess around with her against her will. This wasn't when she was a child but a young adult. Still, it happened. Oh, and I read this in an "actual comic" not wikipedia.

Oct 13, 2008 6:31 PM

Stephanie Cox :

The second guest's comment are correct. I wrote "child" meaning when Wanda was basically under 18. Her and her twin brother were indeed rescued by Magneto and right away were recruited to join him on the Brotherhood.

All the details the first guest mentioned, including her twin brother Quicksilver, are chronicled in detail in another article of mine, which is linked to in this article, called "Magneto's Family." This article focused on the events surrounding the Avengers Disassembled and Scarlet Witch's involvement, not necessarily her origin. It is long hinted that her own personal trauma is the reason for her breakdown, not any "demon" host.

If anyone would like to see the aforementioned molestation reference, please see Avengers #401, written by Mark Waid and released in August 1996. In it, Scarlet Witch says "It's true [Magneto] took Pietro and myself under his wing. . .but we were not particularly well-cared for in his dark, dank castle. . . Mastermind and Toad, in particular, were... unpleasant companions. Of course Magneto would often put them in their place...less to protect me that to establish his own dominance... and find a way to hold on to me. Tightly." This is all said during a memory sequence in which a vulnerable and scared-looking Scarlet Witch is depicted, being ogled by Mastermind as her inner thigh is inappropriately caressed by Toad. This event takes place during the Onslaught epic and is one of many that hint that much of Scarlet Witch's personal trauma and instability is due to her family.

I would also like to note that Wikipedia is unvetted and unverified and no one person is responsible for its content, which, as manifested here, does not always include everything nor is it known to have the most accurate information.

I strive for accuracy and am more than happy to cite each example that every statement from my article is drawn from, which currently Suite's word length constraints do not permit within the text. However, if a reader would like to know the source, I'm more than happy to clear the air here in the comment section or over email.