Avengers #186
Nights of Wundagore!
Knocked out while searching for his missing sister on Wundagore Mountain, Quicksilver has awoken in the cottage of Bova the cow-woman. She has been nursing him since he has been knocked out and has just dropped a bombshell: She was present and helped the birth of Pietro and Wanda.
Bova explains that she was once an ordinary cow before she was hyper-evolved into a humanoid form by the High Evolutionary to care for his other New Men. This was due to the fact that the High Evolutionary was busy with other matters, such as the sudden return of his former business partner, Jonathan Drew. Not long after this, a pregnant woman named Magda had arrived at the Citadel of Science seeking refuge from her husband, a man of terrible power. Bova looked after the woman and helped her give birth to twin children. During the childbirth, Bova noticed that one of the twins — Wanda — began to glow at the same time the top of the mountain began glowing. A few days later, Magda fled the Citadel, not wishing her unnamed husband to learn the location of their children.
Bova then sought the High Evolutionary’s assistance in finding a home for the twins. The first opportunity came when the Whizzer and Miss America came seeking help with a pregnancy of their own. Madelyne Joyce died giving born to a stillborn baby that was horribly deformed. Seeing an opportunity, she offered the twins to Robert Frank, leading him to believe that they were his own flesh and blood. However, Frank was so filled with grief over the death of his wife that he fled. The High Evolutionary then took the children down the mountain where a band of Romani lived. There he found Django and Marya Maximoff, who had lost their own children Mateo and Ana, and offered them the twins. They accepted the babies and raised them as their own.[1]
This all begins making sense to Pietro who wonders why his own memories of events are so foggy. Bova suggests that it was all the trauma of his early life that clouded his memories. Bova then concludes her story by saying that when the High Evolutionary left the Earth with his New Men, she remained behind for her own purposes. When Pietro asks who his real father is, she warns the speedster that he knows enough and warns him that there is great danger on Wundagore Mountain and that he and Wanda need to leave immediately.[2]
At that moment, atop the mountain, Modred the Mystic has imprisoned the Scarlet Witch and is preparing to make an offering to his master, “The Other”, using the Book of Darkhold. Wanda instinctively knows that this powerful entity is just using Modred to destroy the world and uses her hex powers to break free.[3] This leads to a mystical battle between the pair, but ultimately Modred proves the victor by blasting Wanda from behind. By this time, Quicksilver has rested enough to continue his search for his sister. When exiting Bova’s cottage, a projection of his sister’s face appears before him. In a demonically possessed voice, Wanda tells Pietro to leave or she will be forced to kill him. Racing into a nearby forest, Pietro finds Django Maximoff, and the pair are attacked by the very trees and rocks that surround the area.
Luckily, Quicksilver’s super-speed allows them to escape to the nearby village, where he puts in a call to the Avengers for help. The call is received by the Vision who agrees to mobilize the team to help rescue his wife, the Scarlet Witch. When the team prepares to go mount a rescue mission, NSA agent Peter Gyrich tells them that they are not to go without proper authorization.[3] Annoyed at this constant interference on Avengers operations, Captain America storms off. Moments later, Jarvis enters the room and tells Gyrich that he has a phone call from the President, who orders him to allow the Avengers to go to Bulgaria to rescue their friends. However, before they go, Gyrich orders that the Vision stay behind. The android is angered at not being allowed to go rescue his life, but Captain America convinces him to stand down… for now.
While back in Transia, Quicksilver and Django wait for the Avengers to arrive. That’s when Wanda enters the room and knocks them both out with a mystical blast. As it turns out, Wanda is not herself because she has become a vessel for a demon known as Chthon.
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, the Vision, the Beast, Ms. Marvel, Falcon), Modred the Mystic, Chthon, Bova, Django Maximoff, Henry Gyrich, Edwin Jarvis, Redwing, (in flashback) High Evolutionary, Jonathan Drew, Magda Lehnsherr, Whizzer, Miss America, Marya Maximoff
Continuity Notes
There is a fucking lot that is glossed over here that has been explained in more detail in other places. So let’s break it down all at once:
The origins of the High Evolutionary, his Citadel of Science on Wundagore, and the creation of Bova, including the Evolutionary’s working relationship with Jonathan Drew are all explained in greater detail in Thor #134-135, Spider-Woman #1, as well as the back-up stories in X-Factor Annual #3, Punisher Annual #1, Silver Surfer Annual #1, New Mutants Annual #4, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22, Fantastic Four Annual #21, Uncanny X-Men Annual #12, Web of Spider-Man Annual #4, West Coast Avengers Annual #3, Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8, and Avengers Annual #17.
Jonathan Drew’s involvement with the High Evolutionary told here is in direct conflict with the events of Spider-Woman: Origin #1-5, which tells a different story suggesting that Jonathan Drew was a Hydra scientist with no connections to the High Evolutionary. These contradictions are, as yet, unexplained by the recent events of Spider-Woman (vol. 7) 1-10 suggest that there is some validity to both stories. Marvel has yet to offer clarification as of this writing (April 2021). My thoughts on this issue are detailed here.
The woman here named Magda is Magda Lehnshire, the wife of Magneto. Pregnant with children Magda left her husband after seeing him use his powers to murder those who persecuted him as detailed in Classic X-Men #12. This story implies that Pietro and Wanda are the children of Magda and Magneto. This is later apparently confirmed in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4.
Bova also fills in the blanks about how the Whizzer and Miss America tie into Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Originally, in Giant-Size Avengers #1, the Whizzer’s account of this story led Wanda to believe that the two wartime heroes were their parents when, in fact, they weren’t.
Django Maximoff was convinced that he was Wanda and Pietro’s children as detailed in Avengers #182. Clearly, he is suffering from some kind of memory problems, possibly dementia.
So who are Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch’s parents? It’s later revealed in that they are the children of Natalya Maximoff and an unidentified father and that Django is actually their uncle. See Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4 and Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #4.
This story refers to Pietro and Wanda as mutants, which also sells the idea that they are Magneto’s children. However, per Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4, the pair were experimented upon by the High Evolutionary. In order to cover up his work, he made it so future genetic tests would have them register as mutants. This all leaves some unanswered questions. Go here for more details.
The High Evolutionary and his New-Men left Earth in Thor #135.
Modred’s connection to the Darkhold and “the Other”, aka Chthon, was first told in Marvel Chillers #2.
It is mentioned how Iron Man recently murdered a Carnelian official and SHIELD recent operations in Russia. See Iron Man #124-125 and 119-120 respectively.
Topical References
Django’s people are referred to as gypsies in this story. This is a dated reference that, to some, is also considered racist. The correct term now is Romani and as such I have used it above.
