The Witch’s Tale!

After saving the Earth from Annihilus, the Avengers return home. The Vision was knocked into a coma during the battle, leaving the team concerned over his recovery.[1] Although the Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards assured the Scarlet Witch that her husband will eventually recover, Wanda decides to remain by her husband’s side until he wakes up.

With the current crisis over, the rest of the Avengers decide to go about their personal business. While Captain Marvel heads back to New Orleans for some much needed rest, the She-Hulk decides to go on a night on the town with Starfox since her apartment hunting is over for the day. Captain America, meanwhile, tells Thor about how Tony Stark has spiraled into alcoholism again and turned over his Iron Man identity to someone else. Thor doesn’t think he could do any better than Cap at convincing Tony to quit drinking once more and departs. Captain America on the other hand, refuses to give up and comes up with a new plan.[2]

Later, at Cross Technological Enterprises, a group of thieves break into the facility at dawn. Unfortunately, their planned robbery is interrupted by the facility’s chief of security, Hawkeye. Although the archer has a broken leg, he is now getting around thanks to a sky-sled that he had commissioned to get around his current handicap.[3] This impressive capture is recorded by Sheila Danning and her photographer who were hired by CTE for public relations. Hawkeye is more than happy to pose in front of the wrapped up crooks.

The following morning, She-Hulk wakes up after spending the evening with Starfox. After taking a shower, Eros and Jennifer tell each other they had a great time. Starfox then heads off to explore New York, promising to come back that evening so they can hang out some more. As She-Hulk leaves her room she bumps into Jarvis, who is concerned about the Scarlet Witch who has not left her husband’s side all night. She-Hulk tries to wake Wanda up and convince her to eat something, but this is poorly received and the pair almost come to blows. Luckily, the Wasp arrives just in time to break up the fight. Janet orders Wanda to take a break and has She-Hulk watch over the Vision as they talk.

Up in the study, Janet and Wanda are visited by Captain Marvel who has just come back from New Orleans. Hearing Monica thanking Jarvis in French, Wanda bonds with the newest Avenger over their proficiency in the language. Captain Marvel takes this opportunity to ask Wanda about her past, which Wanda is very open about.

Wanda explains that she and her brother were born many years ago to a woman named Magda. Having fled her husband in fear, Magda found herself at the High Evolutionary’s Citadel of Science on Wundagore Mountain. There she was cared for by Bova, a cow that was hyper-evolved by the scientist. After giving birth to Wanda and Pietro, Magda fled into the mountains and presumably died in order to keep the location of her children a secret from her husband.[4] Soon after this, the High Evolutionary turned the children over to Django and Marya Maximoff, two Romani that lived in a nearby village.[5] The children were raised by the Maximoffs and over the years the two began manifesting super-human powers.[6]

Living in poverty, Django was force to steal in order to provide for his family. When the local villagers found out they attacked the Romani caravan, prompting Pietro and Wanda to flee for their lives. Trying to survive on their own, the couple also faced prejudice of their own when Wanda’s hex powers flared out of control. The pair were rescued from an angry mob by Magneto, who believed the pair were mutants. He recruited them into his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants as Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. They remained on the team as they owed Magneto their lives and this led to many battles with the original X-Men. Eventually, Magneto was kidnapped by the cosmic entity called the Stranger and, deciding they repaid their debt to him, they decided to leave the Brotherhood.[7]

From there, Wanda and her brother joined the ranks of the Avengers during the team’s first roster change and became long standing members of the team.[8] Eventually, the Vision joined the team and the pair quickly fell in love, at first her brother disapproved of their romance but eventually learned to accept it.[9] During this period, Wanda also learned the art of witchcraft from Agatha Harkness, and she and the Vision were eventually married in a ceremony overseen by Immortus.[10] The pair remained on the Avengers for some time, until Wanda took a brief leave of absence to investigate the connection she had to Django Maximoff with her brother. This led to her being possessed by the demon Chthon until she was saved by the Avengers.[11] More recently, Wanda and the Vision retired from the Avengers and got a home Leonia, New Jersey. Unfortunately, the Vision’s arm was damaged, prompting them to go to the home of the Inhumans. This led to a reunion with her brother that was interrupted by the arrival of Magneto, who came to tell them the truth about their parentage.[12] However, Wanda and her brother refused to accept him as their father, prompting Magneto vow to get them to accept the truth before leaving.

Concluding her tale, Wanda admits that the possibility that Magneto is her father horrifies her. Even though the self-professed master of magnetism has claimed that he has moved beyond his evil ways, she can’t bring herself to trust him. The Wasp can understand, pointing out that Magneto sounds much like their one-time teammate Moondragon, who often flouted her abilities as putting her above everyone else and despite claiming to act in the best interest of others, was recently acting like a tyrant.[13] However, she vows that if Magneto threatens humanity again she will do everything in her power to stop him. Janet and Monica both promise to fight right by her side. The talk about her past has put Wanda in a better mood and eventually she decides to return to her New Jersey home to get a few things for her stay at Avengers Mansion. As Wanda packs her bags she is visited by the astral form of Doctor Strange who tells Wanda that he needs her help.

…. This story is continued in Doctor Strange (vol. 2) #60.[14]

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Wasp, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Vision, She-Hulk, Starfox, Captain Marvel), Edwin Jarvis, Doctor Strange

Continuity Notes

1. The Vision was knocked out last issue in a story that tied in with Fantastic Four #256. He will come out of his coma and regain mobility in Avengers #238 and 242 respectively.

2. Lots to do about Tony’s chug-a-lug problem. The issues:

   • Mention is made of Tony’s previous bout of alcoholism. Tony got into some problem drinking leading up to Iron Man #128, but managed to get sober.

   • He fell off the wagon again in Iron Man #167, prompting Jim Rhodes to take over as Iron Man in issue #170. Jim then announces Iron Man was resigning from the Avengers, prompting Cap to learn the truth in Avengers #231-232.

   • Captain America’s plan to try and sober Tony up is detailed in Iron Man #172. It doesn’t go to well since Tony is drowning himself in drink after losing his company to Obadiah Stane and he wanders off to drink in an alley. Cheery stuff!

3. Hawkeye broke his leg in Avengers #231-232.

4. The parentage of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch is a complicated issue:

   • The story Wanda is recounting is the one told to her by Bova in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4. That story states that her father was Magneto, who was married to Magda back in the day.

   • Classic X-Men #12 reveals that Magda fled her husband when she witnessed him use his mutant powers to commit murder.

   • As it turns out, Magneto and Magda are not their biological parents. Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #4 and 12 explain that her real parents were Natalya Maximoff and an unidentified father.

   • Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4 reveals that Wanda and Pietro were kidnapped by the High Evolutionary for various experiments.

5. This is not the full story, Wanda and Pietro were passed around quite a bit.

   • Giant-Size Avengers #1 and Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4 reveal that the twins were passed off as the children of Miss America and the Whizzer, as they too were at the Citadel so Madeline could give birth. They actually produced the radioactive mutant named Nuklo, who killed his mother in child birth. Distraught over the news of his wife’s death, the Whizzer took off, but not before he was convinced that Wanda and Pietro were his children.

   • When Robert Frank rejected the children, the High Evolutionary later passed off the children to Django and Marya, as detailed in Avengers #186. Incidentally, the couple were actually Wanda and Pietro’s aunt and uncle, as explained in Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #4.

6. Wanda and Pietro are referred to as mutants multiple times in this story. They aren’t. Their powers are a product of the High Evolutionary’s experiments, as detailed in Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4. It is explained that he covered up his work to make future genetic tests register them as mutants.

7. Pietro and Wanda were founding members of the Brotherhood starting in X-Men #4. Magneto was captured by the Stranger in issue #11 although he finally managed to free himself in Avengers #47..

8. The twins joined the Avengers in Avengers #16. A flashback panel here shows the Avengers fighting Doctor Doom, that happened in issue #25.

9. The Vision joined the Avengers in issue #57-58, although Wanda did not meet him until issue #76. They eventually started giving into their feelings for one another in issue #91 and admitted they loved one another in issue #108. When Pietro learned about their romance in Avengers #110, he denounced it as unnatural. Eventually, he was forcibly made to accept it after his mind was altered by Moondragon in Avengers #176, nobody really blinked at that one.

10. Agatha Harkness began training the Scarlet Witch in witchcraft starting in Avengers #128. This training concluded after Wanda married the Vision in Giant-Size Avengers #4.

11. Wanda and Pietro’s investigation into their past and Wanda’s subsequent possession by Chthon was chronicled in Avengers #185-187. The reason why they didn’t remember their past upbringing with Django, was because they blocked the memories over the trauma of seeing their adopted parents seemingly killed by the angry villagers.

12. Wanda and Vision retired in Avengers #211. All of this happened in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #1-4. Pietro married Crystal in Avengers #127/Fantastic Four #150. They had their first child, Luna, in Fantastic Four #240.

13. This is in reference to when Moondragon used her mental powers to manipulate the Avengers roster and later conquered the planet Bi-Bani. See Avengers #211 and 219-220.

14. Doctor Strange (vol. 2) #60-62, Doctor Strange seeks out allies to help him destroy Dracula.

Topical References

• This story refers to the Maximoff family as gypsies. This was a term used at the time this story was published but in more recent times it has been considered a pejorative term due to the negative connotations around it. The current accepted term for this culture is now Romani and as such I have used that term in the summary above.