History Comicbook / ScarletWitch

Wanda has also co-starred in two series with the Vision, both titled ''Vision and the Scarlet Witch''.

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''Scarlet Witch'' is a 1994 four-issue mini-series written by Creator/DanAbnett and Andy Lanning, with art by John Higgens. It takes place in-between ''[[ComicBook/WestCoastAvengers Avengers: West Coast]]'' #101 and #102.

[[Characters/ScarletWitch Wanda Maximoff]] has been having ominous nightmares lately of a malevolent figure with her face causing death and destruction. After fighting off an invasion of demons with the help of the rest of the West Coast Avengers, she contacts Agatha Harkness and together, they go look for the cause of her dreams and the demons' attack.

In the basement of a library in the New England town of Unity, however, Wanda comes across the last person she would ever want to see again: a demonic Master Pandemonium. But how did he come back and who is actually responsible for everything?

For her next series, see ''ComicBook/ScarletWitch2015''.

!Tropes in ''Scarlet Witch'' (1994):

* AttackOnTheHeart: How Wanda ultimately kills Lore, with a sword through the heart.
* TheChosenOne: Wanda learns that she's a Nexus Being.
* ColdIron: The demons' weakness is iron, so Wanda magically changes War Machine's armor to iron and this drives them off.
* DemonicPossession: Lore defeats the West Coast Avengers and then possesses them in order to attack Wanda.
* DimensionLord: Lore, who magically corrupts dimensions and then, once those dimensions are consumed by her, she contacts the Nexus Being from the next dimension and starts over again.
* EscapedFromHell: Master Pandemonium says he escaped from Hell itself due to his love for Wanda.
* EvilCounterpart: Lore, who is explicitly the EvilCounterpart to the Scarlet Witch: just like Wanda, she is a Nexus Being, but unlike Wanda, she wants to conquer the multiverse instead of protecting it.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Lore tries to summon the spirits of the Nexi Beings she's killed to attack Wanda. Instead, they attack her, because, you know, she killed them.
* LovecraftCountry: Unity.
* NightmareSequence: What sets off Wanda's search for answers.
* ShoutOut: Of the books found in Unity's library are a number from the Franchise/CthulhuMythos:
** The Book of Eibon, created by Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith.
** The Celaeno Fragments, created by August Delerth.
** The Pnakotic Manuscripts and the Necronomicon, created by Creator/HPLovecraft.
** De Vermis Mysteriis, created by Creator/RobertBloch.
* VillainousCrush: Master Pandemonium is now obsessively in love with Wanda.

Wanda Maximoff has been having ominous nightmares lately of a malevolent figure with her face causing death and destruction. After fighting off an invasion of demons with the help of the rest of the West Coast Avengers, she contacts Agatha Harkness and together, they go look for the cause of her dreams and the demons' attack.

''Scarlet Witch'' is a 1994 four-issue mini-series written by Creator/DanAbnett and Andy Lanning, with art by John Higgens. It takes place in-between ''[[ComicBook/WestCoastAvengers Avengers: West Coast]]'' #101 and #102. For the 2015 series, see ''ComicBook/ScarletWitch2015''.

In the basement of a library in the New England town of Unity, however, Wanda comes across the last person she would ever want to see again: a demonic Master Pandemonium.

** The Celaeno Fragments, created by Creator/AugustDelerth.

[[redirect:Characters/MarvelComicsScarletWitch]]

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->''My mutant ability is to create chaos. To make the improbable a certainty. Sometimes all of this negative energy sends my head spinning too. Sometimes I feel as if I can do nothing but perpetuate the unnatural. But the Avengers are there to keep me grounded. To bring order into my life.''
-->-- '''Wanda Maximoff, ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'''''

Scarlet Witch is a Creator/MarvelComics character, known as a longtime member of ComicBook/TheAvengers and as the instigator for several {{arc}}s like ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled'' and ''ComicBook/HouseOfM''. She first appeared in ''X-Men'' vol. 1 #4 (March, 1964), created by Creator/StanLee and Creator/JackKirby. Wanda Maximoff, daughter of Erik Lehnsherr/Max Eisenhardt (a.k.a. ComicBook/{{Magneto}}), was born with magic-like mutant powers. With her twin brother Pietro (a.k.a. ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}}), she was raised in the Wundagore Mountains by UsefulNotes/{{Romani}}. [[ComicBook/TheYesterdayQuest As it turned out]], Wundagore served as a [[SealedEvilInACan prison]] for the [[GodOfEvil Elder God Chthon]] who imparted a fraction of his power to Wanda so that she might one day [[GrandTheftMe serve as his vessel]]. Eventually, she and Pietro were unwillingly recruited into the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants by their father (though neither he nor they were aware of their relationship at the time) through the life debt they owed him after Magneto saved Wanda's life. For a while they were both enemies of the ComicBook/XMen, but eventually Magneto was imprisoned and, having nowhere else to go, Wanda and Pietro applied for membership in ComicBook/TheAvengers along with another ex-villain (ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}/Clint Barton). ComicBook/CaptainAmerica accepted them, as the roster was then empty (except for himself), leading to the second incarnation of the Avengers (if we consider the first one to be the founding members plus Cap), which came to be known as "Cap's Kooky Quartet".

Initially, she had a mutant power that was simply referred to as her "hex power" which was basically her pointing in some direction, and some sort of unfortunate event would occur; the name was derived from what the villagers whom Magneto saved her from called her, rather than explicit magic power. This was eventually clarified into the mutant power of "probability". In time, she began to study actual magic with Agatha Harkness, a real witch, and became in truth a witch. During Kurt Busiek's run, she learned that her probability manipulation was fueled by "chaos magic" and learned to tap more deeply into the magic, establishing herself as one of the most powerful Avengers.

Wanda fell in love with and married ComicBook/TheVision, the Avengers' RidiculouslyHumanRobot, and even had children. Eventually, the marriage fell apart when the Vision was dismantled, lost all of his emotion, and the children were discovered to be unreal. Wanda had used her powers to conceive with the android, and give birth to twin sons, only to later find out that she had drawn on the demon Mephisto's magic, who proceeded to erase their existence. The time-traveling villain Immortus claimed he had [[GambitRoulette set up all these events]], including her marriage to Vision, with the goal of driving Wanda insane, since she was the [[CosmicKeystone "living anchor of reality"]] of her universe. He intended to use her to [[RealityWarper reshape reality to his will]], but the Avengers stopped him. Agatha Harkness then [[LaserGuidedAmnesia suppressed her memory]] of her children, and it seemed she could move on.

Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

While discussing just how complicated having kids would be for a superhero, Janet[=/=]the Wasp slipped up and briefly mentioned Wanda's "kids" to her, leading Wanda to discover the truth and consequently suffer a breakdown. Thus began the arc of ''Avengers Disassembled'', where Wanda lost control of her powers and unconsciously killed off several Avengers, including Vision and Hawkeye, without being physically present -- she spent most of the arc being kept company by illusions of her children until the Avengers came to confront her. She was eventually taken out by Comicbook/DoctorStrange, only for Magneto to come and take her to Genosha to atone for his neglect. Her rampage destroyed the Avengers, since they couldn't go on after to the damage she had caused.

ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and ComicBook/IronMan founded the New Avengers and were about to move on, until...

In Genosha, Xavier attempts to help heal Wanda, to no effect. Feeling she is beyond his help, Xavier calls in the ComicBook/XMen and Avengers to decide on Wanda's fate; before coming to a decision, they decide to see what Wanda herself wants. Pietro, overhearing that this meeting had been called, feels this can only mean they are coming to execute his sister, and before the Avengers and X-Men can arrives, convinces her of a different path: to use Xavier's mind and Wanda's power to rewrite reality and give the people they love their greatest wish. Reality is changed, and mutants become the dominant species, with her family--now the House of Magnus--the ruling class, but Wanda herself a human, with her children alive and with her. This was ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'' (check the main article for the details of what happened).

At the climax of ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'', Magneto kills Quicksilver, driving Wanda into total despair; in her madness, she uttered the [[{{Meme}} immortal words]]: '''"No more mutants"''', and reverted the world back to near normal, with one difference: 99% of all mutants were depowered in an event known as M-Day or Decimation. Subsequently, she suppressed her memories and powers and retreated to a secluded life on Wundagore.

For years, Wanda stayed off the comics, with occasional allusions to finding her, fake versions of her appearing, and the aftermath of Decimation dominating mutant stories, until the 2011 ''ComicBook/TheChildrensCrusade''.

In it, the ComicBook/YoungAvengers Wiccan and Speed have learned they may be the souls of Wanda's children, reincarnated into the past. They team up with Magneto to find Wanda and get some answers. She was discovered living with ComicBook/DoctorDoom as his engaged bride, with no memory of her past. In the end, it turned out that Wanda's omnipotence and insanity were caused by a cosmic power source that Doom helped her absorb named the Life Force, and that everything was a ploy for Doom to steal the power for himself. Eventually both teams banded together to defeat Doom and cripple him, but the power was released back where it came from, leaving Wanda unable to break the spell that depowered mutants. The ComicBook/XMen decided to not kill her and instead let her live as a method to pay for her crimes.

In ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'', Wanda initially chose to sit out the war between the two groups after being turned away at Avengers Mansion by Vision. After having a premonition that the Phoenix Force would destroy the Earth, she returned to save her ex-teammates, and eventually teamed up with the "Mutant Messiah," Hope, to help disperse the Phoenix and break the spell that prevented new mutants from being born. ComicBook/CaptainAmerica offered her a spot in the Avengers once more, where she joined up with the ''ComicBook/UncannyAvengers''.

After a crucial moment during the ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'' event, Wanda (and Pietro) learned that Magneto ''wasn't'' their father, as they'd believed for many years. What's more, they discovered they weren't mutants either--rather both simply humans who were genetically altered by The High Evolutionary after their birth. Unusually for a {{Retcon}} like this, the jury's still out on whether it will be permanent (it was quite transparently an executive move to downplay the X-Men and mutant relationship of the Maximoff twins in the Marvel continuity, due to the movie universe).

Following the ''[[ComicBook/SecretWars2015 Secret Wars]]'' event in 2015, Wanda headlined [[ComicBook/ScarletWitch2015 her first ongoing title]] as part of the ''ComicBook/AllNewAllDifferentMarvel'' initiative. Although this title was cancelled after 12 issues, in it, Wanda learned that she was the descendant of a long line of Scarlet Witches, making her a LegacyCharacter. After her series finished, she rejoined the Uncanny Avengers.

Scarlet Witch entered the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' (after having a mid-credits cameo in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''), as portrayed by Creator/ElizabethOlsen. This version's powers were originally displayed as telekinesis and some type of telepathy, but eventually followed the comics in being described as chaos magic and low-level RealityWarping. (Details can be found [[Characters/MCUScarletWitch here]]). In 2021, she starred in her own MCU limited series, ''Series/WandaVision'', on Creator/DisneyPlus, alongside Creator/PaulBettany's Vision.

The [[Film/XMenFilmSeries Fox X-Men movies]] never formally introduced Wanda before the Creator/{{Disney}} buyout; at most her name is on the files Mystique sees in ''Film/X2XMenUnited'', and in the [[ReCut Rogue Cut]] of ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', Quicksilver's mom asks his younger sister -- who does appear in the regular cut -- to "go upstairs and bug your sister", implying there is a third Maximoff.

[[AC:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/TheVisionAndTheScarletWitch'' Vol. 1 (1982)
* ''ComicBook/TheVisionAndTheScarletWitch'' Vol. 2 (1986)
* ''Scarlet Witch'' Vol. 1 (1994)
* ''Mystic Arcana: Scarlet Witch'' (2007)
* ''Avengers Origins: The Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver'' (2012)
* ''ComicBook/{{Scarlet Witch|2015}}'' Vol. 2 (2015)
* ''ComicBook/AvengersNoSurrender'' (2017)
* ''ComicBook/AvengersNoRoadHome'' (2018)

[[AC:Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse]]
* Played by Creator/ElizabethOlsen:
** ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' (2014) [[note]](post-credits cameo) [[/note]]
** ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' (2015)
** ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' (2016)
** ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' (2018)
** ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' (2019)
** ''Series/WandaVision'' (2021)
** ''Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'' (2022)

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/XMenLegends II: Rise of Apocalypse''
* ''VideoGame/LEGOMarvelsAvengers''
* ''VideoGame/MarvelContestOfChampions''
* ''VideoGame/MarvelAvengersAlliance''
* ''VideoGame/MarvelPuzzleQuest''
* ''VideoGame/MarvelFutureFight''
* ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance3TheBlackOrder''

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelSuperHeroes''
* ''WesternAnimation/IronMan''
* ''WesternAnimation/XMen''
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersUnitedTheyStand''
* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution''
* ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen''
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperHeroSquadShow''

----
!!Tropes associated with the Scarlet Witch:

* AbortedArc: Creator/JohnByrne quit ''West Coast Avengers'' in the middle of an arc where Wanda had turned evil and was teaming up with her father to help mutants take over the world. The new writers quickly wrapped up as much of the arc as they could and ignored the rest.
* ActionMom: She initially retired for several real-world years after getting married and having children, but shortly before the children are revealed to be illusions, rejoins the Avengers. She becomes one in ''ComicBook/TheChildrensCrusade''.
* ActuallyADoombot: In the Children's Crusade mini, it was revealed that the Wanda living on Wundagore Mountain after ''House of M'' was a duplicate, (which also means that the amnesiac Wanda ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} slept with was a Doombot).
-->'''Hawkeye:''' You found her in Transia?
-->'''Billy:''' No, the Wanda we found in Transia turned out to be a Doombot.
-->'''Hawkeye:''' ''[[BigWhat What?!]]''
* AdaptationDyeJob[=/=]DependingOnTheArtist: Marvel generally settles on her hair being brown, but she was originally drawn with black hair (possibly due to the limits of color printing at the time making it difficult to produce brown). The official Handbook gives her hair as auburn, which is another common color, but she's even drawn with bright red hair on occasion.
* AdaptationSpeciesChange: As the movie rights for the X-Men were owned by Fox, Wanda is not a mutant in Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse. She is instead an enhanced human--her powers were bestowed after a scientific experiment to which she and Pietro volunteered.
* AdaptationalModesty: Wanda has the dubious distinction of being one of the least dressed Avengers, although that quality was never linked to her personality. In the movies, she dresses in everyday casual clothes, and Creator/JossWhedon even assured the actress she'd never need to wear the red bathing suit.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: At one point she has Wiccan and Hulkling around for tea, telling him the very bizarre but entirely true story of how she and Vis got married, in the shade of a lovely tree, who was also getting married at the same time.
* AntiAntiChrist: Chthon selected her on the day of her birth to work as his vessel some day in the future, when Wanda's powers matured, and then unleash chaos and destruction in the world. Wanda successfully resisted and defeated Chthon, and from then on used his evil power [[BadPowersGoodPeople for good actions]].
* AntiHero: The Witch briefly entered type V territory. Then again she was a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} without true control of her actions at the time, so it could arguably simply be Type I at heart.
* TheApprentice: To Agatha Harkness. Their relation began during ComicBook/TheCelestialMadonnaSaga, and Agatha returned as a ghost mentor in her 2016 solo series.
* TheAtoner: She feels endlessly remorseful about her role in the destruction of most of the mutant species during the House of M incident and became an Avenger to atone. Eventually, along with Hope Summers, she repowers the worlds mutants, but still has not stopped expressing remorse (and a lot of Mutants ''still'' haven't forgiven her one iota).
* BadassBoast: Creator/GeoffJohns gave her a good one in a story where her chaos-based powers allowed her to fuse two cosmic entities, Order and Chaos, into one:
-->'''Wanda:''' You think your power means anything to me? I work in chaos as others work in clay. I weave together the improbable and the unnatural. I '''control''' chaos. So '''I''' can control '''you'''.
* BadPowersGoodPeople: The source of her chaos magic is a GodOfEvil, but she uses it for good.
* BarrierMaiden:
** Several villains have described her as a "nexus being" who can be used to channel any source of magical energy.
** In "The Morgan Conquest," Morgan Le Fey uses Wanda's body to bridge the gap between two incompatible magical sources, allowing Morgan to become twice as powerful and TakeOverTheWorld.
* BewareTheNiceOnes:
** The whole point behind her surprise role in ''Avengers Disassembled'', where Wanda, traditionally the nicest person on the team, turns out to be the one who went AxCrazy and destroyed the Avengers on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
** Even when she's in her right mind, she can get pretty scary when someone hurts her friends or husband. In ''ComicBook/UltronUnlimited'', half a page is devoted to the shocked reactions of her teammates as they see what Wanda does to one of the villains.
* BigBadWannabe: Chthon, the evil god that gave Wanda her chaos magic during "The Yesterday Quest" storyline. We have pages and pages detailing how evil he is, and his master plan to conquer reality, yada yada; and he is defeated in a pair of swift attacks.
* BornOfMagic: Famed RealityWarper the Scarlet Witch married her fellow Avenger, The Vision. Despite his being a [[{{Robot}} synthezoid]], they still wanted children, and used the magic of New Salem to use her probability powers to give her children through a MysticalPregnancy. It did [[RealityWarpingIsNotAToy not end well]] for her or her thoughtsprog. But then they got better after Wanda went crazy and rebooted reality a few times, retroactively reincarnating her sons into Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd, aka Wiccan and Speed.
* BreakTheCutie: Particularly in ''House of M'', where the writer Creator/BrianMichaelBendis envisioned her as the most tragic figure in the Marvel universe.
* BrotherSisterIncest \ {{Twincest}}: In ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Universe she and her brother Pietro are outright stated to be lovers, and for decades people have made jokes about how uncomfortably close they are.
* BrotherSisterTeam: She and Pietro, especially when they are introduced to a new universe.
* CantHoldHisLiquor: During ''All-New X-Factor'', she and Lorna have a day of sisterly hanging-out. Wanda gets plastered at a renaissance faire (though it may have helped that she chugs back five beers in the space of thirty minutes).
* CapeSnag: She has a pair of cases at the West Coast, and tried a new costume without cape. It didn't stick.
* TheChosenOne: "Nights of Wundagore" reveals that the GodOfEvil Chthon chose her at birth to receive his magical abilities, in an attempt to create the perfect vessel who would combine the powers of science (her natural mutant power) and sorcery. After her power matures, Chthon [[DemonicPossession takes over her body]] and tries to use her to TakeOverTheWorld.
* ComeWithMeIfYouWantToLive: Wanda and Pietro, who were just orphaned vagrants at the time, were attacked by a mob with TorchesAndPitchforks when Wanda's power first manifested and [[HowDoIShotWeb she did not know how to control them]]. They were rescued by Magneto, an evil mutant with magnetic powers who recruited them for his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. They accepted, not because they were evil, but just because they did not dare fight against someone as powerful as him.
* ComicBookFantasyCasting: ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'' redesigned her with the likeness of Angelina Jolie.
* ContinuitySnarl
** What ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled'' revealed about her had a lot of them--in ''its very premise'' given it was established years before that Wanda had already regained her memories of her kids without losing her sanity again. Likewise, so was Comicbook/DoctorStrange saying there's no such thing as Chaos Magic--when he himself used it.
** The modern reveal that Wanda and Pietro have never been mutants contradicts many past stories that took it as canon that they ''were'' mutants. Such as Sentinels targeting them, or the "No more mutants" thing working on Pietro.
* DemonicPossession: She was possessed by Chthon, and by the evil god Set.
* DiabolusExMachina: Both ''Avengers Disassembled'' and ''House of M'' depend on Wanda developing [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands a scale of power]] that she had never even been close to before. This is explained as being a power boost from the Life Force--although writers sometimes forget that and have her back to her reality warping ways.
* DoingInTheScientist / DoingInTheWizard: Writers continually flip flop between explaining her powers as being purely science-fiction based psychic mutation, magic, and magic created by mutation.
* TheDreaded: She has essentially become a boogeyman used to scare mutant children on Krakoa, both because she was "a pretender" and because she nearly destroyed the mutant race.
* FantasticRacism: She experiences this both for her status as a mutant and her mixed marriage to the Vision.
* TheFriendsWhoNeverHang: Even during the time they were related (2002 - 2014), Wanda and her half-sister Lorna scarcely interacted. Makes for awkwardness when Wanda pays her a visit in ''All-New X-Factor'' to try engage in some sisterly bonding, even without that little detail of the Decimation.
* FromASingleCell: There was a demon whose existence was tied to a tome of ancient lore, so the Scarlet Witch destroyed it by burning it. The demon eventually returned anyway. The Vision explained all this to a magician, who pointed "You said Wanda burned the book! It does not follow that the book was destroyed! What of its ashes?"
* FunnyForeigner: Some back-up stories in ''X-Men: First Class'' have her and Jean hanging out together, with Wanda playing a little of this role, due to her not-entirely-great grasp of English (kindly ignore how in the original ''X-Men'' days, Wanda spoke fluent English from the off).
* GenerationXerox
** First used when it was revealed that Magneto was their true father. Magda was depicted as virtually identical to Wanda, and Pietro and Magneto both have white hair.
** Wanda's spiritual son Wiccan shares her reality warping powers, while his spiritual twin Speed shares her brother Pietro's super speed. A strong physical resemblance to their mother has been pointed out before.
** And, now that Magneto is no longer her father (and Magda not her mother), she finds out that she is a LegacyCharacter: her mother was into witchcraft, was visually similar, used a similar suit, and called herself "the Scarlet Witch".
* HeartbreakAndIceCream: After Vision tries breaking up with her (to let Wanda [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy be happy]]), she heads to the Avengers Mansion kitchen to crack open a tub of Ben and Jerry's.
* HotWitch: Mutant powers? Magic? Mutant powers that let her ''tap into'' magic? Beautiful brunette with a voluptuous body? No matter which, she qualifies.
* IconicItem: Her tiara. She may change her costume, but the tiara is almost always there. You wouldn't recognize her without it.
* ImpracticallyFancyOutfit: The [[http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/10/102593/3206589-2+%281%29.jpg Romani-inspired outfit designed by George Perez]] surely shows her as MsFanservice more than ever before, but it's often considered to be this type of outfit.
* IncestSubtext: In the main 616 universe, never intentionally--but still Wanda's relationships with her brother Pietro sometimes look a little ''too'' close, especially during the Silver Age. Also, see BrotherSisterIncest above.
* InstantAIJustAddWater: Her hexes may cause robots to spontaneously develop sentience. This was implied in the Ultimate continuity, leading to Ultron. In the Howard the Duck series, apparently a past encounter with a sentinel lead to it developing a sentient hatred of all superhumans, styling itself as a Punisher like figure.
* KarmaHoudini: There's no small amount of controversy among fans on whether Scarlet Witch has been fairly dealt with for her actions on M-Day. X-Men fans especially feel that she was let off too easily, whereas Avengers fans feel like it's been enough. Rather like the comics.
* LadyOfBlackMagic: Wanda is generally depicted as a beautiful, demure, reserved, and powerful user of [[WindsOfDestinyChange Chaos Magic]].
* LateArrivalSpoiler: Nowadays, you can't read ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled'' and don't know in advance that the Scarlet Witch is behind all that, the mystery of the first half of it. In fact, you would probably buy that story ''precisely'' to read about Wanda's intervention in it.
* LegacyCharacter: Now that Magneto and Magda are no longer her parents, there is a new quest to discover her real parents. She discovered that her real mother was also into witchcraft, and more: she used a outfit and also called herself "the Scarlet Witch".
* LeotardOfPower: Her well-known attire a.k.a. The red bathing suit, 'nuff said.
* LevitatingLotusPosition: She engages in this from time to time.
* LoveTriangle: Between herself, Vision and Wonder Man. Vision's the one she ends up with in the end. Until things went sour.
* LukeIAmYourFather: More than once, in fact.
** First, she and Pietro had a revelation with the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] superhero [[HaveAGayOldTime The Whizzer]], who was revealed to be their real father along with the Golden Age heroine Miss America.
** Later, it is revealed that they were actually the children of their foster father, who appears briefly and kidnaps them.
** Then they learn that it is Magneto who is their father.
** Then they go back and learn that it was actually the Maximoffs.
** And then they learn it wasn't the Maximoffs, but now their mother was one of many Scarlet Witches, and their father is a as-of-yet unknown figure.
* MagicalRomani: She is Roma, and has significant magical power. It turns out that not only is her magic partially tied to the elder god living in Wundagore Mountain, her mother is also a Scarlet Witch, meaning there is a definite undercurrent of magic in the peoples' history.
* MamaBear:
** She [[ComicBook/HouseOfM remade the world]] to save her sons. She also kicks ass in ''ComicBook/TheChildrensCrusade'' with said kids.
** In ''ComicBook/TheChildrensCrusade'', she was all set to sit back and let the ComicBook/XMen do what ever they wanted to her. Then Emma Frost tried to mind control her kids into going with the X-Men.
-->'''Scarlet Witch:''' Auntie Emma, you might want to check with their mother first. Because I hear she can be a real ''bitch.''
* AManIsAlwaysEager: The Enchantress put a spell on the Vision so that he loved her, and would steal for her. When he was under the spell, he kissed her, and ''[[WorthIt enjoyed]]'' it. Wanda was very angry with him about that. This was primarily to demonstrate how human Vision had become.
* MostCommonSuperPower: As with many of the super heroines of the Marvel Universe, Scarlet Witch has some very large breasts.
* MsFanservice: Scarlet Witch has been this since her first appearance in the comics. She's a very beautiful brunette who usually wears {{Stripperific}} outfits (particularly a red bathing suit or other costumes like the ones that she wore at the end of the ComicBook/WestCoastAvengers and Force Works team and during the run of Kurt Busiek and George Perez) that are more seductive then her contemporaries Jean Grey, Sue Storm, or Janet van Dyne.
** The MCU version usually fights in outfits with an ImpossiblyLowNeckline, with Creator/ElizabethOlsen pointing out with some discomfort that she was the only woman in battle scenes showing cleavage. In ''Series/WandaVision'', she spends most of the second episode in a LovelyAssistant outfit for a magic show, and then spends all of episode 6 wearing the classic Scarlet Witch leotard from the comics.
* MustMakeAmends: On and off since her return in ''The Children's Crusade'' is Wanda trying to find some way, any way to make up for causing the Decimation. So far, no success - the X-Men accidentally sabotaged her first try when she'd only repowered one (1) Mutant, and her next attempt in ''Empyre'' nearly caused a ZombieApocalypse.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Needless to say, once she became lucid after ''Disassembled'', she was horrified about killing her ex, and two of her fellow Avengers, to say nothing of the damage she'd done to the others, and seriously considered ''letting'' them kill her.
* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: The underlying theme is her 2016 comic book is that she sensed something going terribly wrong with witchcraft in general.
* MySisterIsOffLimits: Quicksilver's attitude over her the first years. Turned into a [[IHaveNoSon I Have No Sister]] when she told him about her relation with the Vision.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** Because of the unpredictable nature of her powers, sometimes they backfire. For example, at the end of "Ultron Unlimited". All the battle-weary Avengers were counting on her to use her powers to break Ultron's body... but she was badly hurt, couldn't concentrate, and made Ultron more powerful than ever instead. If TheCavalry hadn't arrived to save the day...
** Example not related to her powers during "The Search for She-Hulk". She tries stopping Jennifer, who's having difficulty controlling herself as She-Hulk, from fleeing the scene by collapsing part of the building in front of her. Unfortunately, as Jen tells her, it's not ''anger'' that triggers her current HulkOut. It's ''fear''. And Wanda's just startled her...
* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Her powers are among the most flexible in all of Marvel comics, being able to do whatever DependingOnTheWriter.
* OfficialCouple: With Vision, usually. But she also had a thing going with Captain America shortly before ''Disassembled'' happened, and has also been in a relationship with Doctor Voodoo.
* TheOmnipotent: While Wanda had steadily grown more powerful over the years, the scale she reaches in ''Disassembled'' and ''House of M'' is far beyond anything she was shown to do--at the peak of her power, she was able to rewrite the Omniverse, as in every universe in every reality. No explanation was given for this, until it was retconned that a previously unmentioned power called the Life Force made her that strong. However, writers occasionally forget (or ignore) this, and tease the idea she is still able to warp reality, with it mainly being suggested that she just needs to channel a suitable power source.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Being part of the Brotherhood, even though she and Pietro never ''wanted'' to be part of it, and quit the first chance they got. After that, it's ''Disassembled'' and M-Day.
* OppositesAttract:
** In Creator/GeoffJohns' run on ''The Avengers'', he had Wanda hint at this being the reason why she and Vision are right for each other:
-->'''Chaos:''' Why should a being like you, a witch who works in chaos, care for this thing of perfect order?
-->'''Wanda:''' Because '''chaos''' and '''order''' belong together.
** In ''Avengers vs. X-Men'' she bonds with Hope, who was created by the Phoenix Force to oppose her.
** She has a very brief crush on Steve Rogers when she first joins the Avengers, thinking to herself that his goodness and gentility was strange but appealing.
** She also ends up bonding with the time-travelling Teen Jean Grey, despite a bad original meeting, taking her on a sort of spa day to de-stress (which Jean sorely needed). Unfortunately the ghost of Adult Jean had different ideas.
* PhysicalGoddess: She has the [[WindsOfDestinyChange power to alter probability]]. At its apex, we go from 'make pitchers of water fall over' to 'make the probability of ''anything she can think of'' become 100%,' becoming a RealityWarper who is limited only by the fact that, as one born human, her mind can't always handle it.
* PowerCreepPowerSeep: Her powers always fluctuated wildly, but post ''House of M'' is particularly notable, in that writers don't seem to want to entirely let go of the idea of Wanda as an omnipotent RealityWarper, similar to how writers can't seem to get over the idea of Jean Grey as the Phoenix.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild:
** Several {{Big Bad}}s, such as [[ManipulativeBastard Immortus]] and [[WickedWitch Morgan Le Fay]], used her as their power source.
** The origin of her powers is a combination of her natural mutant abilities and being infused with a portion of the powers of Chthon, an immensely powerful [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demonic entity]], who intended to use her as his host. And still does.
* PretenderDiss: Because of her role in M-Day being even worsened by her recently being revealed as not a mutant, Krakoans refer to her as “Pretender” and look at her as a sort of boogeyman. Magneto, curiously enough, has been suspiciously quiet on this front.
* {{Pun}}: As anyone who hangs around hardware stores can attest, a "hex bolt" is a bolt with a hexagonal head. Many comic book readers don't hang around hardware stores, though.
* PunchClockVillain: She and Pietro were only in Magneto's Brotherhood because he saved their lives and demanded that they join him as payment; they refused to kill anyone, used their powers against Magneto to stop him from killing, and [[HeelFaceTurn joined the Avengers]] as soon as they were free of him.
* PutOnABus: After ''House of M'', she disappeared from the comics for six years, with writers forbidden to use her except in flashbacks or alternate universes. TheBusCameBack in ''Children's Crusade''.
* RealityWarper: Her probability manipulation could be regarded as a minor form of reality warping. Crossover event ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled cranked her up to full RealityWarper.
* RefusedByTheCall: Is the Scarlet Witch the [[ComicBook/TheCelestialMadonnaSaga Celestial Madonna]]? After all, she started her studies of magic, and the star that announced the coming of the Madonna appeared over the Avengers mansion. But no, the Celestial Madonna is Mantis.
* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Creator/JohnByrne theorized this about her power to alter probabilities: if she can do that, he argued, that means she must be altering time retroactively, changing all the events that go into making something improbable. In his AbortedArc on ''West Coast Avengers'', Byrne used this theory to briefly turn her into a RealityWarper for the first time.
* RetCon:
** Creator/JohnByrne retconned Wanda's children as being pieces of a supervillain's soul via Mephisto, driving her insane.
** Years later, in ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled'', Wanda is hit with several all at once--first the idea that she didn't remember having children (a dropped plotline from decades earlier), then that her magic was all mutant-power based, and that she was a willing member of the Brotherhood.
** The retcon that Wanda and Pietro were never mutants ''OR'' Magneto's children during the AXIS arc.
* {{Robosexual}}: Although the comics fluctuated for some years on how robotic the Vision was. The original version had it that he was a synthetic person, with organs and blood, but made of a type of plastic (hence the term "synthezoid" being used often over "android"). During this period, the Vision would come to consider himself human, and Wanda would always see him as a person first. More machine-like attributes slowly creeped up on him, until finally Creator/JohnByrne made Vision entirely a robot.
* SayingTooMuch: In ''All-New X-Factor'', a still pretty inebriated Wanda lets slip to Lorna that Quicksilver was only on her team because Havok ordered him to.
* SexyBacklessOutfit: At least some versions of her swimsuit outfit have no back to them, though there is the cape in the way.
* [[HesBack She's Back]]: The formation of the second version of ''Mighty Avengers'' teased this, but it was really Loki in disguise. Played straight in ''Children's Crusade'' #6 -- Wanda's alive, repowered, and back to her old self.
* ShesGotLegs: Wanda usually wears attractive {{Stripperific}} outfits that highlight her long toned yet shapely legs.
* SilkHidingSteel: Despite having strained family relationships and often uncontrollable powers, Wanda carries herself with an air of composure and elegance whenever she has to save the day. The fact that she often wore beautiful red outfits to battle probably helped to cement the image as well.
* SolitarySorceress: When she tries to understand more in depth about the origins of her powers or how far they could extend, she tends to analyze and study by her own.
* SpiritAdvisor: Agatha Harkness returned to guide Wanda in her 2016 solo series, but she's still dead. At the end, she leaves Wanda willingly.
* SquishyWitch: She has fairly low defense for an Avenger without her powers--but it can't be forgotten that Captain America has trained her in hand-to-hand, as evidenced when in "Nights of Wundagore" she is up against an opponent whose magic is stronger than hers, and she punches him in the face and [[DisneyVillainDeath knocks him off a cliff]].
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: In the Brotherhood of Mutants, so there could be a DesignatedGirlFight against Jean Grey, the only X-Woman at the time. And then again in Cap's Kooky Quartet.
* TenMinuteRetirement: When the Stranger captured Magneto, the original Brotherhood of evil mutants disbanded, and Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch (who had been blackmailed to be part of the group) retired and promised that they would never use their powers on behalf of others. Still, when Iron Man, Giant Man and the Wasp left the Avengers, they saw the news and moved back to America, to try their luck on this other team.
* ThePowerOfLove: More than mere magic, it's what allowed Wanda to bring Wonder Man back from the dead.
* TookALevelInBadass:
** When she tapped into chaos magic, at the beginning of Kurt Busiek's run. She grew into being arguably the most powerful Avenger (but not as far as with reality warping yet). In fact, several battles had the other Avengers gaining time until she could concentrate and defeat the monster with her magic.
** In UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks she took an earlier level in badass under writer Steve Englehart, who made her more assertive and aggressive and had her study real witchcraft with Agatha Harkness, learning to do things like animate inanimate objects and call meteors down from the sky.
** In ''ComicBook/JLAAvengers'', the higher levels of magic in the DC universe make Wanda so powerful that she's able to subdue the entire Justice League with one hex.
* TooPowerfulToLive:
** In ''House of M'' and ''Children's Crusade'', several characters try to kill her to prevent her new [[RealityWarper reality warping]] powers from destroying the world.
** Also too powerful to procreate: In ''Avengers Forever'', a Space Phantom explains that Immortus tried to prevent Wanda from having children because, as the Nexus Being of her universe, her biological children would be powerful enough to TakeOverTheWorld.
*** The fact that her son William ([[TangledFamilyTree reborn as]] [[ComicBook/YoungAvengers Billy Kaplan]]) once stepped outside of the multiverse at will and rearranged it to his liking ''at the age of sixteen''[[note]] And it was ''not'' a one-time thing; this is an actual ability that he has, albeit one he can't access freely. Yet.[[/note]] is a good indicator that this fear was apparently not ''entirely'' unfounded.
* TorchesAndPitchforks: In her first origin story, she was saved from an angry mob by Magneto. Seems fitting, for a character named "witch".
* TraumaCongaLine: Creator/JohnByrne wrote and drew ''[[Comicbook/TheAvengers West Coast Avengers]]'' for a little over a year, and spent most of the time putting her through one of these. First the Vision was dismantled and his personality erased, effectively ending her marriage. Then she was kidnapped by a secret society trying to use her to create a race of super-mutants. Then her children were revealed to be made from pieces of the devil's soul and erased from existence. Then her memories were erased, she was driven into a catatonic state, and she temporarily went insane, all part of a plot by [[TheChessmaster Immortus]] to ruin her life and drive her mad.
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Apparently self-inflicted House of M, and occasionally the idea she did it to herself (again) is tossed around once remembering her kids after her memories of them were suppressed by Agatha Harkness.
* TrulySingleParent: Possibly her original children with Vision could be considered solely hers DependingOnTheWriter, but definitely the children she makes in ''House of M'' are from her mind only.
* UnstablePoweredWoman: Despite being one of Marvel's most powerful magic users, Wanda has had a variety of storylines where her fragile mental state has devastating consequences for the universe. It started when she was forced to forget a DealWithTheDevil where she and ComicBook/TheVision have their idealized NuclearFamily. Suddenly remembering them starts a psychotic break that triggers ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled'' and later feeds into ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'', and it often falls to her father, brother, or occasionally ComicBook/DoctorStrange to keep her in check.
* UnwantedHarem: As was the norm for female characters in Marvel's Silver Age, to demonstrate how beautiful and wonderful they are, unattached men fall in love with them right and left. Wanda had at least a little bit of attraction from just about every unattached man she encountered up until she met Vision: Cyclops, Angel, Mastermind, Toad, Namor, Arkon the Barbarian, and Hawkeye.
* WeddingsForEveryone: Mantis and the Swordsman got married at the end of ComicBook/TheCelestialMadonnaSaga; and as they were at it, why not get the Vision and the Scarlet Witch married too?
* WindsOfDestinyChange: TropeNamer. Her power is usually described in the comics as the power to alter probabilities, changing the odds of something happening (SpontaneousCombustion, entropy, changes in weather) from very unlikely to a dead certainty.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: The "Darker than Scarlet" arc in ''West Coast Avengers'' and the later ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled'' storyline.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: She undergoes a fluctuating life where the good (a family with The Avengers, marriage to the man she loves, having her kids) is outweighed by the bad (her father is a supervillain, her husband gets mindwiped and leaves her, her kids aren't real), along with a number of possessions, kidnappings, and multiple forced amnesia inflicted by her most trusted friends. Then she rewrites the universe. Then she does it AGAIN.
----

* MsFanservice: Scarlet Witch has been this since her first appearance in the comics. She's a very beautiful brunette who usually wears {{Stripperific}} outfits (particularly a red bathing suit or other costumes like the ones that she wore at the end of the ComicBook/WestCoastAvengers and ComicBook/ForceWorks team and during the run of Kurt Busiek and George Perez) that are more seductive then her contemporaries Jean Grey, Sue Storm, or Janet van Dyne.

* TheFriendsWhoDontHang: Even during the time they were related (2002 - 2014), Wanda and her half-sister Lorna scarcely interacted. Makes for awkwardness when Wanda pays her a visit in ''All-New X-Factor'' to try engage in some sisterly bonding, even without that little detail of the Decimation.

Scarlet Witch entered the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' (after having a mid-credits cameo in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''), as portrayed by Creator/ElizabethOlsen. This version's powers are more simply displayed as telekinesis and some type of telepathy instead of the abilities of probability manipulation, reality warping, and chaos magic that she has in the comics and other versions. (Details can be found [[Characters/MCUScarletWitch here]]). In 2021, she starred in her own MCU limited series, ''Series/WandaVision'', on Creator/DisneyPlus, alongside Creator/PaulBettany's Vision.

Scarlet Witch entered the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' (after having a mid-credits cameo in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''), as portrayed by Creator/ElizabethOlsen. This version's powers are more simply displayed as telekinesis and some type of telepathy instead of the abilities of probability manipulation, reality warping, and chaos magic that she has in the comics and other versions. (Details can be found [[Characters/MCUNewAvengers here]]). In 2021, she starred in her own MCU limited series, ''Series/WandaVision'', on Creator/DisneyPlus, alongside Creator/PaulBettany's Vision.

** The MCU version usually fights in outfits withan ImpossiblyLowNeckline, with Creator/ElizabethOlsen pointing out with some discomfort that she was the only woman in battle scenes showing cleavage. In ''Series/WandaVision'', she spends most of the second episode in a LovelyAssistant outfit for a magic show, and then spends all of episode 6 wearing the classic Scarlet Witch leotard from the comics.

* MsFanservice: Scarlet Witch has been this since her first appearance in the comics. She's a very beautiful brunette who usually wears {{Stripperific}} outfits (particularly a red bathing suit or other costumes like the ones that she wore at the end of the ComicBook/WestCoastAvengers and ComicBook/ForceWorks team and during the run of Kurt Busiek and George Perez) that are more seductive then her contemporaries Jean Grey, Sue Storm, or Janet van Dyne and highlight her very big breasts, ripped broad shoulders, voluptuous yet toned body, and long toned yet shapely legs.

Scarlet Witch entered the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' (after having a mid-credits cameo in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''), as portrayed by Creator/ElizabethOlsen. This version's powers are more simply displayed as telekinesis and some type of telepathy instead of the abilities of probability manipulation, reality warping, and chaos magic that she has in the comics and other versions. (Details can be found [[Characters/MCUNewAvengers here]]). In 2019, it was announced that she would be starring in her own series, ''Series/WandaVision'', on Creator/DisneyPlus, alongside Creator/PaulBettany's Vision.

** ''Series/WandaVision'' (2020)
** ''Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'' (2021)

[[AC:Film]]
* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse played by Creator/ElizabethOlsen
** ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' (post-credits cameo) (2014)

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse
** ''Series/WandaVision'' (2020)