|
Scarlet
Witch
 Real
name: Wanda Maximoff
Former aliases: Wanda Frank
Identity: Publicly known
Occupation: (current) Adventurer, (former) terrorist
Legal status: Former citizen of Transia, naturalized citizen of the
United States with no criminal record
Place of birth: Wundagore Mountain, Transia, Europe
Marital status: Married
Known relatives: Vision (husband), Pietro Maximoff (brother, alias
Quicksilver, deceased), Magneto (father, MIA), Magda (mother), Django
Maximoff (adoptive father, deceased), Marya Maximoff (adoptive mother,
deceased)
Base of operations: Avengers Mansion, Castle DOom
Group affiliation: Avengers
Height: 5 ft. 7 in.
Weight: 130 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Auburn
Strength: The Scarlet Witch possesses the normal human strength of
a woman of her age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular
exercise.
Known superhuman powers: The Scarlet Witch possesses the mutant
power of affecting probability fields. By a combination of gestures and
mental concentration, she creates a hex-sphere, a finite pocket of reality-disrupting
quasi-psionic force, which upon reaching its intended target, causes
disturbance in the molecular-level probability field surrounding the
target. Thus, unlikely phenomena will occur. Among the many phenomena she
is able to cause are: the sudden melting of gun barrels, the spontaneous
combustion of any flammable object, the rapid rust or decay of various
organic and inorganic materials, the poltergeist-like deflection of an
object in flight, the sudden evacuation of air from a given volume, the
disruption of energy transmissions and fields, and so on. These phenomena
occur practically instantaneously after the completion of her hex. Her
range of hex-casting is limited by her line of sight. (She cannot watch a
live television broadcast and cause a hex-phenomenon to occur at its point
of origin.)
Scarlet Witch's hex-casting ability still has a 20% unreliability factor.
Her sorcerous training has not given her a set of powers separate from her
mutant abilities, but only honed her control over her existing abilities.
She has, however, a special affinity for the natural elements and
materials that true witches utilize in their spells: the four alchemical
elements, wood, organic substances, etc. The reliability factor of her hex-casting
ability is also limited by her physical condition: when well rested, in
good health, and mentally and emotionally alert, Scarlet Witch can cast
numerous hex-spheres in rapid succession and attain desirable results for
almost an hour.
 History:
Wanda Maximoff is the daughter of the mutant called Magneto and the gypsy
Magda. Just prior to her birth, her mother fled from her father, terrified
of the bizarre powers he suddenly manifested and his intentions of world
domination. Seeking refuge in the scientific citadel of Wundagore in the
Balkan Mountains of the tiny nation of Transia, Magda was taken in by Bova,
a woman evolved from a cow by the master of genetic acceleration, the High
Evolutionary. Magda gave birth to twins, a body and a girl, with Bova as
her midwife. Still afraid, Magda left Bova her children and walked away to
perish. Bova was relieved when several nights later, an American couple
vacationing in Europe, Robert and Madeline Frank, also came to Wundagore
seeking midwife assistance. Bova intended to award the couple the days-old
twins to raise along with their own newborn. Unfortunately, the couple's
child was stillborn, and Madeline died in childbirth. Frank fled from
Wundagore upon hearing of his wife's death, nearly insane with grief. Bova
then presented the twins to her master, the High Evolutionary, who agreed
to find foster parents for them.
The High Evolutionary found Django and Marya Maximoff, a gypsy couple
camped nearly who had lost their own twin children, Ana and Mateo, during
World War II. They cared for the children as their own. As adolescents,
Wanda and her brother Pietro discovered that they had peculiar talents.
When Django began to steal food to feed his starving family, enraged
villagers attacked the gypsy camp. Using his phenomenal speed, Pietro fled
from the camp with his sister. The next few years, Wanda and Pietro
wandered central Europe, living off the land.
One day, Wanda accidentally caused a house to burst into flames with her
uncontrollable hex powers, and was chased by superstitious townspeople.
Despite Pietro's attempt to defend her, the pair were soon overpowered.
They were about to by lynched when Magneto came to the rescue. Unaware
that he was their natural father, Magneto impressed them into service in
his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, costumed them, and named them Quicksilver
and the Scarlet Witch. For months they served Magneto out of a sense of
obligation and fear of retaliation if they left him.
When the extraterrestrial Stranger transported Magneto from Earth, the
siblings left the Brotherhood and soon petitioned for membership in the
hero team Avengers. They quickly were allowed to join, and Wanda and her
brother began a long tenure with the team. They separated from the team
only once, when Magneto manipulated Wanda and her brother into joining
with him once again, but they soon realized the deception left. They both
rejoined the Avengers during a conflict with the extradimensional Arkon.
 Wanda
soon found herself attracted to the android Avenger, the Vision, much to
the chagrin of her brother. Despite his condemnation, she pursued a long
courtship with the Vision. (Later, Wanda would meet Wonder Man, the hero
whose brain patterns were used in creating the Vision and who proved to
share similar dispositions.) Wanda and the Vision were eventually married
by the ruler of Limbo, Immortus. The couple continued to serve the
Avengers, during which time Wanda began studying true sorcery under the
tutelage of the witch Agatha Harkness.
An encounter with the Whizzer led Wanda and Pietro to believe he and Miss
America were their true biological parents. Months later, however, after
being mystically abducted by Django Maximoff and freed by Avengers, Wanda
and Pietro took a leave of absence from the team to investigate the
secrets regarding their childhood origins. Returning to Wundagore Mountain,
they met Bova and learned the truth of their parentage. It was also
revealed that Wanda had been imbued with an abnormal facility for magic at
birth by the demon Chthon, who was trapped within the earth and hoped to
escape using Wanda as a host body someday. Returning to the mountain
allowed Chthon to possess Wanda, but she was soon freed by the Avengers
and her adoptive father Django Maximoff, who sealed Chthon inside
Wundagore before dying.
Wanda soon had herself and the Vision take a leave of absence during a
membership reshuffle, in search of a more normal married life. They set up
residence in a suburb in New Jersey. There, they led a relatively quiet
life, interrupted on rare occasions by menaces. At one point, she
discovered that Magneto was her true biological father and denounced their
relationship.
Wanda and the Vision were soon contacted to help the Avengers against
Annihilus' "null-field" that was surrounding Manhattan. Vision was
seriously injured in the accident, and Wanda served as an Avenger while
her husband recuperated in the mansion's lab. Eventually, the couple again
retired from the Avengers in the face of government harassment over the
rejuvenated Vision's misguided and failed attempt to take over the world.
They had their own series of adventures against the Salem's Seven. Later,
Wanda used a combination of magic and mutant ability to allow the couple
to have a child, and Wanda soon gave birth to twin sons, Thomas and
William. She began to mend fences with Magneto, who at this time was
attempting to reform.
The family continued to stay in their home in Jersey until they agreed to
help the Avenger's West Coast branch during a membership
crisis. Since he returned to the Avengers, the Vision was captured and
dismantled by an international intelligence watchdog coalition,
effectively ending their marriage with his complete change of personality.
Wanda tried in vain to find a way to restore Vision's mind, angrily
denouncing her teammate Wonder Man for refusing to assist in the
restoration of Vision's mind, not realizing Wonder Man wanted her for
himself.
Wanda's problems continued, as she was chosen as a host for That Which
Endures, and soon discovered her twins were actually captured essences of
Master Pandemonium's soul, and were absorbed back into him. Wanda's sanity
momentarily slipped, and she joined her father Magneto in wanting to claim
total mutant supremacy over the Earth. The Avengers soon helped bring
Wanda back to her senses.
Wanda and the Avengers were confronted by Immortus, who claimed to be
causing these tragedies to befall Wanda in order to create her into a "nexus
being" through which he could control the space-time continuum. Harkness,
the Avengers, and Pietro managed to free Wanda from Immortus, who was
defeated.
Wanda continued to adventure with the Avengers' West Coast branch (while
the Vision spent his time with the East Coast branch.) During this time,
Wanda finally resolved to put her relationship with Vision behind her, and
she even briefly dated a love-struck Wonder Man before breaking it off
with him. She was later elected chairperson of the team, leading them for
a brief stint, although very soon after, the East Coast Avengers voted to
shut the West Coast branch down.
 Wanda
joined other former West Coast members in the briefly formed "Force Works"
team, where she lent her hex powers to fuel a trouble-spotting computer.
She continued to act as field leader, although her teammate Iron Man often
acted as one as well, to her chagrin. Later, Force Works and the Avengers
were forced to combat the menace of Kang (actually a disguised Immortus).
During the battles, Wanda ended up separated from both teams, traveling
with the similarly-displaced Hawkeye. She soon found herself back in the
Avengers' fold, and she rejoined the team.
During the Onslaught dominance of the
Earth, Wanda became the Earth's Sorceress Supreme and rekindled her
relationship with Vison, marrying once again. Onslaught helped her defeat
Dr Strange in order for her to get that position. Her magik has grown
considerably, and she is now almost invincible.
She actually tried to stop Onslaught,
acting as a Resistance's mole in his organization, but Onslaught quickly
gave her control of Europe once her father (actually the clone of MAgneto)
died. She wasn't able to do much since Onslaught's downfall was inminent.
After his fall she rejoined the Avengers, and, after Doom took over she
was named the Avengers liason to the crown.
She has been helping Doom and Storm ever
since. Roma forced her to use her powers in order to send several heroes
to the future, and since then she has remained at Storm's side, trying to
help her. And her efforts were met
with betrayal. Storm stole all of Wanda's Magik powers, becoming the new
Sorceress Supreme, and leaving Wanda powerless and with no recollection of
the event. |
