Scarlet Witch’s confirmed MCU death still serves Wanda Maximoff

summary

• Wanda Maximoff’s journey in the MCU betrays Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
• WandaVision must be seen before Doctor Strange 2 to understand Wanda’s motivations and actions.
• The MCU’s portrayal of Scarlet Witch reflects her darker moments in the comics, but there is still a possibility that she will return as a heroic character.

Tea Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) Many major heroes and villains have become popular with mainstream audiences, one example being The Scarlet Witch. Also known as Wanda Maximoff, this former Avenger went from a scared young woman to a hero, a mother, and a total monster. Unfortunately, the development was seen by many as inorganic, and in Wanda’s appearance Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness There was finally a major heel turn for the character.

Moreover, the apparent death of the character was to stick in the movie, as confirmed by Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline. This has Scarlet Witch dying as a villain, causing her to follow a somewhat similar path as her comic book counterpart. While this may be specific to the source material, it ultimately reveals where she was going after the events Wandavision. Thus, her story ends in another Doctor Strange The film is a huge missed opportunity.

Updated March 14, 2024 by Robert Vaux: The Multiverse of Madness is an important film for the post-Endgame MCU, and its fate for Wanda Maximoff is causing debate among Marvel fans everywhere: perhaps even more so than her miniseries WandaVision. The article has been updated with new formatting to match CBR’s current guidelines.

Doctor Strange 2 betrays Wanda Maximoff’s journey in the MCU

Debuting through the post credit scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff and her brother Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff were two young adults from Sokovia who possessed incredible powers. This made them both pawns of Hydra, believing that their actions were creating a better world. Likewise, his parents were killed by missiles made by Tony Stark’s company, causing him to absolutely hate the American businessman-turned-superhero. Ultron (himself Tony’s “spawn”) uses it to turn Maximoff against the Avengers, to get them on his side.

Eventually, however, they learn the truth about Ultron, with Scarlet Witch siding with the Avengers against the evil artificial intelligence. This turn on Sara’s side continued even after the death of her beloved brother Pietro. thus, End of the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron She has officially become an Avenger Under Captain America’s tutelage, his place in the comics echoes somewhat as a member of “Cap’s Cookie Quartet”. Unfortunately, her loyalty is tested due to the onset of the “Sokovia Accords”, which finds her imprisoned due to her immense power. Although he is essentially her jailer, she develops feelings for the android Vision during house arrest.

These events lead to their overlapping with each other by the time of their events Avengers: Infinity War. That movie had Vision destroyed by Thanos, who was trying to extract the Time Stone. After Wanda’s resurrection through the climax of the Avengers: Endgame, she becomes incredibly complaint-obsessed. This is mainly due to her not being able to understand vision. Given how instrumental she was in defending the universe against Thanos, she was one of the staunchest heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Unfortunately, her reaction to Vision’s death set her on a path to despicable villainy.

Doctor Strange 2 negates Wanda’s growth in Wandavision

After everything Wanda has endured, a lot of her actions in Doctor Strange 2 make no sense

Base of series Wandavision Wanda Maximoff is involved in creating an illusionary reality for herself and her family (consisting of husband Vision and their sons Tommy and Billy) in the town of Westview. Eventually, the character Agnes is revealed to be the magical Agatha Harkness, who tries to take the Scarlet Witch’s magical power for herself. After the Scarlet Witch’s control over them is removed, the citizens of Westview beg to be freed from the altered reality. Wanda frees them, but opening the barrier too wide causes her family to disappear with the illusion. After defeating Agatha, Wanda makes peace with what she has to do and finally allows her false family to disappear.

This leads to events Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnesswhere Wanda is obsessed with the idea of ​​alternate worlds in which her sons still exist. Sadly, her way of trying to reconnect with them completely reverses her character. After learning that America Chavez can travel freely throughout the multiverse, Wanda aims to kill the girl and steal her powers. After that, her ambitions are to find a world in which her boys still live, kill that world’s self, and repair her lost family. The plan almost works, but said alternate versions of Billy and Tommy are terrified of the evil “witch”. Soon after, the Scarlet Witch, her home from the comics, is killed by the collapse of Mount Wundagor.

Needless to say, this was a complete change of pace for Wanda’s development Wandavision. Although the show ended with her still wanting to somehow reunite with her children, she realized the mistake of her actions at Westview. Thus, her living with Billy and Tommy suddenly becoming a murderer makes no sense. Similarly, her plan to steal Chavez’s powers was similarly a stretch, as befriending a young girl and refraining from needless killing might have been a better idea. It completely flew in the face of what the audience had seen before and turned one of the Avengers into an almost cartoonish villain with a consistently loose grip on reality.

Ironically, the main criticism for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness How it makes TV shows necessary to watch. which the audience did not see Wandavision Billy and Tommy had no clue who they were, making Wanda’s whole plan seem completely random. Even for those who have watched the Disney+ series Doctor Strange

The sequel made little sense, especially given how inexplicably evil Wanda had become. Wandavision She had started down a potentially villainous path before cementing her sacrificial heroism, so to recast it but make it beyond redemption was the ultimate insult to the character. On top of that, the movie’s conclusion made it seem like Wanda Maximoff was gone for good, since the character has yet to appear.

All of this puts the MCU’s Wanda on a similar path to her darker moments in the comics. The most notable of these was the “decimation” aka the fallout House of M. Traumatized by her mutant father Magneto (who has since been reunited with her and Pietro as no longer related), Wanda is able to radically affect reality, using her powers to destroy the mutant genes in most species. This made her a mentally unstable villain in the comics, and the same thing has now happened in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, Scarlet Witch may still return to the movies sooner The current multiverse saga ends, though a lot of narrative pins have to be juggled to make this revival work.

The story of the Scarlet Witch is over

It is not uncommon for comic book heroes and villains to come back from the dead

Comic book death is a concept that many fans have come to mourn, and for good reason. These temporary lapses in mortality soon wear off and often bring characters back to unfathomable levels. The result is that death is cheapened as a dramatic device, leaving the audience to lose faith when it actually happens. The MCU has only somewhat toyed with this idea with rumors The dead members of the Avengers were to return suggesting that the shared universe was diving headfirst into such a revival. It can certainly be done cheaply and ridiculously, but with characters like the Scarlet Witch, there’s a lot of story left to tell for her to be crushed by Mount Wundagor.

Through the use of the multiverse, a version of the Scarlet Witch can be presented that went through the events of Wandavisionbut not Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Thus, she still wanted to reunite with her sons but would not have gone down her more murderous path yet. The end result of this might be him working with the main Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Doctor Strange and possibly sacrificing himself for alternate versions of his children. This would cement that, regardless of her grievances and suffering, the Scarlet Witch always maintains the heart of a hero and not a monster.

There’s also the fact that a Young Avengers team is reportedly being introduced. This team is now hinted at by the post credit scene Marvels, with Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel meets Kate Bishop, the new Hawkeye. Other characters who have been members of the Champions and Young Avengers teams are also introduced, including Ironheart and Stinger. In the comics, Billy Kaplan is a Young Avengers member Wiccan, although he began life in the comics as William Maximoff. It’s possible that the MCU Wiccan could be an alternate version of Billy seen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of MadnessWhich means he would be terrified of the Scarlet Witch and see her as a monster.

The only way to undo this is for him to interact with a truly heroic version of Wanda, though that won’t be done with a currently dead avatar. Similarly, the introduction of mutants in the MCU could mean that Scarlet Witch will regain her more traditional roots as Magneto’s daughter. That may be especially the case if it comes to rebooting after that Avengers: Secret Wars Right, and it might be the best way to put Scarlet Witch back on the path to heroism. Currently, however, she is stuck between a literal rock and a hard place, her previous actions greatly tarnishing the character.