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Information
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),
Magneto (father), Magda (mother), Django Maximoff (adoptive father, deceased),
Marya Maximoff (adoptive mother, deceased) Base of operations: Leonia,
New Jersey Group affiliation: (current) Avengers, (former) Brotherhood
of Evil Mutants First appearance: X-Men (first series) #4
History: Wanda Maximoff was the daughter of the mutant called Magnus and
a gypsy woman named 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 boy and a girl, with Bova as her midwife. Still afraid
that her husband might find her and learn of the children, Magda left Bova a note
explaining her fears, and walked into the frozen mountain wilderness to perish.
Feeling that it was not right to raise two seemingly normal babies in the environment
of the evolved animal-men of Wundagore, Bova was relieved when several nights
later, an American couple vacationing in Europe, Robert and Madeline Frank, also
came to Wundagore seeking natal 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 from complications in childbirth. Bova presented
Robert Frank with the twins, representing them as his own natural children, in
the hope it would assuage his grief. (Years later, Frank and the children would
believe that he was their natural father.) Bova then presented the twins to her
master, the High Evolutionary, who agreed to find human foster parents for them.
The High Evolutionary did find such parents for them in the persons
of Django and Marya Maximoff, a gypsy couple camped nearby who had lost their
own two children, Ana and Mateo, during World War II. The Maximoffs accepted the
strange gifts from the High Evolutionary and were told their names were Wanda
and Pietro, the names their natural mother had given them at birth. The Maximoffs
cared for the children as if they were their own. (Years later, Django would believe
that Wanda and Pietro were his natural children Ana and Mateo.) As adolescents,
Wanda and Pietro discovered that they had peculiar talents. With a particular
gesture while she was in a certain frame of mind, Wanda found that she could cause
unusual phenomena to occur. 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 traumatic circumstances of the
separation from their family were so severe that not until well into adulthood
could they remember anything but the barest details of their childhood. 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, they were soon overpowered and about to become
victims of mob violence when Magneto came to their rescue. Unaware that he was
their natural father, Magneto pressed them into service in his Brotherhood of
Evil Mutants, costumed them, and named them the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
For months they served Magneto out of a sense of obligation and fear of his reprisal.
When the extraterrestrial Stranger transported Magneto from Earth, the Scarlet
Witch and Quicksilver left the Brotherhood and petitioned for membership in the
Avengers. They were inducted along with Hawkeye to take the place of the charter
members, who wished a leave of absence.
At one point during her career
as an Avenger, the Scarlet Witch underwent training in sorcery under the tutelage
of a true witch named Agatha Harkness. The mental discipline of sorcery aided
the Scarlet Witch's powers of concentration, enabling her to exercise much greater
control over her mutant hexes than ever before. While an active member of the
Avengers, the Scarlet Witch met, became romantically involved with, and married
the synthetic man called the Vision. For a few years after their marriage, the
two lived in Avengers Mansion, saving their Avenger' salaries. Eventually, the
couple bought a house in Leonia, New Jersey, and retired from active membership.
They returned to active duty when the Baxter Building was threatened by Annihilus'
null-field. The Vision assumed chairmanship when most of the Avengers disappeared
while fighting the first Secret War. After a several week stint, the Vision stepped
down as leader and the couple returned to Leonia. By warping probabilities, Wanda
managed to be impregnated by the artificial Vision. They have since had twin sons
named Thomas and William.
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.
Contrary to certain accounts, the Scarlet Witch cannot levitate, shoot magical
energy concussive blasts, or transmute elements.