Which writer has been the most influential to Scarlet Witch's character?

[Captain Nash]

For good? Kurt Busiek. Say what you want, but I think she was likely the "star" of his run, if any one character was. I mean, he made sure all of the cast had important moments and impact, but so much was tied up in her. Especially that first year.

For bad? Bendis. Without question. Between Disassmbled and House Of M he practically destroyed her 40 year history as a heroine, she was fairly untouchable for quite some time afterwards, and has not been the same. She was regarded as one of the most prominent Avengers (maybe the second most important after the O5, after Hawkeye) and she's struggled to find her place on teams since then.

[Huntsman Spider]

Really sucks to be Wanda.

I know I'm repeating this a lot here, but man, she goes through some ****, and between what you said Byrne did, and what Bendis did, it seemed it was getting worse over time, but thankfully, nothing topped Disassembled/House of M, at least not yet.

Kinda ironic that a character who can manipulate luck, has so much bad luck, maybe it's how her power balances itself .



Well, even though Peter was treated like garbage to make Ben look good, Ben himself was still an alright character.

And you may be a fan, but even if you weren't, it's hard to enjoy such bad writing of a character to make another look good, it's such a childish writing method, and it's even worse in Clone Saga, since it was all done to get rid of Peter.



I don't remember any of this, didn't Civil War only happen because some guy's power is just exploding, which made the public blame super-heroes for some reason, which led to registration? I don't remember the mutant depowering being involved in this at all... But if that really happened, man, what a shithole Wanda started lol.

Nitro detonating himself and killing not only the New Warriors (and their reputation), but also roughly 600 innocent bystanders, was the direct impetus, although after House of M had the vast majority of mutants depowered, the United States government realized it now had the biggest stockpile of (nonmutant) superhumans in the world, thanks to a majority of the known superheroes (and supervillains) residing in America. Taking control of that population as a resource was a big part of why the government pushed the SHRA in the first place, with Nitro's actions providing a justification for that action that the government could sell to the public, deep in the throes of grief and anger directed at all superheroes, as "making them safer."

[Tmacaoni]

But that's the thing. I'm talking character over plot. Bendis didn't write about her, he just used her as a plot device.
It was the action that was influential, not Wanda as a character. She didn't have a voice. We didn't see her internalized turmoil or motivations. We just seen her go crazy because she somehow forgot she had kids, get a power-up and then be used by others for their motives. She literally disappeared for years after that.

I will admit that yes, Bendis was very "influential" to her as a plot device to remake the Avengers but not to her as a character and the same way Englehart and Busiek did. Even Byrne's work was character base over plot base. They used plot to change the character, Bendis used her to move his plot.

Allan Heinberg and Remember did more to deal with her character and how the Decimation affected her than what Bendis did.

Indeed. The sad part being....it wasn't even original. I remember reading that story and was like...hmmm..seems familiar. I can't remember if it was Sinister or High Evolutionary, but whoever it was sat up in space and pulled a no more mutants thing...killing a bunch of mutants that relied on their abilities. The X-men had to take a ship into space without powers and kick some villainous butt.

Obviously Bendis read the story liked it and took it to the next level. I'm leaning towards it being Evolutionary now since hes a space guy. I mean thats a powerful dude. You would think the X-men or even the Avengers would wanna check a guy that can just change your genetic code because hes bored.

[Steel Inquisitor]

As someone who finds the Wanda bashing obnoxious (ironically I feel her movie counterpart is less sympathetic), I think this is going a bit too far. There's been no harassment of writers from anti-Wanda fans as far as I can see.

It's the same fire. I feel pity for any writer who undoes Wanda being responsible for Decimation or retconned her back to being a mutant, they're asking to be the next Ron Marz.

[Agent Z]

It's the same fire. I feel pity for any writer who undoes Wanda being responsible for Decimation or retconned her back to being a mutant, they're asking to be the next Ron Marz.

They already did the former in Children's Crusade when they more or less tried to shift blame for the Decimation unto Doom.

[Relugus]

Yeah, that was the absolute nadir of the Clone Saga for me, not to mention that since he had actual super-strength (unlike Pym), he knocked her across the room . . . while he was in the process of trying to kill Ben Reilly for "stealing his life," which MJ was trying to stop him from doing. At least he immediately realized what he'd done, but then going on to join the Jackal in a fit of nihilistic pique? Maybe "absolute nadir" wouldn't go far enough to describe that particular atrocity of writing and characterization. Of course, this is supposed to be about Wanda, so my piece here is that Bendis really, really dropped the ball with opening his Avengers run by having Scarlet Witch go nuts and turn on the Avengers (and later mutantkind) as a whole, and her character has been tainted with that ever since, just because he apparently didn't see very much value in that character in the first place.

Apparently Bendis, Quesada, and Brevoort were surprised by the negative reaction to Dissassembled. They thought no one would care.

[Relugus]

This from 2004:

http://comicsbulletin.com/main/sites...6862349212.htm

"Don’t worry, friends assured me. It’s just a story. They’ve broken Wanda down only to build her back up again. There is precedent for this behavior. She’s lost it before and recovered. Magneto is her dad, after all, and she was once a villainess. It’s a great direction to go in for the character. It makes her so powerful. There’s so much that can be done with healing her, with setting up a new status quo. She’s the most interesting she’s been in years. Think of how many stories await this now god-like being.

Or … maybe none at all."

Take out the word catatonic and this pretty much describes 2020 Wanda:

"More interesting? Only if you’re interested in a plethora of talking heads discussing her like a criminal or problem child. She’s catatonic and barely got a word in edge-wise before Dr. Strange pushed her “off” button."

Englehart and Busiek clearly had the biggest influence on the character, developing and growing.

But Bendis and Byrne unfortuanately shaped her place in the Marvel universe. The bad news is that Hickman, who writes Wanda the same as Bendis, seems to be dictating her place in the Marvel universe.

[Relugus]

They already did the former in Children's Crusade when they more or less tried to shift blame for the Decimation unto Doom.

Prior to that David Sexton, in Marvel Tarot, has the sorcerer Ian McNee strongly suggest that it was either Chthon or Set, which would have made sense. Its also the case that these two would have been suspected instantly by the Avengers and Strange.