Heroine Abuse! The Scarlet Witch
HEROINE ABUSE! The Scarlet Witch Edition.
Female superheroes are cool as fuck. They are more interesting to watch in action, dramatically more satisfying to follow than male heroes and of course they have to be sexy. Anytime a woman does something that is historically known as masculine and does it well it instantly becomes sexy. It just does.
So why do comics tend to treat it’s superheroines a bit differently than the guys when it comes to respect? Well why does society pay women less than men? Anyway Heroine Abuse is a series exploring some examples of how comic book’s through the years mistreating and disrespecting its greatest and should be greatest superheroes..who happen to be women.
Wanda Maximoff has been many things. Follower and eventual child of mutant terrorist Magneto, twin sister of speedster Quicksilver, Avenger, wife of Vision, mother, mutant, sorcerous, leader, emotional nut case, architect of genocide. Emotional nutcase was the most of revisited facet of The Scarlet Witch’s personality over her 50 year history more often than not being manipulated and or used by some man in her life on account of her powerful and unpredictable mutant power to effect probabilities. Everyone from her father to Immortus to Dr Doom (just to name a few) have manipulated, hypnotized, kidnapped emotionally terrorized and generally attempted to control one of the most power mutants on the planet. And once again when it comes to being a powerful super being in the Marvel universe the uber powerful women are rarely allowed to display and maintain that power for any period of time without losing their freaking mind, getting injured de-powered or killed.
In Wanda’s case it was the old “her powers are too great for her to control emotionally and she is psychology ill-equipped to deal with said powers responsibly.” Very Jean Grey Dark Phoenix of her.
(Sorrry but as women we are much to emotially unstable to handle any real power) They rarely do that to the guys. Thor and Superman are allowed to be mega-powerful unbeatable powerhouses and when a story line comes along when they go out of control it is not long before that external threat is identified and eliminated and the status quo is resumed. Even with a character like Dr Strange who like Wanda is in control of vast magical energies his character typically possesses the needed will power, balance and intelligence to wield such energies successfully and benevolently. With the Scarlet Witch she went from not being able to control her abilities at all, or having to be told by her father and brother when and how to strike (much like the 1960’s era Reed Richards used to instruct the invisible girl when and how to use her forcefield) to losing her powers from time to time to her powers not even being what she thought they were. When Wanda eventually was allowed to gain knowledge and control of her mutant and magical abilities she was then endlessly manipulated and controlled by some malevolent force, always male always seemingly in greater understanding of what Wanda could do than Wanda was. (times Wanda went nuts...)
(She go crazy real good!) This all culminated in The Scarlet Witch finding out her children whom she thought she conceived with then husband The Vision were actually magical creations made by her own power and somehow a shard of Mephisto. Wanda reacted to this news by going nuts and eventually destroying the Avengers a team she had been a member of and even led on multiple occasions for over 30 years while being manipulated by Dr Doom (yawn). Currently she is a member of the Uncanny Avengers and was recently being controlled and manipulated by The Red Skull and currently I think going crazy again but I’m not really sure cuz I stopped reading that mess.
(I command you to admit copywrite infringement. Scarlet is a little too close to Red for my Nazi sensabilities) The tragic part is The Scarlet Witch has shown moments even years sometimes of growth, development and potential. She is feared by some of the Avengers greatest enemies especially Ultron and has defeated some of the most power people on the planet in personal combat including her teammate Thor! But it seems every few years after Wanda has gotten some respect and development some writer comes along and writes her a a pawn or vessel or a nut case.
With her inclusion in the upcoming Avengers sequel Age Of Ultron hopefully the Scarlet Witch will be allowed to have a long stable positive period of superheroing something that has been denied the charatcer for far to long.
(Elizabeth Olsen as The Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age Of Ultron) I write about stuff I love. It could be worse. I could be into Badminton or something
