Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The X-Men #4 (March 1964) in the Silver Age of Comic Books. Originally said to have the ability to alter probability, the Scarlet Witch has been depicted as a powerful sorceress since the 1980s and on occasion has become powerful enough to alter reality by tapping into greater energy sources.
The Scarlet Witch is first depicted as a reluctant supervillain along with her twin brother, Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver, both founding members of the Brotherhood of Mutants. A year after her debut, she joined the Avengers superhero team and ever since has often been depicted as a regular member of that or related teams (such as the West Coast Avengers and Force Works). In 1975, she married her android teammate Vision, later using borrowed magical forces to make herself pregnant, resulting in twin sons William (“Billy”) and Thomas (“Tommy”). Stories in 1989 wiped Tommy and Billy from existence (they would later reappear as the heroes called Wiccan and Speed) and removed Vision’s emotions, leading to the annulment of his and Wanda’s marriage.
For most of her comic book history, the Scarlet Witch is portrayed as a mutant, a member of a fictional subspecies of humans born with an “X-gene” that grants superhuman abilities and traits, although multiple stories also said the nature of her mutant powers were influenced by the High Evolutionary experimenting on her when she was a child. A 2015 storyline revised Wanda’s origin, establishing that her superhuman traits are entirely a result of experimentation done by the High Evolutionary and on inherited magic abilities. Like Franklin Richards and other characters, her genetics were such that standard X-gene tests gave a false positive, meaning she was never actually born a mutant.[7]
The character’s in-universe backstory and parentage have changed more than once. During the 1960s, she and Quicksilver are said to be the mutant twin offspring of two unnamed parents. Later, it is said the children were given to the geneticist called the High Evolutionary, leaving their true parentage a mystery. In 1974, it is said their parents are Golden Age heroes Bob Frank / Whizzer and Madeline Joyce Frank / Miss America. Wanda then refers to herself as Wanda Frank for a time. In 1979, they are revealed to have been raised by human Romani parents, Django and Marya Maximoff. In 1982, Magneto concludes he is Wanda and Pietro’s father. In 2014, the AXIS crossover revealed Pietro and Wanda are not related to Magneto. In 2015, the twins discover they are not mutants and their superhuman traits are the result of the High Evolutionary’s experiments. The 2015–2017 Scarlet Witch series reveals Wanda and Pietro’s adopted parents Django and Marya Maximoff are biologically their aunt and uncle. Their real mother is confirmed to be Natalya Maximoff, the previous Scarlet Witch, a sorceress whose father was the Scarlet Warlock.
The Scarlet Witch has been described as one of Marvel’s most notable and powerful female heroes.[8][9][10][11][12]
Since 2014, Elizabeth Olsen has portrayed Wanda Maximoff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.