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Wanda Maximoff is a native of the Eastern European country of Sokovia who grew up with her twin brother, Pietro. In an effort to help purge their country of strife, the twins agreed to undergo experiments with the Scepter under the supervision of Wolfgang von Strucker's HYDRA cell, and achieved superpowers as a result, with Wanda attaining various abilities including telekinesis, telepathy, and energy manipulation. When HYDRA fell, the twins joined the robot Ultron to get their revenge on Tony Stark, but eventually switched sides and joined the Avengers when they discovered Ultron's true intentions. Although Pietro was killed during the ensuing Ultron Offensive, Wanda survived and became a member of the Avengers. During the Avengers Civil War, she sided with Captain America and was briefly imprisoned in the Raft before Rogers freed her along with his teammates.
"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins. Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed on their apartment building. Sokovia has had a... rough history, it's nowhere special but it's on the way to everywhere special."
Wanda Maximoff was born in the Eastern European country of Sokovia along with her brother, Pietro. At the age of ten, while having dinner with her family, a mortar shell hit their apartment building, killing Maximoff's parents and trapping her and her brother. A second shell hit the apartment near them but did not go off; the Maximoff twins were left trapped for two days staring at the non exploding shell reading the name on it, Stark Industries.
This horrifically traumatic experience gave the twins a great hatred for America, especially Tony Stark and later, the Avengers. They often took part and led protests against the Avengers. They dedicated much of their lives to this hatred and began searching for ways to bring down the Avengers. This constant political activity put them on S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA's radar.[3]
When the twins reached adulthood, Sokovia had become a warzone, with foreign forces invading their streets frequently. Wanda and her brother took part in various riots to drive the foreign forces out of their streets. What the twins did not realize was that the riots were orchestrated by HYDRA, who had taken up residence in the country, using the riots to cover up their experiments. The Maximoffs were approached by List, a scientist at HYDRA , who offered them a way to achieve the power needed to drive war out of Sokovia.
Although she was initially skeptical, Wanda was convinced by Pietro to agree to the experiments to gain new powers. Along with other volunteers from the town, Wanda and Pietro underwent a series of tests conducted by Doctor List, where they were exposed to energy from the Scepter, which had fatal effects on all the other volunteers. Wanda and Pietro, however, survived and experienced exceedingly different effects. The power of the scepter then unlocked latent supernatural powers within the pair. Pietro achieved superhuman speed, and Wanda attained a number of mental powers such as telekinesis, hypnosis, and energy projection.[4][5]
The Avengers arrived in Sokovia and raided Baron Wolfgang von Strucker's facility, stealing the scepter and arresting Strucker. In the confusion, Wanda and Pietro escaped from their holding cells and, though inexperienced, were able to use their powers to evade the Avengers and escape.
While Pietro went outside and engaged Clint Barton, Wanda stayed inside and defended Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. When Strucker became cornered by Captain America, he attempted to surrender. However, Maximoff snuck up behind Captain America and used her powers to throw him down the stairs. In the confusion, Maximoff escaped through a doorway. Captain America reported to the rest of the Avengers of the second enhanced individual on HYDRA's side before knocking out von Strucker and taking him into custody.
Wanda used her powers to briefly distract Iron Man, tricking him into believing that a dead Leviathan specimen that Strucker had been studying was still alive, and showing him a dark vision where the Avengers were dead and the Chitauri invaded Earth from a Wormhole. Upon seeing Stark's true fear of leading humanity down the path to global destruction, Wanda allowed Stark and the Avengers to make off with the Scepter, despite Pietro's protests, with hopes that Stark's tampering with the alien weapon would lead to his own self-destruction.[3]
A Misguided Partnership
Joining the Ultron Offensive
The Maximoffs hide out in Sokovia
"You're wondering why you can't look inside my head." "Sometimes it's hard, but sooner or later every man shows himself."
With the HYDRA Research Base and Baron Wolfgang von Strucker captured, the Maximoffs returned to Sokovia. Wanda found Pietro handing out items he had stolen, including an expensive dress to Zrinka. Wanda mocked Pietro's attempts to flirt with all the women in Sokovia and warned him he would get shot if he kept stealing. As Pietro began to question Wanda's decision to let Tony Stark go free, Costel approached the pair and told them that someone was waiting in a nearby church for them.[6]
The Maximoffs meet Ultron.
The twins went to the church and found a man waiting for them wearing a red cloak who spoke about how much he enjoyed the church. When Wanda questioned why she could not read his mind, the man revealed himself to be Ultron, an artificial intelligence robot designed by Tony Stark using the technology within the Scepter, who subsequently went rogue and began a murderous vendetta against the Avengers. Ultron then led them from the church and back to Baron Strucker's HYDRA Research Base.
Ultron revealed that he had taken over the base and was using it to create an army of Ultron Sentries. When they discussed the reasons for killing the Avengers, Pietro told Ultron the story of how they had lost their parents due to a Stark Industries' missile. Although they were initially unsure, Ultron assured them that they would use their powers to kill the Avengers, noting that while he and Pietro could hurt them, Wanda would be able to tear them apart from the inside.[3]
Agreeing to the alliance, Wanda and Pietro accompanied Ultron in acquiring Ulysses Klaue's supply of Vibranium. The Maximoffs entered the Salvage Yard first and shut off the lights before disarming Klaue and confronting him. Klaue remained unimpressed by the Maximoffs. Having heard of them already, he noted that he was saddened to hear of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker's death then mocked the pair for their reaction to learning of their mentor's murder.
Eventually Klaue told the pair that he would have no respect for them if Wanda used her powers to make him see what he feared, a cuttlefish, and he wished to speak to the man in charge. In response Ultron threw Klaue through a window and introduced himself. Ultron forced Klaue to sell him his stockpile of Vibranium and paid him billions of dollars. However, when Klaue offended Ultron, the robot responded by cutting of Klaue's arm and kicking him down some stair while Maximoff used her powers to keep Klaue's men from defending themselves.
When the Avengers arrived in an attempt to stop the trio, Ultron and the Maximoffs mocked their efforts, ignoring Captain America's attempts to convince the Maximoffs that they still had a chance to walk away, Ultron responded by attacking the team and the Maximoffs joined the fight. During the chaos of the battle, Wanda managed to knock Captain America back with her powers and began "hexing" the minds of Thor, Black Widow, and Captain America. She attempted to "hex" Hawkeye, but was subdued when he pushed a taser arrow onto her forehead.
Pietro saved her in the nick of time, throwing Hawkeye through a window and taking her outside Klaue's base to recover. Although she suffered great pain from the taser arrow, Maximoff wished to complete their plan. She caught sight of Bruce Banner and managed to "hex" him as well, forcing him to transform into the Hulk and go on a rampage through Johannesburg, resulting in Iron Man being forced to battle his friend. In the confusion, the twins managed to escape with Ultron and the vibranium, and made their way to Seoul.[3]
When the trio arrived in Seoul, Ultron used the Scepter to indoctrinate scientist Helen Cho, forcing her to use the vibranium in synchrony with the Cradle to build a new, more powerful body for Ultron. As Ultron's consciousness was being uploaded into the body, Wanda curiously took the opportunity to explore Ultron's mind and was horrified to learn of Ultron's true plans, which involved the genocide of humanity in its entirety. With Pietro, Wanda abandoned Ultron and left the facility, much to the automaton's rage.[3]
The twins attempted to escape Seoul, but as they made their way through the city, they spotted a news report showing that the Avengers were battling Ultron and his army in the middle of the city, endangering thousands of lives. Refusing to allow the people of Seoul to be put in danger, the Maximoffs decided to join the Avengers.
They eventually caught up and assisted Captain America in fighting off Ultron on a moving passenger train. Wanda used her powers to put a defensive barrier between Ultron and the Captain by twisting the metal bars inside the train while Pietro knocked him down. Upon seeing that he was betrayed and outnumbered by his former teammates, Ultron responded by destroying the controls of the train before flying out the side door and escaping, leaving the Maximoffs and Captain America on the train going full speed as it headed to the end of the tracks.
Maximoff stops the train
With the train now completely out of control and heading to the middle of the city, Captain America ordered Wanda to stop when it while Pietro moved any civilians out of it's path. Mustering up all of her power and strength, Maximoff lifted the train's wheels off the ground and applied the breaks as hard as she could. Although the train was slowing down, it still crashed through buildings. Pietro was able to save the lives of the people in the way until the train was finally stopped in its tracks.
With the train now stopped, Wanda ran to her brother's aid, as he could barely stand after running so fast for so long. When Captain America revealed that the Cradle and Ultron's would-be body had been sent to Tony Stark for analysis, Wanda was disturbed, aware that Stark would attempt to utilize the body rather than destroy it in order to correct his own folly. Although the Captain was reluctant to accept this as a possibility, noting that Stark was not crazy, Wanda compared Stark and Ultron and made key comparisons with their mind sets.[3]
Wanda and Pietro then accompanied Captain America back to the Avengers Tower and found Wanda's fear to be accurate; Tony Stark and Bruce Banner were trying to upload the consciousness of Stark's more benevolent AI, J.A.R.V.I.S., into the body. After a brief scuffle, Wanda was held back by Banner but she managed to escape his hold, only to witness Thor bringing the body to life.
Wanda watched in fear as the being initially attacked Thor before looking over the city of New York and calming down. The being introduced himself to them, calling itself Vision. The Maximoff and the Avengers continued to be wary of the Vision, with Wanda noting that she had seen the destruction of the world in its head. Eventually the Vision convinced the team that he was on their side and proved his worthiness by picking up Mjølnir and handing it to Thor.
She and Pietro then agreed to join the Avengers in stopping Ultron and saving Sokovia, where the AI would be enacting his final plan. The Maximoffs took new uniforms and joined the Avengers on the Quinjet as Captain America gave a speech where he informed the team that their priority was getting the innocent people of Sokovia out of harms way before Ultron could destroy their homes and lives. Wishing to save the lives of her friends from her home city, Maximoff sided with her former enemies, although she was unsure of trusting the Avengers in the long term.[3]
Upon arriving in Sokovia, Scarlet Witch played a significant part in evacuating civilians from the city, using her powers of mind control on dozens of innocents and leading them safely from the war zone. When the army of Ultron Sentries began their attack, Maximoff took up a defensive position on a bridge, shielding innocent civilians from enemy fire with her powers as they ran to safety, however the firepower of the Sentries proved too strong and knocked her back.
Eventually, Ultron, using a device forged from the remaining Vibranium samples, forced a large part of the city of Novi Grad to levitate so that once it reached a certain height, it would cause an extinction level event once it made impact with the Earth. As Ultron gave a speech to the people of Sokovia while flying outside the city, Scarlet Witch and the rest of the Avengers could only look on in fear as Ultron unleashed his seemingly unstoppable plan.[3]
This, along with the carnage that was falling upon her home, overwhelmed Maximoff. Hawkeye managed to lead her to a vacant building for safety, where Maximoff, overwhelmed with fear and guilt for causing a disaster that she perceived as being her fault, began to lose morale. Hawkeye told her that she needed to make a choice, to stay hidden and wait for her brother to take her somewhere safe or continue the fight and become a true Avenger.
"Doesn't matter what you did, or what you were. If you go out there, you fight, and you fight to kill. Stay in here, you're good. I'll send your brother to come find you. But if you step out that door, you are an Avenger."
Her confidence restored by Barton's words, Scarlet Witch stepped outside and saved the overwhelmed Hawkeye from a small squad of Ultron Sentries, using her powers to pull them apart and throw them across the city. Once the Sentries were destroy the pair reported into Captain America and prepared for their next mission, as they began to walk through the city, Quicksilver ran in and picked up his sister, running across the city with her while leaving Hawkeye to jog behind.
The Maximoffs fight against Ultron's army.
Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver ran into the middle of the city and teamed up to assist in the battle by protecting civilians still trapped in the city, running ahead of a squad of Sokovia police officers who were pinned down by the Ultron Sentries. While Scarlet Witch fired energy blasts at the robots, Quicksilver ran into the battle but was accidentally grazed in the arm by a police officer despite the chief calling for the police to stop firing.
Captain America informed the Avengers that they are leading the civilian to the town hall. Captain America meets up with Scarlet Witch and Black Widow who questioned why was Scarlet Witch wearing her jacket. Rogers told Black Widow that she was with them. Hawkeye met up with them and told them that if they get any higher, people would start dropping. Rogers told Scarlet Witch to get the people out from hiding, and for Hawkeye to watch her back.
Soon after, a Helicarrier commanded by Nick Fury and Maria Hill came to the Avengers' aide, sending out transports to evacuate the civilians still trapped on Novi Grad. Once the transporters landed, Maximoff assisted in escorting civilians to the transporters that ferried them aboard the flying aircraft carrier, keeping the women and children back until it was safe and assuring them on board alongside Hawkeye while Fury sent War Machine to protect the transporters from any Ultron Sentries that attacked them mid-air.[3]
Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and the rest of the Avengers regrouped at the church in the center of Novi Grad where Ultron had set up the key to the device that would cause the city to drop. Captain America explained that Ultron must not be allowed to activate the key as it would destroy the city and the planet. As they stood around the key, Ultron hovered outside the church. When Thor challenged him, Ultron showed off his army of hundreds of Ultron Sentries.
When Ultron unleashed his army upon them, Scarlet Witch and the Avengers put all their might into battling the seemingly endless horde of Ultron Sentries, with Maximoff using her gifts to pull them out of the air and rip them apart from the inside. Eventually the team managed to wipe out a majority of Ultron's drones and Ultron himself was almost destroyed by the combined might of Vision, Thor, Iron Man and the Hulk, who destroyed his armor and hit him across the city.
Scarlet Witch agrees to protect the key
With the battle almost won, Captain America ordered the team to evacuate the city before Iron Man and Thor destroyed the key and Novi Grad itself. As the key needed to be guarded from Ultron in the meantime, Scarlet Witch volunteered to stay behind, telling Hawkeye that it was her job to protect it. The team agreed but Quicksilver insisted that he would not leave her behind, but she ordered him to continue getting the people to the boats and only come back for her at the last minute, insisting she could handle the responsibility.[3]
While keeping the Ultron Sentries away from the key, Scarlet Witch sensed a terrible thing, as her brother attempted to save Hawkeye and a young boy from Ultron, who had obtained a Quinjet, he was shot and killed by the robot. Sensing this, Maximoff dropped to her knees and cried out in pure anguish, obliterating the sentries she had been fighting with a single massive blast of energy.
Overcome with rage and emotion, Maximoff left her post to avenge her brother, tracking down Ultron, who had been ripped out of the Quinjet by the Hulk and had crash landed inside a bus. Maximoff knelt beside her former ally, who pleaded with her to escape before she was killed in the incoming explosion, Maximoff told the robot that she had already died due to heartbreak and to demonstrate this, she telekinetically ripped his core processor from his body.
Her action inadvertently allowed a lone Ultron drone to activate the device, sending Novi Grad plummeting towards Earth with her still trapped inside. Maximoff accepted her fate as she plummeted towards the ground, being the only person left in the city; however, she was rescued at the last minute by Vision. Seconds after their escape, Iron Man and Thor averted the cataclysm by combining their abilities to vaporize the city, saving billions of lives.[3]
HYDRA collected many of the parts of the destroyed Ultron Sentries and took them to an undisclosed location in Eastern Europe, where they used the parts to create a giant robot called Ultimo. HYDRA then used the Ultimo to attack a small village. Maximoff joined the Avengers to an attack on the giant robot and together they manged to destroy Ultimo.[7]
Approximately a year after the Ultron Offensive, Scarlet Witch joined her fellow Avengers in tracking down Crossbones and his mercenaries to Lagos, Nigeria, where he was planning to attack the Institute for Infectious Diseases and steal a biochemical weapon. The Avengers immediately rushed towards the IFID, with Captain America arriving first on scene, followed by Falcon and Scarlet Witch. Scarlet Witch lifted Captain America onto the third floor to subdue Crossbones and used her powers to vent the anesthetic gas out into the open air.
Scarlet Witch accidentally kills innocent people
Falcon and Black Widow managed to neutralize the mercenaries and secure the the biochemical weapon that Crossbones and his mercenaries had obtained while they tried to escape through a busy marketplace. Captain America and Crossbones fought intensely before Captain America managed to disarm and subdue Crossbones. Rumlow taunted Captain America and claimed that the Winter Soldier had hired him to steal the biochemical weapon, once again under HYDRA mind control. Suddenly, Rumlow pulled the cord on his suicide vest in an effort to kill both him and Captain America. Scarlet Witch managed to contain the explosion around Rumlow and tried to move the blast away, but inadvertently destroyed a nearby building, killing many of its occupants, much to her horror.[8]
Feeling the Guilt
Wanda watching the news report about her
"It's my fault." "That's not true." "Turn the TV back on. They were being very specific."
The Avengers returned to the New Avengers Facility, where Maximoff struggled with guilt over the deaths caused from the explosion. Steve Rogers tried to convince the young woman that it was not her fault over the explosion, saying that he should have been able to stop Crossbones' suicide vest before it went off.
Not totally convinced, she says it was both of their fault, and Rogers reminds her that despite the casualties, the villain was still stopped from hurting anyone else. The two were interrupted by the Vision, who was scolded by Maximoff for phasing through the wall to get into a room instead of using the door. Vision apologized and informed Rogers that Tony Stark had arrived with Thaddeus Ross at the Facility.[8]
Maximoff, along with the rest of the Avengers, met up with Thaddeus Ross and Tony Stark who introduced to them the Sokovia Accords, a set of internationally ratified legal documents that provide regulation and frame-working for the military/law enforcement deployment of enhanced individuals which included Maximoff. Ross showed footage from battles that the Avengers fought in, showing the destruction and death that resulted in it. When Ross showed them footage from the aftermath of their fight with Crossbones in Lagos, Nigeria, Maximoff felt guilt as she saw the damage that she blamed herself for.
As the Avengers privately discussed the Accords, Maximoff was unsure at the time whether she should sign or not but stayed mostly silent during the discussion. When Stark told them about Charlie Spencer, a victim from the Battle of Sokovia, Maximoff once again felt uneasy due to her tragic past with Sokovia. When she brought to the attention that she would be hunted if they didn't sign, Vision assured her that they would protect her.
While other Avengers left to deal with Winter Soldier and attend the meeting in Vienna, and Maximoff stayed at the facility under the watch of Vision. The Vision tried to cook her something to lift her spirits, though his inexperience with food left it wanting. The two Avengers had a heart-to-heart about their powers and how they are feared by others, but when Maximoff tried to leave the facility, Vision stopped her, telling her that Stark put him in charge with ensuring she did not leave the compound until the debate with the Accords had cooled.[8]
Later, Steve Rogers sent Clint Barton to retrieve Maximoff from the Avengers Facility where she was being supervised by Vision. Barton created an explosion outside to distract Vision when he went out to investigate. As Maximoff watched Vision, she sensed a presence behind her and launched a knife at the intruder, stopping her attack when she realized it was Barton. Barton told her that they need to go as Captain America needed their help to fight against the Sokovia Accords; as they were leaving, Vision returned and stopped them.
Approaching the two, the trap that Barton had set up went off, paralyzing Vision with electricity. Barton began to leave again, but Maximoff hesitated because she believed that she had caused enough damage. Barton tries to convince her to leave when Vision breaks free and he and Barton begin to fight. Vision easily overpowers Barton, but Barton looks to Maximoff for help.
Maximoff tells Vision to release Barton and that she is leaving; Vision tells her he can not allow her to. Using her powers to control the Mind Stone to force him to phase and release Barton. Vision warns Maximoff that if she leaves that she will be feared by everyone but Maximoff tells Vision that she can only control her own fear and then blasts Vision many meters beneath the facility. With Vision subdued, Maximoff finally left with Barton en route to Germany to retrieve Scott Lang.[8]
After incapacitating Vision, Maximoff and Clint Barton went to go retrieve Scott Lang who had been recommended by Sam Wilson. The three were waiting in a van in Berlin when Rogers arrived. He thanked Maximoff for having his back and Maximoff replied that she need to get off her ass, reflecting what Barton told her earlier. When they introduced Lang to Rogers, Maximoff watched as Lang awkwardly talked with Rogers, then praised her as well. Later, an announcement was made saying the airport was being evacuated due to Tony Stark. The group all suited up and made their way to the Flughafen Leipzig-Halle Airport where they would depart to Siberia.[8]
Captain America and his team headed to the Flughafen Leipzig-Halle Airport where a Quinjet was waiting to take them to Siberia. Anticipating an ambush, they split up--Scarlet Witch with Hawkeye.
They were first pursued by Iron Man, who fired several missiles near them before staging confrontation. Iron Man told Scarlet Witch that she hurt Vision's feelings, and they argued about why she had been locked up. While Hawkeye was distracting Iron Man, Scarlet Witch used her powers to launch as projectiles several vehicles in the parking garage behind him, finally burying him and buying them time to escape.
Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye managed to make their way to Captain America and his team, so they could get to the Quinjet that would take them to Siberia. As they made their way, they were stopped by Vision who fired a laser beam in front of them. The two teams stood on opposite sides of each other as they prepared to fight.[8]
The battle between the Avengers began with the two teams charging at each other. Scarlet Witch launched herself into the air towards Iron Man's team where she targeted Spider-Man by hexing him with dust from the ground and nearby objects directly towards him, which Parker was able to evade.
Due to her abilities and not being a psychical fighter, Scarlet Witch focused on protecting her allies whenever they would be subdued. As Black Widow and Hawkeye fought, Scarlet Witch interfered with Widow's blow by pinioning her limb and then throwing her away from Hawkeye, knocking her out. Before moving on, she told Hawkeye to stop pulling his punches and proceeded to her next fight.
Shortly after, during Black Panther and the Winter Soldier's fight, Scarlet Witch narrowly stops Black Panther from killing the Winter Soldier by blocking his claws from tearing out his throat and then throwing him away from Barnes.[8]
As team Iron Man pressed in, Falcon realized they could not win the battle and get everyone to Siberia. So team Captain America planned that Rogers and Barnes get to Siberia while the rest of the team stay behind. To distract team Iron Man, Ant-Man transformed into "Giant-Man" so Iron Man's team focused on defeating him rather than stopping Rogers and Barnes from reaching the Quinjet. However, War Machine managed to evade Giant-Man and pursued the two until Scarlet Witch started to hex large objects at him, keeping him from reaching the hangar.
Vision destroyed a traffic control tower so Rogers and Barnes couldn't escape but Scarlet Witch used her powers to hold back the debris for them to pass. Seeing this, War Machine used a Stark Sonic Cannon to knock her out, causing the tower to continue to fall.
After the battle Vision went to check on Scarlet Witch, and they apologized to each other. As Vision comforted Scarlet Witch, War Machine requested Vision's back up in disabling Falcon's wing thrusters. Distracted, Vision accidentally grazed War Machine's arc reactor, disabling the suit and causing him to fall from the sky--paralyzing him upon impact, therefore letting Rogers and Barnes fly away to Siberia.[8]
After their defeat, Maximoff, Barton, Wilson and Lang were arrested and imprisoned in the Raft, where she was the only one outfitted with a shock collar and put in a straitjacket to prevent her from using her powers. Tony Stark visited the prison to find out where Rogers went and was disturbed to see Maximoff's condition.[8]
"My faith is in people, I guess. Individuals. And I’m happy to say for the most part, they haven’t let me down. Which is why I can’t let them down either. Locks can be replaced, but – maybe they shouldn’t."
Rogers eventually infiltrated the Raft and freed Maximoff, Clint Barton, Sam Wilson and Scott Lang from their imprisonment. Despite being wanted fugitives, Rogers told Stark that should he ever need their help, all he would have to do is ask.[8]
Personality
"What about the core?" "I'll protect it. It's my job."
From being involved in protests, to volunteering for Wolfgang von Strucker's experiments, to joining the Avengers, Wanda Maximoff has shown she prefers to fight directly for what she believes in. This passion has led her to the mistake of siding with Ultron, a mistake that deeply influences much of her actions thereafter.
Her doubt and guilt over the mistakes she has made and her desire to fight for her beliefs have at times led her to inaction, once during the Battle of Sokovia, and once during her house arrest at the Avengers Compound. Both times, Hawkeye was able to talk her into action, affirming her desire to fight for what she feels is right, despite what others think.
In contrast with her brother, Scarlet Witch displays a more serious attitude and direct anger, not only against Tony Stark, but anyone she perceives as her enemy, such as Klaue. Her anger can be both powerful and vengeful, not only leading her to volunteer for experiments, but also personally seek out Ultron's last form in order to destroy him after he murdered her brother.
Ultimately indicates her deeply caring nature, as her greatest motivations and feats have most frequently arisen from her devotion to others.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
"Her thing is neuro-electric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation."
Psionics: As a result of exposure to the cosmic energies from the Scepter, Wanda Maximoff acquired an array of psionic powers, which manifest in the form of reddish, glowing energy currents and mist-like shapes. Maria Hill described her powers as "neuro-electric interface" and called her "weird" because of them. When using her power, her irises sometimes glow a dark, reddish color, especially when using her mental abilities.
Psionic Energy Manipulation:
Wanda displaying her Telekinesis
Maximoff can project energy blasts, waves and bolts projecting her own psionic and telekinetic energy, allowing her to push/pull or blow away her targets, potentially exerting enough force to destroy them. This energy manifests in any shape and form, outlining her telekinetic spheres of influence, as the energy is visible in a reddish color. When a target of hers is hit with her energy, she can use her telekinesis to inflict further damage. Maximoff unleashed a wave of reddish aura that tore apart and disintegrated surrounding Ultron Sentries when she sensed her brother Pietro Maximoff's death and cried out in grief and anger.
Levitation: Maximoff was able to use this power to move herself through the air and simulate flight, in order to hover and safely float back to the ground. The use of this power manifests as a blast of psionic energy expelled from her hands onto the ground to propel herself up in the air. It operates more like a enhanced leap similarly to the Hulk, thanks to the force of gravity pushing her down.
Psionic Force-Field Generation:
Wanda launching herself through the air
Maximoff was able to create a highly durable barrier of energy that she can shape and deform as she needed to. She used to grab and break apart targets, to protect innocents from enemy fire, contain a target or to cover and deflect attacks from the enemies, such as Ultron Sentries. The barrier could be broken through extreme brute force, as the Sentries were able to eventually break it.
Telekinesis: Maximoff has the ability to mentally move, levitate and manipulate objects, also can affect and control molecules and particles allowing her to fully control matter and energy, as well as physical forces (such as kinetic energy, gravity, friction, pressure, vectors, etc). She started training this power by moving wooden blocks around while imprisoned in Wolfgang von Strucker's secret facility. She pulled them apart with her power, and suspended them in the air, removing all motion and gravity from the pieces. Maximoff used this power to create a shield to protect innocents from enemy fire, stop an off-rail train in Seoul, knock back Captain America, tear apart Ultron Sentries and rip out the central processor of Ultron's primary body. Her emotions are linked to her powers as she unleashed a wave of reddish energy that disintegrated attacking Ultron Sentries when she sensed Pietro's death and cried out. Her telekinesis allowed Wanda to stop an enemy soldier's gunfire and throw him away, give Captain America a boost, to lift up and temporarily contain an exploding Crossbones, to hurl aside Black Widow and Black Panther, hurl entire cars at Iron Man and Spider-Man, to extract and dissipate an enormous amount of gas, to even bring the extremely powerful Vision to his knees and blast him vertically down through a building's many floors. It appeared that her energy was able to take control over the stone's energies, allowing her manipulate his density shifting abilities, as the Mind Stone on Vision's forehead turned red, causing him to become heavy enough to break through several stories. Wanda's telekinesis is even powerful enough to break through Vibranium, as she managed to rip Ultron's primary body apart to get his central processor.
Telepathy: Maximoff can read minds or mentally communicate and experience memories and thoughts of others or project her own thoughts through a neuro-electric interface that gives her telepathy. While she was using her hypnotic powers in conjunction with this power against the Avengers in South Africa, she herself viewed the Avengers' memories. When using her power, her irises sometimes glow a dark reddish color, especially when she concentrate it on certain targets. She also used this ability to temporarily merge her consciousness with Ultron's, and it was thanks to this that she was able to discover his genocidal intentions and rebel against him. Maximoff can also sense the minds and emotions of those around her as she could see Stark's fear in an earlier encounter with her and sensed Quicksilver's death, knowing exactly what happened to him, as if she had seen it directly.
Mental Manipulation:
Wanda manipulates Black Widow
Maximoff was able to deploy a form of mental manipulation, often as a type of illusory hypnosis, using the same neuro-electric interface that allows her telepathy. She was able to use this ability to cripple the Avengers, forcing them each to recall the darker events of their pasts and were put inside daydream-like visions of them that subdued them. When this ability is in use, Maximoff's reddish energy takes a more mist-like form, floating into the head of the victim in the form of neurons. The effects also distort the victim's iris coloration, causing them to shine a dark reddish color. This also allows her to control other people's actions, as she did with a considerable number of civilians in Sokovia to aid in their evacuation, causing them to experience a form of sleep walking and making them all get up and leave the city. Maximoff's mental power is even strong enough to reverse the effects of the Mind Stone, one of the most powerful objects in existence, as shown when she freed Helen Cho from the stone's control. She can also manipulate the memory, thoughts, actions, emotions, and senses of others at will, as well as to induce sleep or pain and create illusions without any difficulty.
Fear Manipulation: With her power to manipulate the mind, Maximoff often used it in order to elicit fear or emotional pain in a person in the form of nightmarish hallucinations that could stun and weaken even an individual as powerful as Thor. These visions can depict things that a person fears, regrets, or general disturbances, though the nature of it is not up to Wanda. She does seem to be able to know what her victim is seeing and be inside the vision with them, seemingly invisible to them.
In the comics, Scarlet Witch was a founding member of the Brotherhood of Mutants, being initially identified as a mutant and the biological children of Golden Age superheroes The Whizzer and Miss America. Later it was discovered that she was in fact the daughter of Magneto (Erik Lehnsherr) and his wife Magda Lehnsherr (née Eisenhardt) in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4 (1983), 19 years after Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's first appearance. In Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #7 (2014) and then Uncanny Avengers #4 (2015), it is confirmed not only are they not related to Magneto but they are also not mutants, as the High Evolutionary was the one that genetically altered them as infants, giving them their powers, before returning them to the parents, the Maximoffs, whom they briefly believed to be their real parents again.[9] Later on, it was revealed in Scarlet Witch #4 (2016) that Wanda and Pietro were actually the children of Natalya Maximoff, the sister of Django, who was also a witch who went by the moniker of Scarlet Witch. Natalya and Django in turn are the children of a man called the Scarlet Warlock, and Django and Marya took in Natalya's twins after the deaths of their own, Ana and Mateo.
Although Wanda's comic book moniker was never spoken by anyone during the course of the film, Iron Man did disparagingly refer to her as a "witch", alluding to her Scarlet Witch moniker.
In the comics, Wanda married Vision, and had two sons with him before their marriage dissolved.
Despite the rights to Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch being shared between 20th Century Fox and Marvel Studios, the former owned all rights to Marvel Comics mutants, hence why the MCU incarnations could not legally be identified as mutants. However, with the acquisition of 20th Century Fox by Walt Disney Studios in December 2017, Marvel Studios have regained sole cinematic rights to all Marvel properties previously owned by Fox, including the rights to mutants.
