Scarlet Witch

Scarlet Witch Scarlet Witch enters X-Men #4 with an ability described through hexes and strange misfortune. Wanda can point and cause things to go wrong around a target. During the palace battle, she brings part of the ceiling down on Angel, helping to make his capture possible. The power is unsettling because an ordinary feature of the environment can suddenly become dangerous. A flashback explains why she is serving Magneto. After she accidentally causes a barn fire in a European village, an angry mob threatens her life. Magneto intervenes and saves her. Wanda regards that rescue as a debt, and he uses it to resist her wish to leave his group. Her history of being threatened for her abilities gives the Brotherhood a personal hold on her. The dinner scene also gives Wanda a clear boundary: she rejects Mastermind’s advances, and Pietro steps in when Mastermind threatens her. Her membership therefore comes with conflict on several levels, involving her safety, gratitude, and discomfort with the company she keeps. A useful reading of this debut is that Wanda’s obligation to Magneto has placed her inside a cause she has serious reasons to question.