Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arrives in theaters on May 6, 2022. Despite the film’s title, recent rumors suggest the film is as much about Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) as about Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). In Marvel Comics, the character has a complicated history that can confuse even the most devout followers of the Universal Church of Truth. So Marvel released an all-new scrolling-format Infinity Comic about Wanda Maximoff, which you can read with a subscription to Marvel Unlimited. Written by Steve Orlando, with art by Rye Hickman and Brittany Peer, and lettering by Joe Sabino, Scarlet Witch fans can now refresh themselves on the most powerful Avenger’s origin story by reading Who Is… The Scarlet Witch Infinity Comic (2022) #1.
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Wanda has a somewhat complicated origin story in Marvel Comics. Fortunately, the Who Is… The Scarlet Witch Infinity Comic takes her decades’ worth of character continuity on Earth-616 and condenses it into an easily readable second-person story. The Infinity Comic quickly recaps how Wanda and her brother Pietro caught the attention of Magneto, who soon enlisted them into his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. It also covers Wanda’s reformation and her journey as a member of the Avengers, when she trains under the experienced witch Agatha Harkness. It also includes essential plot points in West Coast Avengers, like her marriage to Vision and the “birth” and disappearance of their children, and House of M, in which Wanda remade reality after being poked and prodded by Professor X, Magneto, and Quicksilver one too many times.
The Infinity Comic also references the events of Avengers: The Children’s Crusade by Allan Heinberg, Jim Cheung, Mark Morales, Justin Ponsor, and Cory Petit, which is rumored to be in development at Marvel Studios—concluding with references to more recent Wanda-centered stories, including her 2015 solo title, written by James Robinson with covers by David Aja and interiors by a rotating roster of creators, and the more recent Krakoa-centered arc when Wanda gains unnecessary absolution for the events of House of M.
Who Is… The Scarlet Witch Infinity Comic
Marvel Comics
Writer Orlando is an ideal fit for the Who Is… The Scarlet Witch Infinity Comic, given he has previous experience writing Scarlet Witch. He wrote the first and last issues of the Darkhold crossover event. The event ended in January 2022 and saw Wanda utilizing the Darkhold (the Book of the Damned) to face down Chthon. The story ends with a one-shot, Darkhold: Omega (2022) #1 by Orlando, Cian Tormey, Roberto Poggi, Marc Deering, Walden Wong, Jesus Aburtov, and Clayton Cowles, in which Wanda subsumes the grimoire into herself, allowing her to take control of her narrative.
Now, the Darkhold is in play in the MCU thanks to the first season of WandaVision on Disney+, and judging by the Wanda scenes in the trailers for the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the show will have a significant effect on the movie’s narrative. Will we see the MCU’s Wanda taking a similar path as the 616’s Wanda and subsuming the Darkhold into herself and taking control of her narrative from Chthon?
