So … What the Hell Are The Scarlet Witch’s Powers?

**Spoiler warning: Details of Infinity War are touched on here. Stay away if you don’t want to know any more than you already do.**

Since her introduction in Age of Ultron, a movie only worth watching to see Captain America rip a log with his bare hands, I have never been a fan of Wanda or Scarlet Witch in the MCU.

I mean it’s already a problem that they erased her Romani heritage, her mutant heritage and killed her brother, but on top of that, her powers have become the ultimate ‘curb stomp’ attack without making it clear…what her powers her.

In AoU, they were basically like “she’s weird” and the writers have decided to go with that because I supposed weird is easier than saying hex powers. However, it would be unfair to place all the problems with Wanda’s undefined powers on the feet of Joss Whedon. From the very beginning, no one really knew what her powers were supposed to be. They, like the MCU writers, made her something of a witch ex machina.

Now, not only is that lazy writing, but it’s also annoying because the full scope of that character’s powers is never really clear. Wanda reminds me a lot of Martian Manhunter who has the power set to be full OP, yet is always powered down because he’s not the character who is allowed to be the leader. How many time in the Justice League show did we watch J’onn phase through something only to make himself solid again to be hit by something else?!

Wanda suffers from this as well. In a very minor spoiler, we are told that Wanda has enough power to destroy an infinity stone. Well okay, when the hell was that established and if she can do all of that, why isn’t she the one people are following into battle? Oh right, she has to be a love interest first and an Avenger second.

Which brings us to the issue with Wanda’s origin in the comics. The Scarlet Witch was created to be another token female character with a passive power and meant to be used for relationship plots. She was the second female member of the Avengers after Wasp and joined in the 60s. Since then writers have been trying to get a handle on her powers.

During the infamous House of M run, they decided to make her powers reality warping, but it has waffled between that and chaos magic. In the most recent solo run, in which Wanda has been ret-conned to no longer be either a mutant or Magento’s biological daughter, she is basically a genetically altered witch, who is more receptive to magical energy because of her alterations.

What all of this really means is that Wanda is always going to be a plot device because she’s not high enough on the Avenger’s roster to actually win the day. She is a tool for the writers and will be wielded as such, no matter how powerful and underutilized she clear seems to be.

(image: Marvel)

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