Marvel seems to have the lion’s share of stories that inspire, empower, and motivate. And, as it turns out, all of which are fully featured in the annual Women of Marvel anthology. The latest issue (released back in late February) featured some of Marvel’s most important characters, including Invisible Woman, Black Widow, and Scarlet Witch, in tales that lifted up the characters and the creators who contributed stories.
One such creator was Sarah Rees Brennan, an excellent novelist of multiple series, and now a published Marvel Comics writer. In her story “Witch House,” she and artist Arielle Jovellanos explored a magical place for a rather important and magical superhero.
In honor of Rees Brennan’s comics debut (and the forthcoming release of her next book Long Live Evil), we chatted recently about her experience and her larger love of Scarlet Witch. She also helps redefine the character for me (and perhaps others?), which is extra enlightening.
Sarah Rees Brennan
AIPT: How did it come about that you got this Marvel gig?
Sarah Rees Brennan: Sarah Brunstad wrote to me and was like, “We’d love to consider you for our Women of Marvel anthology. And here’s a list of characters that you’re interested in.” And I was like, Wanda, Wanda, the witch. I want Wanda. I was so excited because I love witches.
My new book, is about a woman becomes, from an oracle to a witch by telling the future they don’t want to hear. And I think Wanda is one of the quintessential witch characters of our age. 1974 was like officially confirmed in the comics that she was learning witchcraft. So she’s been a witch longer than we’ve been alive. And she’s been through so many permutations, as you say, she has a tricky… reputation in the fandom, like villain, hero. And she’s been a hero for much longer than she’s been a villain.
AIPT: That’s true.
SRB: She gets a hard rap. Then she’s so memorable when she’s out of control.
AIPT: Were you a reader of comics growing up?
SRB: I got into them as a teen. I was actually watching Smallville, and my dad came in and commented on Lex and Clark, and I was like, wait, ‘OK, yeah, I’ll read those.’ So, I started with DC but moved to Marvel quickly. This is the first comic I’ve ever written, actually. A bunch of my friends have written comic scripts, and I would read them, and I was like, ‘Oh, you really have to pick the right words. They’re like poetry and you need the right art.’ And then, as a huge fantasy fan, I’ve, of course, loved the idea of many different versions of characters for so long and the idea of, like, a running thread. What makes a character them in every world?
And I really found that really fascinating. I think a witch because a witch is in such a liminal space, and it’s a preacher of chaos, chaos magic to be precise, that fits in really well with that medium of storytelling.
AIPT: Did you read Steve Orlando’s run before diving in?
SRB: Oh, absolutely. I was so excited with the way Steve Orlando was taking it. Steve Orlando did offer some suggestions that I really appreciated. One thing that I was really drawn to was that Wanda has this new bond with Darcy Lewis, who I really enjoy the character. Because I always love the funny down to earth characters like, hey, well, everyone else is being gods and sorcerers. I have an observation.
Wanda has been friends in the past with Manthus, Janet Van Dyne, and Julia Carpenter as Madame Webb. And so seeing her form another bond with another woman was really great to me. And we have a witch shop.
AIPT: Did you find scripting at all different in the comics realm?
SRB: I was terrified I was going to go over too long. I think about focusing on the character rather than having a very complicated plot because, as it’s Women in Marvel, I thought the focus should be on Wanda’s character and the complexity of it. So that was something I was really worried about because I’m used to writing books, and they even go on for a long time sometimes. Once we wrote a short story that became a book and I was like they won’t put you the anthology if you go too far.
But also, of course, being able to visualize, as you do with screenwriting, the visuals. And so once I saw Arielle’s art, I knew that we were doing this together in a sort of symphony. And so that really helped me be like, well, everything that is just a word when I say it, she’s going to understand it and amplify it in this amazing way.
A page from “Witch House.” Courtesy of Marvel Comics.
AIPT: Where did you start with the story? Did it start with the house? Did it start with the motivations of the characters?
SRB: I really did want to embrace the thing I’ve always loved about comics, which is the multifacetedness of it. So I was like, ‘OK, can I bring these three things in together and if I get Wanda right, if I get the house right, and if I get the ideas of all the threads of Wanda right,’ because she’s had so many incarnations at this point. She fought Dracula once.
AIPT: One issue: The character could be fighting Dracula; the next issue is that she’s having some trouble with their partner or something.
SRB: Exactly, and in the book about this year as well, I’m really interested by the way, like it’s about a woman who walks into her favorite fantasy novel and she changes it, and I’m really interested in the way the characters could be seen as changing the story, and the way that readers change a story by loving it.
Like if readers really love a story, then it will get extended. If readers don’t love a story, maybe it’ll get canceled. Like we do listen to feedback and that story is an ever evolving thing from the first time when people were sitting around a campfire listening to stories of witches and magic and people being like, ‘Oh, I love that and more of that next time.’
AIPT: The book is Long Live Evil?
SRB: Long Live Evil. Yes, nice. And that’s out in July. I’m in my villain era.
AIPT: And then you said it’s a character stepping into a book. Is that what it was?
SRB: Yes, she’s dying in real life. I used my own experience having cancer. And she’s offered the chance to go into her favorite book. And she goes in, realizes she’s a villain, and decides to unite all the villains in a plan to change the course of the narrative.
A page from “Witch House.” Courtesy of Marvel Comics.
AIPT: That sounds like comics fans would really be into something like that.
SRB: I hope so. I also want to do it to be really fun, because I do love the fun and vividness of comic books. And I think there are so many books, and just generally stories that are only depressing, and I never really believe in it.
So that’s the one thing I do love about Marvel, that there’s always this humor that makes you believe in the characters, and even when they’re in the lowest depths of despair, think that I want them to be happy again.
AIPT: This can’t be your last Marvel work, right? Are there any other characters or titles you’d be game to write?
SRB: Ooh, I hope not. Seanan McGuire, who’s an amazing writer — really phenomenal — is coming up with a book about what if Scarlet Witch and Spider-Man were siblings? I was so knocked out by that comment. Seanan is amazing anyway, and I’m like, oh gosh, I’d love to do something like that.
There are so many characters that I really love and so many combinations I think would be interesting to do, like Spider-Man and Scarlet Witch. Steve Orlando did in that just last year did Loki and Scarlet Witch team up, which was very interesting. I would like to think that it isn’t my last Marvel go, that it’s been an amazing privilege to get to go once and I do have some ideas for team ups I’d like to see that haven’t been done yet.
AIPT: What do you think sets Scarlet Witch apart from other heroes?
SRB: As I think I said, I’m in my villain era, so I kind of love that Wanda is the… character who brings in controversy, because I think those are the interesting characters. And I think that back to when we had her ushered in, in this fascinating way, people doubted her partly because she’s a woman.
AIPT: Oh, for sure. Yeah.
SRB: And like people are like, Oh, well, you know, she’s very off and on with Vision. I’m like, no, she was a vision for a huge amount of time. She was very dedicated to him. She’s very dedicated to her friends and all her, I mean, her, not that many love interests. So I think that Wanda exemplifies the experience that we’ve all had of being doubted, perhaps, like being doubted by readers, being doubted by teammates, and still being able to preserve that wish for connection and that warmth and empathy and understanding of others. She is sometimes able to empathize with the villains even when she’s like being horribly wronged by them, and she can be really angry.
I think perhaps people doubt her more because she does have that complexity and that breadth, the warmth and the cold and the extreme, extreme power. I think there’s a lot of really, really powerful women and then people being like, “But what if they were out of control? And you’re like, okay, I mean, sure. But what if they were?
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