The Griever’s Earth-shattering threat has been put to bed, and this week’s Scarlet Witch #5 finds our heroine in the midst of a good old fashioned ghost story. Just in time for Halloween, Steve Orlando, Lorenzo Tammetta, Frank William, VC’s Travis Lanham, and Alanna Smith deliver this tale of Wanda’s team-up with Daredevil against a sinister subway specter. Maximoff and Murdock turn out to be quite the potent combo, perhaps more adventures between the pair lie ahead.
Issue #5 marks a shift in the Scarlet Witch’s ongoing narrative. The Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver miniseries built up a massive conflict around the twins’ role in reality, and this plot boiled over into the newly-relaunched Scarlet Witch volume. Having used the first four issues to revitalize and redefine Wanda’s role as a nexus being – a wellspring of cosmic and magical opportunity – Scarlet Witch #5 tightens its focus. Orlando returns to the scope that his tenure with Wanda began at: smaller-scale crises that benefit from her brand of magic touch. Where the Scarlet Witch has championed the causes of those who wander in through her Last Door, her friend and store manager Darcy has discovered that the Door works both ways. With this in mind, Wanda walks through the door, trusting the magic to shepherd her along to where she’s most needed.
This approach to her hero work is more proactive than before, and immediately yields results. Suited up, the Scarlet Witch arrives just above a stairwell into a Hell’s Kitchen subway station. There she finds a woman fleeing from a haunted hammer, which is intercepted just in time by The Man Without Fear, out for a nighttime patrol. The Kitchen is Matt’s territory, but Wanda recognizes the signs of this particular elderspawn from a previous fight back in Lotkill. And so, after spiriting the civilian away to safety, the Scarlet Witch and Daredevil descend into the depths from which the ectoplasm-ridden hammer was flung by the murderous Bricklayer.
Once alone, the discussion between the pair of heroes quickly turns to how rare it is for the two of them to team-up. On the one hand, they live in different parts of the state, Matt’s magical adventures usually pair him with Doctor Strange, and a different woman in red bearing tresses of uncontainable dark curls occupy a large part of his hero life already. On the other hand, the Devil and the Witch work together here with unexpected ease. Their banter is playful and comes without effort, while the sheer amount of sensory data that Matt processes complements Wanda’s investigative spellwork. Orlando also smartly pulls from Ahmed and Kuder’s Daredevil, using Matt Murdock’s most recent experiences with priesthood and exorcism to excellent effect by saving the Bricklayer’s possessed hostages. I’m not saying that this issue demands frequent collaboration or romantic partnership between Wanda and Matt moving forward. But, like the previous volume’s Scarlet Witch #8 did for Wanda and Loki, it was fun and I now see the potential.
Marvel
Scarlet Witch #5 largely acts as a one-shot, but it is also another solid entry that strengthens the larger narrative being woven around Wanda since the beginning of the previous volume in 2023. The smaller stakes, fun guest star, and a primary plot solved by the end of the issue are the trappings of the majority of Scarlet Witch (2023)’s run. It’s a familiar starting place after the dramatic death and rebirth Wanda experienced in the opening arc of this series. Disparate threads, such as Wanda’s first showdown with the Bricklayer in last year’s Crypt of Shadows, are woven in, strengthening a sense of continuity with Wanda’s adventures beyond the immediacy of this series’ events. And to top it all off, there’s the Bricklayer’s connection to Chthon. It serves a dual purpose: a stark reminder of the threat posed by the Elder God who just escaped Wanda’s grasp, and also gives Orlando the opportunity to differentiate the chaotic possibility embodied by the Scarlet Witch in opposition to the chaotic descent into oblivion represented by Chthon.
Tammetta and William continue to excel in their art in this issue. Tammetta specifically nails the dynamism needed for the action and the sense of kinetic motion to Wanda’s shellwork. William’s colors add to the complementary nature of the team up-between Scarlet Witch and Daredevil, rather than allowing either to be overshadowed or blended into the other. It’s also a good touch to counter the heroes’ reds and pinks with a set of greens ranging from neon to necrotic.
There’s not much to pick at in terms of flaws with this issue. Maybe Darcy’s reaction to Wanda’s return is a bit overdone? Was there more we were supposed to read into from the Bricklayer biting out a lock of the Scarlet Witch’s hair? Were we supposed to recognize the paramedic on the scene after the battle is over? Would Matt Murdock really say no to a free-post brawl healing from Wanda? These questions are all ones that the issue leaves on the table, but they do not amount into any significantly compelling flaw.
Halloween is just around the corner, and Scarlet Witch #5 is the perfect spooky season adventure underneath Hell’s Kitchen. A team-up with Daredevil that’s no trick, all treat. A rematch with the monstrous Bricklayer. It’s a well told story that gives the audience a chance to breathe and have a little fun coming down from the battle with Griever without running headlong into the introduction of Amaranth, Wanda’s mysterious new apprentice. Pick it up if you have the chance.
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