It’s exhausting that the Scarlet Witch continues to carry a stigma for crimes she committed nearly a quarter of a century ago. It’s a relief that modern comics fans are getting younger and younger and, despite a rather horrific turn in the MCU, Wanda Maximoff’s contemporary readers aren’t burdened with the events of Avengers: Disassembled and The House of M. With decades of serialized fiction behind them, comic characters aren’t built to carry their entire histories around with them.
Steve Orlando’s ongoing Scarlet Witch saga has done incredible work to (ahem) dispel all that musty narrative air. It does so by largely ignoring all of that tedious weight and focusing, correctly, on Wanda as she is now, as she deserves to be. Even when she shares the title with her brother (or soon, her ex-husband), Wanda is rightfully the center of the action, wholly in control.
Marvel
In Queen of Chaos, Orlando elevates the stakes from the preceding Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver by reintroducing big, cosmic forces and setting them against our witch. The Griever at the End of All Things last seen during Fantastic Four: Reckoning War, steps up as the volume’s Big Bad, but the book plays with other diety-level forces arranged against Wanda.
These cosmic- or mythological-level threats – from Cthon and the Darkhold to interdimensional Sorcerer Supreme Mori-I-Dun perfectly allude to the power Wanda is working with. After decades as a second-stringer (and occasional bad guy) in books like West Coast Avengers, Scarlet Witch insists on exactly what the character is, what she can be, and just what sort of incredible shenanigans she can get up to.
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Adding to that ‘huge energy’ feeling is The Queen of Nevers, an Eternity-level being (and physical embodiment of a preceding reality), who has stepped up as a sort of patron for Wanda – fleshing out the incredible supporting cast on the cosmic scale. The Queen introduces the idea of Nexus Beings – beings free of predetermined fates who can disrupt and shape the events of reality (in a quick panel, we see that Wanda is joined in this role by fellow superbeings Jean Grey, Kang, Reed Richards, and maybe Hope Summers, along with gods, magicians, and historical figures Merlin, Napoleon, and Odin).
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All of this leads the reader to understand just how off-the-scale Wanda truly is and just how deserving she is of epics all her own. It’s silly to get hung up on House of M when Wanda is ensuring the very concept of free will.
Iconoclastic artist Russell Dauterman, who supplies the covers and occasional interiors, gives the book a lot of attention. However, let’s not let his involvement overshadow Jacopo Camagni and Lorenzo Tammetta, whose ongoing work oozes creepy monsters, expressive characters, and cosmic energy. Frank William and Matthew Wilson’s colors on the book all but glow crimson, creating a world that feels packed with life and magic.
Scarlet Witch – Queen of Chaos continues a labor of deep love and craftsmanship that the character has long deserved. It supplies a powerhouse character a purpose, continually proves her abilities and challenges her limits, all while building a world of supporting characters and non-Avengers stability around her. The book is an excuse to love a neglected superheroine for what she deserves to be loved for.
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