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scarlet--wiccan · 1 year

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Hello! I was wondering, what would you classify as the outfits defining the different eras of Wanda? Like her first, classic, Wada, and Dauterman outfits.

Well, I think you've kinda answered your own question. Wanda's had lots of costumes, but her most iconic ones can usually be attributed a specific artist's work on a specific book. She didn't really start changing up her look until the 90s, but I would say that her most iconic outfits, outside of the classic one, really are the Pérez dancer costume from Avengers (1998), and Kevin Wada's design from Scarlet Witch (2016). A lot of her other looks are more short lived, or just not well-remembered. The new one's made a big splash, but it's too soon to say what kind of staying power it'll have.

Some of those short-lived looks are actually my favorites, though, so I want to do a brief history of Wanda's costumes. This is only going to be from the main Earth-616 continuity, and, full disclosure, I'm cribbing most of these images from uncannyxmen.net's costume gallery.

The classic Scarlet Witch costume has had several variations over the years. She consistently wears some version of this outfit from the 60s through to the 90s, but there were often changes to the style and cut of her garments. She wore a wimple-like headpiece in her early appearances, and traded it in for the now-iconic M-shaped diadem in Avengers #36, published 1966. She also went through a few maternity versions of her costume during her pregnancy in Vision & The Scarlet Witch (1985).

Wanda's first major costume changes were actually the result of possession or mental manipulation-- when possessed by Chthon, Wanda takes on a ghastly appearance and her clothing transforms into a dark red bodysuit with a tattered cape, sans headpiece. [Avengers #186] Later, while under Immortus's influence, Wanda cuts her hair short, ditches the headpiece again, and dons a red-and-black costume with a dramatic purple cape. [Avengers West Coast #55]

Wanda began changing her look more frequently in the 90s. During the late run of Avengers West Coast through Force Works, she wore a red dress over a black one-piece, with a necklace, gloves, and boots-- no headpiece. This is the first real costume change that she made of her own volition. She also had a brief-lived costume which first appeared in The Crossing, that drew more inspiration from the magical characters in Doctor Strange.*

The Pérez design first appeared in the opening storyline of Avengers (1998). In an alternate reality conjured by Morgan le Fay, Wanda and Pietro both appear as sterotypical "gypsies." Wanda later adapted her her outfit from this world in a contemporary costume. This was intended as an earnest representation of Wanda's cultural identity, but it fell quite short of the mark. Alan Davis later designed a more conventional superhero suit combining many of the same elements, without being an ethnic costume.*

In the early 2000s, Wanda debuted a set of red body armor with that combined fantasy aesthetics with a superhero silhouette*. This what she's wearing during Disassembled, but it's not well-remembered, perhaps because of the understated color palette. Wanda returned in Children's Crusade wearing a slightly updated version of the classic costume, with a halterless one-piece and cowl-neck cloak. I think this is the version most people refer to when they draw her classic suit, so to that end, it might be the most iconic.

Wanda had another rapid succession of costume changes in the 2010s, starting with the knee-length red dress with built-in gloves she debuted in Uncanny Avengers (2013).* In the Uncanny Avengers 2015 miniseries, she and Pietro both donned new, but very short lived, futuristic costumes for a brief adventure into outer space.

Then, in late 2015, Wanda received her first solo title in two decades, and it came with full aesthetic overhaul. Kevin Wada designed a collection of looks inspired by witch-house and dark romance fashion trends. This was eventually streamlined into a cohesive superhero suit for other ongoing comics, with an ornate red bodice and jeweled diadem.

In 2022, Russell Dauterman designed Wanda's look for the second annual Hellfire Gala event, taking heavy inspiration from the silhouette of her Crossing costume and the darker, more ornate aesthetic of Wada's design. A slightly simplified version of this look became Wanda's main costume in Scarlet Witch (2023) Most notably, this design incorporates the same magical galaxy effect from her son Wiccan's costume into Wanda's skirt and hair, signifying her mastery of chaos magic. Whether or not this costume lasts, I believe that the dark, bejewelled aesthetic and galaxy effect will continue to define Wanda and Billy's looks for years to come.

*these are my personal underrated faves

#wanda maximoff #scarlet witch #robintext #scarlet witch costume

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marveltrumpshate · 3 months

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January 2024 MTH fills

The best way to see all the fills that have been shared with us is our monthly roundups tag or our #MTH-fills channel on our Discord, but you can also view them through the following methods:

Our Tumblr tags: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

Our AO3 collections: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 (only has works posted to AO3)

Completed works tag list

To find specific content, use our completed works tag lists above which includes instructions on how to search for a particular character, gen or romantic relationship, universe, and fanwork type.

SOLO CHARACTERS

Goose

@secondalto - Cross-stitch piece of Goose for @rivetheadgirl

GEN/PLATONIC RELATIONSHIPS

Pietro Maximoff & Wanda Maximoff

Lalaith Quetzalli/@lalaithquetzallicaresi - Mood board for rufferto9 for their fic, "An Archer's Tale"

SHIPS

Arthur Harrow/Khonshu

@tiptapricot - "Consummation of Consumption" (MCU Arthur Harrow/Khonshu fic about unhealthy, codependent sex featuring religious fanaticism and devotion) for @lintillathearchaeologist

Bruce Banner/Tony Stark

heyjupiter/@twentyghosts - "Under the Tuscan Mistletoe" (Bruce/Tony 1990s non-powered AU fic where Bruce and Tony have a holiday fling) for @kalika999

Bucky Barnes/Clint Barton

@claraxbarton - "Running Start" (Bucky/Clint non-powered soulmates identity porn AU fic) for Col1999 (MTH 2022) - "where we go" (616/MCU fusion Bucky/Clint asexual relationship fic) for @foxprints (MTH 2022)

Lalaith Quetzalli/@lalaithquetzallicaresi - Fic cover for @rufferto9 for their fic, "An Archer's Tale," a Clint/Bucky werelion AU - Mood board for rufferto9 for their fic, "An Archer's Tale," a Clint/Bucky werelion AU

Bucky Barnes/Darcy Lewis

@anonymousmink - Art of Bucky cuddling Darcy from behind in bed for @bekala

Bucky Barnes/Howard Stark

@ruquas - A wartime epistolary fic in the form of handwritten letters between Bucky and Howard for @fuckyeahhowardstark

Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers

blackthorn_possum/@possumwoodpie - Podfic of "Surprise of the Night," a 1930s Bucky/Steve fic where Bucky and Steve go to watch a blue movie by and for lou2

Clint Barton/Phil Coulson

@cakeisnotpie - "All the Difference" (Clint/Coulson AU fic where Phil is a homeless vet who crosses paths with Clint, who takes contracts to go after bad guys) for @oper1895 and stillcentre

Jake Lockley/Marc Spector

@tiptapricot - "Warm Pipes" (MCU Jake/Marc shower fic where Jake helps Marc find their body again) for @rufferto9

Loki/Mobius

Lalaith Quetzalli/@lalaithquetzallicaresi - Loki/Mobius edit of them smiling fondly at each other with the phrase "Wherever you are, that's home" for @t0nystark1er

Steve Rogers/Tony Stark

Juulna/@juuls - Podfic of "felt with your two hands," a post-Endgame Steve/Tony fic where Tony helps Steve shave by and for @ishipallthings - Podfic of "lonely rivers flow to the sea (Topographies Remix)," a post-AoU Steve/Tony mutual pining fuck buddies fic by and for @ishipallthings

@longhornletters - Beta service for "Behind the Mask," a Steve/Tony Noir/Civil Warrior identity porn fic by and for @gottalovev (posted December 2023)

#monthly roundup #january 2024 #mth 2022 #mth 2023

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imperiuswrecked · 7 months

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you mentioned in one of your asks about the issues in previous scarlet witch solo. I get we got 100th parental reveal in that(and that to with problematic black story), but what were the other issues?

If you want a better take on this then I think this post might help you out because I don't want to speak over Roma fans when it comes to how the series handles Romani heritage.

I personally feel that Robinson went too far into this "magical g*psy witch" writing and reinforced that by giving Wanda a whole new mother and made it so that the Scarlet Witch title was something Natalya also had when the title of Scarlet Witch was given to Wanda by Magneto. Also I feel that his take on Pietro and Wanda's relationship actively harmed both characters.

Under the cut because it's a bit long~

There's a thing that writers do that drive me absolutely insane, they take a female character and in order to show her as this "strong independent woman" they have the closest male character (or sometimes just any male character) say something ooc; something to oppress them/gross them out/try to overpower their choice and then have the female character slap them back either physically or verbally. The use this moment as a defining moment for the female character, "see? she totally stood up for herself and isn't some meek woman! girl power! girl power!" Except Wanda was never a meek character, and Pietro isn't some controlling sociopath of a brother who can't stand the thought of Wanda being this independent woman who doesn't listen to her brother. I just feel the series is racist in different ways including making Pietro out to be this MoC who controls the women in his family. So issue #9 is one of the worst written things I've ever seen for the Maximoff Twins relationship and I hate it with all my heart. Robinson didn't care that Pietro and Wanda made choices together, he didn't care that Pietro listens to Wanda, he doesn't care about what really happened with House of M, how Pietro wasn't using Wanda for his own gain. I understand that as a fan of both characters Pietro is often used to uplift Wanda's character, but this was just terrible.

Also I personally hate the 2015 solo because a lot of mcu wendy fans latched onto it and used it to fuel their racism against 616 Wanda and her fans, wanting only to focus on her being a "white witch". The solo starts off with Wanda going around trying to heal magic, she travels to and interacts with other forms of magic/magical beings such as Hecate from Greece or to Ireland etc. As she goes on her travels she deals with issues of magic going bad and her own issues and she worries if she's the one causing the magic to go bad because of her past, and I'm just really sick of Wanda constantly atoning for House of M and everything. So it's not just the 100th parent reveal but the fact that a white male writer is obviously writing about stuff he has no experience or place to write about and it perpetuates more stereotypes, and unlike in Quicksilver: No Surrender, Saladin using Pietro's history as a way to explain/draw readers into caring for the character and give us his backstory about his past/heritage, Robinson's take feels so hollow.

Like, it's a personal issue and I understand that the Maximoff Twins were being retconned because of the MCU, but the way the writer just dismisses Marya and Django like "oh they were just the people who raised me" like it meant nothing always annoyed me, compared to how Saladin speaks of their parents/their past. Like it's obvious one writer understood the characters and the other just didn't care to expand on them, just swept them aside for an oc.

To conclude I will say the only good thing about the Scarlet Witch solo was how beautiful the art was, and that was the only upside to the series imo.

#scarlet witch #wanda maximoff #pietro maximoff #quicksilver #maximoff twins #imp answers

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themidnightcrimson · 2 years

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Seeing Red Explanation.

This post contains spoilers for Seeing Red. Please read the series before you read this explanation post to avoid having the entire thing spoiled for you.

There’s been a lot of questions about what happened at the end of my Seeing Red series, so I am going to do a little bit of explaining to clear things up. Before I do, I want to clarify that I left the ending very open-ended, and there’s some answers I don’t even know myself. Without further ado:

Where is 838 Wanda?

Well, little lambs, funnily enough, the Wanda you see in Part 5 of Seeing Red is 838 Wanda. Here’s why:

As you can tell, 616 Wanda (Scarlet Witch) is not dead in Seeing Red. As you saw in the movie, there was a small explosion of magic before the castle totally collapsed. I used my hopeful and biased and maybe borderline delusional interpretation of that moment in the movie, which is that Scarlet Witch was able to teleport herself out. Afterwards, in Seeing Red, she dreamwalked into 838 Wanda, which is why her eyes were glowing red at the very end and she greeted reader with “Hello, little lamb,” which was what 616 Wanda called reader throughout the series. So, you may now be asking:

How was 616 Wanda able to dreamwalk into 838 Wanda if the Darkhold castle was destroyed?

This series does not happen exactly like the movie, obviously. In my series, Wanda actually won the battle with Strange and took Chavez’s powers. Additionally, the 616 physical copy of the Darkhold was never destroyed. We see this in Part 3 when Scarlet Witch reads from the Darkhold while reader strapwarms her (ahem, hot af, props to me for that idea). So, while the Darkhold castle may have been destroyed, the physical copy was not, and that is how 616 Wanda is able to dreamwalk into 838 Wanda. This may also lead you to a further question:

Since the life of the destroyer of any Darkhold copy must be sacrificed, how was Wanda able to escape the destruction of the Darkhold castle?

That is up to Marvel to explain in either House of Harkness or a solo Scarlet Witch film (or else I will riot). Until then, your guess is as good as mine. Wanda’s powers reach an extent I can’t even comprehend, so I have no reasonable explanation for how she managed to stay alive besides that she is the fucking Scarlet Witch.

Since Scarlet Witch has the power to travel the multiverse, why didn’t she just actually go back instead of dreamwalking?

She dreamwalked mostly for shits and gigs. Will she eventually go back? You can answer that how you want to, but it was made pretty clear at the end of the series that she regretted taking reader away from 838 Wanda and the twins. I think she has learned her lesson, and how it will go from there is open to interpretation.

Lastly, I received a question asking whether or not 838 Wanda knows about the “cheating.”

This depends on whether or not 838 Wanda is fully conscious or can remember what happens while 616 occupies her body. Could Scarlet Witch actually shield what happens when she dreamwalks from 838 Wanda’s mind? Who knows. I surely don’t.

A lot of breeding happened during the series. Is reader pregnant with the Scarlet Witch’s child?

Yes.

I know these aren’t complete answers to all the questions, but that’s how I wanted the ending to be. I just wanted to clear up the fact that the Wanda in Part 5 was not literally 616 Wanda. It was 616 Wanda dreamwalking in 838 Wanda. Both our Wandas are alive and well.

Feel free to send any additional questions to my anons and I will try to answer them the best I can <3

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kitausuret · 9 months

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Just saying: it brings soo much joy seeing someone get excited by Wanda after the whole cinematic experience.

That was my first encounter with the character and it really did not give a good first impression. And it only got worse with how they treated her and her own actor's obliviousness on the character's background (I will never say 'her character', she simply does not deserve that kind of recognition from me - yes, I am spiteful).

I do not know much about her 616 storyline, nor midnight for that matter, but despite that complete lack of knowledge I enjoy seeing you post about her. I may have originally come here for the Venom stuff but really anything you decide to share is what I stay here for.

Anyways, hiding behind the anon mask, I wish you a good day!

Hi anon! Thank you for your kind words; Wanda really was one of the first characters I got into with Marvel, long long before I cared about anything arachnid-themed (unless it was Julia Carpenter, since she was one of Wanda's teammates, haha). I'm fortunate that I met her character via comics (thanks to my friend who dragged me to the LCS) so that got to be my first impression.

Wanda's an interesting character to try to get into, since she's so strongly tied to the Avengers. She didn't get a solo of any decent length until 2015... but I highly recommend checking out Scarlet Witch by James Robinson if you can. It's not perfect, but it's very good and it has a lot of nice art by different artists. It's a fun series!

A lot of people who like That™ version of the character seen in certain films and a mediocre television show will talk about "feats" and "power" and all that even in terms of the comics, but honestly I think all of that is a load of bull. Wanda's greatest moments have always been where she follows her heart, but also her head. She's a veteran Avenger, she's one of the most compassionate characters ever, she has had epic highs and some very low lows... but she always pulls through.

And when you get a good writer that really does her justice? Oh, that's just peak. That's the best.

(I also like when she just straight-up punches people - Avengers #186; Plot: Gruenwald, S. Grant, W: Michelinie, A: Byrne)

On the note of Midnight Suns, they kind of... tried? Like, it's hard to explain. It's not great, and I would prefer her hair to be several shades darker, but it could be worse, as far as adaptations go?

EDIT 8/4/2023: I previously criticized the game here for using Romanian for Wanda - this was a mistake on my part as it's been pointed out that she has spoken Romanian in the comics but it does not mean she is intended to be Romanian. I've also learned it's commonly spoken in the region Wanda is from. To my friend who pointed out my mistake, you have my thanks!

Anyways, I'm glad you've continued to stick around even as I've expanded beyond just Venom-posting. I confess, though, I've often thought about what it would be like to smash my two little interests here together... I think particularly in Midnight Suns-verse (mixed with a little 616, of course) Venom and Scarlet Witch could have an interesting conversation. (Let's be real, I'll probably write it.)

I also think about Poisoned!Scarlet Witch a lot. I think about the universe where she was Venom... what that must have been like... what their symbiosis was... many thoughts. I bet their joined form was awesome. Wanda has great style.

(Venomverse #3, #4, #5; Bunn, Coello - that last one is fine; the host and symbiote are both dead the second they get Poisoned 😔 Mania did them a favor.)

Anyways, thanks for stopping by! If you get a chance, check out @brw's Comic Scarlet Witch Week 2023! Life circumstances have kept me from participating thus far but every week is a great week to appreciate Wanda Maximoff as she was meant to be. 🥰

#wanda maximoff #kita talks comics #asked and answered #anonymous #listen i just love her so much #also i've been thinking about venomverse lately for reasons #i don't wanna talk about it #anyways thank you anon for giving me an opportunity to ramble about wanda #edit made for clarity

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brw · 1 year

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Simon Williams, Marvel's Wonder Man, their first evil Superman, or why out of all the obscure characters I could have latched onto, it's fucking Wonder Man.

I'll preface; the first reason why I ever gave more than a cursory glance at a wikipedia page at Simon was because he was attached to my favourite character, The Vision, and was heavily related to my other favourite character, Wanda Maximoff. I'm not going to lie & say that it was love at first sight or anything; I was a fan of Vision & Wanda for a while, & upon discovering Vision had a whole twin brother I never knew about, but one who had also dated Wanda later, I found it weird that I could find almost jack shit about the character online.

In the fandom spaces I was in, Simon was mostly "that asshole Vision is kinda related to and was weirdly quick to start flirting with Wanda when Vision got Byrne'd". I, new to marvel comics, was curious about this mystery man, and fell into a strange world of Marvel before the MCU was really the big thing people knew about it but also still sorta... there, as this is before they got completely overshadowed by the surge of new fans coming in from an increasingly amibitious production who were not versed in comic lore & therefore did not know nor care about Simon Williams, Wonder Man.

Anyway, I made it my mission to learn more about this guy because of my involvement with Vision & because it's just generally weird when you discover your favourite has an entire twin brother who had not one, not two, but three whole solo title runs where he headlines the comic (by the way, if you're not counting Vision & the Scarlet Witch or Ultimate Vision, is more solo runs than what 616 Vision has.) and appeared in comics almost 5 years before Vision was ever a thought on Roy Thomas' mind or before the man was even fucking hired at marvel. Needless to say, I became obsessed, and as of writing this am on my second comprehensive readthrough of every issue he's appeared in since debut in Avengers Vol 1 #9.

This out of the way, here is my very long & indulgent essay on why I think Wonder Man is great, subversive & when done right, a really good commentary on comics generally, with some vague gestures that I really hope some of these aspects will live on in the fabled Wonder Man series which I'm almost convinced is a psy-op to get me to do more unpaid work analysing Simon fuckin' Williams.

First point of this; Simon is an evil Superman. We've seen this trope a lot recently but I think it's always been a concept since conceptualisation of a character like Superman. A character must have an adversary for conflict, and while villains serve that purpose well initially, eventually the Man vs Man conflict enters into play; for what is more potentially crippling than ourselves?

Now, Simon isn't actually evil (usually), which kind of knocks him out as a proper evil Superman, but he is certainly a failed one. Superman gets his powers from the sun & from birthright, being the sole (ish) survivor of a tragedy that wiped out almost all of his people. It's what he chooses to do with these powers that truly define the character; his innate compassion & kindness towards others. Simon gets his powers after getting bribed from a weird Norse goddess after getting arrested for embezzling, and then gets experimented on & subsequently empowered by a weird Nazi scientist. He does betray these guys almost immediately after realising hey, maybe the Norse goddess & Nazi scientist don't have the best outcomes in mind for the Avengers, but still, it's not a flattering start to the character.

In Superman comics, his powers are something great that he has to be careful where he applies them to do good for other people, to create the best possible outcome for others. For Simon, they're something he's quite literally bribed into, experimented on with a definite lack of strong consent, & is unfamiliar with & doesn't even really use for good when he formally joins the Avengers. They're not something he works towards through intellect like Hank Pym and Tony Stark, it's an unnatural state for him to be in that kind of informs his actions unlike Vision & Thor, and it's kind of an accident he ended up as incredibly overpowered & superman-like as he has.

At the core of the character, there's this skeevy, unearned way in which he gains his powers, and there's this element that Simon doesn't even want them in the first place which I think get's stronger after his secondary character trait becomes defined. It's interesting, in that he sort of more simiarly references Beast in his power acquistion, of making a stupid decision in a moment of panic, drinking the beaker of glowing green/allowing yourself to get bailed out by some random woman you don't know but knows you well enough to bail you out, and having to deal with powers far greater & lifechanging than what you intitially wanted. Of course, in publication dates it's more like Beast references him, but either way it's an avenue I'm suprised no writer has taken their friendship.

Simon is also an evil Superman because ultimately, there's no nobility or inherent desire to help people that Simon has. At least not in the same way. Clark Kent will throw himself in front of every danger he can to protect those without the invulnerable skin or flight or eye lazers, and even his day job is protecting free speech & informing the people. Simon has a noted anxiety disorder in almost every fight he's in when he's first in consistent Avengers publication, and was raised an entitled rich kid who embezzled everything away & tried to run with the cash when things fell apart. His nobility was only achieved in his death, giving up so the Avengers could survive, and he's rewarded for that narratively with... a near crippling fear of death & of dying that prohibits him a lot from standing up or applying himself. In all fairness, he does get over this in ways, but it still remains something worth talking about; Simon has to work way harder, in my opinion, to act as a good person, that Superman, but even in universe, than the person who's brainwaves / soul they share, Vision. You know, there's a reason why Simon has murdered people in two separate comics by two separate writers in two mainline 616 comics in cold blood, and they fit in with his character & not just edgy bait for Superman or alternate universe shit. Simon is an incredibly anxious, very privileged boy who tries to scheme his way out of bankruptcy, fails, gets powers he can't imagine, and immediately dies & stays dead for like 13 years, and when he returns is a nervous wreck. It makes sense that Simon is easy to trick emotionally or, when just having a bad day, might punch too hard & kill someone. He was doing this in 1991.

Why is Simon like this? Well now we get into the other cornerstone of many evil Supermen, and indeed many general evil comic men; bad parents. It's not fair to say this only applies to villains, as many, many heroes can attest, having bad parents is not a trait exclusive to the baby-eating genocidal manics. That said, the ratio of villains having a happy & prosperous childhood to heroes is quite staggering. Superman is always notable for his origin with Ma & Pa Kent in Smallville, to the point of which they made a very long tv show just about Smallville Superman. Superman grew up to loving parents. Simon grew up to an abusive father & to a mother, who while loved him, never seemed to be able to connect with him before Simon died in the way she'd wished possible. Clark Kent grows up in Smallville, a well-named small town in Kansas. Simon grows up wealthy, the heir to a well-off company in New Jersey. Clark Kent's background unquestionably influences him as a person, his values and his interactions, and ... Simon's can, and almost does, but obviously the bar for consistency in background isn't as high for random C-List Avenger Wonder Man than the single most archetypal hero ever, Superman.

See, Simon being a victim of abuse both at the hands of his father and at the hands of his brother have very interesting potential implications for his relationship with afterforementioned Vision. The reason why I found nothing about Simon in my standard Scarlet Witch and Vision centered fandom experience is because he's an asshole to them. Specifically, in the John Byrne WCA run, the tragic ending of the long time staple of Avengers B-plots that was Wanda Maximoff and her synthetic robot lover, the Vision. Specifically, he doesn't give Vision back their emotions & memories when Wanda asks him too, because he has a crush on her and that gives him the right to effectively ensure the death of his own sibling & Wanda's spouse, something that yeah, will definitely make her start viewing you as a potential boyfriend. I think there's a very interesting potential narrative here about cycles of abuse & how in his own relationship with Vision, Simon becomes the perpetuater of the abuse rather than the victim. He gets into a big aggressive fight with Vision during the events of Operation: Galactic Storm, and even says right there and then that he considers Vision... his child. You would think with such a big weird statement that there would be a narrative about how both Simon & his brother, Eric were abused by Sanford, and how Eric in turn and as a response abused Simon. It would say a lot about Simon's relationship to the very concept of brotherhood & fatherhood, but it's just a bizarre throwaway line in a random event nobody remembers and there's just this entire fucking decade where Simon does a completely 180 in characterisation and there is zero effort to explAIN OR EVEN TALK ABOUT THE FACT THAT IT HAPPENED, WE JUST SWEEP IT UNDER THE RUG EXCEPT FOR MULLET FLASHBACKS, I FUCKING HATE JOHN BYRNE SO GDDAMN MU--

Another element to consider; even beyond just being personally unfit for the job of Superman, Simon has other engagements. Simon has dreams of being on the silver screen, a big movie star! This is probably the second thing you know about Simon other than the relationship to Vision & Wanda; he's an actor, and trying to make it big. This is often either played as Simon just being a sellout with no artistic integrity, or Simon actually having too much integrity, and struggling in an industry that takes big action sequences over moving, heartfelt Shakespearean dramas or whatever. Whatever the case, what makes Simon feel different to other similar characters in my opinion is that the superhero gig is the day job he puts up with to support his REAL love, acting. What makes some of Simon's contemporary depictions unfulfilling is that they swap them to the more conventional way, that he's bogged down in acting work but really wants to be taking on Galactus. This is a problem we run into where Simon is given an opportunity to be a genuinely interesting character subverting very common tropes & doing it well & in a satisfying way, only for the next schmuck who just got Simon's name out of a random hat of names and did whatever they saw written on the Wonder Man tin; shit Superman.

Not only does Simon not have a heroic origin of his powers, not only is he as a person is fundamentally unsuited to superheroics because he refuses to go to therapy, but Simon doesn't even have enough committment to the superhero gig to make it his primary job, instead choosing acting, which isn't even something he has a stake in. It's a completely new field for him, and as Simon soon learns, the world of acting is not as welcome to a complete newcomer & novice with very little actual professional work to his name. Not only does he effectively give up being an Avenger to persue acting, he's not even that good an actor. Simon has powers he doesn't want, is associated with a team he doesn't really want to be in, and puts all his eggs in the acting success basket and really it's a miracle it takes Deadpool to officially bankrupt him. We open up with his first ever appearance with him getting arrested & found guilty of embezzlement, it's not like he's established to be financially safe or intelligent with his money.

Simon, I genuinely think, fits the bill as an evil Superman. I mean, he's even got a solely red & black colour scheme with a weird trademarked symbol on the chest. He is the opposite of Clark Kent in so many ways, and yet somehow... tries to be heroic? And hero Simon is way more interesting than villain Simon, I mean, that's why after the character reaches the end of his arc in Wonder Man '91 he almost immediately just fucking blows up in literal issue 1 of Force Works until Kurt Busiek, an obvious big fan of the 70s & early 80s stuff brings him back completely reimagined and firmly established as a good guy, evil Simon is just too obvious a route. What keeps me coming back to this character enough to do two comprehensive readthroughs though, is the fact that in being so much an apparent antithesis of Clark Kent, he's a subversion of most comic book hero tropes, while remaining a hero. Were this character created today, I imagine after coming back he would just stay... an antagonist. Red & black colour scheme, yup, disinterest in helping others, yup, horrible traumatic upbringing, yup, an arguably power-hungery acquistion of his abilities, yup, antagonistic relationship to a primary coloured, established heroic character, in The Vision. In fact, I think having a gothier, more evil big brother archetype in the Grim Reaper / Eric Williams is a contributing factor as to why Simon ends up a surpisingly nuanced portrayal of the conventions of the superhero genre and how a character who goes against that can still be a hero when he's given time to breathe & not given a random time travel / future plot mixed with Big Brother, thanks Peter David--

Simon Williams, Wonder Man, is to me the best case scenario when rehashing old ideas. It clearly wasn't LeeKirby who figured "yeah let's bring back the guy we created to die in issue 9 of Avengers", but as time went on & more ideas were tacked on but never really expanded upon it's created this incredible incident where we have a bunch of really good ideas in a shared soul in a gay anxious ball of ionic energy who has tricked itself into sentient thought and an android associated with Marvel's first Human Torch who is also famous for their connection to the now incredibly recognisable Scarlet Witch. Simon is the evil Superman trope, but a hero still. Simon is a failed actor who actively prefers that to being an Avenger. He doesn't like helping people and has panic attacks and stops fighting vs supervillains more than once. His best friend is furry ape mutant who he's got this bizarre sexual dynamic with. He's dating Carol Danvers & Scarlet Witch, but his position as a C-List character means he's fundamentally never going to have a real shot with them, and he seems narratively relieved whenever they break it off. He's related to an evil necromancer with a scythe hand who abused him as a kid & felt so bad about that he dedicated his life to bringing Twink Simon back without ever changing his relationship dynamics with Simon when he comes back. And yet Simon remains often a footnote, and occasionally gets some focus when people remember he was supposed to have gotten Hulk to a stalemate once. Thanks again, Peter David.

I'm not insane enough to argue that Simon was secretly Marvel's best character all along. Most of this is honestly due to Simon being too obscure to majorly fuck up because that would require insider knowledge. These are just mind-bogglingly happy accidents that resulted in an actually okay deconstruction of the evil Superman trope like 20, 30 years before that was actually the thing to do. Simon is a character honestly prime to enter the spotlight, which is exactly why it’s so terrifying it’s happening. On one hand, largely what we have heard about the production & rumours surrounding the show is positive. We have an established actor in the comic book adaptation genre, and experienced writers in comedies. On the other hand, Simon is not a major enough character to attract ire if core aspects of him are lost, and I will mourn certain things that may be lost like the evil Superman of it all, the fact that Simon was pretty much established Jewish in 2005 & has a history of queer-coding that warrants it’s own post that I may one day get brave enough to write, with certainly more panel input than this. I don’t think Simon is a character with genius writing or implementation, but I strongly believe he has potential. There are so many potential storylines just by asking the fundamental question, “What if Superman was gay and had an anxiety disorder and was also a theatre kid and actively avoided the Justice League?”. The answer, somehow, is Simon Williams, and that’s an opportunity for stories that Marvel has sat on for a while, and while this may start to change I am wary of getting my hopes up about a character who I initially was calling D List when I first started writing this.

Ultimately, Simon Williams is what most characters are; a character glued together by fan speculation & connecting the dots from various storylines to make an attempt at a linear narrative when the writers do not care and will continue to not care. Still, I found that, as fans of Vision and Scarlet Witch, but also as an Ant-Man fan, the reaching I have to do to make everything in Simon's publication make sense is me hunched over my laptop like I am right now compared to the ritualistic intensive yoga I have to do to make the 90s & 2000s make any sort of interpretation of those other characters intelligible. Simon is a character with a rare potential in comic books; to make sense. Maybe not by ordinary standards but it's easier to argue that Simon would recreate a toxic relationship with his sibling who he considers a child given his own relationship to his elder brother & father, than whatever horse shit Avengers Disassembled & House of M are supposed to be. I want to believe badly that this vision is getting seen; why else would Simon get three different solo series & an entire fucking show with an actual good actor if there wasn't some understanding that this was a potentially interesting character. I want to believe. so badly.

This is my end, I guess, & I'll say that if you're interested in any specific sources for something I've said send an ask & I'll dig out the panel somewhere. A problem with reading a character with exactly 666 appearances in like, one month like I did the first time around meant I didn't save a lot & limits of my technology that haven't translated well to where I am now. My second time around, I'm being much more methodical with posting panels, which you can see in @wonderbeast if you're interested. But I'll be happy to dig out Marvel Premiere or Avengers V1 #184 or #15 of Wonder Man (1991) for you. Really. It's fans like us who REALLY make this company go around & man I'm not letting marvel forget that. Especially with an MCU project attached.

#brieuc.txt #comic book meta #wonder man #simon williams #long post #ch: the man of wonders!#over 3000 words this is!!!!!!!!! more i've written on any of my actual projects in many a time!#anyway! please read & rb i would appreciate it. i have so much to say abt an ultimately inconsequential character.

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stanytork1 · 2 years

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The True Supreme

MCU has self-proclaimed itself as Earth-616. Please, Strange-616 would've taken out all variations of himself and Wanda solo.

He's one of a kind. He's unrivaled.

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uhthor · 2 years

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those rumors about her movie... like, unkilling wanda would be just simply dumb storywise, it makes me confused. her whole purpose and story is complete in MoM, tf there's left to do? I usually tolerate it when they milk characters bc of popularity or whatever, but in this case she also can't be anything but villain now. would it be a past story like BW or something like that? can she just stay dead pls

100% AGREEEEEE

i don’t think she’s dead cause marvel love killing off poc and resurrecting the white washed bitches 78 times BUT it would be incredibly stupid to give her a solo movie or another story somewhere because like you said… it’s done… i appreciate redemption arcs but her villainy was so bad that there’s quite literally no coming back from that LOL

the only thing left associated with her is billy and tommy and how they will appear in the young avengers and i have a theory about that which i will now subject you to poor anon:

so there’s no billy and tommy in earth 616’s mcu but they exist in every other universe which is why wanda wanted to travel to another one to be with them SO what if the billy and tommy of earth 616 are actually billy kaplan and tommy shepherd?? thus enforcing the house of m storyline where wanda makes a deal with mephisto to release their souls which then inhabit the bodies of billy kaplan and tommy shepherd who are literally not related to wanda whatsoever and that’s how we get young avengers?? that’s the only acceptable reason i would allow her back so that she could rot in hell with mephisto <3

#liv answers #anonymous #this was such a tangent but i wanted to get my theory out there lol #it would make sense #and it would work #but marvel have exactly -2 braincells so #just hire me and i’ll do it #anti wanda maximoff

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tiredmoonslut · 2 years

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Wanda’s solo movie, a master theory (MoM spoilers follow)

It was clear to me that certain writing choices made in Multiverse of Madness were done with the intention of carving a path for Wanda’s next appearance, and here is how I think it sets up her own film. Major spoilers under the cut!

A film would pick up in Darkhold Castle, immediately after Wanda brings it crashing down. Intending to let herself die in the rubble, she opens her eyes in confusion and realizes she was protected from the blast (or was only knocked unconscious and is relatively unscathed). The movie would have strong themes of regret and disappointment, and would focus on what it’s like to move on once something is well and truly over.

The primary antagonist would be Cthon, secretly re-admitted into Earth-616 when Wanda was absorbing America’s power on the altar (remember when the symbols randomly started glowing?). He would want to either convince Wanda to aid him in his goals, or forcefully try and possess her, and she would have to stop him (welcoming in themes like autonomy and selfhood to the plot), and prevent him from achieving his goals since she now wants to atone for her own similar recklessness.

A subplot of the film would be that Wanda is now without any allies, switching her emotional plight from grief into loneliness. She’s not an Avenger anymore, Stephen/Wong/Kamar-Taj are non-options, Vision and the twins are well and truly gone, and that leaves...you guessed it. AGATHA. Agatha, who also has experience with the Darkhold, and centuries worth of witchcraft under her belt. Picking up wherever her Disney+ show leaves off, Wanda would summon her from Westview and restore her powers and memories--likely threatening to snatch them right back if Agatha doesn’t help her fight Cthon.

Together, the two work their witchy magic (maintaining a spookier atmosphere for the film and more deeply exploring witchcraft as it differs from sorcery) to stop Cthon, all the while having to put aside their mutual distaste for one another and realizing that they have quit a bit in common (dark powers, no allies or friends, no family). Ultimately they develop a shaky friendship, and Wanda reclaims a sense of selfhood now that she’s free of the Darkhold, and so does Agatha now that she’s free of both the Darkhold AND Wanda’s mind control. Other characters can join the mix to flesh out the plot, and bam! Solo movie.

#mcu theory #scarlet witch #wanda maximoff #the scarlet witch #scarlet witch movie #mcu #marvel #doctor strange #doctor strange in the multiverse of madness #multiverse of madness spoilers #wandavision #wanda theory #agatha harkness #billy maximoff #tommy maximoff

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thegayassistant · 2 years

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okay just saw MoM and i have a lot of thoughts so MAJOR spoilers below the cut

1) i’m not a huge fan of how they handled wanda in this movie. i was hoping to see more of the process of corruption from her use of the darkhold. but instead they showed her already fully corrupted and i don’t think this was conveyed well in the movie. there’s a huge disconnect from her mental state where wandavision left off and where she was at in MoM and that disconnect was not well explained. i think seeing this descent and struggle as she keeps using the darkhold would have been far more impactful than her being full of villainous rage the entire movie. i feel like because of this her character was extremely static the entire movie when there could have been SO much inner conflict and character development for her

2) the cameos were lacking, the amount of advertising that marvel did for these cameos only for all of them to die within less than 10 minutes was disappointing

3) i wanted to like america soooooo badly but she also fell flat for me. she had so much potential but she was really just used as a pawn in a power grab for the majority of the movie when she could’ve done much more. the actress did a very good job though

4) i really enjoyed the fight scene between dark strange and 616 strange, maybe one of my favorite marvel fight scenes ever.

5) watching wanda solo everyone was admittedly extremely entertaining and damn if she didn’t look good doing it. elizabeth olsen’s performance in this movie was just absolutely phenomenal

6) the “you break the rules and become the hero, i break the rules and i become a villain” line was one of my favorites and i was hoping it would be addressed more beyond that but it wasn’t. if anything this movie just went even further in proving that it is pretty true which is frustrating

overall i did find this movie to be a refreshing change of pace from other marvel movies and it was very entertaining as well as being a huge mindfuck which was fun at times but certain things definitely fell flat

#dr strange #multiverse of madness spoilers #multiverse of madness #MoM spoilers #wanda maximoff #stephen strange

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prettydollshai · 2 years

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Dr.Strange: MOM spoilerz

I really enjoyed multiverse of madness but I understand why many people didn’t. I do think Wanda starting out evil was a bit rushed only because we left Wanda with the dark hold in wandavision and we didn’t really get to see her being affected by it.

However this also worked really well for the movie in my opinion because I assumed that there was going to be another villain but they shocked me when the true threat of the film was Wanda.

I wouldn’t call Wanda a villain since the darkhold corrupted her but rather the power that grief has over us and the destructive choices we make.

Many characters struggled with the grief they had during the film:

Stephen started the movie off feeling sorry for himself. We find Stephen at the wedding of Christine looking solemn. A man berates Stephen for his choice during infinity war.

Stephen must feel that pain more than anyone when he had to make that tough choice.

Stephen has had to bear the weight of that choice but hasn’t talked about it to anyone. Now Stephen has to bear the loss of losing Christine. Not to mention he has to grapple with the loss of losing his title of sorcerer supreme.

Christine was wed to another man and he felt depressed with his loss. The difference between Stephen and Wanda is that Stephen’s grief is silent.

Wanda forced everyone to witness her grief hurting everyone around her while Stephen hides his grief with his ego and a false smile hurting only himself. He tells Christine that he is happy instead of telling her the truth; that he is scared to be alone. He has magic and wild adventures but he doesn’t have the one thing he failed to appreciate; Christine. He realizes that he “blew it” and that he missed his chance to win her back.

As Stephen travels through the multiverse he comes across a couple of universes and faced with the fact that he loses Christine. 838 Strange couldn’t figure out what Christine meant to him, Sinister strange lost his Christine, and Zombie Strange lost contact with this own. Stephen has to feel rejection after rejection as he realizes time and time again that he fails to give Christine everything she deserves.

Sinister strange calls out 616 Strange by telling him that he never talks about the grief in his life such as when his sister Donna died. Stephen has never spoken about his sister.

Donna most likely spurred Stephen to become a neurosurgeon as he must have felt guilty about not saving his sister and to make up for it he saves others.

The Illuminati of Earth 838 believe strange to be the biggest threat. They think that he is like everything other strange; going solo which is true for Stephen as he always goes it alone without giving others any consideration. 838 Christine believed he was the same as all the other but America Chavez convinced her otherwise.

Stephen proved himself that even though he was like the other Dr.Strange’s that went down dark paths he still chose to do the right thing even when it was hard. Wanda offered Stephen a chance to have a life with Christine but he chose to give America strength to fight against her.

Stephen would have become like sinister strange if he had chosen to take Wanda’s deal because he wanted to kidnap 838 Christine:

Sinister strange: “Here’s the deal, I’ll let you use the darkhold, if you give me your Christine”

He wanted to keep Christine by his side forever but that would take away her free will. He lost his chance and he needed to accept that loss instead of holding onto the past. 838 Christine helped him realize that. They had chemistry but knew that they could never be together as the incursion would be cataclysmic. Stephen knew that he had to let her go.

Towards the very end he was able to face his grief and admit that he loved Christine. Even though he knew he couldn’t be with Christine, the love they shared was not a waste:

Stephen: “I love you. I love you in every universe”

He fixed his watch that was broken in Doctor strange(2016) a gift given by Christine during their college years. Stephen repairs his watch symbolizing that he has finally moved on. He has finally gotten closure for their fractured relationship.

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Wong had his own challenges with grief. He became sorcerer supreme and was given many new responsibilities.

Wong had to face the threat of Wanda Maximoff. Many sorcerers lost their lives in the battle that Wong will have to live with as he brought them all to face Wanda. He had to watch the destruction of Kamar-Taj.

He was forced to watch the death of Sara as she believed that he cannot die in this battle.

Wong was dragged along by Wanda but he didn’t cower in fear but faced her head on trying to reason with her that her grief was making her choose unethical choices:

“At the cost of a child’s life! Is there no peace in knowing, even though you can’t be with the ones you love, there are worlds where you are together, is that not enough!”

Wong grieved the deaths of his fallen sorcerers and could have easily asked Wanda to bring him to a world where they are alive but he knew that choice was unethical and selfish.

Wong didn’t let his grief get the best of him and chose to be grateful for the life that he led in the one that he was in.

“Sometimes I do wonder about my other lives, but I remain grateful in this one”

Running away to a perfect world never fixes your problems. The life you have now has meaning despite the grief endured.

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America Chavez

The only person to not have an alternate version. The loneliness to never dream another life.

America has been grieving the loss of her parents when she sent them away in a portal.

America and Stephen parallel each other in this regard. America lost her parents and Stephen lost his sibling. Stephen becomes the parental figure that she has been missing while America is like the sister he lost. Stephen protects America like he wished he could have done for Donna.

America was able to stand up to Wanda and use the power she couldn’t control for so long and had caused the grief in her life. Stephen gave her the courage to face her pain and to give her hope that she would see her parents again.

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Wanda

She let her grief be corrupted by the darkhold. She couldn’t imagine a life without her children.

Her choice to travel to a world where billy and Tommy are is sympathetic because who wouldn’t feel the pain of losing one’s children but Wanda’s choice would take the life of another child.

Ironic; the only way she could be with her children was to kill someone else’s.

Wanda: “For billy and Tommy. To protect them. What if they get sick. In the infinite multiverse there’s a cure for every illness, a solution to every problem. I won’t lose them again”

Wong: “Try as you might Wanda, you can’t control everything”

Wanda’s grief made her believe that she needed to be able to overcome every obstacle but you can’t foresee every problem that arises. You can’t control everything but Wanda couldn’t accept that. She couldn’t accept that you lose people sometimes.

Wanda’s grief was loud destroying everything in her path because when grief is untamed it burns everything around you and before you even realize it you burn yourself.

The only person who could show her that she was going down a dark path was herself.

She felt that her happiness was stolen so she tried to steal it from another version of herself.

When Wanda was close to achieving her dream, billy and Tommy saw the monster she became and feared her. 616 Wanda could never replace 838 Wanda.

“Know that they will be loved”

Wanda accepted the fact that they already had a mother that loved them. She knew that the darkhold had corrupted her and ultimately destroyed the darkhold in every universe or so it seems. I still believe she left one version but that remains to be seen.

Wanda will most likely feel haunted by the lives that she took as she grapples with her grief.

——————————————

While Wanda was seen as the villain for this movie the true villain was grief and the choices we make because of it.

Bonus:

Stephen finally bowed to Wong accepting him as the sorcerer supreme.

#doctor strange #multiverse of madness #marvel #marvel comics #mcu phase 4 #mcufam #marvel spoilers #marvel superheroes #marvel studios #wandavision #wanda my beloved #wanda maximov #wanda marvel #america chavez #wong

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