Idk if you’ve answered this before but if Wanda was still a mutant & the retcon never happened would she be an omega level mutant?
She easily could be, but it probably wouldn't happen. In the late 90s, Busiek established that the development of Wanda's mutant power had been heavily impacted by the influence of chaos magic, so it's not a "pure" or straightforward mutation, and most of Wanda's greatest feats can be attributed primarily to magic in some form, including the Decimation. So, in terms of simple power-scaling, I don't actually think it would make sense to say she's an omega-level, and for editorial purposes, I don't think it would make sense to classify her as such.
That said, understanding "omega-level mutants" isn't a matter of power-scaling at all.
The current definition, according to House of X #1, is a mutant whose "dominant power is deemed to register or reach an undefinable upper limit of that power's specific classification." In practice, it usually means that "omega level" has less to do with how objectively strong a mutant is, and more to do with the scope and versatility of their powers. My favorite example is Hope, in Immortal X-Men #11--
Wanda's mutant power is probability manipulation. It's interpeted differently, by many different writers, but there plenty of ways you could make it fit this definition of "omega level." A while ago, I pitched an idea inspired by Storm's power, which allows her to interact with "weather" as a living, breathing system of forces and elements on both a micro and macro without limit-- for Wanda, you can take the same idea and apply it to general physics.
Hope, on the other hand, gives us an even simpler model-- she's a mutant power manipulator, and there's no limit to how she can manipulate mutant powers. There are limitations in terms of range and recall, but not application. For Wanda, similarly, there seems to be no limit to the how she can manipulate probability. She might be limited by energy, or scale, but the only limit to how she twists probability seems to be her own imagination.
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Fae someone giving a diamond to their darling and she’s freaking out and they’re like ??? It’s just a silly shiny something
Ok, maybe not a diamond but Fae!Price does shit like this to his witch all the time, menace that he is. She is desperately trying to keep up on repaying him.
"What is that?" You ask, staring at the red resinous cubes that Price is holding out to you on a neat black handkerchief. Your hands are actually starting to shake a little just from seeing it.
"Socotra sap," He says so easily you think he's fucking with you. Your fingers reach out to touch it, reverent.
"Dragon blood I- how did you get your hands on-" You shake your head, pull your hand away, "What is it? A gift? A- a boon?" You wrack your mind for anything you have to repay him for this.
"It doesn't have to be anything," He tugs a string on the edge of the handkerchief and it folds up like a bag. The hard red sap disappearing from view before he holds the offering out to you.
"Everything is something," You say carefully, "What-" You bite your tongue before you can ask a dangerous question, before your greed can get the better of you. What does he want for it? It's magically valuable, you both know that, but you don't think Price has any use for it.
He raises a brow at your silent hesitation, leans against the threshold of your garden. "You're turning it down?" His deep voice jogs you from your thoughts. No, you know turning down his gift has the potential to be worse than accepting it. You just need to repay him.
"No," You tell yourself firmly, "No, it's a very kind gift I just need you to wait here a moment."
Price blinks, but nods. He's more than willing to wait for you, after all that's the only thing he's been doing. Waiting for you to stumble over something so he can pick up a piece of you. He's interested to see what you repay him with. Truth be told the only thing this resin is good for is-
"You smoke right?" You ask, settling jars and various strange books on the wall, "Cigars?"
Ah, that's cute. You remembered. He grins, and sets the bag in your outstretched hand. It's fun watching you pull caps off of jars and sniff them, tugging notated paper free from one of the books as you fish chalk out of your pocket to draw a hasty circle on the wall. He leans close as you bend over the circle to work, smelling the soft floral notes of your shampoo. You make his mouth water.
"You make a lot of cigars?" He asks, instead of biting you when you lean through the threshold. You hum, head bobbing from side to side as you partition out tobacco on leaves.
"Not recently, but I had a client that liked to smoke them before court." Price isn't usually one to envy other men, but God does he feel it licking like fire at his ribs.
"Had?" You nod, opening a jar of sparse white flowers and red roots.
"Wife killed him," you break off a few pieces of the dried root and put it in a little rock bowl. Seemingly too distracted to care about the fantastic story you were avoiding.
"Really," he asks, you're so lovely up close like this, both of you leaning against the brick wall. You look up at him through your lashes with a small smile.
"Nope," you twist your pestle against the root, grinding the root down into a powder, "he decided to quit smoking." You look back at your work, grabbing another bottle. It looks like another root, but at least he knows the flower this time, morning glory. What are you cooking up there?
"I've missed making these." You smile at your work, opening the dragon's blood satchel and breaking a piece off to add to the mortar mixture. Your fingers are so deft, purposeful as you grind the roots and resin down.
He'd love those pretty little fingers to wrap around his cock. Would you even know what to do when they did? Would your nose scrunch up in concentration like it did now, your lips parted just enough to pout as you worked? Oh pretty little witch, would you get on your knees for him and beg?
"You will, " he mumbles. You hum questioningly, glancing at him as he hums back. You must not think it's important enough to question further, must not want to break your precious intent. Witches are always so fond of their focus.
You sprinkle your mixture over the filler tobacco, careful as you combine the two and start rolling the cigar. No, cigars, you portioned out for two. Smart girl, weighing your own value for the gift against your talents. You twist the end of the wrapper, and swipe your finger on an open tin before running it along the end of the wrapper to seal it. You do the same on the other end to cap it.
Price takes the finished cigar when you offer it, watching you work on the second one. It smells good, heady and resinous, and something else. "What's it supposed to do?" He isn't an expert on the herbal fuckery you witches do.
"Hex breaker, command spell, decent smoke," you list, half paying attention to him as you finish your spell, "they need to dry for a day or so, try not to smoke them until then."
Price hums, you keep your focus on your work and not on the way he inspects your gift. His thick fingers twisting the cigar between them, the soft sizzle of evaporating water. You know magic when you hear it, wild magic your grandmother used to call it. The kind you'd never hope to have.
You should hang up additional wards before he lights either of these. There's no telling what a debtor might do with this extra kick, not to mention one who seems set on you. You hold out the second cigar, you don't feel any extra weight from a tether.
"Fair trade," Price tells you, you'd have thought he'd be annoyed but he almost sounds pleased. "Now run along back inside like a good little girl, I know you want to put your new toy away."
You really do, too. You lick your thumb and rub out part of the chalk circle, breaking it easily before you gather your things to take back inside. You're positively brimming with spells that could use a little kick of dragon's blood.
"I'll bring you something nicer tomorrow," Price warns you, you don't hear him as you close the door.
Herbs used: Tobacco, bloodroot, dragon's blood sap, morning glory root
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When was the last time Wanda used her probability powers?
There are a few examples in Scarlet Witch (2023). Orlando doesn't make clear distinctions about the different aspects of Wanda's power, but it is apparent that he had a clear vision of her abilities and how she should use them. It's all in the visual storytelling, though-- you have to pay attention to what she's doing during fights. I do wish he'd made better use of narrative and dialogue, or at least had Wanda casting more spells out loud. Tammetta isn't nearly as good as Pichelli at communicating Wanda's powers, so his fight scenes tend to fall apart.
Anyways, in #4, she uses her powers to guarantee that the residents of a destroyed building will win big at the lottery. That's the closest example of her manipulating probability or, more accurately, luck, the way she used to in older comics.
In #9 (Pichelli again) there's a really fun moment where Wanda creates an air vacuum around Nicola, which is very similar to this scene from Avengers #237, where she pulls the same trick to Electro. Here, you can see she gives a much wordier explanation for what she's doing. I know people don't write comics this way anymore, but I think Wanda really benefits from verbal indications and I wish writers would use them just a little bit more.
Beyond that, you know, any time she's flying or using telekinesis, you can take it as read that she's using her hex power, not magic.
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