Scarlet Witch Is STILL Marvel's Strongest Avenger in Comics and the MCU

Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, wields levels of power that dwarfs most of Marvel's heroes. She has demonstrated this on multiple occasions, although her doing so has often come at tragic costs. While she's been an Avenger since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby put her on the team with 1965's Avengers #16, she's still the team's strongest powerhouse in comics and the MCU.

The origin of Wanda's abilities has been subject to several retcons. Throughout most of her history, she was believed to be a mutant, one of X-Men villain Magneto's three children. Current canon states that she and her brother Quicksilver are not mutants -- nor are they biologically related to Magneto -- and that their powers were actually caused by experimentation the High Evolutionary performed on them. Whatever their source, Wanda's powers dwarf those of her family and most other beings in the Marvel Universe.

Originally she was said to be able to manipulate probability, which resulted in her powers being vaguely defined as causing bad luck for those they were targeted towards. Various creators added to her abilities over time and increasingly emphasized their mystical nature, with the character eventually being able to use extremely powerful chaos magic. Since then Wanda has been shown to be capable of manipulating and altering reality on a massive scale, an ability that has been the cause of many of the most disturbing and tragic events of her life.

RELATED: Avengers: Disassembled - The Complete Guide to the Event That SHATTERED Marvel's Heroes

Wanda's inability to maintain control over her powers have been the cause of several catastrophic events. A famous example of this is when she inadvertently lashed out at the rest of her team in Avengers: Disassembled by Brian Michael Bendis, David Finch, Danny Miki, Frank D'armata, Albert Deschesne, Richard Starkings, and Oliver Coipel . After suddenly regaining the memories of her children, Wanda went mad and her powers began twisting reality, resulting in a devastating series of attacks on the Avengers that led to the deaths of Hawkeye, Ant-Man and Wanda's husband, the Vision. Traumatized by the events, the Avengers disbanded for a time.

Avengers Disassembled was followed by House of M by Bendis, Coipel, D'armata, Tim Townsend, Rick Magyar, Scott Hanna, John Dell,  and Chris Eliopoulos. In that event, Pietro manipulated an increasingly unstable Wanda to alter the world when he believed the New Avengers and X-Men were going to kill her. The world Wanda created gave Magneto his dream of mutants thriving as the dominant class of humanity. But when an alliance of X-Men, Avengers, and other heroes fought to change the world back, Magneto's true memories were restored, and he killed Pietro. Hoping to punish her father Wanda said "No more mutants," erasing the powers of many of the Marvel Universe's mutants as the rest of the world returned to normal.

Out of the past and present Avengers, only the Sentry really comes close to matching Wanda's raw power. Like Wanda, the limits of Sentry's power are unknown and as he is also mentally unstable he has posed a similarly massive threat, such as when he almost singlehandedly destroyed Asgard in Siege. But until proven otherwise, it seems likey that Wanda is still more powerful, given that neither Bob's abilities nor his alternate Void persona stopped his life from being altered during House of M. It's also possible that Wanda's sons Billy and Tommy, who are alive again and members of the Young Avengers, could one day rival their mother. Wanda is a nexus-being, meaning that she is unique in all the multiverse, and it is said that the children of nexus-beings will possess unimaginable power.

Related: Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver Went Full Lannister in Marvel's Ultimate Universe

The Marvel Cinematic Universe seems set to follow the comics and make its version of Wanda, played by Elizabeth Olsen, the franchise's single most powerful hero. Her early appearances showed Wanda to be a powerful telepath and telekinetic, but her elevation to the Scarlet Witch and reality-altering antics in WandaVision make a strong case for her as the MCU's most powerful hero.

After proving to be a force powerful enough to stand against Thanos in Avengers: Endgame, the television series WandaVision continued to highlight Wanda's nearly limitless potential, with her creating Billy, Tommy, and a new Vision out of nothing. She was also able to control the minds of everyone in Westview, New Jersey, and alter the physical appearance of the town all at once, leading Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) to believe she was drawing on chaos magic.

In both the MCU and comics, few heroes can wield the kind of raw power that the Scarlet Witch can manipulate unconsciously. Although she might not always be in control of her own abilities, Wanda has power on a scale that simply dwarfs all of the other Avegners.

KEEP READING: Scarlet Witch, Kang, and Every Other Marvel Character Who's a Nexus Being.


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