Wanda Maximoff is, without a doubt, one of the scariest heroes in the Marvel Universe. Her abilities to warp reality and harness chaos make her one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel universe as well. During WandaVision, she proved that even the MCU version of her character is dangerous to more than just the bad guys. But comic fans will know that within those printed pages, she has been using her powers in scary ways for decades.
While she has turned to the dark side a few times, most of that time was due to her mental health, or guilt rather than any evil intention. Really, she has shown time and again that she wants to do the right thing, and while she’s had varying degrees of success with that, the Scarlet Witch is a hero, just a really scary one.
9 Sent Thor To Space To Protect Him And Her Team
Fighting telepaths is always a messy business, but when the telepath in question is the Red Skull, it’s even more dangerous than usual. With Captain America already under his control, Wanda took a drastic step to make sure that Thor wouldn’t also join his ranks.
She sent the Asgardian out of the Red Skull’s range of influence. Since he had the power of Charles Xavier at the time, that meant she was able to send Thor to space. While this would take a lot of time and planning for most heroes—just ask the Illuminati, after they sent Hulk to space-- but Wanda was able to pull this off without breaking a sweat.
8 Housing A Demon Is Easy Work For Wanda
Wanda’s birth was marked by Chthon, who gave her power and was going to use her as a vessel on earth. It’s debatable if that is the source of her powers, or her mutation is but either way, Wanda housed the power of a demon in her body for decades before it made itself known.
When she learned of its presence, she banished it to a doll and destroyed the doll, ridding herself of its influence. While this early touch of darkness has left her open to other manipulations over the years, her victory over an old one is definitely scary.
7 When She Resurrected The Dead One By One
After her breakdown that led to the famous "No more mutants" line, Wanda worked to right some of the wrongs she had committed against those closest to her. This involved resurrecting some of the heroes that died in these conflicts. One by one, they reappeared, alive and well, seemingly physically unphased by the events, though suffering some mental and emotional trauma.
It seemed that Wanda’s ability to raise the dead worked best when she could focus on a single target, be it her brother after Magneto killed him, or Hawkeye after he died at her hand several times.
6 Switching Everyone From Bad To Good And Vice Versa
While switching the moral alignment of a supervillain seems like a perfectly logical way to deal with a crisis, sometimes, being as powerful as Wanda Maximoff means that things work a little too well. As Wanda and Doctor Doom cast the spell to “switch the axis” in Red Skull’s mind, the spell affected everyone on Genosha at the time.
While Doom and Daniel Drum (who was possessing Wanda’s body at the time) were able to reverse the spell and put things right, it was still a display of immense power. The power to turn some of the worst people on the planet good, and some of the best, bad makes Wanda and her magic a terrifying X-factor in any fight.
5 When She Resurrected The Dead En Masse
While she was very successful in raising the dead in a one-on-one capacity, Wanda (who was still looking for a way to redeem her actions against mutantkind) turned her sights on a far bigger challenge. Despite the warnings- and the fact that there were plans in place to do exactly what she was about to try in a far more reliable way- Wanda cast a spell to resurrect all the mutants that died in the Genosha genocide.
She succeeds, sort of. They all came back, powers intact, but not fully alive. The island of Genosha became populated with mutant zombies. While this is a horrifying mistake on her part, the power involved speaks to what she could do if her intentions hadn’t been as good.
4 She Can Channel The Life Force Of The Universe
When Wanda was at her lowest, after discovering the loss of her children and the loss of the memories tied to them, she turned to Doctor Doom to help her call down the Life Force of the universe and recreate her family. It went horribly wrong, and, according to Doom, the Life Force took over Wanda’s powers and caused the events of Brian Michael Bendis's Avengers: Disassembled and House of M.
In true, Doom fashion though, Victor tries to take control of the Life Force himself and was overloaded in a fight with the Avengers, Young Avengers, and X-Men. Wanda’s compassion in his loss, despite his reaction to his loss of the powers she’d carried, showed her as a real hero. Albeit an incredibly powerful one.
3 She Took Down The Power Of The Phoenix
While the Phoenix Five wreaked havoc all over the planet, there were very few heroes that could stand against them, let alone deal with the problem. As the Phoenix Force’s power was consolidated in Scott Summers, Wanda stepped up, trying to talk him down before uttering “No more Phoenix” and banishing the entity from Cyclops and the planet.
Not only did she get rid of one of the most powerful entities in the universe with a flick of her wrist and a few words, but she fixed much of the destruction Scott had created during his possession of the power.
2 The Ability To Create The Devastation That "No More Mutants" Caused
While it was one of Wanda’s—and mutantkind’s--darkest moments, the sheer power of this moment of pain and anger shows the absolute power Wanda was working with. Whether or not it was a Life Force power boost or not, this moment made those who survived aware of what kind of trouble the world would be in if Wanda were truly evil.
Wanda’s intentions in House of M, while twisted by her mental health issues and her instability at the time, were good. To keep her family together, she would give those that were a threat to her life what they wanted most. Unfortunately, that world crumbled and led to her violent breakdown.
1 Creating The House Of M Took A Lot Of Power
The ability to reshape the universe to match her views of the world is by far the scariest part of Wanda Maximoff’s powers. While doing this, she took into considerations where and what everyone near her wanted most, what would bring them a good life. While balancing all those likely conflicting wishes, she built a world that ran, for the most part, pretty well.
It proved that, even in her dark moments, Wanda wants good things for people. She just goes about it the wrong way when her mind is working against her. The outcome and the lack of consent involved in these actions make them villainous, but Wanda is repeatedly the personification of “the road to hell is paved in good intentions.”
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