Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Scarlet Witch #2
In the latest issue of Marvel Comics’ Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff clearly defines her newfound redemption with one epic line. Having been called to help the daughter of the Vision, the Scarlet Witch enters the complex dreamscape of an android to save the life of this young hero. While villains have already tried to use her own traumatic past against her in this new series, Wanda proves that she’s entered a brand-new era in the Marvel Universe.
In the new Scarlet Witch #2 from Steve Orlando and Sara Pichelli, Viv Vision desperately needs help with her nightmares that are threatening to kill her should they persist. Seeing as how the brain waves of Viv’s mother Virginia were copied from Wanda’s, one could argue (as Wanda herself does) that Viv is essentially the Scarlet Witch’s daughter. Although Viv doesn’t see it that way, she is grateful for the help as Wanda enters her mind. The Scarlet Witch then encounters the Dreamqueen who is responsible for Viv’s damaging nightmares. While she tries to use Wanda’s past trauma and darkness against her, the Scarlet Witch proves with one perfect phrase just how much she’s grown in recent years.
Scarlet Witch Is Far More Than Her Past Trauma
By telling Dreamqueen to “forget her past”, Wanda is making it clear that she’s done letting her guilt and trauma control her life. While her greatest atrocity was causing a near-complete genocide of mutantkind in the House of M storyline, she’s since redeemed herself now that mutants have returned en masse, using her powers to provide a crucial mutant afterlife/heaven component to the X-Men’s Resurrection Protocols on their nation of Krakoa. Case in point, although she was once known as the Great Pretender among mutants, they now call her the Great Redeemer, a title she certainly seems to have taken to heart in this new series given her mission to help those who need it most.
Likewise, “my present will make you humble” is an epic declaration. All that matters now is the good Wanda can do in the current era, wielding her powers against those who would seek to harm people who have no one else to help them. The Scarlet Witch hammers this point home even further by using one of her past traumas as a weapon, offering it to Dreamqueen as a means to punish and expel the “Devourer of Misery” from Viv completely.
While this new series starring Wanda Maximoff has only just begun, it’s already become clear that the Scarlet Witch has undergone more healing than she ever has before. As such, she’s ready to embrace the power of her present rather than dwell on her mistakes and grief. The line“Forget my past. My present will make you humble” should absolutely go down as one of the Scarlet Witch’s best lines of all time in the Marvel Universe. Scarlet Witch #2 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.