Wanda Maximoff makes her solo series return in a brand-new Scarlet Witch series. There is a door that appears only to those who need it most, who have no one else in the world to turn to. On the other side is the witchcraft shop. If your hope is gone, there you will meet the Scarlet Witch! Wanda Maximoff is familiar with hitting rock bottom — and now that she’s finally found peace, she’s pledged to help others who are languishing at their lowest. But when a woman falls through Wanda’s door with a terrifying story of a town gone mad, the Scarlet Witch will have to muster all her wits and chaos magic to deal with an insidious threat!
Being one of the most popular Avengers characters for many decades now, it’s no surprise that there have been several Scarlet Witch solo series. This one however intends to reestablish Wanda as a major heroic player in the Marvel Universe following her misadventures with The Darkhold. Whilst containing an overarching story arc, this first volume is mainly made up on standalone tales that sees Wanda assisting various characters with supernatural problems with the assistance of Darcy Lewis (a character from the MCU’s Thor films and WandaVision series making her comic book debut).
Despite being a new start for the character, writer Steve Orlando proves to have a strong handle on Wanda and builds on her plentiful history. This is assisted by appearances from familiar characters such as Magneto’s daughter Polaris and Vision’s daughter Viv who have strong ties to Wanda. Additionally, given the episodic nature of the series, Orlando uses the story structure to focus on the different ways Wanda can use magic whether it is reality warping or delving into Viv’s nightmares. Darcy also proves to be a valuable character, providing a more down-to-earth touch to the story whilst sitting on something of a bombshell herself.
Art is largely handled by superstar artist Sara Pichelli (co-creator of Miles Morales, artist on Guardians of The Galaxy, Spider-Men and more) and she continues to prove why she’s one of the best working in the industry today. She gets plenty of moments to show off her range in both the magic sequences and the quieter moments when it is just Wanda and Darcy in the shop. Equally talented artist Russell Dauterman (Thor) also gets a chance to shine in the most action-packed chapter of the series so far.
This is an exciting new direction for The Scarlet Witch and an encouraging start to her new series. Both comic and MCU fans will appreciate this new lease on life for Wanda.
Scarlet Witch by Steve Orlando Vol. 1: The Last Door is out 29 August from Marvel (9780785194743, p/b, £17.99)
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