Spoilers follow forVisionQuest.
If you were wondering why you heard the sound of a million voices crying out in elation the other night, that was all the Scarlet Witch fans realizing that she was indeed coming home. Yes, as of the post-credits scene in the VisionQuest finale (which was not included in the advance press screeners, to many a writer’s chagrin) Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff is alive and well in the MCU. While I imagine few truly believed she was dead for good after seemingly sacrificing herself at the end of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it’s been four years with nary a word about her fate from anyone at Marvel Studios. Many fans were worried she would sit out the two-part Multiverse Saga finale in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, but now we know that’s not the case.
The VisionQuest scene plays back the last few moments of Wanda’s fate as depicted in the Doctor Strange sequel, only to then show Robert Downey, Jr.’s Doctor Doom lifting the remains of Mount Wundagore off of her and saying “Scarlet Witch. Awaken. Your power will be mine.” For fans of the character in the MCU, it’s a huge moment. But for fans of the comics, it hints at something I’ve theorized for a long time: that Doomsday will take inspiration from Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, where Doom and Wanda have an interestingrelationship. Let’s look at how Doomsday may be adapting this famous comic storyline.
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade Explained
If you’re not familiar with the source material, we’ve got you covered. Children’s Crusade was a 2010 miniseries from writer Allan Heinberg and artist Jim Cheung. It was a follow-up to Wanda’s disappearance five years earlier after the events of Avengers Disassembled and House of M. The short version is that Scarlet Witch experiences a psychotic break after being reminded of the loss of her children Billy and Tommy. She turns to the dark side, battles the Avengers, and uses her reality warping powers to create a parallel universe where mutants rule over humans under the leadership of Magneto. The dissolution of this reality and Wanda realizing what’s happened is what leads to the famous panel where she declares “no more mutants,” which started the long-running events of the Decimation story in the X-Men books.
Wanda was assumed dead after House of M, which ended in 2005. Although she made cameos in flashbacks or as doppelgängers (Loki even magically disguised himself as Scarlet Witch to infiltrate the Avengers), the real Wanda didn’t return to the mainline comic universe until Children’s Crusade in 2010. In this story, Wanda is revealed to be living in Doctor Doom’s country of Latveria. Wanda’s sons Billy and Tommy (also known by their superhero names Wiccan and Speed) go to Latveria to rescue Wanda after discovering a Doombot created to resemble her, only to learn that the real Wanda is happily engaged to Doctor Doom but without her memories of her life as an Avenger. The reveal of Wanda’s survival sends shockwaves through the superhero community, with the Avengers, Young Avengers, and X-Men all descending on Latveria at once.
Some superhero battle and time travel antics later, the heroes learn Doom was using Wanda’s powers to gain access to the Life Force, a well of mystic power related to Wanda’s innate talent of chaos magic. When Doom is imbued with the Life Force, his face is healed and the typical green tunic over his armor turns white, a precursor to his appearance in the 2015 Secret Wars comic where he becomes God Emperor Doom. With her memories restored, Wanda helps the heroes strip Doom of the Life Force and ends their relationship, but it’s left to interpretation if Doom actually cared for her or not. He claims responsibility for her actions during Disassembled and House of M by saying he manipulated her, salvaging her reputation with her teammates, but this isn’t entirely accurate, because House of M already showed that it was her brother Quicksilver who manipulated Wanda into creating that reality.
How Doomsday May Be Adapting Children’s Crusade
If you’ve been following Wanda’s story in the MCU, you may see that they’ve already set up an adaptation of Children’s Crusade. WandaVision involved her creating a pocket reality where her family was the center of the universe (albeit filtered through sitcom domesticity instead of mutant supremacy), and Multiverse of Madness featured Wanda going berserk after losing her sons and seemingly perishing. Wanda has been out of the game for a while, only to be revived by Doctor Doom at the end of VisionQuest. All of these point to Wanda being on Doom’s side during Doomsday, perhaps as part of a team with the Hulk and other heroes Doom has collected. Now that we know she’s returning, Wanda will almost certainly be a member of the Latverian witches who have been present in the marketing.
The Most Surprising Avengers and Marvel Characters Not Announced for Doomsday
Does Doom want Wanda’s power to help him deal with the threat of the Incursions? Or is she the conduit through which he will channel cosmic energy to become God Emperor Doom in Secret Wars? We don’t know if Doom will wipe Wanda’s memories and try to marry her like in the comics, but it’s seeming more likely that Billy (Joe Locke) and Tommy (Ruaridh Mollica) will factor into the story. Given how many members of the Young Avengers have been introduced in the MCU, it’d be pretty shocking not to see the team come together in some capacity during the Multiverse Saga. But knowing how packed the Doomsday cast already is, my current theory is that the Young Avengers characters will survive Doom’s rewriting of the multiverse, leading into Secret Wars via a Life Raft.
If you’re wondering what that is, the Secret Wars comic storyline featured Reed Richards and a small handful of heroes escaping the collapse of the multiverse on a Life Raft — a vehicle capable of existing outside of time and space. This allowed the characters inside to retain their memories of the original universe instead of the new memories God Emperor Doom gave them when he assumed control of all reality. This concept will likely factor into Secret Wars, but perhaps Reed brings the Young Avengers characters, including Wanda’s sons, into the Life Raft with him, and their quest will be to restore Wanda’s memories so she can help them defeat Doom. We’ll see what happens when Doomsday drops in December, but after the VisionQuest scene, I’d be shocked if Wanda wasn’t a major part of Doom’s plans in the MCU.
How do you think Scarlet Witch will factor into Doomsday? Let us know in the comments!
Carlos Morales has been writing about sci-fi and comic book movies since 2019, and has read 10,000 comics. You can follow his fixations onTwitter.
