brevoortformspring:

>You wrote, regarding anger at Wanda: “That may be true. But I don’t know that it’s unsolvable.” But haven’t you also said that you’re worried about HoM (and I’d argue extending that back to Disassembled, where she was also used as a plot device) defining her in the way Hank Pym’s been defined by one bad Shooter story? I’m curious what you see as the difference between the two?

As a longtime fan of Wanda (at least the pre-Bendis Wanda), I’m mostly expecting her to go crazy and turn on her teammates every half-dozen storylines now, the way that Hank and the slap get brought up every time he’s used.>

i think Hank is defined that way, but I don’t think that Wanda is quite yet.

Also, Wanda has more stories that are important to people before the story you’re talking about than Hank did—so there’s more of a pull towards other things beyond just that among more people than there is with Hank.

A lot of characters suffer from being unable to shake a bad writer. We don’t hate them for who they are or what they have done, but what writers have made them do, or used them for. Wanda is a perfect example of this. Hank too tho, he cannot shake his past, no matter how many swings different writers take at it. (Yet no one ever brings up all the times on panel Reed Richards smacked around Susan?!) Pietro is another example. He is unable to shake the godawful Steven Englehart, who wrote him so out of character and horrible that it’s painful, yet it is what has stuck all these years. Before him Pietro was just a protective provider of a brother, and ended up being a megalomaniac douche who emotionally abuses his wife and is over-baring towards his sister and all around irrational and terrible. Peter David had to do damage control years later on X-factor to explain this away as just his powers driving him mad, and his impatience and aggression all comes from his constant state of agitation at every one’s slowness. But even with Peter David’s superior writing, people still default to Englehart Pietro. He is held to that, just like Hank is held to his past and Wanda just can’t shake the Bendis years.

For many of us 18-35 year olds, he is essentially what our contemporary runs consisted of. I for example was born in April of 1986, that month Vision and Scarlet Witch #7 came out. But I was clearly not reading at the time. By the time I was reading, and focusing on her, Bendis was about to sink his meathooks into her. I just read a lit of “Essential Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver stories you simply must read” and 1) Pietro was left entirely off the list aside from being mentioned along side Wanda in their first appearance in Xmen and them joining the Avengers. after that no mention of Son of M, no acknowledgement that he was actually the mastermind of House of M, no Magneto Not a Hero, not Magneto Rex. No mention that he is married OR has a daughter anywhere on the list! and 2) the rest of the list consisted of every instance of Bendis throwing Wanda under the crazy bus as a cheap plot device. The list didn’t include a single redemption arc Marvel has slapped together. That’s the problem. The average reader, the contemporary readers, and these “new” readers are only being presented with the worst of her, and it’s something she just cannot shake. Bendis time and time again used the Crazy/possessed card with her, it was predictable, and unfair. We have come to expect this. We also…HATED IT THE WHOLE TIME but because they took place in series spanning all encompassing events, we couldn’t avoid these without simply not buying Marvel comics at all, which is possibly how Marvel missed that we really didn’t enjoy the constant tearing down of her character. Nothing says a good time like a woman being victimized and all her agency stripped from her, says Marvel, YEAH! ~sarcasm~

The reason why I lack faith in Marvel right now is their inability to understand where they went so very very wrong with Wanda, and their unwillingness to listen to any fans, and their continued treatment of her.

I wouldn’t mind this Magneto is not the father retcon half as much if I thought the team would handle her with care and compassion, and creatively give us something other than another possession story. But Rick has shown to have the same tendencies as Bendis in regards to Wanda. She is shown as vulnerable, meek, broken, and has already been enslaved, stripped of her agency, killed, and shown looking for worth and validation from the men in her life. So why would I put faith in this man in this retcon? Why should I give him the benefit of the doubt when he hasn’t yet given me a reason to? 

I could get on with a Chthon is their father/creator, since they have both been possessed and Wanda’s son is the Demiurge. I could dig a story where they connect Jessica Drew to the twins since she too has a rich back story from the same time at Wundagore mountain, but will we get those things? No. Despite Jessica having her new on-going series they will probably retcon her to have more rape in her back-story, because she needs more rapey backstory. Men love a good rape origin. ~sarcasm~ 

I fear what I will get though is more stories of possession. I fully expect Wanda to get blamed for something/everything early on in Uncanny Avengers, crying, looking to men for support, and then a half-assed story where her being “crazy” is the explanation. Because that is the formula, and it is the status-quo. 

I also lost faith in Marvel when Peter David said he was not made aware of the up-coming retcon in regards to Pietro. It shows Marvel has no care foe Peter David’s work, Pietro’s character Development, or the fact that Pietro has custody of his daughter at the moment. She should appear in Uncanny Avengers, his new redemption should be apparent or even focal. Will Remender honor that amazing run? The fact that Marvel didn’t even fill Peter David in, means no, probably not. They didn’t care what he was doing. they already had a plan. They are going to just throw away a fan favorite series to make Pietro an Englehart douche because Rick loves to write victimized women and misogynistic men. 

I just see no hope in this. I feel like Young Charles from the Days of Future Past movie, everyone keeps telling me I need to hope again, but I just cannot. My heart is broken. Its sad that I can relate more strongly to a Fox adaptation of Xmen better than anything Rick has ever written. When comics -the one thing that kept me anchored in this life have abandoned me- my heart just doesn’t have the strength to see the promise of 2015.

(Sorry this is so disjointed, i had to try and write this up a second time after my phone failed to post my first one. fucking tumblr app is the worst)