While Marvel fans are quickly gearing up for Phase 5 with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, one of the most beloved MCU entries of Phase 4 was WandaVision. The first MCU series debuted on Disney+ in early 2021 to rave reviews and reestablished Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch, played by Elizabeth Olsen, as a main player in the MCU. Now, Scarlet Witch’s newest self-titled comic series by Steve Orlando and Sara Pichelli is honoring the hit show with a stylish variant cover.
The variant cover for issue #3 of the series is by David Nakayama. The art features Wanda in her comic accurate costume, which debuted in the series finale of WandaVision, about to go into battle. Around the Avenger are two versions of her husband Vision (Paul Bettany) fighting each other, the villain Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) winking towards the audience, and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) powering up. Underneath them is the happy home life of Wanda and Vision. However, as fans of the series know too well, that life is a tragic facade. This is alluded to by the television static distorting the bottom of the image. Classic TV and sitcoms of course played a huge part in the series. This cover overall beautifully represents the complex and bizarre tale of traumatic grief that composed WandaVision. Thanks to the sincere writing and Olsen’s masterful performance, Disney+’s first series was one of the best entries the MCU has ever seen. Even though there have been countless Marvel shows since then, they haven’t come close to the raw intimate power WandaVision possessed.
Scarlet Witch and Westview’s Future in the MCU
It’s hard to believe that WandaVision premiered over two years ago and, in that time, Scarlet Witch has been through a lot. One could argue she was one of the most important beating hearts of Phase 4. At the beginning of WandaVision, Wanda is still very much dealing with the loss of Vision which occurred at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. Time doesn’t heal that kind of painful wound. Because of this, she loses all grip on reality creating a fake life with Vision and their kids in the town of Westview. This is all the while mind controlling the entire town. Eventually S.W.O.R.D and Monica Rambeau get involved while the secret dark forces of Agatha Harkness are working their magic in the background. At the end of the show, while Agatha was defeated and Westview was returned to normal by Wanda, this left our former Avenger down an even more uncontrollable spiral of grief as she became the villain of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Even though Scarlet Witch seemingly perished at the end of that horror tale, if you don’t see a body, the character’s probably not dead.
.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
The future for Scarlet Witch is wide open, but the world she created in WandaVision will live on in The Marvels which will see Monica Rambeau team up with Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel while Agatha will return in her own self-titled Disney+ spin-off series Agatha: Coven of Chaos. The Marvels is hitting theaters on July 28, 2023, and Coven of Chaos will release some time in the winter of this year. Also, another cool thing about this particular Scarlet Witch comic is that it features the comic debut of Darcy Lewis. Darcy was an original creation for the MCU. This tech-savvy character has been portrayed by Kat Dennings in Thor, Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Love and Thunder, and WandaVision.
While we wait for Scarlet Witch’s inevitable MCU return, you can view the WandaVision variant comic book cover down below. WandaVision’s also streaming on Disney+ now.
