Scarlet Witch #9 Review - Marvel Monday

The Flash is Greater Than Quicksilver?

Written by: James Robinson

Art by: Joelle Jones, Rachelle Rosenberg and Cory Petit

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: August 10, 2016

Review by: J. Vermillion

I know that Civil War II is a huge line-wide event that is supposedly going to have huge ramifications for the Marvel Universe, but I just don’t see why Marvel feels like they have to put out tie-ins in almost all of their titles. I understand for the characters that are the main players in the event, but I’ve haven’t seen Scarlet Witch doing much in the main book thus far. I loved where the story was heading before this issue and I was hoping the tie-in would even slightly advance that story. So let’s see if it did that…



Starting off the issue with a scantily clad Wanda doing some yoga definitely grabbed my attention. Then her brother Quicksilver shows up and I’m done. Pietro starts acting like an asshat right from the get-go. I don’t have any history with Quicksilver, other than the movies, and if this is how he’s always portrayed then thank God for that. I prefer my speedsters to be good people (see: Barry Allen), not pompous fuckboys. And, on top of that, he has a boring costume.

Phew, sorry about that. I’ll get back to the story now. Pietro wants Wanda to come with him to end this Civil War before more people die, but she won’t go. He recaps what has been going on in the main Civil War II book and refuses to let Wanda say anything about what she’s been doing. Pietro claims Wanda is “slow to grasp things” and she finally snaps and starts going on the offensive.

More recap, more recap, more recap… Pietro tells Wanda he’s on Iron Man’s side but she says she sides with Captain Marvel. Now, I’m not going to get into my political views of this Civil War, but Wanda’s stance did surprise me. I figured that with her past, and her knowledge that one small action can radically affect a future outcome, she would be the first to side with Tony. She does give a pretty good reason for her stance though, so I’m okay with it. I don’t normally quote the book directly but her “Hero fighting hero… How often must that dreary dance be played?” line seemed like a shot at Marvel directly and I thought it was hilarious.

Pietro and Wanda argue back and forth for a while. First about which side she should be on, then about whether she should get involved at all, then about her love life..? They take some direct shots at each other that show once again what a jerk Pietro is. When he refuses to leave, it finally sends Wanda over the edge. She attacks him and we get a brother vs. sister fight. Pietro comes back and starts circling her, taking her air away. She’s about to ask him to stop, but she realizes she can take care of herself and hits him with a wicked looking Kamehameha… I mean magic beam.

Wanda tells Pietro that he’s a sociopath (seems like she’s right on with that one) and that she never wants to see him again. He tells her not to worry and speeds off. She moves out to the balcony looking very relieved and like a weight has been lifted, but then you see a tear rolling down her cheek and see how much the exchange hurt her.

I want to give a big shout out to the art team of Joelle Jones and Rachelle Rosenberg for putting together the best art I’ve seen in this series. It’s just too bad it had to be wasted on this tie-in. I thought Jones did a great job of showing Wanda’s emotions changing throughout her interaction with Pietro, from peaceful to hurt to angry and finally to confident. Rosenberg’s colors mirrored that with the color of the sky outside the window. When Pietro shows up the sky is a light pink, but as the argument heats up the sky gradually gets redder and darker, eventually ending up with a deep purple after she kicks him out.

I thought we got some good character progression out of Wanda in this issue and it definitely looked great. The two and a half pages of fight scene were my favorite pages of the entire series up to this point. But I really don’t think we needed to have this tie-in to get that progression. I would love to see Jones and Rosenberg on another issue in the future.

Bits and Pieces:

Any Weird Science regulars know exactly what that score means. For the record, that isn’t me giving up on this series. I’m actually excited where both the story and Wanda as a character go from here. I just don’t see why we had to completely interrupt the story that was going on for a pointless Civil War II tie-in. I love to see Wanda growing as a character and standing up for herself, but there are other ways to do that without forcing it in one issue. 

5/10