“THOU SHALT NOT SUFFER A WITCH TO LIVE. -EXODUS 22:18”
If there’s one benefit Secret Wars has given comic fans, it’s the wave of new titles and smaller, more intimate stories coming out after the event that changed everything about the Marvel Universe. Scarlet Witch is one of those stories, and it’s all that much better for it.
As first issues go, this is a fairly bog-standard first issue: we open on Wanda Maximoff, divested from the Avengers, living in her own witchy penthouse somewhere in Brooklyn. The mansion gives her a breathtaking view of the city, but more importantly, it allows her to see the auras of almost everyone, good and bad.
The first thing we learn in Scarlet Witch is that something is making witchcraft sick in New York City.
This revelation takes Wanda to the scene of a gruesome murder. In the lead-up to her encounter with a minion of the series’ as-yet-unknown Big Bad, we get some insight into her powers’ origin, which is a nice touch for folks who maybe aren’t avid fans of the mutant. Writer James Robinson takes Scarlet Witch away from her former designation as a “chaos magic” user and puts her squarely in the “Real Witch” category.
While this issue is merely setting things up for later action, I’m already taken by both the writing (Wanda has conversations with the ghost of a woman she killed pre-Secret War, nuff said) and the art, drawn by Vanesa Del Rey and colored by Jordie Bellaire. Looking forward to this!