Scarlet Witch #1: Don’t Griever for me, Argentina…

She’s back! Hot off the 60th anniversary mini for the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, where they fought the Wizard and his Frightful Four Hundred. The Wizard recently took up a magical mentor he called an angel, and brought the entire Atlantic Ocean down on Wanda and Pietro’s heads. We also had some flashes of something far more sinister that looks to be creeping up on Wanda. What could it be? What does this mean for the Scarlet Witch? Should we prepare for something Darker than Scarlet?

I’m a huge Scarlet Witch fan, and have been since I read her first hex bolt that she cast that caused a cliff to come crashing down on Wonder Man during John Byrne’s run on the West Coast Avengers, and I’ve been hooked ever since. Steve Orlando’s last volume took me over the moon, paired with one of the best artists in the comics today Sara Pichelli, and some of the up and coming artists like Lorenzo Tammetta (see: Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver), and comic superstar Russell Dauterman! Jacopo Camagni has some big shoes to fill, but after reading today’s issue I think he can rise to the challenge. His work is energetic and chaotic, which is perfect for a book about a witch who channels chaos magic.

The book was full of character, with a focus on building Wanda a supporting cast, showing her relationships with different characters, and what they mean to Wanda. And that’s spilt into this volume. We get a new addition, who Orlando drug all the way out of Marvel’s Golden Age. There was also a whole cavalcade of villains both old and new. I have to applaud some of his choices, they were really inspired. With this issue we get Griever, a rather newer addition to the Marvel cosmology. Seeing her here notches the danger up to eleven, because Griever is one of those cosmic creatures that it took the Fantastic Four, plus every single character that has been a member to kick her butt, so how will Wanda handle this?

One thing I had to mention is the start of the story. Wanda and Ch’Thon are having a little Kiki tea party, where he goads Wanda about some of her more recent problems. Wanda has been holding Ch’Thon within her soul since the Darkhold event, and it’s finally starting to show how much it’s taken her to hold one of those primal forces of chaos. Ch’Thon’s one of those H. P. Lovecraft’s elder gods, who are the pure embodiment of chaos. Wanda’s magic has started to take form around her body when she taps into that primal force she commands. Well, control chaos as much as one person could. Orlando’s setting this new book up as one that could rock the Marvel cosmology for years to come.