Welcome back, true believers, to part three of my series on Wanda Maximoff, AKA the Scarlet Witch. As we’ve seen in WandaVision, Wanda’s not the most mentally stable right now. However, as I’ve explained here, she’s only scratched the surface of what she can do. At various points in the comics, her actions led to the death of several Avengers and their temporary disbandment. In addition, Wanda managed to rewrite reality to put Mutants on top. When she undid this, she subsequently rendered most Mutants normal humans, herself included. However, since no one ever stays gone for long in comics, Wanda would eventually return. However, it would only be due to the actions of a new team of heroes, one that she had a connection to; one that WandaVision’s laying the groundwork for in the MCU. Today, I’m going to be discussing the Young Avengers.
Buckle up, because this is going to get a little…weird.
Young Avengers: Who Are They?
How would you react if, one day, a future version of yourself came back in time and told you that you would grow up to be someone who could rule the universe? How about if they also revealed that you were a total jerk and a villain? That’s what happened to a teen named Nathaniel Richards in the 30th century when he was visited by his future self, Kang, a time-travelling conquerer and one of the Avengers greatest enemies. Young Nathan was horrified by how evil he turned out and tried to change his future. Thus, he went back in time to get the help of his future enemies, the Avengers. However, when he arrived there, the team was already disbanded.
Refusing to give up, Nathaniel instead sought out young teens who had, or seemed to have, a connection with the Avengers. All of them have stories to them, but three that you need to remember are Wiccan, Speed, an alternate version of Vision, and Stature. And that Stature is Cassie Lang, daughter of Scott Lang, the second Ant-Man.
Together, these teens became the Young Avengers, with Nathaniel becoming Iron Lad, go on missions as they learned how to become heroes. Even though Cap and Iron Man tried talking them out of it. Eventually, though, the need to preserve the space-time continuum meant that Nathaniel eventually had to return home and grow up to become Kang. Regardless, the team stayed together and took part in many major events in the Marvel Universe. No one knew it, though, but they had a big secret right under their noses.
Twins Reincarnated
I must remind you now of the fate of Wanda’s twin sons. How they were really fragments of the soul of the demon Mephisto that he eventually took back, seemingly wiping them from existence. If not, then none of this will make any sense.
Firstly, I should note that Wiccan and Speed never met each other before joining the Young Avengers. They each had different parents and families. Yet when they came together, their teammates noticed how they looked almost identical. Almost like they were twins.
Second, there’s the matter of their powers. Despite seemingly having no metahuman relatives, they both developed superpowers. Ones that were almost an exact match to that of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. That couldn’t be a coincidence, and it got a lot of people wondering: did they have a connection to the Scarlet Witch?
Eventually, Wiccan and Speed came up with a theory. When Mephisto reclaimed the fragments of his souls, Tommy and Billy Maximoff didn’t cease to be like everyone thought. Instead, their souls were reincarnated as entirely new beings. Either the souls went back in time to when Wiccan and Speed were born, or they overwrote the souls of whoever had their bodies. Either way, it looked like the two Young Avengers were Wanda’s twins reborn.
The Children’s Crusade
At first, Wiccan and Speed didn’t mind not knowing if they were Wanda’s sons, but events forced their hands. While fighting terrorists, Wiccan’s powers went haywire and almost killed the villains. Fearing a repeat of Wanda, the Avengers wanted to take Billy into custody to understand his powers better.
His teammates reactions: “Yeah, screw that.” They bust Wiccan out and team up with Magneto (who’s convinced he’s their grandpa) and they go searching for Wanda to get some answers. All of this led the Young Avengers, Avengers, and X-Men on a race to track down Wanda, with Wiccan ultimately locating her in Latveria. However, she had no memory of her past, and what’s more, she was soon to be married…to Doctor Doom. Ew.
Then, when things can’t get any weirder, Iron Lad returns and drags them all back to the day Wanda first snapped. Seeing the actions of her past self are enough to jog Wanda’s memories, bringing the Scarlet Witch back in full. The group then returns to the present day, with the added bonus of bringing Scott Lang along, saving his life. At first, Wanda’s horrorified by her actions and wants to commit suicide to atone. However, Wiccan and Speed comfort her, and together, the three confirm that the two young heroes are her reincarnated children. Miraculously, Wanda manages to not snap this time.
The story doesn’t end here, though.
The Truth Revealed at Last
Now back and in full control of her sanity and powers, Wanda decides to undo the damage she did to Mutantkind. With the help of Wiccan and Doctor Doom, she tries to perform a counter-spell to restore the Mutant population. However, the Avengers and X-Men start fighting over her, and then Patriot interrupts the spell. He feared the chaos that would come from millions of powerless Mutants getting their powers back. However, this ends up giving Doom godlike magical abilities.
It’s only now that the truth behind Avengers: Disassembled and House of M comes to light. When Wanda regained memories of her children, she turned to Doom to help bring them back. However, that led to her summoning some sort of cosmic entity that possessed her. As a result, her powers got amplified to the reality-warping levels we saw. Doom then set her loose on the Avengers, leading to the events that we saw in the comics. Fortunately, Mother and son manage to work together to strip Doom of his powers, and he flees in defeat. Unfortunately, Stature and the Young Vision die in the fight while Iron Lad returns to his time in anger.
I mean, Cassie gets brought back, but the damage still leads to the Young Avengers disbanding for a while. As for Wanda, she’s forgiven by the X-Men and offered a chance to rejoin the Avengers. Instead, she decides to do some soul-searching and goes to live in solitude.
The MCU Young Avengers Are Imminent
Hopefully, by now, you should understand what I’m getting at, true believers. Avengers Disassmebled and House of M explain what’s going on in WandaVision and how things got to where they are in the show. Wanda, in her grief and rage at Vision’s death, stole his body and may or may not have been manipulated by an outside entity into creating her fantasy life in Westview. And no matter how the show ends, there’s going to be massive fallout for the MCU. And I’m not just talking about setting up for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. I’m talking about the eventual formation of the MCU’s Young Avengers.
My first piece of evidence doesn’t even come from WandaVision, but Avengers: Endgame. Remember Cassie Lang, Scott’s daughter. We first met her when she was just a kid. Now, thanks to the five year time skip, she’s a teenager. This puts her in the perfect position to eventually follow in her dad’s footsteps and become Stature. As for Billy and Tommy, I don’t know how they’ll do it, but they’ll somehow make it out of WandaVision in one piece. Marvel brought them into the MCU for a reason, and they’re not going to get rid of them so soon.
While that still leaves out several other Young Avengers that have yet to appear, I have a feeling that they’ll show up as Phase 4 progresses. Mark my words: the Young Avengers are going to assemble.
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