Active Topics | Member List | Search | Help | Register | Login
The John Byrne Forum
Byrne Robotics > The John Byrne Forum << Prev Page of 3 Next >>
Topic: Scarlet Witch’s Hex Power (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
Author
Message
John Byrne
Avatar
Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132338
Posted: 23 November 2014 at 1:52pm | IP Logged | 1  

I love the Scarlet Witch but I often have to remind myself she's a mutant. Partly because of her association with The Avengers, but also because her "hex" powers just feel like magic. Sure, Spider-Man and Dardevil's powers aren't based in real-world science but there's a reasonable "fantasy science" about them, but I've never been able to fit Wanda's abilities in the "fantasy science" realm.

••

Handed the idea that Wanda's hex powers "alter probabilities" -- and in a non-specific way -- I began developing a story that played with just how that would work. If, to cite the example I used above, she points at a gun wielding maniac and his weapon jams, clearly something pretty profound is going on. It had been defined that Wanda could not think "Gun jam!" or even "Maj nug!" The event was based entirely on probabilities. Which meant she was not altering the gun in the moment, but retroactively. She was, effectively, "retconning" a flaw into the weapon which caused it to jam.

This meant, as I read it, that her power worked backward thru time itself. The flaw that caused the gun to jam did not simply appear, at that moment, but had always been there. The likelihood that the gun that happens to point at Wanda had such a flaw might be 1 in 1,000,000, but her "hex" reduced those odds to 1 in 1.*

This, of course, was something that brought her to the attention of Immortus, in my truncated story. He was going to use Wanda's powers to "alter probabilities" so that Kang won his first encounter with the Avengers, and the world was retroactively in a very bad place. The savior in all this was going to turn out to be the Black Knight, whom Thor had stuck in a "pocket universe" when he was wounded. He'd been pretty much forgotten, after that, but my idea was that when the timeline caught up to the moment of Thor's action, the Knight would just basically fall out of the air. There had been no Thor to put him into that parallel pocket, y'see.

_________________

* It might be argued that it's not even as dramatic as all that. After all, distilled down to the basics, the odds of anything happening are essentially 50/50. It will happen, or it won't.

Back to Top profile | search
 
Lars Sandmark
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 05 October 2007
Location: Canada
Posts: 3144
Posted: 23 November 2014 at 2:23pm | IP Logged | 2  

The premature end of your run on Avengers West Coast still stings me. I really like what you did there.

I would've loved to have read your story JB. I have a soft spot for the Black Knight and outside of the OHOTMU cover I can't recall having seen you draw him.
Back to Top profile | search
 
Bill Guerra
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 29 March 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 1066
Posted: 23 November 2014 at 3:34pm | IP Logged | 3  

I always liked the Black Knight and felt he really got shafted in the lead-up to the Avengers #300. It would have been fun to see him be the hero who saved the day!
Back to Top profile | search
 
Mike Norris
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4274
Posted: 23 November 2014 at 9:04pm | IP Logged | 4  

I was in my prime of comics reading when Wanda began the shift to her name becoming more reality than poetry. Which was a symptom of literalism that was creeping into comics at that time.Heroes with code name that didn't didn't reflect their power set needed upgrades.  In addition to Wanda becoming a witch we also got the Falcon getting wings and Black Canary getting a scream. I guess we were lucky Black Bolt didn't get speed or electric powers and Medusa didn't start turning people into stone. 
Back to Top profile | search e-mail
 
Stephen Churay
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 25 March 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 8369
Posted: 23 November 2014 at 11:10pm | IP Logged | 5  

If only her power stayed like that. Maybe Avengers "Dis-Assembled"
would never have been written.
======
I was thinking about that story the other day. While it may be safe to
say that the Marvel Universe wasn't the same place we knew growing
up, at least before that story, you still wanted to visit.

With that story, creators went from driving the nails in Marvel's coffin
with a hammer to putting them in quickly with a nail gun.

It was right after, that any thought to Wanda's powers were thrown out
the window. She yells "No More Mutants!" and ended anything we
knew to be correct about her. That wasn't a retcon, it was just bad
writing.
Back to Top profile | search e-mail
 
Kip Lewis
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 01 March 2011
Posts: 2880
Posted: 23 November 2014 at 11:43pm | IP Logged | 6  

t was right after, that any thought to
Wanda's powers were thrown out
the window. She yells "No More Mutants!"
and ended anything we
knew to be correct about her. That wasn't
a retcon, it was just bad
writing.
......
Spoilers

 INVISO TEXT (Click or highlight to reveal):
That only happened because Dr.
Doom altered her powers binding her to an
entity like Phoenix Force and Parrallex.
yeah too often they have gone to that same
idea to excuse a hero's fall, but at least
someone did realize that Wanda couldn't do
that.
Back to Top profile | search
 
Brad Hague
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 19 December 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1713
Posted: 24 November 2014 at 1:27pm | IP Logged | 7  

The bottom line is the Scarlet Witch has whatever powers the current writer for her needs her to have.  Despite having a cool costume for most of her career, I really disliked her for this.  You never really know what she could do or would do, but you just waited for her to either 1) become a victim that needed saving (most of the time when partnered with Quicksilver) or 2) be the dark horse hero who amazingly does something completely unforeseeable and saves the day.

Irritating.

Also irritating was how often her "origin" was revised and retconned.

Grr.
Back to Top profile | search
 
Brad Hague
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 19 December 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1713
Posted: 24 November 2014 at 1:29pm | IP Logged | 8  

That being said, John Byrne and George Perez drew lovely renditions of Wanda.
Back to Top profile | search
 
Marc Baptiste
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 17 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3655
Posted: 24 November 2014 at 3:19pm | IP Logged | 9  

One more character only JB should write...

Marc
Back to Top profile | search
 
Doug Centers
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 17 February 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 5485
Posted: 24 November 2014 at 6:27pm | IP Logged | 10  

"One more character only JB should write..."

...

Agreed. It may be a foible of mine but I need to be able to understand a characters "powers" in a clear and concise way. JB does this beautifully ,even explaining why a "power" is going to work a certain way just before the character uses it.
Back to Top profile | search
 
John Byrne
Avatar
Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132338
Posted: 24 November 2014 at 8:29pm | IP Logged | 11  

Thing is, it ain't hard! Just don't overthink it. But, unfortunately, overthinking is the name of the game, these days.
Back to Top profile | search
 
Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 15817
Posted: 24 November 2014 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | 12  

I think she would be a lot more effective if they went back to a simple she points and something bad happens in the way JB described above. Kind of simple but with the potential for endless story-telling possibilities. I don't see why she should have actual magical powers at all. 
Back to Top profile | search
 

<< Prev Page of 3 Next >>
  Post ReplyPost New Topic
Printable version Printable version

Forum Jump
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

 Active Topics | Member List | Search | Help | Register | Login