Do we like them?

Do we like Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff)?

A character from Avengers: Age of Ultron / WandaVision (2015-2022)

Our score: 5 out of 10. We'd back her in a fight and hug her afterwards. Her heart is good, but when grief takes over, she's the most dangerous person in the room.

Wanda Maximoff is introduced as a young woman from the war-torn country of Sokovia. She has telekinetic and mind-influencing powers, and she has a deep grudge against the people she blames for her family's suffering. She first meets the Avengers as an opponent in Avengers: Age of Ultron, before switching sides and joining them.

Across her appearances she's shown as warm, stubborn and lonely, someone who feels everything intensely and has never had much control over her own life. The Avengers are wary of her because of how strong her powers are, and she struggles to find a place where she belongs and is trusted.

We score her a 5 because her good and her harm are both large. Her loyalty and bravery are real, and she can be tender and funny. But her grief repeatedly drives her to act on pain rather than judgment, and the people around her pay for it.

In WandaVision she remakes a whole town into a sitcom world to cope with loss, trapping its residents. In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness she goes further, hunting a child and attacking heroes in pursuit of her lost family. Both stories treat her as sympathetic but clearly in the wrong.