Wanda Maximoff was kidnapped from Serbia and brought to Wundagore Mountain, base of the High Evolutionary. For years, she and her twin brother, Pietro, believed that they were the children of Romany couple, Django and Marya Maximoff. The High Evolutionary supposedly abducted the twins when they were babies, experimented on them, and after becoming disgusted with the results, he returned them to Wundagore, disguised as regular mutants.
As adolescents, Wanda and Pietro discovered that they had unusual superhuman abilities. When Django began to steal food to feed his starving family, enraged villagers attacked the Romani camp. Using his phenomenal speed, Pietro fled from the camp with his sister. The circumstances of their separation from their family were so traumatic that not until well into adulthood could they remember anything but the barest details of their childhood. For the next few years, Wanda and Pietro wandered central Europe, living off the land.
Wanda accidentally set fire to an unnamed village with her powers, and was attacked by villagers. One of them proclaimed her to be "a Scarlet Witch," which would later become her codename. Magneto arrived at the scene, and rescued Wanda from the villagers. Due to this rescue, Wanda felt indebted to Magneto. She was willing to serve him until her debt was repaid.
Wanda and Pietro were later recruited into Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and, as the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, fought the X-Men on several occasions.
Powers: --Chaos Magic Reality Warping: Wanda's main power is the superhuman ability to manipulate and warp reality at will, granted to her by the High Evolutionary's experimentation and further amplified by the demon Chthon (imprisoned within Wundagore Mountain) when she was born. She accomplishes this by manipulating a force known as Chaos Magic. Her "hexes" were, by extension, simple, indirect manifestations of this magic, destabilizing probabilities by affecting energy fields and matter, ultimately inducing chaos. While acting as a conduit for the planet's Life Force, Wanda's powers are further amplified and not always under her conscious control; their effects persisted even after Dr. Strange's Eye of Agamotto shut down her mind. Even the combined efforts of the Sorcerer Supreme and Earth's most formidable psychic mind were unable to fully inhibit such effects for long.
Wanda's power to alter reality itself was spawned from the combination of her abilities to affect probability and Chaos Magic. It must also be noted that the Scarlet Witch is responsible for the resurrection of Mad Jim Jaspers which happened when her powers altered reality. As such, she may possibly be on par with the Phoenix Force.
--Hex Bolts: Initially, Wanda had the ability to manipulate probability via her "hexes" (often manifesting physically as "hex spheres" or "hex bolts") which manipulated energy fields and matter to varying degrees. These hexes were initially short range, and are limited to her line of sight. Casting a hex would initially require a gesture and concentration on her part, though the gestures are largely a focus for the concentration. Early in her career, her hexes were unconscious, and would be automatically triggered whenever she made a particular gesture, regardless of her intent. These hexes would only manifest as "bad luck," triggering negative effects. She later gained enough control over her powers that they only work when she wants them to, and they are not limited to negative effects.
Wanda can use her hexes to cause a wide variety of phenomena, including but not limited to:
--Spontaneous combustion or melting --Rapid or spontaneous decaying, breaking, healing, or fixing --Molecular destabilization --Energy control, transference, disruption, amplification, and transmutation --Inertia redirection, amplification, disruption, and transference --Lighting flammable objects --Containing or removing air from a particular volume --Canceling other's powers and abilities --Stopping the momentum of projectiles --Blocking, unlocking, closing and opening doors, objects and technological devices --Exploding objects --Creating force fields --Deflecting normal and magical attacks --Negating or distorting physical laws and manipulating physical forces --Altering, affecting, and controlling matter, the molecular composition and physical state/form of physical objects --Causing various forms of energy to spontaneously appear or disappear
Abilities: --Expert Combatant: Wanda has also been trained in hand-to-hand combat by both Captain America and Hawkeye.
--Expert Tactician: When sane, the experience and leadership skills that come from years of active duty as an Avenger.
--Multilingual: Wanda is fluent in several languages include English, French, and German, with at least some knowledge of Greek and Slorenian, however, in the case of the latter, she admits to being more comforable speaking English. It is possible that she knows other language as well: for example, since she was born and raised in Serbia, it is likely that she knows Serbian and, since her foster parents were members of the Romani community, she may know one or more dialects of Romani as well. Her brother speaks fluent Russian and seems surprised that the other Avengers don't, suggesting that Wanda may also speak it.
Strength level: --Wanda possesses the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise.
Weaknesses: --Mental Illness: Although she appears to be currently sane, her mental stability is still questionable. Wanda has undergone mental breakdowns, episodes of mental illness, and severe suicidal depression relating to her powers and personal traumas.
