Scarlet Witch: The Complete Collection

Scarlet Witch (2015) #1-3

by James Robinson, Steven Sanders (Art), Siya Oum (Cover Art)

Witchcraft is broken, and the Scarlet Witch must embark on a globe-trotting journey to fix it! From Manhattan’s back alleys to the Greek Isles to the Irish countryside, Wanda Maximoff faces myths and legends, combats curses and discovers there’s more to her complex family history than she knew. But will the powerful mage called the Emerald Warlock be friend or foe? And even as witchcraft is pieced back together, Wanda must discover who shattered it in the first place! The Scarlet Witch will aid brokenhearted hero Le Peregrine and seek help from young witch the Wu, but things won’t be easy when she encounters her brother, Pietro! The Witches’ Road is long — and full of dangers!

Collects Scarlet Witch (2016) #1-15, Doctor Strange: The Last Days of Magic (2016) #1.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Fantasy, Comic Book, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics

318 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 27, 2021

About the author

James Dale Robinson is a British writer of American comic books and screenplays.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I'm flattered you recognized me." -- Wanda 'Scarlet Witch' Maximoff (in costume, no less)

"You're the Scarlet #@$%ing Witch. Everyone knows who you are . . . and my grandmother called, [saying that] you were looking for me - so that helped." -- Alice 'The Wu' Gulliver

So the enduring sorceress of the Avengers' line-up embarks on a solo adventure (or solo title - either description is correct, really) and the result is . . . sort of an undistinguished volume. The illustration style and/or quality is simply all over the map - a rotating cast of fourteen (!) separate artists are credited - leading to moments of severe mood whiplash and/or a disconnected tone. And speaking of 'all over the map,' that applies to the title character here, as well - Scarlet Witch spans the globe (Ireland! Spain! Greece! Japan! and of course her adopted hometown / base of operations known as New York City!) in several slow-burn stories to bust some spiritual heads and combat problematic curses. Like a 70's-era sitcom or gimmicky private eye series, she relies on guidance from and cracks wise with the restless spirit of elderly Agatha Harkness, really the only other consistent supporting character of note. My hands-down favorite chapter involved SW traveling to the mean streets of Hong Kong to team with witty and intriguing co-star Alice 'The Wu' Gulliver. Gulliver is a study in duality - the offspring of a Cantonese mother and a British father, she is both a honest police officer AND a noble witch, and the scriptwriters even include a few slyly enchanting moments where she verbally hints at a possible romantic attraction to SW. Note to the editors - craft a complete volume featuring both of those ladies working together, and I would read THAT damn thing in a heartbeat.

[fatherofdragons113 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope they adapt this into her solo movie or show, or at least some of the storylines. I would love for her to dive into her past and connection to witchcraft.

[Jena · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 overall

In this series we follow Scarlet Witch traveling around the world to solve various witchcraft-related mysteries while also unraveling the secrets of her past and connecting with her birth mother. I wasn't the hugest fan of the writing in this series - it feels extremely disjointed and phoned-in at places. The art changes every single issue which doesn't help with the disjointed feeling, but it does elevate the mediocre stories when the art is fantastic. This is also heavily entrenched in what I'll call "Marvel nonsense" so I wouldn't really recommend this series for newbies who are looking to jump into the comics (at least not without an extensive trip through Wikipedia first).

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Scarlet Witch is an interesting character from the Avengers team, I've only known her in comics where her roots lay with Magneto being her dad. The next time I encountered the character was the big Marvel movies and the Disney tv-show. That was enough for me to pick up this book.
This is a 15 part story in which Wanda Maximoff traces her roots in the solo capacity and encounters witchcraft in decline in which she ancounters the Emerald Warlord who is bent on world domination and finds himself opposed by the Scarlet Witch.
Wanda finally meets her biological mother who carries the same title as her daughter.
It is a self contained series that opens New avenues for future story lines.

The art is all over the place with 14 different people responsible for the art. Some is beautifull and others less so. The series would be served with more consistancy in art.

And enjoyable collection of the most powerfull female Avenger.

[enrichcoulet · Rating 5 out of 5]

mujeres 🤍

[FrontalNerdaty · Rating 2 out of 5]

This complete collection tracks the adventures of Scarlet Witch and her trials and tribulations whilst trying to discover who she is and her murky history.

What I liked -
At 15 issues this is one of the longest Scarlet Witch centric story. She’s an interesting character with a lot to be covered. Some of the art is stunning and really brings up the quality at times.

What I disliked -
The use of different artists for every issue had potential to be good but it just helped an already uneven tone become more splintered. The story is sadly very basic and at times touches upon interesting only to devolve in to basic again. The premise of Wanda going from place to place essentially working as a detective of sorts and working on the overall arc could’ve worked but it’s a case of strong premise with a poor execution.

2/5.

[Alessya Lattuca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wanda Maximoff can do no wrong. Amazing from beginning to end.

[miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

i love wanda but i really dislike that they incorporated so many Bible verses into the comics and kind of twisted them to make them fit into the story

[Mattthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great. Sometimes the art was horrible, though. Still really enjoyed it. Story was good, although not as good as Steve Orlando's run.
Recommend

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eu adoro quadrinhos de personagens femininas em carreira solo. Check. Eu adoro histórias que envolvam a Feiticeira Escarlate. Check. Eu adoro os roteiros do James Robinson. Check. Eu gosto quando, em histórias soltas, temos um rodízio de artistas. Check. Porém alguma coisa na estranha junção desses meus gostos não deu certo neste encadernado da Feiticeira Escarlate, com suas 15 edições originais do arco O Caminho das Bruxas. Nele, vemos Wanda Maximoff percorrer o mundo atrás da verdadeira identidade da sua mãe enquanto faz amigos e inimigos. Eu fiquei muito feliz que a Panini Comics Brasil ia trazer essas histórias na esteira do sucesso da série WandaVision, contudo acho que minhas expectativas eram bastante altas para um quadrinho que se revelou com roteiros burocráticos e desenhos - em sua maioria - esquisitos. Uma pena, porque a Wanda merecia algo melhor.

[danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of her best runs me thinks!

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a big Wanda fan and really enjoyed this bindup! I read a lot of her in the Avengers and now she finally has her own comic run. It appears Wanda is not a mutant but an actual witch and she needs to fix magic because something is wrong with it. She travels the world to look into different cases that bring her to Hong Kong, Paris, Eastern Europe, Japan and more. We learn more about her background and parents as well as some other witches. Even though it might be a bit difficult for people to follow I loved it. Each comic has its own artist and is completely unique l, which really adds to the international aspect of the story. If you love witches you will enjoy this one!

[It's just Deano · Rating 2 out of 5]

Scarlet Witch: The Complete Collection has a lot going for it. With fourteen artists credited (that I can see!) and it's exposing of Wanda's secret family lineage you'd think this would be a win for readers by a clear mile. Sadly, I didn't think so.

Firstly, the art ranges from absolutely gorgeous to quite unfitting here, which does indeed demonstrate that there are some visuals for everyone within this book, but it's to an excess that you almost feel that you're getting whiplash when reading this. This isn't helped by the consistent disjointed feeling between issues as you bounce from subplot to subplot.

The global elements of this story and the plot around Wanda's family history definitely carry this book regarding the writing, but it just leaps around these points far too quickly and often has seemingly lots of filler in-between.

Overall, Scarlet Witch: The Complete Collection is both a great character study for Wanda and a great art showcase for various illustrators. That said, it just sadly never quite comes together the way you feel it should.
_____________________

My Score: 4/10
My Goodreads: ⭐⭐
_____________________

[mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite reads ever.

[kenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

→3 stars

"I'm sorry if my being a witch upsets him."
"You're a woman, Wanda, and you have power in the world. You're known. That's more than enough to upset a man..."

Wanda, my queen, i love you sm. you can do no wrong in my eyes🥰👭❤

this story was fun and exciting! I loved reading about her adventures and discovering herself outside of the Avengers. the storyline with her mom was heartwarming and I'm glad she got the clarity she so deserved. she knows the truth about her family now and feels confident enough to go it alone should she choose to do so, but can ask for help if she needs it. the only drawbacks to this book were the differing artist styles, which i realize is the point of this collection, but it felt like a nonlinear story. it took me a couple stories in before i realized the whole book was following one plot line.

i also didn't like the relationship between her and Pietro. now, before anyone who only reads the comics comes for me, i love the MCU's depiction of the relationship between the twins. in this book, Pietro was cold, misogynistic, and treated Wanda like a child. MCU Pietro could never!! so i was a bit bummed at that. i wish we got to see more of Pietro and Wanda's relationship and bond in the MCU, but that's neither here nor there.

Wanda is a mf badass and i can't wait to read more about her in other comics! give Wanda her own movie now, wandavision was not enough!

[sassafrass · Rating 3 out of 5]

man the art in this was stunning and some of the discussions on legacy and mental illness were profound but i also didnt realise this was the run where they confirmed the retcon of wanda's history and parentage and like. it's one thing to do all of that just from editorial mandate, but to do so just to conform to the bland as fuck depiction in the MCU....particularly as it's been years and there's still no indication they are planning on reversing it, even now with the MCU owning all the rights.

[Shibosan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Все очень плохо. Есть пара-тройка удачных выпусков (в первую очередь из-за художников), пара-тройка удачных моментов, только поэтому не одна звезда.

[Giulia Platt · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5

[Francesca]

nice to see a good version of the scarlet witch after the appalling dr strange take. can't say I loved all of the different art styles used throughout, but some were stunning. liked all the lore that was looked into as well.

[Carlina Scalf]

This was a really interesting read. Scarlet Witch has a very twisty, difficult-to-follow backstory that displays the sometimes-bonkers complexity of comic book lore. Her past is on full display here, which was a good way to get familiar with it without getting into the weeds of historic comics. It was interesting to see connections to Wandavision, and to speculate about which parts of this story might inform the MCU-version of this character moving forward (gosh, I feel like a true nerd writing that sentence, but I'm down to fully embrace it).

Overall, I liked the themes of self-compassion and self-forgiveness that came through in this collection, even though the stories themselves got a little dark at times for my taste. My only other hesitation with this collection is the sexualization of Wanda in the art - it felt a little gratuitous and irrelevant to the story. I've mostly read Marvel books geared toward younger readers, so perhaps I wasn't prepared for the way female characters are depicted in a more adult comic book. It would be neat to see a comic-book version of her story that was geared toward girls and teens looking for a complex, badass female superhero - she certainly has the source material to support it.

[Will Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this collection up on sale after hearing several people rave about the art. I agree on that point, the art teams on this series knocked it out of the park, but I don't find the stories to be all that compelling. At the beginning of the series, Wanda claims she's on a journey to "heal witchcraft", but most of the stories collected here don't connect to that premise in any meaningful way. Most of them are just self-contained issues of Wanda fixing whatever problem she wanders into and most of them aren't resolved in ways that are interesting.

Take this for example, Wanda's fights several foes where the only way to defeat them is to cast a verbal spell in the language that the initial curse was made. That's cool! Especially since Wanda is traveling all around the world. Unfortunately, Wanda knows the correct spell every time, killing the tension in every story and making every magic person she teams up with feel a little less important than they could have.

There is one over-arching story I did like though and that was rehabbing of the Maximov family. There's been a LOT of fuss made behind the scenes at Marvel over whether her powers are a result of her being a mutant or a science experiment gone wrong, Robinson wisely sidesteps all that nonsense and focuses on the fact that her name is Scarlet *Witch* and I think Wanda is better for it. There's a touching story about Wanda reconnecting with the aunt who raised her and learning more about her birth mother, who is revealed to have been *a* Scarlet Witch herself. Wanda also finally hashes it out with her brother Pietro in a Civil War 2 tie-in story and it is *glorious* to see Wanda finally stand up for herself and give that little sociopath the verbal beat down he deserves. Her decision to separate herself from her brother felt like a very mature move, and I wish Robinson had chosen to keep their estrangement permanent instead of them reconciling in in the space of two word bubbles at the series conclusion word bubbles in such a sloppy manner.

I'm happy I read this for the art alone, but the overall plot is chaotic and sloppy. That description might make sense for the character thematically, but it wasn't always a pleasure to read. There's not a doubt in my mind now that you can write a good story focused on Wanda when she's not mentally unstable and I hope one day someone can use the groundwork here to build a story worth telling. The character certainly deserves better than this.

[Carlos Eguren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crítica completa aquí

Que James Robinson fuese el encargado de una serie sobre un personaje vinculado a la magia es un sueño hecho realidad, tras ver lo que podía hacer con la magnífica Starman. Para ello, alejó a Wanda de Los Vengadores y se centró en convertirla en una detective de lo oculto, a lo John Constantine, que iría por todo el mundo resolviendo una serie de problemas mágicos en números que bien podrían funcionar como historias autoconclusivas, pese al deseo de darle a todo el marco de la crisis mágica y el deseo de Wanda de descubrir su auténtico origen.

La premisa era la siguiente: el caos está rebelándose y la magia se muestra cada vez más inestable. Wanda, la antigua superheroína conocida como la Bruja Escarlata, es la última esperanza de la magia. La Bruja Escarlata emprende un viaje, junto al espectro de Agatha Harkness, para ganarse realmente su nombre y enfrentarse a seres tan dispares como demonios, minotauros, fantasmas de los antiguos dioses, seres demoníacos que han poseído a brujas, al Hechicero Esmeralda (spoiler: un capullo), su pasado y el de su auténtica madre, superhéroes suicidas, psiquiatras que no son lo que parecen…

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scarlet Witch: The Complete Collection collects issues 1-15 of the Marvel Comics series written by James Robinson with art by Vanesa R. Del Rey, Marco Rudy, Steve Dillon, Chris Visions, Javier Pulido, Marguerite Sauvage Annie Wu, Tula Lotay, Joëlle Jones, Kei Zama, Leila Del Duca, Annapolis Martello, Jonathan Marks, Shawn Crystal, and Mike Perkins.

The Scarlet Witch goes on witchy-related adventures around the road as she deals with her past, her connection with Agatha, fallout with her brother Pietro, and learning who her real birth mother is.

I have read Avengers titles that featured Scarlet Witch but this was the first comic I have read that completely focuses on Wanda Maximoff. I think longterm fans of the character will probably enjoy and appreciate this more than I did. I found myself confused about a lot of the character relationships and the retcon of her parents. And overall, it’s just not an exciting book. The standout to me was that each issue was a different artist and each artist brought their own unique style to the title. There were some really beautiful pages throughout.

[Tomer · Rating 4 out of 5]

{3.5 rounded up}
This is quite a long collection of tales about the scarlet witch, which gives me hope for potential further stories to explore. We start with Wanda carrying a somewhat broken spirit {post house of M exploits?}, she starts collecting the pieces back together and investigates various magical / supernatural related incidents. This reminded me of similar works with Constantine, as she travels across the globe and slowly gathers a common thread between various of the suspicious events. As much as the arc plot is the main reward, I actually enjoyed the supposedly stand alone stories, not dealing with any extensive threat.
The collection was drawn by various artists with different styles and penmanship. I could attribute it as part of Wanda's chaos and some of the supernatural surroundings, but there is no escape that some were less appreciated by reader me. In addition the saga of Wanda's origin story continues to entwine and develop and yet still keep things on shaky foundations not fully clarified.

[Júlio Gabriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Achei uma saga fantástica que revela muito de quem a Wanda é e como ela se sente, pra alguém que não conhece a personagem e só conhece ela como "aquela q de vez em quando fica maluca e faz merda" é um ótima entrada (visto que foi meu caso) só não dou 5 pois realmente acho que é aquele tipo de história em que a jornada é mais legal do que a conclusão, tem todo um ar de que tudo que ela passou seria usado no final e seria essencial mas é só citado como coisas que ela viveu e agora está mais experiente, dito isto realmente as aventuras que ela têm são ÓTIMAS com acontecimentos legais e ideias muito boas o que inclusive grande parte parece realmente ser algo que remete a personagem principal, quase me faz perdoar ela no cinema.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

More like a collection of short stories than a full narrative. In Scarlet Witch's quest to figure out why magic is dying and to heal it, she encounters various magical wielders around the world (I'm sure most of them have appeared in comics before but they seem so obscure. I had never heard of most of them.). Each of those stories was a fun way to look at magic from other cultures but I had a hard time feeling like they helped to connect to the overall plot - which could arguably be Wanda's search for her mother/origins, more so than the quest for magic. By the end of the 15 issues, Wanda is basically in the same place she started, knowledge-wise. The art was either beautiful or lacking, depending on the issue.

[Paul Stanis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid showcase for Wanda Maximoff, with some pretty mind-expanding, dynamic art. Plenty of witchcraft action and revelation, while Wanda experiences her version of The Portrait of Dorian Gray. The adventure takes Wanda around the world to diverse locations, including beautiful Santorini. (While Wanda doesn’t go there, the story stops off in Lagos, where MCU Wanda went in Captain America: Civil War.) Part of the story’s project is to smooth out, weave together, and freshly establish Wanda’s personal history, but the storytelling makes it elegant. There’s a Civil War 2 tie-in issue where Pietro zooms in as a representative of the wider Marvel story, telling Wanda to take Iron Man’s side, and Wanda basically says, “Screw you, I’m staying in my solo title!”

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essentially, a Scarlet Witch anthology series. Each individual issue had a different artist, so it definitely leaves you with the feeling that this is just a collection and not a longer storyline. 2016 Marvel was around the time of Civil War 2, and you have an obligatory issue of her almost getting drafted into the crossover.

If you enjoyed Wandavision on Disney+, I recommend this as an easy 'jump on' point. Nothing is too far off from what was shown on the TV show and you won't scratch your head too long.

[Maja · Rating 4 out of 5]

This might actually be my first real comic since I was a litle kid! Im a huge MCU and Wanda fan so when I saw this I really needed to read it.

I really enjoyed it and the art was just everything! So so beautiful, I think it was pretty stupid to begin with this comic becuse now my standars are up there. Im interested into try some more comics soon.