This article contains spoilers for VisionQuest episode 8… and Avengers: Doomsday, believe it or not.
The VisionQuest has completed. Let the Children’s Crusade begin. Although billed as the third entry in a trilogy that includes WandaVision and Agatha All Along, VisionQuest has mostly felt pretty distinct from those two shows, which put Wanda Maximoff in the center. However, with its finale, Vision and Wanda’s two sons finally reunite, albeit in different bodies, when Billy Kaplan a.k.a. Wiccan and Tommy Shepherd a.k.a. Speed connect via magic.
Seeing the two together is obviously good news for fans of the Young Avengers, as the two mainstays on Marvel’s teen team will certainly soon be recruited by Kamala Khan, who began her membership drive at the end of The Marvels. But it’s even better news for fans of Wanda Maximoff, as the duo’s connection, and a potential plot point in Avengers: Doomsday, mirrors the comic book story that finally brought the Scarlet Witch back to the side of the angels, Avengers: The Children’s Crusade.
And in fact, an unexpected post-credits scene in the VisionQuest finale confirms that Wanda will return in Avengers: Doomsday! [Ed Note: Said post-credits scene was not included in the advanced screener of the episode for the press… which we hope explains some of the breathless “Marvel did what??? OK let me fire up my laptop” tone of portions of this article].
The post-credits moment replays a critical scene from the climax of 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in which Wanda brings down the walls of Mount Wundagore, destroying all copies of the Darkhold throughout the Multiverse but also sacrificing herself in the process. The scene then continues with new footage as Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom approaches Wanda’s corpse in the rubble. “Scarlet Witch, awaken,” he rumbles in his thick Latverian accent. “Your powers will be mine.”
Sure enough the Scarlet Witch does awaken and we have every reason to believe that her powers will be Doom’s.
So what can we make of this wild footage? Will the Scarlet Witch be in thrall to Victor Von Doom in Avengers: Doomsday? Thankfully, the pages of Marvel comics provide plenty of clues.
Written by Allan Heinberg and penciled by Jim Cheung, the creators of the Young Avengers, Avengers: The Children’s Crusade was published in nine issues released between 2010 and 2012, and had major ramifications for the rest of the Marvel Universe. In order to understand those ramifications, we have to look back at the Scarlet Witch’s status in the Marvel Universe at the time. Initially introduced as a relatively sheepish character with the power to give people bad luck, the Scarlet Witch had grown in strength over the years, especially under the tutelage of Agatha Harkness—a mysterious but benevolent old woman in the comics, unlike the spunky trouble-maker in the MCU.
With the greater power came bouts of madness, first when Tommy and Billy were taken from her and their souls reabsorbed into the evil Mephisto. To prevent Wanda from becoming overwhelmed by grief and turning evil, her memories of the twins were wiped away. But many years later, the memories returned, and she broke down again. Worse, this break came with a full understanding that the “Chaos Magic” she seemed to be using was, in fact, the ability to change reality.
Now both incredibly powerful and mad with grief, Wanda first destroys the Avengers, killing Ant-Man Scott Lang and the Jack of Hearts in the process. Then, she depowers nearly every mutant in the Universe, this after creating an alternate reality that wreaks havoc on several heroes.
In short, Wanda was persona non-grata in the eyes of even her closest friends when Billy Kaplan a.k.a. Wiccan reveals the ability to change reality during a Young Avengers mission. At this point, no one was certain that Billy Kaplan was the reformed Billy Maximoff, but such an incredible feat raised suspicions, not only in Billy, Tommy a.k.a. Speed, and the other Young Avengers, but in the mainline Avengers as well, who did not want to see Wanda’s history repeat itself.
What initially happens is what happened a lot in crossovers involving the Avengers: Captain America becomes an authoritarian cop and he and the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes clamp down on anything that seems like a threat, even when good guys are involved. But for our purposes, the important thing is what Wiccan and Speed decide to do, now that they realize that they’re the reincarnated children of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch: they’re going to find their mother and rescue her.
With the conflicted help of Stature a.k.a. Cassie Lang, who had to work through her resentment at Wanda for killing her father, the twins discover that Wanda is being held by Doctor Doom, who is channeling her magical abilities. Against the wishes of the Avengers, the Young Avengers launch an attack on Doom’s country Latveria, where they manage to find and free Wanda—but at the cost of Stature’s life.
The Children’s Crusade was certainly convoluted, something not helped by its delayed release schedule. But it did manage to begin the rehabilitation of Wanda Maximoff, moving her from the villain she had become in the 2000s back into being a hero. By showing her to be victimized by Doctor Doom, by letting readers see her through the eyes of her sons, and, to be frank, by making the Avengers seem like a bunch of uncharitable jerks, The Children’s Crusade reminded us that Wanda had much good in her, and had done much good. It opened the possibility that she could do good again.
Now that VisionQuest has finished, it’s not hard to see the parallels between the comic book Wanda and the MCU Wanda. The MCU Wanda also went mad because of her children, turning into a full villain in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Yet, as seen throughout Agatha All Along and VisionQuest, Vision, and especially Billy and Tommy see that there’s good in her, that her incredibly difficult life has forced her to make terrible choices. Now that the rest of the family has come together again, it would make sense for them to find her Wanda and free her from whatever suffering she’s enduring.
Where might that place of suffering be? In the comics, that was the court of Doctor Doom in his country, Latveria. The same might be true of the MCU. Not only will Doctor Doom and Latveria figure heavily into the next MCU entry Avengers: Doomsday, but some promotional material has raised our interest. In stills and posters, we’ve seen that Doom has a trio of Latverian witches, all masked but each wearing robes of a different color. One witch wheres purple, another blue, and the last red. Or should we say scarlet?
Could Avengers: Doomsday be following the lead of The Children’s Crusade and having Doom capture Wanda, using her power for his own ends? Dark as such a fate may be for Wanda Maximoff, it may be the way that Vision, Wiccan, and Speed can bring the Scarlet Witch back, making into the hero we’ve always wanted her to be.
Every episode of VisionQuest is now streaming on Disney+.
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