Marvel rewind: Wanda and Vision — MCU’s most beautiful, broken love story and comics’ wildest twists

What is grief, if not love persevering?

That one line encapsulates the entire Wanda-Vison tragedy; the most painful story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe; before well, Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness destroyed all the redemption that Wanda (Elisabeth Olsen) had finally undergone, to heal from the pain of Vison’s (Paul Bettany) death in Avengers Infinity War.

That film, the first part to the Avengers Infinity Stone saga was actually gutting for this reason: The first time, the heroes couldn’t win. Death was eminent. It seemed irreversible; and the Gamora-shaped hole in our hearts would agree.

And Vision’s ending in the film was particularly raw: He convinces a tearful, shaking Wanda to kill him and destroy the stone before Thanos gets to him first. “You can’t hurt me,” he says, while admitting his love. “I just feel you.” Wanda holds off a ringed Thanos edging towards Vision, while reluctantly destroying the love of her life to save the world from being snapped away; only for Thanos to use the Time stone, bring Vision back to life, and kill him again.

It still burns, let’s be honest. And soon, Wanda Vision followed, one of the rare times Marvel didn’t seem to Marvel-esque and followed an unusual format that showed Wanda’s way of dealing with grief: Altering reality, living a happily married life with Vision and her children in a series of sitcoms, while dealing with nosy neighbours. Yet, she can’t keep up this ruse for long: The veil slowly drops, and she realises that her grief has kept an entire town hostage. She has to let go: Let go of a life that isn’t hers. Love perseveres, in raw, profound grief. She comes to an uneasy acceptance. And then Marvel threw that beautiful growth arc into a blender in Doctor Strange 2.

This is the heartbreaking tragedy of Wanda, or the Scarlet Witch and her MCU fate. The truth is, while the MCU tried to capture the sheer complexity and messiness that her comic-book counterpart had, they never really could, unless they dedicated a full 25-episode season to them----perhaps around 8 or 9 seasons to understand the madness that was truly their relationship.

The source material is wilder, folks.

Here's breaking it down:

Scarlet Witch and her twin brother Quicksilver made their Entrance in X-Men #4 back in 1964. They didn’t know their father was Magneto, leader of the Mutant Brotherhood.  Eventually, the twins ditched the villain squad and joined the Avengers, where things got... complicated. Wanda caught feelings for Vision. Her brother wasn’t quite so pleased. And by the way, there was a lovestruck Hawkeye.  But despite the drama, Wanda and Vision said “I do,” with the Avengers cheering them on.

Wanda conceives by magic. She gave birth to twin boys, Thomas and William — adorable, except for one tiny detail: Vision’s an android. No biology happening there.

And then, the writers rewrote history. Turns out the twins were never real kids but shards of Mephisto’s soul (because of course they were). When the demon reabsorbed them, Wanda spiraled — and we mean, reality-warping spiraled. Years later, more comic book twists: in Young Avengers, two teens, Wiccan and Speed, show up — with powers suspiciously similar to Wanda and Quicksilver. They’re reincarnated versions of those lost “soul twins.”

Ultron created Vision using Wonder Man’s brain patterns. When Vision dies and gets rebuilt, Wonder Man refuses to donate his brain data again, leaving Vision basically emotionless.

So what does Wanda do? She dates Wonder Man himself. Talk about keeping it in the neural family. But it doesn’t last — she still loves Vision.

Wanda’s temper isn’t your average argument-in-the-kitchen kind of thing. When she loses control, entire teams die. In Avengers Disassembled (2004), grief and manipulation from Doctor Doom push her over the edge. Trying to bring her “kids” back, Wanda fuses with a cosmic entity and attacks the Avengers. Under her control, Vision kamikazes into Avengers Mansion. Then, in one of Marvel’s most stunning moments, she forces She-Hulk to tear Vision in half.

Vision gets rebuilt (again), but that was it. In Avengers vs. X-Men (2012), Vision coldly tells her what everyone’s thinking: “Some things you just can’t come back from.”

Vision builds himself a new family in 2016 — a wife named Virginia (based on Wanda’s brainwaves, naturally) and two kids, Vin and Viv. Synthetic domestic bliss doesn’t last long, though: Grim Reaper attacks, Virginia kills him, buries him in the backyard (as one does), Vin dies later, and Virginia ends it all.

Wanda and Vision’s love story has everything — magic, murder, make-believe babies, and enough emotional trauma to fill a dozen multiverses. It’s tragic, twisted, and brutal. MCU tried turning it into a gentle, consuming love between the two, and then decided to go nuclear with Wanda’s destruction. Now, if they actually tried the comicbook storylines, that would be a show worth watching.