Cleaning up a few more dangling storylines.
Creative Staff:
Story: Steve Orlando
Art: Lorenzo Tammetta, Sara Pichelli
Colors: Frank Williams
Letterer: VC’s Joe Sabino
What They Say:
FAMILY MATTERS! Wanda’s loyalties are tested when an enemy of the Kree/Skrull Empire falls through the Last Door desperate for help avenging their fallen comrades. Will Wanda honor the commitment she made to helping those in need – whoever they are – or will her love for her son Wiccan and his husband, Hulkling, triumph over all? PLUS: A familiar figure appears at Wanda’s shop…and it seems rumors of his death have been greatly exaggerated. But does he come as friend or foe?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a lengthy history of reading the character going back to the early 1980s, it was enjoyable to get back into the character and her world with this new series. Especially since most of my experience for a long time has just been the film and TV side of it. The series continues to come from a solid creative team as Steve Orlando does a lot of what I like in running a book. Sara Pichelli’s handling of the artwork and their projects over the years has been fantastic, making this a really solid fit with its mix of magic and obscure. This installment, however, brings Lorenzo Tammetta on to work with Pichelli and it largely works well but isn’t quite up to what we’ve seen before – but fits with the story at hand here. Frank Williams steps in on the coloring side as well so we get a few changes as even Joe Sabino on the lettering is new compared to previous issues.
Being as disconnected from the Marvel universe as I am can make this an odd duck of a book. I’ve enjoyed a lot of the stories so far – but skipped the annual since it was tying into something else – and this issue feels like it’s doing cleanup work of another storyline. Its central focus is on a warrior monk women named Ganymede whose splinter group of people were killed by a rival faction that, it turns out, was orchestrated by the Blood Skrulls. She’s intent on revenge on Throneworld but that place has been going through some changes for a while now. Ganymede, in the midst of a fight, ends up going into the Last Door and ending up at Wanda’s place, where she’s able to kind of talk Ganymede down with some snacks and a calm voice. The problem, however, is that Ganymede wants revenge on the new Kree/Skrull alliance and her son is married to the current ruler.
I’m so far beyond knowing these characters that, honestly, my only real frame of reference is WandaVision and some light reading a few years ago. Wanda’s able to use her connection to get Ganymede an audience and Orlando runs through things quickly here so that we get some action instead of talking and the discovery of hidden secrets that show how badly Ganymede’s story really is. For the ruler of the Alliance, Wanda’s able to suggest a way to provide both justice and sanction but it shows just how distinct things are being applied here. Rather than drawing in everything, Wanda and Ganymede head to the Blood Skrulls’ world and engage in a bloody fight with them until the Skrull behind the order with what happened is, well, beheaded. And that shakes things up and leads to the Alliance to be able to sanction them afterward for more justice and less bloodshed. It’s just kind of off-putting in a lot of ways but also weirdly fits what you’d expect from such a disturbing alliance after how many years of fighting.
In Summary:
Scarlet Witch has an okay kind of issue here as I’m not connected much to the characters involved, it feels like a dangling plot being dealt with, and the artwork wasn’t up to what I expected from the series. It has some interesting areas it works with and it engages with providing justice for Ganymede in a way that I wasn’t exactly expecting and that’s left me feeling a bit put off by it all. Which is fine, not every story needs to or should conform to my own values and I like seeing how these characters handle it. It doesn’t make me like Wanda more, however, but it does fit in wit the mindset of someone as powerful as her and with such a distorted view of reality. I’m not exactly keen on what’s to come next either as we get a Magneto nod at the end and that’s a character that I’ve long disconnected from on the comics side, so hopefully there’s enough backstory in order to get an idea of where things stand. I’m still with the book based on the first few issues but I hope to get back to more of that than this.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: July 12th, 2023
MSRP: $3.99
