Love
In Avengers #75-76 (Thomas & J. Buscema, 1970), Scarlet Witch accidentally uses sorcery to summon an interdimensional barbarian named Arkon, who takes her to be his bride on Polemachus. Quicksilver and the Avengers save Wanda from wedded bliss; this is the first time Vision and Wanda meet.
Earth finds itself caught up in an ancient war between two alien empires during the Kree-Skrull war, running Avengers #89-97 (Thomas, Neal Adams, Sal and John Buscema, 1971-72).
In the midst of this vast conflict, we see the first tentative hints of attraction between Wanda and Vision while they are prisoners of Ronan.
When Vision is injured, Ant-Man must make a fantastic voyage inside his body to save him.
This story may take on even greater relevance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We have met the Kree and the Skrulls, and hints from Spider-Man: Far From Home and Wandavision suggest something big is brewing with the Skrulls. This arc may provide some inspiration.
In Avengers #102 (Thomas & Rich Buckler, 1972), we learn Grim Reaper has preserved Wonder Man’s body. He offers to transfer Vision’s mind into its proper body to have some semblance of his brother back. In return, he wants help destroying the Avengers. Vision refuses the offer, but is tempted, because having a human body may give him a chance with Wanda.
At the same time, Wanda is torn by her feelings for the Vision.
Hawkeye attempts to let Wanda know his own feelings for her… rather forcefully… she rebuffs him because she loves the Vision. The Vision witnesses only part of their exchange.
Various struggles ensue, in which Vision has cause to question his very ability to love, while Quicksilver disappears and Scarlet Witch is desperate to find him. Vision eventually comes to terms with how he feels about Wanda in Avengers #108 (Steve Englehart & Don Heck, 1973). From this point forward, they are officially a couple.
In Fantastic Four #130-132 (Thomas, J. Buscema & Ross Andru, 1973), Human Torch (Johnny Storm, not the other one) visits his girlfriend Crystal in the Inhuman city of Attilan. They have a long distance relationship and haven’t actually been in touch much recently. He finds her in the arms of Quicksilver. Quicksilver had been injured in a recent Avengers battle with the Sentinels. Crystal found him and nursed him back to health. One thing led to another.
After some conflict, they all settle their differences and Crystal chooses Pietro over Johnny.
In Avengers #110 (Englehart & Heck, 1973), Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch exchange news. Pietro informs her that he and Crystal plan to marry and Wanda is excited for them. Her enthusiasm is not reciprocated by her brother when he learns of her relationship with a robot.
Father
Ah, Giant-Size Avengers #1 (Thomas & Buckler, 1974), one of the earliest comics I ever read, for which I maintain a great fondness. I had to grab the cover from the GCD because my own copy lost its cover 30 years ago.
The Avengers meet the Golden Age hero, the Whizzer. We learn that after their time on the All-Winners Squad, Whizzer and Miss America married, retired from superheroing, and took up a security job at a nuclear plant. An accident involving radiation led to their son being born a radioactive mutant.
For his own protection, the child was placed into a cryogenic capsule for 25 years in the hopes the radiation would cool down and he could be safely released. Instead, when the capsule opened, his son was the monstrous Nuklo.
After their first son was sealed away, Whizzer and Miss America traveled the world and she became pregnant again. She gave birth to twins on Wundagore Mountain, home of the High Evolutionary. The cow-woman Bova acted as midwife.
Did you catch the Bova milk reference in Wandavision?
Miss America died soon after the birth, and Whizzer fled in grief, leaving baby Wanda and Pietro with the High Evolutionary. As teenagers, the twins set off on their own and fell in with Magneto.
We thus now have full names for the twins: they are Wanda and Pietro Frank, the children of Bob and Madeline Frank.
Three Weddings and a Funeral
Former Avenger Swordsman rejoined the team and brought his mysterious girlfriend Mantis with him. (Avengers #112, Englehart & Heck, 1973)
Mantis immediately seemed to lose interest in Swordsman and started flirting with Vision, a fact not unnoticed by Wanda. (Avengers #126, Englehart & Bob Brown, 1974)
Wanda and her brother have not spoken since she told him of her relationship with Vision. In Avengers #127 (Englehart & S. Buscema, 1974), she learns from Gorgon that Pietro’s wedding is coming, and decides to attend, despite her brother not inviting her. In the Great Refuge of Attilan, Wanda first meets Crystal, her new sister-in-law. This is also where she first meets fellow wedding guest Agatha Harkness.
Pietro refuses to make peace with Wanda due to his disapproval of her relationship.
Superhero weddings never go off without a crasher or two (heck, almost every super-villain out there tried to crash Reed and Sue’s). This one has Ultron.
The wedding (sans Ultron) finally occurs in Fantastic Four #150 (Gerry Conway & Buckler, 1974).
Following the wedding, Agatha Harkness decides Franklin no longer has need of her and that her new task will be to teach Wanda the art of witchcraft. (Avengers #128, Englehart & S. Buscema, 1974)
Swordsman’s heart is broken over Mantis’ affection for Vision. He is handling it… not well.
The Celestial Madonna Saga is a giant epic stretching through Avengers #129-137 and Giant-Size Avengers #2-4, by Steve Englehart, Roy Thomas, Sal Buscema, George Tuska, Tom Sutton, Dave Cockrum, and Don Heck (1974-75). The time-traveling villain Kang reveals that the star over Avengers Mansion proves that the Celestial Madonna is there. She will marry the most powerful being on Earth and give birth to the One. Kang intends to conquer Earth, marry the Madonna, and rule the universe through their child.
The Madonna must be either Wanda or Mantis (longshot bets are on Moondragon and Agatha Harkness).
The saga spans time and space, as prophesies are fulfilled…
heroes die…
…and we learn secret truths of the Avengers and of the universe itself.
It is here we learn that Vision was not actually created by Ultron, but rather reshaped from the android body of the Human Torch with the help of Phineas Horton. So he has the body of the Human Torch, but the mind of Wonder Man.
Wanda undergoes her tutelage in the ways of witchcraft under Agatha Harkness.
Will her short training be enough to overcome the demonic Dormammu?
Having been through quite an experience and come to new truths about himself, Vision proposes and Wanda accepts.
Meanwhile, Mantis comes to understand it his her destiny to marry a tree… whose spirit has taken the form of her dead lover, the Swordsman.
Immortus presides over a dual wedding ceremony, perhaps the strangest superhero wedding ever, a genre with no shortage of competition for that title.
And that’s just a tiny fragment of this rather complex saga involving ancient Egypt and interstellar war and Frankenstein’s monster and…
With the epic saga complete and the fate of the universe decided, Wanda and Vision have earned a relaxing honeymoon (Avengers #137, Englehart & Tuska, 1975).
Click Page 3 to see Wanda and Vision deal with family issues, buy a house, and finally start their own family.
