How Marvel Rivals’ Scarlet Witch Compares to Her MCU Adaptation

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 2, 2025 3 Views 9 Min Read
How Marvel Rivals' Scarlet Witch Compares to Her MCU Adaptation

Marvel Rivals has not only reintroduced old and niche characters from Marvel Comics to its character roster, but redesigned aspects of Marvel characters that the public have latched onto thanks to the MCU. No character better represents a return to comics form than Marvel Rivals’ adaptation of Scarlet Witch.

While not every character that is featured in the MCU and Marvel Rivals have stark differences, Scarlet Witch is definitely one of the few. Only a few characters on Marvel Rivals roster have yet to appear in the MCU, including Peni Parker, Luna Snow, Jeff the Land Shark, Venom, Squirrel Girl, and all members of the X-Men.

young avengers marvel rivals

Related


The MCU’s Long Game Could Change Marvel Rivals Character Roster

The MCU is known for its long plans and cross film story lines. One team it’s planned since Phase Two could be great for Marvel Rivals

The MCU’s Adaptation of Scarlet Witch

Since the main hook to Marvel Rivals’ lore focuses on the multiverse, the game is able to justify tweaking characters to be vastly different or more similar to the MCU or various Marvel Comics universe versions of characters. In the case of Scarlet Witch, Marvel Rivals seems to lean more towards her original characterization in Marvel Comics, which represents some key differences to the MCU’s adaptation.

Because mutants have yet to be introduced to the MCU and Age of Ultron was released prior to Disney’s acquisition of Fox, the MCU gave the Maximoff twins their powers through experimentation rather than birth. While this change was understandable due to copyright, it cannot be overstated how important Scarlet Witch’s mutant identity is in Marvel Comics. Her impact on mutantkind leaves a drastic mark on comics history and is still a major plot point in comics running to this day.

Additionally, the Maximoff twins are of Jewish-Romani descent. While Elizabeth Olsen initially gave Scarlet Witch an accent when portraying her in Age of Ultron, this accent eventually went away. Olsen is also not of Jewish-Romani descent, leading some fans to be critical of her casting.

The MCU’s portrayal of Vision and Scarlet Witch’s romantic relationship is fairly accurate. WandaVision and Agatha All Along continue this storyline by introducing their twins, Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd. This storyline is also fairly comics accurate, with Wiccan being officially introduced in Agatha All Along.

Marvel Rivals’ Adaptation of Scarlet Witch

The abilities of Scarlet Witch in Marvel Rivals are fairly congruent with her powers in the MCU and Marvel Comics. The descriptions of her abilities specifically mention “Chaos Magic”, which has been mentioned both in the MCU and in the comics alongside Scarlet Witch previously. Scarlet Witch’s ability “Reality Erasure” is also in line with these abilities, considering she is able to manipulate reality at will.

However, there are key differences between the MCU’s adaptation and Marvel Rivals’. Namely, Marvel Rivals took the opportunity to make Scarlet Witch more comic accurate. Marvel Rivals‘ design of Scarlet Witch is one example of this. Her skin and hair are darker, more in line with her appearance as a Jewish-Romani woman, and she has an accent. Players can see the design difference between Marvel Rivals and the MCU as a Multiverse of Madness skin exists for Scarlet Witch in-game.

Scarlet Witch is a Mutant Again

Magneto is the biological father of both of the Maximoff twins in Marvel Rivals, as discussed through several voicelines between Magneto and Scarlet Witch. The characters also have a team-up together.

Additionally, Scarlet Witch has a voice line that mentions “No more mutants.” This is also an achievement Scarlet Witch players can unlock after taking down mutant enemies ten times as her. The quote “No more mutants” is a direct reference to the “House of M” storyline, in which Scarlet Witch took away mutant abilities from the majority of mutantkind. This plot point radically changed Marvel Comics. Of course, the MCU has not officially introduced mutants to its main timeline, making Wanda’s heritage and this important plotline impossible to adapt so far.

Ultimately, most of the differences between Scarlet Witch in the MCU and Marvel Rivals are thanks to Marvel Comics. Scarlet Witch is a sign that Marvel Rivals is likely to turn to the comics for character roster inspiration going forward, rather than basing anyone primarily off their MCU counterparts.

Source link