We begin with a flashback to when
the Avengers unveiled the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver as the newest members
of their team.
We cut to Wanda waking up from a bad
dream. It is still night. Wanda looks in the mirror and notices a few more
wrinkles and some grey hair. (Uh, what? I always thought Wanda was
relatively young. And does Vanesa Del Rey even know what is going on in the
story when she draws her panel? Because Wanda still looks as young and
vivacious as ever with no wrinkles or grey hair. Maybe it is
a hallucination? I have no idea what is going on here.)
We see the ghost of Agatha Harkness
appears and ask if Wanda was having a bad dream. Wanda says that there is
no such thing as bad dreams. Merely visions and messages concerning the future.
The two engage in some “witty” banter. Wanda says that she is not sure what her
dream is trying to tell her.
Wanda then says that she senses
something is out there in the city. That something is not right. We learn that
Wanda just bought penthouse in the upper east side of Manhattan. Wanda says
that there is something wrong with witchcraft in general.
Wanda says that she is glad that she
bought her new penthouse. Agatha comments on how expensive it was. Wanda asks
if Agatha expects her to life in a gingerbread house in the woods. Or maybe a
gave. Agatha points out that being around lots of people may not be the best
for Wanda considering her past of metal instability. Wanda responds that in the
fairy tales the bad witches lie in the cabins and caves. (Zzzzzzz *Ow!* This
scene put me to sleep and my iPad Pro slid out of my hands and hit my face.
Damn it. The risk of reading boring comics in digital format. Nice old school
floppy comics never hurt!)
Wanda goes on about how she loves
the view from her penthouse. (Thrilling. Maybe HGTV will think about
optioning a Scarlet Witch TV show as she starts her new career as a house
flipper.) Wanda says that she can see all the various auras in the city
from all the good and bad people. Agatha asks how Wanda’s coffee
tastes. Wanda says it is delicious and that she wishes Agatha could try
it. Agatha responds that being dead has its drawbacks. (Really?
Seriously? Nine pages into the comic and nothing has happened and we have gone
from talking real estate to talking coffee. Jesus. Is Brian Bendis ghost write
this issue?)
We shift to the next morning. Wanda is walking through New
York. She thinks how she hopes this is a start of a new life for her. She
thinks about who she has had “some problems” in the past. (Ha! That’s a massive understatement!!)
That she has also had some mental instability. That she has abilities since
birth to break the laws of physics and scientific absolutes like levitation,
transformation, teleportation and the such.
She says that it is often referred
to as Chaos Magic. But, it is far from chaotic. That their power is linked to
the energy of the Earth and Womankind that was revered by ancient pagan faiths
and feared by men. (But only men!! Women have never feared magic or
witchcraft. Ever! Not ever once in the entire history of humankind!!)
Wanda walks by some dead cats. Wanda
talks about how she is feared because of her ill-use of her power. (Uh,
again, massive understatement.) Wanda says that she is more than the
sum of those mistakes and that she is better than that.
Wanda arrives at a crime scene and
tells a cop that she is here to see Detective Erikson. The cop asks “You gotta
name, sweetheart?” Wanda replies “Yes ‘buttercup’ I do. Wanda Maximoff.” (Ugh.
Is it possible to have a comic starring a lead character that is female where
the males are not always presented as small-minded or sexist? That was
a rhetorical question. The answer is obviously “No.”)
Detective Erikson meets with Scarlet
Witch and shows her the crime scene. A bus boy suddenly went on a rampage and
killed two rich patrons. Erik son says that the bus boy is now claiming
that does not come over him and he has no memory of killing anyone.
Wanda says that the newspaper
reported two other attacks of a similar nature. That there is a magical link.
Also, the reports of every cat in lower Manhattan are mysteriously dying. (That’s
not a bad thing. Cats are vermin.) Wanda says that it is a virus of sorts.
To explain, Wanda says that a quick history lesson is in order. (Jesus. Yes,
what this interminably slow and boring read needs is a history lesson. Yippie.)
Wanda says that in Paris in the
1730’s there was a cat massacre. The starving apprentices viewed the cats as
the pampered pets of their masters and a symbol of the apprentices misfortune.
(Hmmm, maybe this is why I have instinctively never liked cats.)
The apprentices then massacred all the cats and this was the first member of the
fire of the French Revolution.
Wanda says that the cats were a
sacrifice. That witches probably put that thought in the heads of the
apprentices. Wanda says that a Taigheirm,
as the ancient Scots called it, is the killing of cats in order to control hell
and to summon a Sonneillon. A Sonneillon is the magical embodiment of envy, hate and
the need to punish. That the Sonneillon ultimately incited the masses to
revolution in France.
Wanda says that the cats being
killed in Manhattan are being used to summon a Sonneillon. That the less
fortunate are being driven out of lower Manhattan by wealthier people. The same
hateful hex could take root in this climate. That the Sonneillon is taking
possession of people and committing these murders.
Detective Erikson asks if Wanda
knows who will be possessed next by the Sonneillon. Wanda says that she does
and that the next person is Detective Erikson himself! Wanda says that Erikson
was born poor and has worked his way up from the bottom and that he resents
those born with a silver spoon.
Wanda then beings to perform an
exorcism. We see the Sonneillon exit the Detective’s body. Wanda then begins to
battle the demon. (And during this fight scene I have to give total credit
to Vanesa Del Rey for not one but two butt shots of Scarlet Witch.)
During the fight Scarlet Witch feels
that something is wrong with the world of Magic. Still, Scarlet Witch gathers
herself and casts a spell that destroys the Sonneillon.
We cut to “later” at Wanda’s badass
penthouse. Wanda tells Agatha that Witchcraft is sick and ailing. That the
energy flow that exists between a witch and the world around her is being
tampered with and being weakened. That the Sonneillon was just the first salvo
in this attack.
Wanda asks if Agatha can feel it,
too. Agatha replied that she would have been able to when she was alive before
Wanda killed her. Wanda replied that it was not her. Agatha ignores Wanda by
saying “Moving on.”
Wanda says that she understands the symbolism from her dream
earlier. That the Avengers should stay in her past. That she is on her own.
Wanda says that she intends to hunt down this threat. Wanda says that she needs
to do this. For Witchcraft and for herself. Wanda says that whoever is behind
this that they will know what it means to face the Scarlet Witch. End of story.
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