The Four Color Media Monitor: Jim Zub fortunately respects Scarlet Witch

I may not agree with everything the comics writer Jim Zub says, or approve of the people he's working for at Marvel. But if there's something he's doing right, it's recognizing Scarlet Witch, one of Stan Lee's most notable creations, as a heroine:

I've consistently written Wanda as a hero and will continue to do so.

She's one of my favorite Marvel characters and I truly believe she has tons of potential yet to be realized. https://t.co/TLbqmdGaHL
— Jim Zub (@JimZub) August 12, 2020

A crucial element I included in Uncanny Avengers was giving Wanda a new relationship that wasn't saddled with past baggage.

I felt it was important for her to chart new emotional territory for herself and still hope I get the chance to delve deeper into it at some point. pic.twitter.com/hMGZkpJHaW
— Jim Zub (@JimZub) August 12, 2020

I wish other current Marvel writers would acknowledge the Wanda-Jericho relationship more and make good use of it in their stories.

Beyond that, I'll just keep plugging away, trying to do right by these characters and their legacies. pic.twitter.com/rjT3Sn9YBH
— Jim Zub (@JimZub) August 12, 2020

And when somebody points out how Jonathan Hickman's been depicting Scarlet Witch as a lethal villainess in the X-Men franchise, Zub replied:

X-Books gonna X ;P
I write Earth's Mightiest Heroes. https://t.co/VTfecslhzJ
— Jim Zub (@JimZub) August 12, 2020

Well I'm glad he didn't allow Hickman's Bendis-derived angle dictate how to characterize Scarlet Witch in his stories. If that's how Wanda's portrayed in X-Men, which again, is worse than turning Moira MacTaggart from ordinary human with no superpowers to mutant with an awfully silly one, than it'd be better if Hickman's stories weren't regarded as canon. So while I'm galled with most of the people Zub's working for at Marvel, I will give him a congratulation for avoiding the rock bottom errors made with Wanda in the past, made by people with an obsession with either forcibly turning heroes into villains, or forcibly reverting reformed crooks back to a criminal role. It took about 8 years before Bendis finally undid the bad direction he went in with Wanda Maximoff, and 8 years too many. And even then, the harm he did to the MCU didn't stop, mainly because the mainstream media continues to give people like him a free pass.

If we were to critique the art Zub provided, the only problem I have with that is if it's muted in terms of how sexy Wanda can look. If Marvel's still maintaining a mandate where they now cause a situation in which an artist's freedom is stifled, of course that's still very bad. I think back to when George Perez drew Wanda smoking hot, and what I see here, even if not the worst, still pales beside the far better job Perez did over 2 decades ago.

Labels: Avengers, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, women of marvel, X-Men