The Truth About Wanda's Relationship With Monica Rambeau

As the old saying goes: "There's no such thing as a second chance at a good first impression." And in WandaVision, Monica Rambeau undoubtedly got off to a rocky start with Wanda Maximoff, what with the surreptitious government surveillance of it all. In episode three, Monica learned the hard way that there are few dangers greater than interrupting the suburban bliss of a control freak, and as a result, has now passed through the walls of the hex on three separate occasions, picking up a case of chronic Adobe After Effects super powers along the way.

But what about in the comics? Was the relationship between these two powerhouse characters always so volatile? Well, like any superhero dynamic, the answer varies from story to story. And with around a hundred years of canon between them, the Scarlet Witch and Monica Rambeau's Captain Marvel have had plenty of opportunities to team up, butt heads, and, on at least one occasion, fight Dracula.

First, the bad news: Monica's powers weren't the result of a Maximoff-centric, reality-warping sitcom situation when they first debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual No. 16. They did come from inter-dimensional energy — not far off from what Wanda seems to be fiddling with in WandaVision — but the source of the science fiction shenanigans was an experimental weapon made by Roxxon, which Monica punched until it exploded, a superhero genesis just north of "getting bit by a nuclear bug" on the danger scale.

By the time Monica joined the Avengers in 1982, Wanda and Vision were living a quiet life in New Jersey, so it took a little while for the two to get some quality time together. The next year, they'd team up with Doctor Strange to take down Dracula — the actual Dracula. It was a strange time for comic books, and Alpha Flight got their own series around the same time.

After that, Monica and Wanda crossed paths a few times, notably during the events of Avengers: Disassembled when the Scarlet Witch had an all-too-familiar mental breakdown following — get this — the death of Vision and the realization that she'd conjured her kids into existence. Rambeau is seen in a sea of heroic faces, all of whom pop up intending to try and put the pin back in Wanda's weird, reality-warping grenade. Tellingly, it's Doctor Strange who manages to pull things back together, which might hint at the possible conclusion of WandaVision, though the stable of characters used to wrap up the story in the comics would make the end of Endgame look like the airport fight in Civil War.

The relationship between Monica and Wanda has never been a pivotal one in Marvel Comics, which leaves the door open for their dynamic to move in any direction in the MCU. If the latest episode is any indication, though, we can expect to see plenty of superpowered, distinctly hued explosions in the days to come.