Warning: spoilers ahead for Heroes Reborn #3!
Marvel's new Heroes Reborn series has played host to some pretty stunning character remixes so far, and the Scarlet Witch being a subversion of her Marvel Cinematic Universe counterpart may be one of the best yet. As Heroes Reborn unravels the confounding mystery behind the Marvel Universe being rewritten into a reality where the Avengers never existed, Wanda Maximoff is revealed to have gone down a much darker path.
In the standard Marvel comic universe, the Scarlet Witch and her brother Quicksilver began their costumed careers as villains in Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants before eventually finding redemption and joining the Avengers. The MCU adopted a similar angle by introducing Wanda and Pietro Maximoff as henchmen to the villainous Ultron. The key difference in the MCU, however, is that Quicksilver suffered an untimely death, leaving Wanda to become an official member of the Avengers on her lonesome. As it turns out, the Heroes Reborn universe is also utilizing the MCU's concept of Quicksilver dying early on; only here it has the complete opposite effect on Wanda's character trajectory.
Following her brief introduction in Heroes Reborn #1 as this reality's Speedster Supreme, the Silver Witch takes the spotlight alongside her arch nemesis Blur in the third issue's "Race Through The Dread Dimension" by Jason Aaron, Federico Vicentini and Matt Milla. Without the existence of the Avengers, Wanda and Pietro were never reformed, and as Blur recaps his past with the twins, he reveals that Quicksilver was killed in an incident where he burned himself out trying to keep up with Blur's unmatched super speed. As Pietro died, Wanda used her chaos magic to absorb her brother's powers (hence the Silver Witch) and swore vengeance on Blur, becoming one of his main rogues.
While Quicksilver's death in Heroes Reborn is a defining moment that solidifies Wanda as a full-on villain seeking out revenge, Pietro's death in Avengers: Age of Ultron has the opposite reaction, instead acting as the event that leads Wanda to become an official member of the Avengers. In Ultron, Wanda and Pietro are radicalized by their hate for Tony Stark, and even though they eventually fight alongside the Avengers out of guilt for assisting Ultron in his plan to decimate the earth, Pietro's death is what really triggers Wanda to correct her course. After her brother dies, the only family she has left is the Avengers and the only cause she has to fight for is something bigger than herself - a progression of Wanda's character that couldn't be any more different from Wanda in the Heroes Reborn reality.
So much of what makes the Scarlet Witch one of Marvel's most compelling Avengers is that she comes from villainous roots. Heroes Reborn introduces the notion that Wanda's path to redemption could have taken a rotten turn at any point, exemplifying that, good or bad, many hero's destinies are carved out by incidental circumstance rather than innate virtue. If there's anything to be said about Wanda Maximoff's diversity of portrayals throughout the multiverse, it's that this is one witch with some serious depth to her.