While Scarlet Witch has recently proved herself to be an absolutely terrifying villain in the MCU, her origins in the comics weren’t too far off from this current live-action depiction–in fact, Scarlet Witch wasn’t alone in her villainous antics as she was actually responsible for Quicksilver’s initial fall to the dark side.
Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch made her Marvel Comics debut alongside her brother, Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver, in X-Men #4 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. In this issue, it is revealed that the previously introduced villain, Magneto, wasn’t acting alone in his acts of terrorism, but he was actually the leader of an entire gang of villains known as the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Among the members were Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, though it is quickly noted that they didn’t choose to be there of their own volition. In fact, after Mangeto is sent to another world on the far side of the universe, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver give up their lives of villainy completely by joining the Avengers. However, in one Avengers issue, Magneto returns and demands that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver join him once again because he saved their lives years earlier, and they owe him an unpayable debt–something that is shown in explicit detail.
In Avengers #47 by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, Magneto escapes his intergalactic prison and confronts Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, at which point he recounts their shared history and their life-debt to him, one that he has now come to collect. In a flashback sequence, readers are shown exactly how Magneto saved the lives of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Years earlier, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were living in a quiet village in Eastern Europe, but their powers gave them some trouble with the community. In one instance, Scarlet Witch accidentally set the entire village ablaze after losing control of her Hexing ability. Angered by the destruction, the villagers form a mob and go after the two siblings with the intention of killing them. Just as Wanda and Pietro were being overwhelmed, Magneto appears and saves them–an event that begins the villainous careers of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
If it hadn’t been for Scarlet Witch losing control of her powers, Magneto never would have had any reason to save Wanda and Pietro, meaning that they never would have been forced to join the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. While one could argue that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver never would have become Avengers if they hadn’t first worked with Magneto, that isn’t necessarily the case. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch join the Avengers after the Brotherhood had already collapsed following Magneto’s exile, and they found out about the superhero tryouts from an ad in the paper after they had gone back to their normal lives. Wanda and Pietro always wanted to be heroes, and they’ve known for years that they had superpowers, so it is likely they would have seen the ad and answered the call of the Avengers either way–the only difference is their initial corruption.
While Scarlet Witch is responsible for the events that led to her and Quicksilver falling to the dark side initially, she is actually the one who tries to get Quicksilver to turn away from Magneto after he is coerced into rejoining the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants upon Magneto’s return. However, just because she never intended for Quicksilver to break bad and even tries to save him later on, Scarlet Witch is still technically responsible for Quicksilver’s fall to villainy since it was the lack of control of her powers that began their villainous careers in the first place–proving that Scarlet Witch is the real reason for Quicksilver’s corruption.