50 influential fictional women in nerd history

Scarlet Witch

This is going to be about how much I love Wanda Maximoff. Now, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she’s played by Elizabeth Olsen, who is 29 years old. We don’t know how old she is in the films, but in the comics, she’s supposed to be a teenager, which makes her character even more precious and tragic.

In the films, Wanda is a kid who is thrust into the Avengers and has to figure out her alliance while coping with the fact that her brother was killed. And to top it off, she’s still figuring out how her powers work. Wanda truly is just that girl who doesn’t know what she’s doing, but she’s trying her best, and it makes her a great character to love.

What hooked me in were her nails. It’s a small and insignificant detail but one that speaks volumes. Wanda, in Captain America: Civil War, is drinking coffee while they are on a mission, and her nails are black but chipped. I don’t know why, but that detail sticks out and makes it very clear just how much of a disaster Wanda is.

She isn’t Natasha, who has most everything figured out; sheisn’twasn’t Agent Hill, who never seems bothered. She is just a kid who suddenly has a lot more to deal with than she ever imagined.