Wanda Maximoff (Earth-199999)

Wanda Maximoff, born 1988, is a Sokovian American hero and member of the Avengers. She and her twin brother Pietro were orphaned at ten years old after their parents joined the long list of casualties in Sokovia's seemingly never ending wars. Desperate to bring peace to their nation, the Maximoffs volunteered for experimentation at the hands of Hydra in 2014. As a result, the two each gained incredible powers: Wanda acquired an array of powerful abilities, including telepathy and mental manipulation. The two got caught up with the malicious A.I. Ultron in 2015 in an attempt to take down Iron Man and the Avengers, but turned on him after realizing that his goal was utter human annihilation. The two ultimately allied with the Avengers in an attempt to stop Ultron's plan. Pietro was killed in the Battle of Sokovia that saw Ultron's ultimate defeat, and a distraught Wanda was befriended by Vision, a synthezoid who had the Mind Stone for a "brain." The two were inducted as official Avengers.

Biography

Early life and Ultron crisis

Wanda and Pietro Maximoff were born in Sokovia in 1988 to Irina and Oleg Maximoff. Pietro was the older twin, having been born twelve minutes before Wanda. Irina and Oleg were killed in an air raid on March 31, 1999, when the twins were ten years old. The explosive that destroyed the Maximoff household was created by Stark Industries—another Stark bomb landed three feet away from the twins, but didn't detonate. The two were trapped under rubble for two days, fearing the bomb might explode at any moment. They naturally grew up harboring a grudge against Tony Stark, who in 2009 unveiled his heroic Iron Man mechanical suit and persona. By 2014, Hydra had established a presence in Sokovia, staging American incursions into urban Sokovia in an attempt to embitter and radicalize the country's citizens. Hydra scientists offered Sokovians the opportunity to attain powers comparable to the Avengers, and the Maximoffs accepted. The Hydra base in Sokovia, led by Baron Strucker, possessed a scepter containing the Mind Stone, an artifact of untold power. Doctor List conducted experiments on the twins using the Mind Stone, granting them remarkable powers. Wanda gained "neuro-electric sensitivity" and "micro-cellular manipulation," which essentially manifested in powerful telekinesis and mental manipulation. Pietro gained increased metabolism and "thermal homeostasis," resulting in extreme physical speed.

The Avengers attacked Hydra's Sokovia base in early 2015, aiming to bring the last vestiges of Hydra to justice and retake the scepter. Eager to get revenge on Iron Man, and by extension the Avengers, the Maximoffs agreed to fight alongside Hydra forces. As the Avengers fought Hydra soldiers in the snowy woods outside the base, Pietro put them off balance with his dazzling speed. Later, Wanda had a brief confrontation with Captain America as the latter apprehended Baron Strucker. Elsewhere, Tony Stark penetrated the base's defenses and made his way inside, leaving the Iron Man suit behind to investigate further. He found the scepter, and was distracted long enough for Wanda to sneak up behind him and manipulate his mind. The exact nature of her interference is unclear, but it resulted in Stark being overwhelmed with a vision of a catastrophe that he had failed to prevent. Wanda stood back and allowed Stark to claim the scepter, predicting that its power combined with his own fear would overwhelm him and cause him to "self-destruct." The Avengers went on to seize the base's research data and return to the United States with the scepter. Without the knowledge of the other Avengers, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner uncovered the inner workings of the Mind Stone. They attempted to enact the Ultron protocol, a program designed to protect Earth with a legion of Stark robots using the Mind Stone's incredible intelligence. Instead, the Ultron A.I. achieved sentience and believed that the surest way to Stark's mission of "peace" began with destroying the Avengers. Ultron spread throughout the global internet in a matter of hours, hijacking all of Stark's technology. It also regained control of the scepter and Mind Stone by using a Stark robot to steal it. Ultron constructed a humanoid metal housing from parts left at the Hydra base, giving itself a physical (masculine) presence. Ultron met with the Maximoffs at an abandoned church in Sokovia, where he recruited them to help him defeat the Avengers and, in his words, "save the world."

The first phase of Ultron's plan involved acquiring vibranium. He and the Maximoffs visited black-market arms dealer Ulysses Klaue and transferred him billions of dollars in exchange for a large supply of the precious metal. Klaue assumed that Ultron was aligned with Stark, and the furious A.I. cut off his left arm in retaliation. Moments later, the Avengers arrived—leaving Banner in their Quinjet on the coast—and a battle ensued. Per Ultron's plan, Wanda manipulated their minds, implanting warped memories and premonitions upon Captain America, Black Widow, and Thor. The distractions, as well as Ultron and Pietro's efforts and the confused gunfire from Klaue and his men, allowed Ultron's robots to escape with the vibranium. Iron Man destroyed Ultron's central form, but this merely provided a distraction while the Maximoffs made their way to Banner. Wanda manipulated his mind, transforming him into the Hulk and sending him on a rampage into the nearby city. Hulk and Iron Man fought, causing catastrophic structural damage and bringing scathing media attention onto the Avengers.

Ultron and the twins took the vibranium to Seoul in order to make use of Dr. Helen Cho and her Regeneration Cradle, capable of creating highly lifelike synthetic tissue. Ultron used the scepter to control Cho into making him a new body in the Cradle out of vibranium, using the Mind Stone itself as its "brain." Ultron fully dislodged the bright orange stone from its housing in the scepter to use it in the operation directly. The brainwashed Cho complied, and began to craft a new synthezoid inside the cradle with the Mind Stone lodged in its forehead. As the operation proceeded, Ultron also began to transfer his consciousness into the new construct. As he did so, Wanda found that she was capable of reading the new being's thoughts, which she had been unable to do with Ultron's A.I. In doing so, she learned that Ultron's ultimate goal was in fact the total destruction of humanity. Wanda used her powers to snap Dr. Cho out of the Mind Stone's effects, and Cho stopped the transfer process. Ultron blasted her with energy in retaliation, and Pietro quickly helped Wanda escape the area.

Ultron had the Cradle taken into a large truck in an attempt to complete the transfer. Soon, three of the Avengers—Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Widow—arrived to retrieve the Mind Stone. Ultron fought Cap on a metro train, and the Maximoffs arrived to help fight off Ultron's central body. Ultron fled and kidnapped Black Widow while Wanda and Pietro helped stop the train and clear out bystanders, respectively. Hawkeye successfully secured the Cradle, with the synthezoid intact, and flew off with it in the Quinjet to Avengers Tower. The two spoke with Captain America, and Wanda implored him not to allow Stark anywhere near the new Cradle: like Ultron, he was prone to confusing peace with destruction.

Cap returned with the Maximoffs to Avengers Tower, where Stark and Banner were indeed experimenting with the Cradle. Stark aimed to install his digital-assistant software, J.A.R.V.I.S., into the synthezoid frame, theoretically creating a benevolent being capable of defeating Ultron. Pietro quickly unplugged all of their equipment, prompting Hawkeye to get involved and a brief fight to break out until Thor arrived. Thor quickly supercharged the synthezoid with a rush of lightning, and it broke out of the Cradle. Though everyone was on edge, fearing another Ultron, the being spoke softly and declared its understanding that Ultron must be stopped. It spoke with the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S. and came to be known as Vision in reference to Thor's premonition to do with the Infinity Stones. Vision said that he was on the "side of life," and though he did not want to destroy Ultron, he knew that it was necessary to protect life more generally. Thor explained the nature of the Infinity Stones to the rest of the team, and insisted that they needed Vision to defeat Ultron. Vision won over several hesitant onlookers by lifting Thor's magical hammer Mjölnir and casually handing it to Thor, proving his might and goodness.

The Avengers, along with Vision and the Maximoffs, prepared for their final assault on Ultron: they knew that the only way to defeat him for good would be to destroy each and every one of his countless mechanical forms and completely eliminate his presence from the internet. The team traveled to the Sokovian city near Strucker's base, and Cap and the Maximoffs began evacuating civilians in preparation for the coming battle. Ultron revealed a device constructed in the church that bored deep into the city underground, constructed out of vibranium. Vision confronted Ultron's central body and attacked in such a way as to disconnect his software from the internet entirely. An angered Ultron activated the device, and a huge chunk of the city began to lift into the air. Before long, the land underneath the Avengers was completely in the sky, with many Sokovian civilians still on it. Ultron aimed to lift and drop the makeshift "meteor" to enact an extinction-level event.

The heroes did what they could to destroy as many Ultron robots and protect as many civilians as possible. Examining Ultron's vibranium device, Iron Man determined that the only plausible way of stopping it would entail destroying the flying city in the process, killing everyone on the "island" but preventing a catastrophe on the planet's surface. Moments later, a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier commanded by Nick Fury and Maria Hill arrived with a fleet of aerial "lifeboats" to transport everyone out of the city. War Machine was also with them, and quickly entered the fray. The Avengers began bringing people to the lifeboats as quickly as possible. A desperate Ultron changed his plan, and his Legionnaires began assaulting the church in an attempt to activate the device early—Ultron estimated that the collision would still kill billions. The team convened on the church and fought off a huge onslaught of robots. Ultron soon realized that his plan had failed, and attempted to evacuate the city. Ultron's central body took control of the Avengers' Quinjet as the team set out for the lifeboats while Iron Man and Thor worked on overloading the elevation device. Wanda Maximoff would keep watch on the device, protecting it from Ultron's Legionnaires. As he began to board the lifeboats, Hawkeye noticed a child trapped and alone in the city, and went out to save him. Ultron fired upon them as well, and the lightning-fast Pietro threw himself in the way, sacrificing himself to save Barton and the child. Wanda felt Pietro's death from afar, and as a swarm of robots converged upon her, her grief produced a violent wave of energy, instantly vaporizing all of them.

Wanda found Ultron and ripped out his core, effectively destroying his central body. Iron Man and Thor attacked the elevation device from above and below, and the city began to fall apart. As the island crumbled to pieces, Vision flew in and rescued Wanda, who had resigned herself to death. The city broke into countless pieces that fell harmlessly into the large lake left behind below. The remaining heroes and civilians all made it onto the lifeboats safely, with the exception of the Hulk, who mysteriously flew off in the Quinjet. Vision tracked down Ultron's last remaining robot just outside the city limits and destroyed it with a blast from the Mind Stone, eliminating the last vestige of the Ultron A.I. Shortly after the Battle of Sokovia, the Avengers established a second base of operations in upstate New York, with Maria Hill and a large staff of engineers and other scientists on staff. Wanda, Vision, War Machine, and Falcon were officially inducted into the Avengers. Hawkeye named his newborn son Nathaniel Pietro Barton in honor of the fallen Pietro.

See also

• Scarlet Witch of Earth-616