Every week, we will be examining comic book stories and ideas that were not only abandoned, but also had the stories/plots specifically "overturned" by a later writer (as if they were a legal precedent). Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of The Abandoned An' Forsaked. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

Today we look at where the Scarlet Witch ended up after the events of the House of M.

Enjoy!

In Avengers #503, by Brian Michael Bendis, David Finch and Danny Miki, it is revealed that the architect behind the events of Avengers Disassembled (including the deaths of a number of Avengers) was none other than their teammate, Wanda Maximoff, otherwise known as the Scarlet Witch, who had basically just went nuts...

In The House of M, by Bendis, Olivier Coipel and a bunch of inkers, the Avengers ponder what to do with the Scarlet Witch, who had been taken by her father Magneto at the end of Avengers Disassembled. Her brother, Quicksilver, freaked out and convinced the unstable Scarlet Witch to use her reality-altering powers to change the world so that mutants were in control of the world.

When the Avengers realized what was going on, they took the fight to Magneto and it led to a traumatized Scarlet Witch to use her powers seemingly one last time...

In the final issue of the series, we see what happened to the various characters involved in the House of M (who lost their powers and who had their powers spared by a Doctor Strange spell). We also see that Wanda is seemingly powerless living in Transia, at the foot of Mount Wundagore, which is where she was born...

In New Avengers #26 (by Bendis and Alex Maleev), Hawkeye (who was killed by the Scarlet Witch in Avengers Disassembled and then brought back to life by her during the House of M) is trying to hunt her down.

He heads to Transia...

Once there, he helps a woman who had her purse stolen. The woman turns out to be...

He passes out and she takes him back to her home where he questions her...

They then have sex. He leaves while she is asleep. Basically he has no idea what to make of the situation. She killed him. She brought him back. She has no memory of her past. It is just a messed up situation all together.

Soon afterward, Beast of the X-Men (in a story by Mike Carey, Scot Eaton and Andrew Hennessey) is trying to cure mutanthood of the Scarlet Witch's spell. He tries every avenue but cannot find one that works. Ultimately, he, too, ends up in Transia where he also meets Wanda...

Somehow, the two do not have sex.

Okay, so that's the situation as far as anyone knows. Wanda is living in Transia without any memory of who she once was.

That changes in Avengers: Children's Crusade, by Allan Heinberg, Jimmy Cheung and Mark Morales, where the Young Avengers (mostly Wiccan and Speed, who believe the Scarlet Witch is their mother - that's a subject for another time) and Magneto go looking for the missing Scarlet Witch. Quicksilver gets involved, too...

First off, how freaking irresponsible is that?!?! Just chucking spikes into crowded areas?!? What the hell? How is that not addressed in the series how messed up that is?

ANYhow, luckily for everyone involved, that turns out to NOT be Wanda, but rather...

Yes, as it turns out, Doctor Doom. You see, Wanda Maximoff HAS lost her memory and Doctor Doom saddled up to her and got her to agree to marry him. He grabbed her from Transia after the end of the House of M and created a Doombot of her to throw others off of her scent.

This leads to a humorous scene in a later issue of Avengers: Children's Crusade...

Classic.

Children's Crusade also redeemed Wanda by showing that she went to Doom for help finding her kids before the events of Avengers Disassembled, and he manipulated he to the point where she was possessed by a yellow fear monster (or the equivalent of a yellow fear monster). So she did not really turn bad. She was possessed. So now she's back to being available for writers to use, if they so choose. That's not really FORSAKING an old plot so much as excusing it, so that particular aspect of Children's Crusade won't be appearing in this column.