Scarlet Witch's Most Powerful Love Story Wasn't With Vision
It's no secret that Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch, can be a danger to herself and others when it comes to her unbridled reality-altering powers. Avengers: Disassembled was the first story to explore this notion, revealing that Wanda's loss of the two children she conjured into reality resulted in a mental breakdown that caused her to lose control of her powers and destroy the Avengers. Given that the pinpoint of this destruction can be traced directly back to Wanda and Vision's initial romance, it's safe to say the witch and the android's love was ultimately a tragedy of epic proportions.
Most shocking of all, it was the love and support of Doctor Doom that first led Wanda down the road to redemption after her transgression against the Avengers. Avengers: The Children's Crusade by Alan Heinberg and Jim Cheung takes place sometime after the events of House of M, in which the Scarlet Witch, in an emotional outburst, used her great magic to depower the majority of mutants all around the world. At this point, the Scarlet Witch was nowhere to be found, but both the X-Men and the Avengers awaited her return, expecting that she would one day turn up to answer for her crimes.
The Children's Crusade sees Billy/Wiccan, the reincarnated son of the Scarlet Witch, attempting to track his mother down and get to the bottom of the events that lead to her breakdown. Accompanied by his brother Tommy/Speed and the rest of the Young Avengers, Billy soon discovers that his and Tommy's mother is living in Latveria, where she is happily engaged to Doctor Doom. As it turns out, Wanda's memories were wiped clean as a defense mechanism following the events of House of M. Doom had found a bewildered Wanda and took her in to live with him, where the two eventually fell in love.
At this point, any Marvel fan knows that Doom has a long history of deception and therefore must be manipulating Wanda to some extent - a conclusion the Young Avengers immediately come to as well. However, upon gaining her memory back, Wanda explains what really happened behind the scenes that led to her loss of control. Wanda had come to Doom after initially losing her children. They combined their magical energies to summon the Life Force, the only power that was capable of resurrecting her children. Sadly, the power was too much to contain and it possessed Wanda, increasing her powers and leading to the tragic events of Avengers: Disassembled and House of M.
However, the question of Doctor Doom's honesty makes these events debatable. By the climax of The Children's Crusade, events lead to Doom inheriting the Life Force from Wanda before quickly losing it due to his inability to handle its immense power. The Life Force imbued Doom with the power of God, even clearing up his deformed face. And when he lost control of the Life Force, Doom was back to normal, scars and all. In an impotent rage from proving himself unworthy of the Life Force, Doom renounces his love for Wanda, implying it was all a sham and he was the master puppeteer behind Wanda's breakdown from Disassembled to House of M. The Avengers and X-Men debate whether or not Doom's claims are true, with some believing him and others not, but a definitive conclusion is never actually reached.
Regardless of whether or not Doom was telling the truth about brainwashing Wanda to do his bidding all along, the fact remains that the apparent "love" between the Scarlet Witch and Doctor Doom was a powerful force that kept reality from breaking. Had the Avengers or X-Men found Wanda before Doom did, their aggression could have triggered the Life Force within Wanda and shattered all of reality. Just as well, it seems likely that Doom's love for Wanda, at least initially, was genuine. Given that he hides his mangled face behind an emotionless iron mask and would rather die than admit he isn't the most superior person on the face of the earth, it makes sense that Doom would rather concoct a story that projects his control rather than admit his faults and embrace love. Whatever the case, the Scarlet Witch is probably way better off without the baggage of a long-term relationship with Doctor Doom anyway.
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