The (character) assassination of Wanda Maximoff by the coward Joe Quesada
Charles Xavier is not a psychotherapist
After giving her coworkers some unwelcome feedback, Wanda Maximoff is in a bit of a state. For some reason Xavier thinks he can help by shouting at her. He's a PHD in psychiatry but his record in nurturing the mental health of others is ... shit. He's really bad at this okay. There's a whole thing with Wanda's kids not existing and it doesn't make a lot of sense tbh. Whether by magic or reality warping she's not allowed to create kids for reasons unstated.
This back and forth goes on for a while but Chuck deems no progress made. Just ... Let her have the kids dude. Wanda reality warps to undo tragedy, harming nobody, and Chuck just yells at her to stop. It's profoundly cruel and unproductive. Marvel events play fast and loose with narrative causality and characterisation but House of M is so fucking egregious. The misogyny and ableism behind it is still felt today. Ironically, Charles Xavier is probably the worst parent on the island.
Generally speaking Magneto is a terrible parent but here and now he does want to be there for Wanda. When it was just him being supportive he read to her and spent time with her while she slept. As much as you can help someone with grief that's about all you can do. Now Wanda's powers are ... making her crazy? I guess? Let's not beat around the bush - it's ridiculous framing. House of M contains oh so much man pain compared to voicing the pain of Wanda.
Chuck has been telepathically drugging and sedating Wanda, and he's baffled as to why she's not magically getting better. Sounds like torture to me, frankly. Classic Chuck to first present it as inhumane, then not foolproof, then admit it's not working. If it was working you bet your bottom dollar he'd continue with what he's already doing. He says Magneto shouldn't blame himself (he should) and that she's a grown woman. That sounds like blaming Wanda to me. You'd think he'd have learnt his lesson from sedating and drugging his son David for years without improvement (by his metrics.) Nyet.
That's a pretty reductive summation of their history but the broad strokes are there. Mags was an abusive maniac to the twins before they knew they were related, and his behaviour since then has been... mixed, at best. His culpability is severe but it's often used to minimise anyone else's. The Avengers have been pretty awful here and there as well, especially here reproductive autonomy is concerned. Ask Carol about that one.
Mags casually walking on the sky is pretty damn cool and he should do it more often. IDK why he's doing it now, but good for him I guess.
Sometime shortly, The Avengers and X-Men get together to 'decide the fate' of Wanda. It's like they know they're in an event and dutifully summon everyone they know to argue. Their sources for this decision are not especially reliable, and a lot of people that should know better are either silent or absent.
Pietro knows what's up. The gathered heroes are just giving off that vibe. He's obviously not happy about the prospect at all, but Magneto is not much help. I find it hard to believe he'd think they may be right. He's a terrible father but he's not an idiot. He asks 'what would you have me do?' as if there aren't hundreds of options that don't involve killing Wanda. Let her have the kids! Take her to space or something. Isn't there a mutant cure kicking around ATM? None of these are mentioned.
Back at the brain trust zero progress has been made. Emma has Logan's script and advocates for killing her, and Logan obviously callously agrees. This frames the argument as 'kill Wanda: Y/N?' and magic/telepathy the only possible solutions. Pietro was right, honestly, but Wanda doesn't even get a voice. Cap insists that there's always another way, but nobody has one. In the end, everyone heads to Genosha to talk to Wanda but we'll never know how that would have gone. House of M isn't interested in asking those questions at all.
I'm skipping the entire event here because the focus is Wanda and she's not a character in the House of M reality. She's barely a character in 616 at this time, simplified into 'crazy mother.' I certainly blame Brian Michael Bendis, as the writer of this event, but it was Quesada's decision and the buck stops with him. Mutants (allegedly) needed to be decimated and Wanda was the means. After using her similarly for Avengers Disassembled it's wild in retrospect that they doubled down. Not surprising, of course, but considering how many people would have had the chance to say 'this is sexist and ableist garbage' before it went to print...
Worst of all, 'no more mutants' defined and derailed Wanda Maximoff's character for decades. I'd say she's only escaped the shadow of it in the last few years, but her peers never had to face their part in the tragedy. I was glad that she was being used as Krakoa's boogeyman because it highlighted how ridiculous the whole thing is. It also led to her reclaiming her narrative, which needed to happen but it's not a good look. I will do a part 2 covering that end soon.
