Retroactive continuity, retcon for short, is a literary device used to contradict or change an established story. It’s very common in comics and a convenient way for new writers to leave their mark on an established story.
Retconning is often seen as a controversial decision because it alters what fans have come to love about a character. When it comes to the parentage of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, retconning has become the norm.
Up until a few years ago, it was established they were the children of Magneto, but their parentage was altered and The Comic Vault is going to examine the history behind the twins.
Early days
The twins were introduced as part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in 1964’s X-Men #4. Magneto had saved Pietro and Wanda after they were attacked by an angry mob who saw Wanda use her powers.
They worked with the Master of Magnetism for a time, but eventually joined the Avengers. During their early days, the twin’s backstory was established as being the son and daughter of Django and Marya Maximoff. They grew up on Wundagore Mountain in Transia.
Wanda was kidnapped by Django and taken back to Wundagore, where she was temporarily possessed by the demon Chnthon. Around the same time, Magneto had been trying to track down his estranged wife Magda and discovered that he was the father of the twins.
Magda had fled from Magneto while she was pregnant and given birth to Wanda and Pietro on Wundagore. She’d supposedly died of exposure to the elements, leading the High Evolutionary to put them in the care of their adoptive parents. This retcon was made in 1979, which ironically turned out to be a good thing because it provided character development for Magneto, Pietro and Wanda.
Complex family dynamics
As their father, Magneto shared a complicated dynamic with the twins. Wanda and Pietro were horrified by what Magneto had done and spent their lives trying to get as far away from him as possible. But the family ties made their struggle entertaining. Magneto loved his children, even though he knew he’d caused too much damage for them to ever have a healthy relationship.
Their family struggle was at the centre of House of M and M-Day, where the Scarlet Witch used her reality warping powers to create an ideal world for her father and then destroy a large part of the mutant population. It was revealed that Pietro had been the one behind Wanda’s mental break down and Magneto killed Pietro in anger.
Another retcon
This relationship was the status quo until 2014’s AXIS event. Wanda had worked with Doctor Strange to cast a spell of to bring out Charles Xavier in the Red Skull, who’d been using his powers to destroy the world. But the spell backfired and Wanda was twisted into an evil version of herself. While Quicksilver and Magneto tried to talk her down, she put a curse on them that was meant to punish her blood. Pietro was the only one who reacted, meaning Magneto wasn’t their father.
The twins real parentage was revealed by the High Evolutionary. He told them Django and Marya Maximoff were their true parents. They weren’t mutants either because they’d gained their powers after the High Evolutionary had experimented on them.
This isn’t the first time a retcon has been retconned, but it struck me as lazy writing. During the time, Fox and Marvel were battling over rights to the X-Men and the twins were set to appear in Avengers: Age Of Ultron.
Fox claimed the rights because they were Magneto’s children and Marvel claimed the rights because of the editorial history of the characters being associated with the Avengers. The change was made to distance the relationship between Magneto, Pietro and Wanda, bringing them in line with the film versions. It devalued a family dynamic that had entertained X-Men fans for years.
Wanda and Pietro have remained strong characters, but their family ties to Magneto made them even more interesting. I still believe it was one of the worse decisions Marvel has ever made.
What’s your opinion on Wanda and Pietro’s parentage?
The Comic Vault 
This has always been confusing to me. I’ve never read any of the comics but I’ve seen the movies and I always wondered why there was a X-men version and a Marvel version of the twins. I have been told multiple back stories so I’m not sure which is true. I enjoyed reading this article as reference to their background from the comics.
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The most definitive version is the spat between Marvel and Fox over rights. Decades of character development was thrown away. Glad you found the article helpful.
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The film situation goes back to the mid 1990s mess when Marvel was being run into the ground for quick money. Chuck Rozanski (writing in October 2002) recalled looking at some of the licensing contracts in early 1998:
http://www.milehighcomics.com/tales/cbg40.html
“Two trends showed clearly in the contracts. The first is that they were written by folks who had no idea about the characters, and the interactions between the characters. How, for example, could you license Captain America to one entity in a field, and The Avengers to a competing entity? Who then controls the rights to Captain America? Those conflicts created nasty legal battles, some of which go on to this day. ”
(The second was financial and not relevant to the point here.)
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I’m not usually against retcons. They tend to be a fun twist if you are willing to roll with the author.
But in this case, the retcon wasn’t made to create a better story or to give a nice spotlight to some character. It was made as a tantrum against FOX and to push the movies into the comics.
Sadly, those last are the most common retcons nowadays. I’m dreading the day Ego becomes Star-Lord’s father in the comics (hopefully, it won’t happen)!!
The one with Pietro, Wanda and Magneto was a bit sloppy. But the Uncanny Avengers comics where the High Evolutionary explains everything are even worse.
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The writing on Uncanny Avengers was one of the dumbest I’ve ever seen. ‘Oh, by the way I stole you from your birth parents, experimented on you and then set you free because why not.’ I’ll always see Wanda and Pietro as Magneto’s kids.
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Very possible they’ll make Magneto the father again once Disney buys Fox.
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Making them the children of Magneto and Magda was a retcon in itself. A few years earlier it was revealed they were the children of the Whizzer and Miss America.
Where does Polaris fit into all this this week?
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The easiest way to fix this retcon of a retcon would be to retcon it again to say that during House of M when she said “no more mutants” and changed reality she may have also secretly changed things so that Magneto was never their father when originally he was. After All if you think about her children it wouldn’t be the first time magic reality alterations have changed a persons parentage.
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They will always be Magneto’s children. Hope they retcon the retcon.
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Thanks for this! I’m gonna keep them as Magento and Magda’s kids in my head
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This family dynamic had always been my favorite Marvel thing to read. I had such high hopes that they would fix it once the MCU had the characters under the same umbrella, but they’re doubling down on it. They’ve changed other characters in the comics to resemble the films, as well.
It’s led me to the decision to give up both the MCU and more importantly, Marvel Comics, after many, many decades of loyalty. Since several of my other favorites are X-Men, I no longer trust Marvel comics to not permanently change the characters in order to suit the films. It’s sucked out all of my hype for future installments, so it’s time to put Marvel to bed in my mind.
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