Please Cast A Spell Of Silence: Reviewing ‘Scarlet Witch’ #2

Wherever the Maximoff twins, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, go, some kind of massive trouble is probably not far behind them. They tend to be magnets for the type of threats that might destroy everything, from the planet to beyond.

Surprise surprise, Scarlet Witch #2 proves that point as a whole spiel about destiny and nexus beings follows the threat of the Griever. Another red-tinged tale from Steve Orlando, Jacopo Camagni, Frank William, and Ariana Maher.

If you are a fan of lots of canon continuity references and Easter Eggs, well then this might be a comic for you. Cause holy crap does Orlando like to just dive in and pull out characters, concepts, and things from various eras. Some of them having been long forgotten or buried. I’m not even fully sure what characters said in some places because the sheer amounts of continuity porn and reference made my eyes glaze over.

I say this as someone that used to have the nickname “Marvel Encyclopedia” amongst friend groups on various comic book forums and RPG sites back in the day.

One of the worst things in my book for a comic book to be is boring, and this one really dangles right over the pool of boring. Some of the action, the appearance of Polaris, and Darcy/Quicksilver saved it from face planting in that pool.

It’s wild to think about how much I loved the first volume of the title that Orlando was shepherding. Where one off adventures, some of them doing the same reference diving, just seemed to work. Because the references of canon elements were usually smaller and woven in seamlessly. Now we’re in the sixth part of a story, that began with the Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver miniseries, that is dragging on.

At least the visuals are really fun to look at for the most part, even if I’m not picking up on anything being said. A lot of time is spent in other realms with mystical otherworldly beings, and there is just as much weight and power to these figures as the ‘real world.’ Camagni has a style that plays with grounded figure building with a dash of whimsy and sharpness. Allowing things to have a balanced contrasting helping of weight and levity.

In the first issue some of the more serious beats felt off with this airy whimsical nature. Here in the second issue that isn’t the case, as things are tightened up a bit, and the threats are carrying themselves that way.

A lot of the color palette skews towards lighter and more neutral toned choices. Building a very natural feeling outside world, both in the physical and metaphysical spaces, where the more otherworldly bits carry the flashier colors. William has been handling this for the book through its various incarnations, blending his own personal style so easily with whatever artist happens to be on the series at the time.

Orlando wrote essays worth of dialogue for this one, and it really bogs things down at times. Maher manages to make sure it at least flows on the page, trying to give it plenty of visual quirkiness along the way. From shifting bubble shapes to different colors and fonts to spice things up. Character’s personalities are loud and clear with each word, helping create firm voices in our head for each of them.

Scarlet Witch #2 is now available from Marvel Comics.