Snap Into Marvel! — The Twisty Turny History of Wiccan & Speed

Real Names: William “Billy” Kaplan-Altman and Thomas “Tommy” Shepherd

First Appearances: Wiccan – Vision and Scarlet Witch #12 (September 1986) (as William Maximioff), Young Avengers #1 (April 2005) as Asgardian, Young Avengers #3 (April 2005) as Billy Kaplan, Young Avengers #6 (June 2005) as Wiccan. 

Speed – Vision and Scarlet Witch #12 (September 1986) as Thomas Maximoff, Young Avengers #10 (March 2006) as Thomas Shepherd/Speed

First Multimedia Appearances: WandaVision (2021), played by Baylen Bielitz & Julian Hillard (Wiccan) and Gavin Borders & Jett Klyne (Speed). 

Powers and Abilities: Wiccan possesses the ability to manipulate magical energy, via the specific act of stating an intent and then mentally focusing on that outcome. Speed is a mutant to run at heightened speeds in excess of the speed of sound, which also gives him the ability to create hyperkinetic vibrations by accelerating the molecules in matter by touch.

Comic Book Chronicles

Alright, buckle up for this one. 

Once upon a time, a mutant witch named Scarlet Witch and a synthezoid named Vision were teammates on the Avengers. They fell in love, married, and effectively retired from superheroing to the New Jersey suburbs. There, thanks to the Scarlet Witch’s magical abilities, they had children, a pair of twin boys named William and Thomas.

Then, a creator named John Byrne, who believed Vision was no different from a toaster, wrote and drew a series of stories in which Vision was destroyed and rebuilt without any emotions and the children of Vision and Scarlet Witch were revealed to be pieces of the demonic Mephisto’s “essence” unconsciously captured and manifested as human infants by Scarlet Witch, which, when reclaimed, caused the boys to fade from existence. This drove Scarlet Witch insane and turned her into a super-villain for a brief period of time, thereby creating an unfortunate “Scarlet With goes crazy!” storytelling trope that lingers to this day. 

Many years and at least one more additional “Scarlet Witch goes craaaazy!” story later, the Young Avengers are formed. Amongst their number is a teenage boy named Billy, who possesses magical abilities expressed chiefly through flight and lightning-based spells. This slots him into the “Legacy Thor” slot on the team alongside Patriot (Legacy Captain America), Iron Lad (Legacy Iron Man), Kate Bishop (Legacy Hawkeye), etc.

Shortly after the original Young Avengers group comes together, they meet another teenager named Tommy, who looks just like Billy and possesses super-speed abilities, just like the Scarlet Witch’s twin brother Quicksilver. This indirectly underscore the connection between Billy’s magical abilities and the Scarlet Witch, and several twisty-turny stories later, it’s confirmed that the souls of Scarlet Witch and Vision’s twin boys were neither destroyed nor reclaimed by Mephisto, but rather, traveled through time to be reborn as two different kids in two different families, before eventually reuniting with each and learning the truth of their existence as the now-grown quasi-children of Scarlet Witch and Visions.

Would this have all been easier if John Byrne could have just left well enough alone and the original children of Scarlet Witch and Vision allowed to grow up over time and/or be magically aged-up in a way that wreaked less havoc on Scarlet Witch’s characterization through the years? Of course. But that’s comics, I guess. At the very least, both Wiccan and Speed have turned out to be entertaining characters in their own right and integral members of several incarnations of the Young Avengers, the lemonade to the lemons John Byrne handed Scarlet Witch.

Fit & Finish

Neither Wiccan nor Speed have undergone significant costume variations in their relatively short existences. Wiccan’s based card reflects the more stripped down version of his original look, which he adopted after leaving behind his original Thor-inspired “Asgardian” nom de guerre and began using the name Wiccan. That original look, with the Thor-esque winged helmet, is featured on one of his variants, while the more cosmic look, with a starscape running along the sides, is spotlighted in his final variant.

Speed, meanwhile, features the same general look across all three of his cards, the green and white update to his uncle Quicksilver’s original comic book look.

Form & Function

Wiccan is an interesting card. In terms of his comics-to-card connection, the link is pretty tenuous. Wiccan has magical powers in the comics and can do most anything, so that doesn’t NOT translate to “give you +2 power if you spend all your energy”, especially when you factor in the general notion of magical power “costing” something (a notion that is only implicitly, not explicitly, tied to Wiccan’s comic book abilities).

Given that Wiccan often acts as the Young Avenger’s teleporter in the comics, a variation on Doctor Strange’s move ability might have made for a stronger comic/card connection. But what we’ve got isn’t totally out there. 

As is, it puts Wiccan into the same category of cards like Electro, Corvus Glaive, and Arishem, in that he generates extra energy. Unlike those other cards, however, Wiccan provides an unprecedented +2 power – the highest per turn energy increase yet in the game. The tradeoff for that — spending the entirety of your six energy in turns 1-3 — can be onerous, especially when locations like Project Pegasus that give extra energy early in the game appear. As a result, Wiccan doesn’t slot neatly into an established archetype. Even obvious candidates like Ramp decks aren’t always designed out of the box to easily meet his trigger conditions. 

I picked up Wiccan last week largely on a whim. Thus far, he’s been a fun but certainly not essential card. He’s been a fun addition to High Evo and Loki decks; the former takes advantage of the extra energy once he’s played and can run a fair number of 1-3 drops, while the latter, with the right configuration, can easily generate enough cards to meet the Wiccan criteria even if you don’t draw a 1, 2 and 3 cost card in the right order. Honestly, the biggest drawback hasn’t been Wiccan’s On Reveal stipulation, but rather, that he’s really only beneficial to play exactly on turn 4. Both the High Evo and Loki archetypes have win conditions where Wiccan’s extra energy is a bonus, not a requirement, which makes it okay if he misses a Turn 4. But that limitation will likely keep him from ever being a must-play card. 

Speed, Wiccan’s twin brother, similarly offers perks to using all your energy, essentially transforming your spent energy into a point of additional power. Like Marvel Boy, this ability has less to do with his powers (he’s basically Quicksilver/Makkari) and more to do with his relationship. Basically, the Scarlet Witch boys both play around with the notion of spending all your energy to gain additional benefits. 

Unfortunately for Speed, the tradeoff for spending energy isn’t as exciting as it is with Wiccan. Obviously, he can make for a fun 3 drop followed by Wiccan. But best case scenario, he grows to a 3/9. That’s good, but not great (Cassandra Nova can get to six power AND take a point from every remaining card in your opponent’s deck). As a 3-drop, Speed can get slotted into a Silver Surfer deck, particularly a Sera Surfer deck that wants to play Sera on 5 (and thereby use all that turn’s energy, boosting Speed). But it’s not like Marvel Snap is suffering a lack of strong 3 cost cards, which’ll make it harder for Speed to find a place even there. 

Ultimately, Speed likely won’t be a bad card, but he won’t be an essential one, either. His brother Wiccan, who also isn’t essential, will likely get played more simply for having a better ability despite similar drawbacks. At the same time, Speed debuts in a Spotlight Cache alongside Iron Lad and Jeff the Baby Land Shark, two of the best all-around cards in the entire game. For anyone who doesn’t have one or either of those cards, that makes this the odd week where pulling the new card might feel like a loss rather than a win.