Scarlet Witch Finally Has What She's Needed for Decades: A Truly God-Tier Nemesis

The Scarlet Witch has rapidly transformed from being an indentured mutant servant to Magneto to becoming the living avatar for a sentient multiverse and an Elder God-level threat throughout her Marvel tenure. Transcending past her troubled past and self-created apocalyptic events, Wanda Maximoff is practically a god in all but name. Now, she finally has an adversarial equal of omniversal cosmic proportions.

Crypt of Shadows is Marvel’s annually recurring single-issue series that collects an array of creepy anthological tales from across Earth-616. In this year’s release, a story called “Do Androids Dream in the Witch House?” by Chris Condon, Djibril Morissette-Phan, & Mattia Iacono, follows Wanda as she tends to her Emporium in the small town of Lotkill, New York.

While celebrating Halloween with Vision, The Last Door, a portal that connects her home to wayward souls, opens on its own. However, what’s on the other side may indicate an even greater threat around the corner for the Scarlet Witch - the cosmic parasite Moridun.

An Evil That Lies on the Witches’ Road, Lurks Behind the Last Door

“Do Androids Dream in the Witch House?” - Written by Chris Condon; Art by Djibril Morissette-Phan; Color by Mattia Iacono

Originally constructed by Wanda as a means to find those in great need and bring them to her Emporium to provide aid, the Last Door is Wanda Maximoff’s current attempt at redemption. Still burdened by her guilt over M-Day, Wanda has settled down and decided to use her Chaos Magic to do good on a smaller scale. However, the Emporium, and the Last Door with it, was destroyed when the cosmic embodiment of entropy, the Griever at the End of All Things, laid siege on Lotkill while attempting to kill the Scarlet Witch.

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After sacrificing herself to stop the Griever, Wanda awoke in the Land of the Dead alongside the living embodiment of the fourth multiversal cosmos, the Queen of Nevers. The Never Queen explains that the Nexi are agents of her will and are connected to a greater multiversal level of power. However, for Wanda to realize her potential and return to the world of the living, she would have to face her greatest fears and failures along the Witches’ Road. Guarding the path forward, Moridun, the first Sorcerer Supreme and Devourer of Worlds, overwhelmed the Scarlet Witch, possessing her soul.

Moridun’s Obsession With Wanda’s Power Won’t Stop Anytime Soon

Scarlet Witch and Moridun First Cross Paths in Scarlet Witch (2024) #3 - Written by Steve Orlando; Art by Jacopo Camagni; Color by Frank William; Lettering by VC’s Ariana Maher

While Wanda defeated Mordiun and barely survived her trials on The Road, she only managed to escape thanks to Hexfinder the Witch-Hunter’s recreation of the Last Door. Returning to this year’s Crypt of Shadows story, when the Last Door opens on its own, it opens to a pitch-black forest with only one path forward, startlingly similar to the Witches’ Road that Wanda had just walked. She theorizes with Vision that Hexfinder may have tampered with the Last Door, acknowledging that it’s a force outside of her control.

While nothing has ever left the Road, other than outsiders who successfully walked the path, that doesn’t mean that an entity of great enough proportions trapped inside couldn’t. Inside, festering and recovering in the temporal anomaly of the Road’s existence, Moridun was left to bide his time until he was strong enough to strike again. To put into perspective the true nature of this creature’s power, Moridun survived the end of his multiverse and the birth of the Queen of Nevers by relying on his magic alone. Moridun is a cosmic parasite with eyes on the entire Maximoff bloodline.

The Maximoff Bloodline Will Be at Risk

Moridun Has Had His Taste, But Not His Meal

Before ever meeting the Scarlet Witch, Moridun targeted her son Wiccan, Earth’s next prophesied Demiurge. Even in his original time, Moridun was considered a parasitic sorcerer who gained power by consuming the power of others. To Moridun, the Maximoff line is the obvious target to satiate his hunger. While he’s failed to overcome either Maximoff, his continued residence along the Witches’ Road actively connects him to both mother and son. As the Last Door uncontrollably opens a path to the Road, Wanda must face the growing threat that she and Wiccan have forged into an enemy of the Maximoff bloodline.

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Moridun has survived collapsing multiverses and will not be easily stopped by a pair of comparatively infant witches. With the Last Door now connecting to the Witches’ Road on its own, Moridun has a direct line to the Scarlet Witch when the time comes to strike. Moridun has been inside both Wanda and Wiccan’s mind and soul, no doubt leaving anchors behind to expedite his next attempt at possession. The Great Devourer’s obsession with the Maximoffs, like him, will persist. So long as the Scarlet Witch remains, Moridun will be there, stalking from the shadows of the Witches’ Road.

Scarlet Witch #5 is available now from Marvel Comics.

Scarlet Witch

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Scarlet Witch debuted, along with her twin brother, Quicksilver in X-Men #4 (March 1964). Also known as Wanda Maximoff, she first appears as a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, before she eventually became a member of the Avengers. In the comics, she is a mutant who uses chaos magic to alter reality. 

Scarlet Witch is played by Elizabeth Olsen in the MCU, having debuted in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.