What If... Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings

As comic book fans, we really are living in the best of days, not because there is so much content to read or watch, but because the artform is established. The concept of comics, superheroes and, in this case, Marvel are well enough known that we can play with the format. Marvel has been doing it for years, using the Multiverse to explore how characters from different timelines would react. Have you ever asked yourself the question What If...Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings? Seanan McGuire asked this question, and one answer is that you get a wonderful thought exercise and book out of it. 

Across the Multiverse there is a world in which Peter Parker’s parents were sent out to Latveria to investigate strange power readings only to find an abandoned baby. There is evidence that another child was present, but the Parkers could only save Wanda. They bring her back to be a little sister to the infant Peter and the two become attached. As they grow, Peter is bitten by a radioactive spider and Wanda starts to feel her own powers. How will their lives be different having one another to rely on? 

It can tempting with the What If... series to make giant leaps to twist the Marvelverse, but McGuire chooses a far more personal story with Wanda and Peter. The tale is told from the perspective of Wanda, but her presence in Peter’s life has just as big an effect on his life. This book is both familiar and fresh at the same time. Most people know the story of Spider-Man and Marvel fans will know the origins of the Scarlet Witch. Combining the two throws up so many wonderful thought exercises, the type of thing that I think about when I should be acting like an adult. 

Rather than concentrating solely on the burgeoning powers of the characters, McGuire focuses on the relationships, and this makes the book work perfectly. Peter is famously an only child, Wanda a twin. How do adopted children act with one another? With love. Love plays a huge role in the book. Events still conspire to steal so many people from Peter and Wanda, their parents, Uncle Ben, Gwen and more, but they always have each other. The relationship may be strained at times, but they come back to one another. 

There are so many fun asides in the book. What would people think if Spider-Man teamed up with Scarlet Witch? Are they a couple – ewww. The book transplants Wanda to America and even explores this. Aunt May wants Wanda to know about her Latverian roots and sends her to work at a local restaurant. Here Wanda meets the likes of The Human Torch and Captain America who frequent the restaurant. It feels like McGuire started writing the book with the characters in mind and allowed the story to flow from how they would interact. It is a lovely look at an alternative reality for Peter and Wanda. 

The use of America Chavez as a Watcher works brilliantly, she is viewing this version of the multiverse from afar. It allows McGuire to move the story back and forth, skipping the mundane years and focusing on events that prove pivotal. America places the What If... books in a larger Meta story across the series and is a very clever idea. 

Wanda and Peter may have both characters, but this is a Scarlet Witch novel and explores her origins in an interesting way. If Wanda were taken from Latveria at such a youthful age would she have the same roots, the same principles? The book suggests that some elements in life are a given, no matter the universe. This particular universe was a joy to explore, especially for fans of Marvel. It takes known elements, explores them, and places them back somewhere new in the puzzle. The characters are joyous. One of the most rewardingly enjoyable Marvel books I have read.