This article contains spoilers for The Trial of Magneto #1.
The Scarlet Witch was murdered in the aftermath of the X-Men's Hellfire Gala and there are plenty of clues regarding the crime scattered throughout X-Books as of late. The mutants of Krakoa have never been Scarlet Witch's greatest fan. They basically consider Scarlet Witch the Devil, blaming her for when she came close to rendering the mutant race extinction a moment of mental weakness. Worse still, in their eyes, is the fact for years Wanda Maximoff was believed to be a mutant - only for that to turn out to be a lie. She is hated with an unparalleled ferocity, dubbed "The Pretender." Mutant children literally fear her name.
And yet, despite all that, Magneto still invited Scarlet Witch to the X-Men's Hellfire Gala. She turned up late, arriving after the party and sharing a touching moment with the Master of Magnetism in which they reconciled at last; Magneto insisted he would always love her, even if she was not his actual daughter. And yet, as sweet as this reconciliation may have been, Wanda's time on Krakoan soil ended in tragedy. The morning after the Hellfire Gala, Scarlet Witch was found murdered. Magneto is the primary suspect.
The tale is being told in The Trial of Magneto, a miniseries by Leah Williams and Lucas Werneck. The issue sees Williams' X-Factor team investigate, using their powers to explore the scene of the crime and try to figure out what happened. And though they point the finger at Magneto, the evidence is far from convincing. Something very dangerous is going on here.
Scarlet Witch was attacked when nobody else was around. Rachel Summers uses her chronoskimming powers to confirm there was an initial struggle, but Scarlet Witch broke free and ran. She managed three running steps before being grabbed from behind, and she was dragged backwards into the bushes around the Hellfire Gala building. Wanda's hands were restrained behind her back by something, and then another object was used to throttle her, choking her to death.
Wanda's attempts to free herself saw her rip her fingernails back, spilling her own blood on her body. X-Factor analyze the inorganic particles around her throat, and conclude the cause of death was, "strangulation, by means of supernatural magnetization." It's not hard to figure out the primary suspect.
Rachel Summers possesses a power called chronoskimming, something similar to psychometry in Star Wars. This allows her to peer back through time, and although there's a lot of confusion around the murder scene, she is able to discern somebody walking away from Scarlet Witch's body - somebody in a white cape. Magneto was notably wearing a white cape at the gala.
It is, nevertheless, striking that there is no sign Wanda Maximoff ever used her powers in her defense. Wanda is the Scarlet Witch, a sorceress of tremendous power who can manipulate reality itself, who can enter the Winding Ways and abandon the physical plane of existence at will. What's more, Wanda is no stranger to combat situations; she's an Avenger, and she's used to defending herself when the need arises. Her initial decision to run, rather than to invoke her magic, is simply inexplicable.
X-Factor deduces Wanda's hands were bound to stop her using her magic, but while hand gestures are an important part of some of Scarlet Witch's spells, they are by no means essential to all of them. There should have been some signs of magical energy being released - and there is no trace of such sorcery. Something about this murder feels decidedly strange.
According to X-Factor's autopsy, the time of death was 2:56 am. But that's a problem; according to S.W.O.R.D. #6, Wanda Maximoff didn't actually arrive at the Hellfire Gala until 3:17 am, when she stepped out of a Krakoan gateway to talk to Magneto. It's worth noting there may even be a witness confirming this, with a drunken Nightcrawler potentially seeing Magneto and Scarlet Witch sharing a dance (see Way of X #3). While the inebriated Nightcrawler wouldn't necessarily make a convincing witness, his evidence would still be enough to raise some questions.
There are three possible explanations for this discrepancy; either the body is a duplicate, the Scarlet Witch who reconciled with Magneto was a shapeshifter or doppelganger impersonating her, or something is manipulating reality itself.
The autopsy is conducted on the living island of Krakoa - and when it is over, as the X-Men rush to arrest Magneto as the prime suspect, the island reacts to Wanda's corpse. To Speed's horror, when he goes to see his mother's body, he finds it completely consumed with vines. It seems a rather convenient way of concealing the body to prevent further investigation - but why is it happening in the first place?
Even stranger, the Krakoan gateway in Manhattan has changed, beginning to grow the precipitously rare everbloom blossom - Wanda's favorite flower, and not a native Krakoan plant. It is as though the island of Krakoa is absorbing Wanda into itself.
The Trial of Magneto #1 builds to a climax in what is clearly meant to be a vision of Scarlet Witch's murder. Strikingly, though, this vision sees Wanda killed in a very different way - with a long blade that is plunged into her gut. The dialogue accompanying this suggests it is metaphorical, and that the knife was grief and loss. Most importantly, though, the cloak worn by the killer does not correspond to that worn by Magneto at the Hellfire Gala at all. Although it's difficult to be sure, the hands appear feminine.
In the most shocking twist of all; according to The Trial of Magneto #1, Scarlet Witch is actually not truly dead. It seems she still has a degree of self-awareness, her consciousness transported to some other plane of existence. She is surrounded by flowers - some of which seem distinctly Krakoan.
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The X-Men may believe Magneto was the one who murdered Scarlet Witch - perhaps Magneto intended to resurrect her as a mutant - but that seems extremely unlikely. Rather, it looks as though something has manipulated reality itself around the murder scene, which would explain why Wanda was unable to use her powers to defend herself; that means a lot of the "evidence" may well have been staged. Meanwhile, whatever happened to Scarlet Witch has bound her somehow to Krakoa itself. The X-Men and X-Factor are nowhere near to solving this murder mystery.
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