Warning: This article contains full spoilers for WandaVision and the first five episodes of Agatha All Along! For more on the latest live-action Marvel series, check out our biggest burning questions from Agatha All Along.
Marvel's Agatha All Along has arrived on Disney+, kicking off one of the strangest MCU projects to date. The series picks up where WandaVision left off in 2021, following what happens when Kathryn Hahn's Agatha Harkness tries to regain control of her life and walk the Witches Road. Joining her is Joe Locke's character, introduced only as "Teen." But thanks to Episode 5, we finally have confirmation of Teen's true identity.
As many viewers predicted, Locke is actually playing Wiccan, the magically created son of Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch and Paul Bettany's Vision. And where Billy Kaplan appears, his twin brother Tommy Shepherd surely can't be far behind. Let's break down the history of Wanda's twin children and why these two characters could wind up playing a prominent role in the MCU going forward. These are the topics we cover here:
- Who Are Wiccan and Speed?
- The Origins of Scarlet Witch's Children
- Billy and Tommy's Powers
- Billy and Tommy Maximoff? Wanda's Convoluted Family Tree
- Wiccan and Speed's Superhero Teams
- Wiccan and Speed in the MCU
- Will the Young Avengers Join the MCU?
Wiccan and Speed: The Weird History of Scarlet Witch's Children
Who Are Wiccan and Speed?
Like so many mutants in the Marvel Universe, Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd grew up thinking they were perfectly ordinary children. That is, until their powers began to manifest as teenagers. But these two long-lost twin brothers are unusual even among the mutant community. They're the sons of Scarlet Witch and Vision, making them members of quite possibly the most convoluted family tree in the entire Marvel Universe.
Though they're both young and still learning the true potential of their powers, both Wiccan and Speed have already left a mark on the Marvel Universe. As regular members of the Young Avengers and other superhero squads, they're more than happy to keep the family legacy alive and fight against whatever evils might arise.
They're the sons of Scarlet Witch and Vision, making them members of quite possibly the most convoluted family tree in the entire Marvel Universe.
The Origins of Scarlet Witch's Children
Wiccan and Speed were created by writer Allan Heinberg and artist Jim Cheung, with Wiccan debuting in 2005's Young Avengers #1 and Speed following in Young Avengers #10.
Given that their mother is a spell-caster and their father is an android, it goes without saying that Wiccan and Speed have a pretty unusual origin story. Wanda and Vision have shared a tumultuous romantic history over the years. Because Vision is an artificial being known as a Synthezoid, he's not actually capable of fathering biological children of his own. In response, Wanda magically creates two twin sons to complete their nuclear family. They were born in 1986's The Vision and the Scarlet Witch Vol. 2, #12.
That's only the beginning of a very convoluted origin, however. Long story short, Wanda eventually learns her sons' souls are formed from an aspect of the demon lord Mephisto. After Mephisto reclaims that energy, Wanda and Vision's children are seemingly wiped out of existence and Wanda is made to forget she ever had children. Sadly, those memories are never entirely scrubbed away, which leads to some very dark days for Earth's Mightiest Heroes in 2004's Avengers Disassembled.
The good news is that Wanda and Vision's children weren't destroyed. Rather, their souls are reincarnated in new bodies to be raised by new surrogate parents. Once Billy and Tommy come to grips with their growing powers and their direct connection to the Avengers, their shared superhero destiny truly begins. Both have overcome plenty of adversity already, with Billy facing regular bullying due to his being gay and Tommy becoming an unwitting test subject in a sinister government facility.
Billy and Tommy's Powers
In terms of their powers, Wiccan and Speed are practically carbon copies of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, respectively. As his name suggests, Speed can run at supersonic speeds and can even move fast enough to vibrate through solid barriers. He also has enhanced strength and durability, allowing his body to endure those extreme forces. Speed even has one ability his uncle doesn't. He can accelerate the kinetic energy of objects he touches, causing them to vibrate and explode.
Like Wanda, Billy is a sorcerer whose powers are derived from his mutant biology rather than any supernatural artifacts or magical training. He can alter reality on a fundamental level, allowing him to do everything from fly to teleport to fire destructive energy blasts. Because he has little formal training, Billy doesn't have a great deal of control over his powers. He often has to focus his mind by saying, "I want to [insert spell here]" during battle.
When he first appeared on the superhero scene, Billy used the codename Asgardian rather than Wiccan, with his costume and emphasis on lightning-based spells both suggesting he was somehow connected to Thor. However, that proved not to be the case, and Billy has since changed codenames to better reflect his true nature.
Wiccan is a figure of great interest to the rest of Marvel's magical community, with everyone from Loki to Doctor Strange predicting Billy will one day grow to become one of the most powerful beings in the universe. Billy gets a taste of this future when he briefly becomes an all-powerful being called the Demiurge, but he quickly decides he's not ready to wield such power.
Billy and Tommy Maximoff? Wanda's Convoluted Family Tree
When it comes to Marvel bloodlines, the Maximoff family tree rivals the Summers family tree for its sheer number of members and confusing, contradictory history. As we've already discussed, Billy and Tommy are technically the children of Scarlet Witch and Vision. However, they aren't really related to Vision by blood (since he has none). And because they were both reincarnated in new bodies after that nasty Mephisto business, they each technically have their own biological parents as well. Because of that, they don't actually use the Maximoff name, even if they are part of that complex genealogical tapestry.
It doesn't help that Wanda and her brother Pietro have a deeply confusing family tree even without factoring Billy and Tommy into things. When the characters first debuted in 1964's The X-Men #4, they were depicted simply as Magneto's underlings in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Initially the duo believe the Romani couple Django and Marya Maximoff are their parents. Later, they're given reason to believe they're the offspring of WWII-era heroes The Whizzer and Miss America (which probably explains the apparent Whizzer cameo in WandaVision Episode 2). But then they discover they're actually the children of Magneto himself, a fact that proves just as surprising to the Master of Magnetism. Because Magneto has another daughter Polaris, that means Wanda and Pietro have a sister.
That plot twist remained in effect until 2014's AXIS, where a corrupted Wanda attempts to cast a curse on her family members and finds only Pietro is affected. It turns out Magneto isn't their father after all, nor are they actually mutants. The twins later learn their true mother is Natalya Maximoff, a witch and a relative of Django and Marya. Natalya gave up her children in order to protect them from the dangers of witchcraft. The twins were experimented upon by the High Evolutionary as infants, before being returned to the Maximoffs to be raised in obscurity. As for the true source of their powers, even the High Evolutionary seems uncertain at this point.
It remains to be seen if Marvel will shake up the Maximoff family tree yet again. It's widely assumed this latest retcon was a result of Marvel's feud with Fox over the X-Men's film rights and a way to sever Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's ties to the X-Men franchise. But with Disney's purchase of Fox, there's no longer a need to draw that line. Does this mean the family connection between Magneto, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver will be restored? That may depend on how the MCU handles Wanda's back-story and the introduction of teenage Wiccan and Speed.
Wiccan and Speed's Superhero Teams
Wiccan and Speed are most closely associated with the Young Avengers, having served on pretty much every incarnation of this teen superhero team. Wiccan is actually a founding member, as he joins forces with his boyfriend Hulkling (a shape-shifting Kree/Skrull hybrid), underage super-soldier Patriot (grandson of one of the original Captain America test subjects) and the time-travelling Iron Lad (find out more about him in our Kang the Conqueror explainer) to fill the void left after the Avengers have disbanded. Tommy joins the team shortly after, along with new Hawkeye Kate Bishop.
While the Young Avengers roster has shifted a bit in the years since, both Wiccan and Speed tend to be fixtures in that lineup. Wiccan has also stepped up to the big leagues and served as a full-fledged Avenger. He was a member of the short-lived Avengers Idea Mechanics, a re-branded version of the evil science organization AIM spearheaded by its new owner Sunspot. More recently, Wiccan has reluctantly joined a team called Strikeforce, as he and other heroes like Blade, Spectrum and the Winter Soldier deal with being replaced by shape-shifting impostors. Marvel is also introduced a remixed Guardians of the galaxy lineup in 2021 that included both Wiccan and Hulkling.
The Young Avengers also have a long history of joining forces with the Runaways, another teen superhero team who inspired the Hulu series. Their original team-up occurred during the backdrop of the Civil War crossover, and it's become something of a trend for the two teams to reunite during major Marvel conflicts.
Wiccan and Speed in the MCU
While Wiccan and Speed don't have a long track record of appearing outside Marvel's comics, that's slowly been changing in recent years. Theyve appeared in a handful of Marvel video games, including as playable characters in LEGO Marvel's Avengers. Wiccan is also a playable character in Marvel Future Fight and was available as an alternate skin for Scarlet Witch in Marvel Heroes before that much-loved action RPG was terminated.
Both characters have now appeared in the MCU, though Marvel is still very much in the setup phase and has yet to establish Billy and Tommy as fully realized teen superheroes. Billy and Tommy are first introduced in 2021's WandaVision, which sees Wanda cast a spell that transforms the town of Westview, NJ into a living TV sitcom. Wanda even uses her magic to create sons to complete her family, and those sons rapidly grow from infancy to preteens in the span of an episode (with Julian Hilliard playing Billy and Jett Klyne playing Tommy).
Unfortunately, when Wanda is finally snapped back to reality and ends the spell holding Westview hostage, she's forced to give up her magically generated children and her temporarily revived husband. That paves the way for 2022's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as a grieving Wanda uses the cursed book known as The Darkhold to navigate the multiverse in search of a world where she can reunite with her children. But after finding a version of her children and realizing she's nothing more than a terrifying monster in their eyes, Wanda seemingly sacrifices herself to destroy Mount Wundagore and the Darkhold.
That's where Agatha All Along comes in. In this series, Hahn's Agatha Harkness is still imprisoned inside a false reality in Westview, a punishment for her role in manipulating Wanda. Agatha escapes and forms a new coven of witches to help her walk the Witches' Road and regain her lost power. Joining her on that quest is Joe Locke's character. A boy known only as "Teen," he carries a mysterious hex obscuring his true identity.
From the beginning, Marvel fans speculated that Locke is actually playing a teenage version of Billy Kaplan/Maximoff, and that theory is finally confirmed in Episode 5. There, Teen manifests his magical powers for the first time and summons the same headband that his mother Wanda wore in the series finale of Wandavision. And if there was still any doubt as to Teen's true identity, Agatha taunts him with the line, "You're just like your mother."
Clearly, just as in the comics, Billy and Tommy were reincarnated in new forms when Wanda wiped them out of existence in WandaVision. But will Billy ever come face-to-face with Wanda, or is she truly gone? And when will Tommy come back into the picture? Thsoe are questions that have yet to be answered.
Will the Young Avengers Join the MCU?
Ever since the release of Avengers: Endgame, we've suspected Marvel Studios is slowly paving the way for the Young Avengers in a future Phase. The debut of Wiccan and Speed in WandaVision only lends further fuel to that fire.
At this point, nearly every core member of that team has either been introduced in some form. Scott Lang's daughter Cassie has already appeared in several movies, with Endgame even conveniently aging her up to become a teenager, and Cassie becoming Stature in 2023's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop starred in 2021's Hawkeye series. Kang the Conqueror has joined the MCU, which means Iron Lad could well follow. Patriot appeared (in non-powered form) in 2021's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
That only leaves Hulkling, and we could easily see him debuting in one of a number of upcoming MCU projects. And there's no reason Marvel couldn't work other teen heroes into the MCU's version of the Young Avengers, like Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel. In fact, a post-credits scene in 2023's The Marvels suggests Iman Vellani's Kamala Khan will be a founding member of the team.
Are you excited for a possible Young Avengers MCU team-up? Vote in our poll to let us know which of these heroes you most want to see fighting alongside Steinfeld's Hawkeye and Vellani's Ms. Marvel:
Note: this article was originally published on 1/22/2021 and updated on 10/10/2024 with the latest information from Agatha All Along.
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