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A review by monitaroymohan
Marvel: What If . . . Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings? by Seanan McGuire
3.0
I enjoyed this book, but it’s not without issues.
I can’t help but compare this one to the Loki What If…, which was terrible. I did not like it at all (you can read my spoiler-filled grievances here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6440465582)
So I was really worried going into this one. But, mostly, this book was engaging, pacey and heartfelt. The writer and editors made logical efforts to ensure Wanda and Peter could be siblings, and their relationship is heightened and overwrought but not unusual.
I was surprised at the linear narrative — I expected a book featuring chaos magic to be somewhat more innovative in structure, but I can’t fault the linear storytelling for making this an easy read. Spoilers ahead.
I do think Wanda spent way too much time crying—I know people, especially girls and women, tend to cry a lot, but more often than not, when the situation is bad, they’re the stoic ones and break down later. So, she seemed too emotional. I also don’t think Peter’s reaction and rant after Gwen’s death warranted such quick forgiveness from Wanda. There were words said that were unforgivable. And she herself thinks he meant them. So, why, after months of rightfully not speaking, the quick patch up? He should have really been taken to task for his words — who says things like that to their own family? This dramatic stuff always happens in American media and everyone just pats each other on the back and goes back to normal. Families would literally fall apart after crap like that in the real world.
Not sure where Wanda and cooking came from—it seemed so domestic. It’s weird, but the book does toe the gendered lines a lot. Peter has science, an internship, a girlfriend and friends. Wanda has cooking?
I love that the author acknowledges Wanda’s Roma heritage, which was not something that was obvious in the early comics I read of her, but has been something more prominently discussed over the recent years. I’d have liked to see Wanda dig into that much more than just learning to cook Romany meals. She talks a lot about learning the language, but there’s little evidence of it. I don’t blame Pietro for scoffing at how she was made to cook in her adoptive home — it’s an inaccurate assumption, but it would be bizarre to anyone to hear the girl of the house was cooking. Doesn’t sound like Peter was ever in the kitchen. Again, not sure why the gendered lines were drawn in this book.
While we have some cameos from other heroes, the mainstay other than Peter Parker is Doctor Strange. I don’t know if he has apprentices in the comics, but it’s right weird to constantly read Wanda talk about her master. Just an odd choice.
The book does feel like a highlights reel of tragedies for the Parkers — seems like we meet them only when something bad is about to go down. I’m also surprised that yet again, like the previous What If…? book, there’s a lot of past tense and reported speech. It makes sense for some scenes when you want to deal with the aftermath rather than the reality, such as the hate crime against Wanda. But there are fights and so much more that are all shared after the fact. It makes the reading dull and the stakes non existent.
That’s probably why the third act worked better. It’s the here and now and we see it unfolding rather than being told so. But, the whole book wrapped up so quickly. We’re teased Quicksilver’s awful life and fear of Doctor Doom, and then poof, it’s over. And weirdly, the fight where the big guns are brought in, they’re not even needed. Wanda handled it herself, but she needed ‘rescuing’, even though she rescued herself. It’s so bizarre to see Wanda on the back foot with her powers in this book. She was, admittedly, not so powerful in early comics, but we know how powerful she is and can be — so for the story to be mostly about her training and learning and controlling her power, it feels like a tired way of writing about an emerging female superhero.
I liked this book, and once again, there’s a sense that this story will continue. Not sure how but I’ll go back to it. I just wish these books would let go of their inhibitions and old-fashioned ways of character-building. Give these female characters more of a personality outside family and love and domesticity. They can have those and still be more.
I can’t help but compare this one to the Loki What If…, which was terrible. I did not like it at all (you can read my spoiler-filled grievances here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6440465582)
So I was really worried going into this one. But, mostly, this book was engaging, pacey and heartfelt. The writer and editors made logical efforts to ensure Wanda and Peter could be siblings, and their relationship is heightened and overwrought but not unusual.
I was surprised at the linear narrative — I expected a book featuring chaos magic to be somewhat more innovative in structure, but I can’t fault the linear storytelling for making this an easy read. Spoilers ahead.
I do think Wanda spent way too much time crying—I know people, especially girls and women, tend to cry a lot, but more often than not, when the situation is bad, they’re the stoic ones and break down later. So, she seemed too emotional. I also don’t think Peter’s reaction and rant after Gwen’s death warranted such quick forgiveness from Wanda. There were words said that were unforgivable. And she herself thinks he meant them. So, why, after months of rightfully not speaking, the quick patch up? He should have really been taken to task for his words — who says things like that to their own family? This dramatic stuff always happens in American media and everyone just pats each other on the back and goes back to normal. Families would literally fall apart after crap like that in the real world.
Not sure where Wanda and cooking came from—it seemed so domestic. It’s weird, but the book does toe the gendered lines a lot. Peter has science, an internship, a girlfriend and friends. Wanda has cooking?
I love that the author acknowledges Wanda’s Roma heritage, which was not something that was obvious in the early comics I read of her, but has been something more prominently discussed over the recent years. I’d have liked to see Wanda dig into that much more than just learning to cook Romany meals. She talks a lot about learning the language, but there’s little evidence of it. I don’t blame Pietro for scoffing at how she was made to cook in her adoptive home — it’s an inaccurate assumption, but it would be bizarre to anyone to hear the girl of the house was cooking. Doesn’t sound like Peter was ever in the kitchen. Again, not sure why the gendered lines were drawn in this book.
While we have some cameos from other heroes, the mainstay other than Peter Parker is Doctor Strange. I don’t know if he has apprentices in the comics, but it’s right weird to constantly read Wanda talk about her master. Just an odd choice.
The book does feel like a highlights reel of tragedies for the Parkers — seems like we meet them only when something bad is about to go down. I’m also surprised that yet again, like the previous What If…? book, there’s a lot of past tense and reported speech. It makes sense for some scenes when you want to deal with the aftermath rather than the reality, such as the hate crime against Wanda. But there are fights and so much more that are all shared after the fact. It makes the reading dull and the stakes non existent.
That’s probably why the third act worked better. It’s the here and now and we see it unfolding rather than being told so. But, the whole book wrapped up so quickly. We’re teased Quicksilver’s awful life and fear of Doctor Doom, and then poof, it’s over. And weirdly, the fight where the big guns are brought in, they’re not even needed. Wanda handled it herself, but she needed ‘rescuing’, even though she rescued herself. It’s so bizarre to see Wanda on the back foot with her powers in this book. She was, admittedly, not so powerful in early comics, but we know how powerful she is and can be — so for the story to be mostly about her training and learning and controlling her power, it feels like a tired way of writing about an emerging female superhero.
I liked this book, and once again, there’s a sense that this story will continue. Not sure how but I’ll go back to it. I just wish these books would let go of their inhibitions and old-fashioned ways of character-building. Give these female characters more of a personality outside family and love and domesticity. They can have those and still be more.