Probability manipulation Reality warping Chaos magic
When the Scarlet Witch was first created by Lee and Kirby, her powers were not well defined. She had "hex powers", that could cause random unlikely events to take place. This gave creative freedom to the writers, as it actually meant that her powers could be used for any purpose required by the plot.[4] Despite the character's name, she had those powers as a mutant, and not because of actual witchcraft. Later writers gave her an increased control over her power, so that she could cause specific events and not just random ones. Englehart also made the character explore witchcraft under the tutelage of Agatha Harkness, a trait that was kept by later writers. The effects of her powers are varied but almost always detrimental to opponents, such as causing the artifact the Evil Eye to work against the inter-dimensional warlord Dormammu,[111] forcing the robot Ultron to short circuit,[112] or a gas main underneath the Brotherhood of Mutants to explode.[113] Scarlet Witch also has the potential to wield magic and later learned that she was destined to serve the role of Nexus Being, a living focal point for the Earth dimension's mystical energy.[114]
Writer Kurt Busiek redefined Scarlet Witch's powers, and maintained that it was in fact an ability to manipulate chaos magic, activated due to the demon Chthon changing her mutation at birth into an ability to wield and control magical energy. This was offered as an explanation for her various feats that seemed to go beyond probability alteration, as well as why her hexes almost always have an effect that is favorable to her goals.[66] During Busiek's run as well as the subsequent run by Geoff Johns, she was shown to be capable of large-scale spells given enough concentration and time to shape the chaos magic to a specific goal, including the resurrection of Wonder Man.[66]
Her powers were retconned in Avengers Disassembled, removing chaos magic and turning them into reality warping. In House of M, this new power was enough to change the whole universe.[115] Her powers were retconned back to their previous ones in The Children's crusade, and the previous events attributed to an outside force that had temporarily increased them.[84]
She has a degree of resistance to the Phoenix Force and can cause pain to its hosts, such as Cyclops when he tried to stop Hope from going with her.[116] This becomes less effective as the Phoenix Force portions are divided among those who have not yet been defeated.[volume & issue needed] A vs X #12 confirmed that her powers involve chaos magic, and stated that she has "Mutant Magic", and the "primal source of her chaos" magic is cosmic.[volume & issue needed]
In the new Scarlet Witch series (2016), it is confirmed that Wanda was born with the ability to utilize witchcraft and that this has been seen in other women within her family.[volume & issue needed] Wanda believes that The High Evolutionary genetically altered her, making her more receptive to magical energy.[volume & issue needed]
Oh wow. That's actually... even more confusing. At first it sounds like her powers are similar to spiderman's black cat (causing bad luck to people/good luck to happen to her) but then they go into that chaos energy thing and reality warping, which again sounds pretty darn vague. It seems purposely vague to allow her or anyone wielding it to do anything and be explained away as magic, with no real rules, standards or limitations to it. ---
