To The Brotherhood We Return

At the end of 1967, Avengers writer Roy Thomas took a series of steps which would pare down the Avengers and would effectively wipe the slate clean as far as their lineup--leaving a core group of Goliath, the Wasp, and Hawkeye, its smallest contingent ever, but quickly adding the Black Panther to their ranks and building from there. Seemingly crucial to Thomas's plans was the removal of not only Captain America, the group's most steadfast member and arguably the "glue" that held the team together, but also the departure of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, who cut their teeth in the Avengers under Cap's leadership along with Hawkeye but were now for whatever reason seen as hangers-on.

There were probably a number of ways for Thomas to have considered for Wanda and Pietro to justify their departure, since the pair are family and have always been joined at the hip as far as making decisions on what to do with their lives and who to form alliances with. But it's probably Thomas we have to thank for stoking the fires of anti-mutant feelings that Stan Lee had only touched on in X-Men and using them to suddenly turn Pietro from Avenger to outcast. Yet there was still Wanda to deal with. Further down the road, Wanda would eventually embrace her own bitter feelings toward humans (and then some); but at this point in time, Wanda didn't share her brother's growing disdain for humans, and was still the loyal Avenger.

But a three-part story--which featured the return of Magneto, a former benefactor of Pietro and Wanda, and a man who had no equal when it came to despising humans--would solve both problems.



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