Wiccan and Speed's History, Explained

Between the strange circumstances of their births and their adventures with the Young Avengers, Wiccan and Speed never exactly lived charmed lives. Created through magic, the twin sons of Scarlet Witch and Vision spent a short life together before they were reincarnated as Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd.

Since they reconnected as members of the Young Avengers, Wiccan and Speed have both saved the world and proven themselves alongside some of their generation's finest heroes. These long-lost brothers also untangled their complex relationship with the Scarlet Witch and helped the chaotic Avenger build a more stable life.

Now, let's look back at some of the most critical moments in Wiccan and Speed's history. From their strange beginnings to their long overdue family reunions, we'll break down how these two Young Avengers found each other and saved the mother they never knew.

THE BIRTH OF BILLY AND TOMMY

Before they were Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd, Wiccan and Speed were born to the Scarlet Witch as Billy and Tommy Maximoff in VISION AND SCARLET WITCH (1985) #12 by Steve Englehart and Richard Howell. While Wanda was married to the Vision, she used her reality-altering hex powers and magic to become pregnant with the twins.

During that mystical process, Wanda created the twins using parts of souls that belonged to Mephisto. Despite their unusual conception, the Maximoff twins were delivered by Doctor Strange and spent the early months of their lives under the care of their parents and the West Coast Avengers.

Enter Master Pandemonium, an actor who became an agent of Mephisto after getting injured in a car accident. On Mephisto's behalf, Master Pandemonium reabsorbed the spirits of Billy and Tommy in AVENGERS WEST COAST (1985) #51 by John Byrne.

After Wanda watched her sons fuse with Master Pandemonium's hands in a bizarre process, Agatha Harkness—the Scarlet Witch's mentor—removed her memories of the twins and their dramatic demise. Despite Agatha's noble intentions, this played a major role in setting up Wanda's later breakdown, which caused the AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED and HOUSE OF M crises.

HOW WICCAN MET SPEED

Wiccan and Speed's spirits eventually found new hosts in Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd, who were born to unrelated parents. As they grew up, Billy discovered his inherited magical abilities, and Tommy got into trouble with his super-speed powers.

Around this time, Iron Lad—a young version of Kang the Conqueror—traveled back in time to assemble a team that could replace the recently disbanded Avengers in the hopes of avoiding his own villainous destiny. Accordingly, Iron Lad recruited Billy, who joined the team as the magic-wielding Asgardian in YOUNG AVENGERS (2005) #1 by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung.

When the Young Avengers needed new members, they found Tommy through the Avengers Fail-Safe Program, which sought promising young superhumans who could become Avengers. Despite his heroic potential, Tommy resurfaced in a superhuman juvenile detention facility, where he had ended up after destroying his school with his powers.

The other Young Avengers freed Tommy from his cell in YOUNG AVENGERS (2005) #10 by Heinberg and Cheung. When Billy and Tommy came face-to-face, their teammate Stature remarked that they looked like identical twins. After escaping from the facility that tried to turn him into a weapon, Tommy took the codename Speed and officially joined the team.

WICCAN AND SPEED LEARN THEIR HISTORY

As the team was busy recruiting Speed, Hulkling—Wiccan's shape-shifting alien boyfriend—was pursued and captured by agents of the two cosmic empires that claimed him as a descendant: the Kree and the Skrulls. The young heroes also saved the Super-Skrull, who told the teen heroes about their connections to the original Avengers in YOUNG AVENGERS (2005) #11.

After confirming that Hulkling was the son of the Kree Captain Mar-Vell and a Skrull princess, the Super-Skrull revealed Billy and Tommy were not only brothers, but the sons of the Scarlet Witch. Around this time, the Vision—who had been reconstructed in a younger form—also confirmed the Super-Skrull's claims about the boys.

As Vision explained how Mephisto absorbed Wanda's children, Wiccan realized Mephisto's brief defeat had released their souls back into the world, where they were born to their biological parents. Just as the Vision realized his previous form was Billy and Tommy's father, the Young Avengers were drawn back into battle, where they ultimately saved Hulkling from both alien empires with the help of the Super-Skrull.

THE SEARCH FOR SCARLET WITCH

Speed and Wiccan learned about their relationship to Scarlet Witch in the wake of HOUSE OF M, where Wanda went missing after temporarily reshaping reality. Troubled by nightmares about Wanda and Mephisto, Billy stepped away from the rest of the Young Avengers and convinced Tommy to help him search for their mystical mother in YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS (2008) #3 by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Alina Urusov.

Despite Speed's skepticism, the teen heroes searched important locations from Wanda's life, including the nation of Genosha and Wundagore Mountain. However, they did not find anything until they came across Wanda and Vision's old home in Cresskill, New Jersey.

When the siblings walked into the house, Speed was transported to Hell, and Wiccan came face-to-face with Master Pandemonium. Forgotten by Mephisto, the cursed mystic villain languished in the old Maximoff home, where he wallowed in regret from a lifetime of mistakes. Although he initially attacked Billy, the villain stopped when he realized he was the Scarlet Witch's son.

After dragging Tommy out of Hell, Master Pandemonium spoke with the siblings and told them to stop looking for answers in their mother's past and focus on their lives in the present. After this encounter, Tommy returned to the Maximoff home and cared for the ailing Master Pandemonium, who used his still-considerable magic power to protect him.

AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE

After several more adventures with the Young Avengers, Wiccan and Speed began a more urgent search for the Scarlet Witch in AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE (2010) #1 by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung. Then, while fighting the Sons of the Serpent, Wiccan's powers briefly exploded in a blinding flash of uncontrollable mystic energy.

Still reeling from Wanda's struggles to control her power during AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED and HOUSE OF M, the Avengers put Billy under observation and told him about his mother's involvement in those incidents. The Young Avengers freed Wiccan and turned to Magneto, Wanda's adoptive father, and Quicksilver, her twin brother. The Young Avengers and their new allies ultimately tracked Scarlet Witch down to Latveria, where they found Wanda with no powers and no memories. Worse, she was engaged to marry Doctor Doom.

When Iron Lad transported Wanda and the heroes back to the past, the Scarlet Witch regained her powers and memories. Upon returning to the present, Wanda embraced Tommy and Billy as the reincarnations of her long-lost sons in AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE (2010) #6. As the Scarlet Witch adjusted to the impressive new scope of her abilities, she and the Young Avengers defeated Doctor Doom, who almost stole her power.

Since this incident left Stature and Vision dead and set Iron Lad on the path to becoming Kang the Conqueror, the Young Avengers temporarily disbanded. Wiccan went on to serve on several heroic teams, marry Hulkling, and help lead the Kree-Skrull Alliance, while Speed dated the X-Men's Prodigy and enjoyed a relatively more normal life on Earth.

THE TRIAL OF MAGNETO

Although their lives took them to different sides of the universe, Wiccan and Speed reunited when the Scarlet Witch was found dead in the mutant nation Krakoa. After a state dinner called the Hellfire Gala, Tommy—who had been spending time on the island with Prodigy—found his mother's body. Once Wiccan trekked back to Earth, he helped Speed and a team of mutant investigators try to figure out what happened to her in X-MEN: THE TRIAL OF MAGNETO (2021) #3 by Leah Williams, Lucas Werneck, and David Messina.

As part of this investigation, a younger clone of the Scarlet Witch was resurrected through Krakoa's Resurrection Protocols, but she did not recognize her sons. Billy and Tommy helped her face her guilt, which physically manifested as giant monsters attacking the island, in X-MEN: THE TRIAL OF MAGNETO (2021) #4.

Once she took accountability for her actions and made peace with her past in a mystical realm called the Eldritch Orchard, a fully healed Wanda emerged. After using the Eldritch Orchard to significantly expand the number of mutants that could be resurrected, Wanda embraced both of her sons and returned to her life.

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