When did the Scarlet Witch change her hair color, and why?

[Time_to_Zap]

You're absolutely right. Wanda's hair was still being coloured dark when she left he Avengers in issue 49. When she returned to the Avengers in issue 76 she was back to being auburn, although it was still coloured black on the covers.

Attachment 103694

Woah she looks like Snow White on this cover...

[Babylon23]

Of course, even after she changed back to auburn she was still occasionally depicted with black hair. This is from Avengers 105:

[sparticus]

I guess partly it's because in the early days when colours were limited and you couldn't guarantee the quality of the print, they often gave people distinctive hair colours so they were easily recognisable. Hence so many red-heads. They also screwed up a lot of colours as it was often a bunch of guys with coloured pens colouring them in frantically before they went off to print. Doesn't explain why it's not standardised now and why it changed around House of M but worth bearing in mind with some of the older colouring.

[Ventura]

If you have the actual issues (not reprints or collections) of the X-Men comic, you'll see that Wanda originally had auburn/brown hair, like Jan. Throughout those early X-Men issues she's consistently auburn/brown haired.

Wanda and Pietro left the Brotherhood in X-Men #11. That very same month she and Pietro moved over to the Avengers comic--the fabled Avengers #16--but now instead of auburn/brown she is all of a sudden depicted with comic book "black" hair (really a dark gray base with black shading). I believe in Avengers #16 there's even a caption (by Stan I assume) that refers to her as "a black-haired beauty." So now she has haircolor more like Sif's.

She remained black-haired for the duration of her fist Avengers run, which ended with Avengers #53. Over the next couple of years when she and Pietro made sporadic guest appearances (Spider-Man, the Neal Adams X-Men issues), she still had "black" hair.

Then in Avengers #75, when she and Pietro returned to the Avengers, she had reverted to her original auburn/brown hair as someone else noted earlier in this thread, her hair was colored black on a few cover during this times, and also in #105. She also had black hair in Hulk #128, which was published at the same time as Avengers #76). But basically with issue #75 she was back to the auburn/brown hair.

Why the change back to auburn? In Avengers #81 there's a letter from a reader asking the very same thing. The answer is that Roy Thomas, who was writing the Avengers at this time, had just noticed that in the old X-Men issues her hair was auburn. He liked that more than the gray or blue-based "black" hair, so he instructed Tom Palmer--who was not only inking but coloring these issues--to color her hair auburn.

[coveredinbees]

I really liked her short black hair in the early Avengers issues. This is nice, too, though.

[Ventura]

I really liked her short black hair in the early Avengers issues. This is nice, too, though.

I prefer Wanda with black hair too, cib--IMO it complements her usual fuchsia/pink ensemble better than the rusty brown hair does. But you're right, she and her auburn look lovely in the pic you've posted.

And I love your avatar of Natasha in her raven-tressed incarnation!

[klinton]

The most perfect response to a query. Ever.

Thank you for posting that. And for doing all the legwork to put that together. :D

[Psyknight]

I prefer Wanda with black hair too, cib--IMO it complements her usual fuchsia/pink ensemble better than the rusty brown hair does. But you're right, she and her auburn look lovely in the pic you've posted.

And I love your avatar of Natasha in her raven-tressed incarnation!

I completely agree.

[CJStriker]

I prefer Wanda with black hair too, cib--IMO it complements her usual fuchsia/pink ensemble better than the rusty brown hair does. But you're right, she and her auburn look lovely in the pic you've posted.

And I love your avatar of Natasha in her raven-tressed incarnation!

I completely agree.

I always liked the Way George Perez did Wanda's Hair the most!

[Lorendiac]

Feels very strange to see this thread rising from the grave -- I'd almost forgotten it existed! (Yes, even though I was the guy who launched it in the first place! )

If you have the actual issues (not reprints or collections) of the X-Men comic, you'll see that Wanda originally had auburn/brown hair, like Jan. Throughout those early X-Men issues she's consistently auburn/brown haired.

I only have some reprints of the earliest Lee/Kirby X-Men stories, and I haven't actually looked at 'em in ages. I didn't think to dig 'em out and double-check when, a couple of months ago, I was refreshing my memory of the early Avengers stories and how Cap handled it when all of a sudden the only "team" he had was the non-super-powered Hawkeye plus two founding members of the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants who said they wanted to go straight. With only that raw material, plus his own abilities, he was now expected to handle any super-menaces that came along. What a fun challenge for any leader to face!

Being Cap, though, he did a great job. It may have helped that for a while there, Wanda appeared to be developing a serious crush on him, although I'm not sure he even noticed! But she did have a habit of sticking up for him whenever her brother (and/or Hawkeye) voiced sharp (and usually unfair) criticisms of Cap's decisions!

Wanda and Pietro left the Brotherhood in X-Men #11. That very same month she and Pietro moved over to the Avengers comic--the fabled Avengers #16--but now instead of auburn/brown she is all of a sudden depicted with comic book "black" hair (really a dark gray base with black shading). I believe in Avengers #16 there's even a caption (by Stan I assume) that refers to her as "a black-haired beauty." So now she has haircolor more like Sif's.

I won't swear if it was in #16 or not, but I agree with you in principle: Two months ago I definitely noticed at least one narrative caption which explicitly told us Wanda had black hair.

Around that time, I also spent several minutes on comics.org, clicking through a gallery of scanned images of Avengers covers from the Silver Age, because I wanted to double-check on just how her hair was actually being presented in the original versions of those stories. And you're quite right -- it was dark, but when I peered at it, it seemed clear the original colorist was using lots of "dark gray alongside black," rather than just "black, black, black, all the way!" They certainly weren't using the coloring approach that was standard for Superman for many years, making his hair so notorious -- tell us it's jet-black, then give it blue highlights!

She remained black-haired for the duration of her fist Avengers run, which ended with Avengers #53. Over the next couple of years when she and Pietro made sporadic guest appearances (Spider-Man, the Neal Adams X-Men issues), she still had "black" hair.

Then in Avengers #75, when she and Pietro returned to the Avengers, she had reverted to her original auburn/brown hair as someone else noted earlier in this thread, her hair was colored black on a few cover during this times, and also in #105. She also had black hair in Hulk #128, which was published at the same time as Avengers #76). But basically with issue #75 she was back to the auburn/brown hair.

Yep! During the aforementioned session on comics.org, I also noticed that there was an era, several years after Wanda had first joined the Avengers, when her hair color on the covers was inconsistent!

Why the change back to auburn? In Avengers #81 there's a letter from a reader asking the very same thing. The answer is that Roy Thomas, who was writing the Avengers at this time, had just noticed that in the old X-Men issues her hair was auburn. He liked that more than the gray or blue-based "black" hair, so he instructed Tom Palmer--who was not only inking but coloring these issues--to color her hair auburn.

Thank you. That addresses my original question!

[Corey W]

Ventura, thanks for doing the homework.

In universe, I have no trouble believing that a young woman occassionally dies her hair to suit her taste of the moment.

[midnightshrink]

Very easy. She dyed her hair black for a while. Then went back to Chesnut. I mean her sister dies it green, it could have been worse.

[custodes]

When has coloring ever been uniform and constant? And when have girls ever not been into changing their hair often?

[PwrdOff]

Very easy. She dyed her hair black for a while. Then went back to Chesnut. I mean her sister dies it green, it could have been worse.

Please go re-read your comics. Lorna dyed her hair FROM green to brown to hide her mutation.

Wanda's hair looks best as auburn with just a hint of red. Black clashes with her costume too much I think, brown is boring and red is way too common in comics as it is.

[Corey W]

Please go re-read your comics. Lorna dyed her hair FROM green to brown to hide her mutation.

Wanda's hair looks best as auburn with just a hint of red. Black clashes with her costume too much I think, brown is boring and red is way too common in comics as it is.

But it does make sense for the Scarlet Witch to be a red head.