Avengers Vol 1 186

After taking a tumble, Quicksilver has awoken in the cottage of an anthropomorphic cow who apparently knows him very well. While tending to his cuts and scrapes, the bovine relates her story...and Quicksilver’s own.

Pietro’s rescuer is named Bova and she was the first of the new men created by the High Evolutionary who would become the Knights of Wundagore. Bova was created specifically to be a midwife, nursemaid, and nanny to any children in the citadel.

One winter night, a desperate and very pregnant woman came to the citadel seeking sanctuary. Her name was Magda and she was fleeing from her husband, a man who had acquired extraordinary powers but used them cruelly. Having grown afraid of him, she ran away shortly after she realized she was pregnant. Bova delivered Magda’s twin children, a boy and a girl (Pietro and Wanda). Bova recalls seeing peculiar lights in the sky on the night the twins were born. However, soon after the birth, Magda vanished. She left a note stating that if her husband ever found out about the twins, he would seek them out. Fearing his evil influence on her children, Magda instead chose to wander out into the storm and end her life rather than risk her husband discovering them.

Bova asked the High Evolutionary what they should do with the infants. They agreed that Wundagore was no place for normal human children, so he invited a traveling American couple, Bob and Madeleine Frank (who had formerly been the WWII-era superheroes the Whizzer and Miss America), to the citadel. Madeleine had already given birth to one mutant child (the Avenger’s former opponent Nuklo) and was pregnant again and feared the worst. The High Evolutionary intended to have Bova deliver Madeleine’s child and give them the twins as well. Alas, Madeleine’s labor was a disaster. Her horribly deformed child was stillborn and the mother died shortly afterward. Bova presented the twins to Bob Frank and attempted to pass them off as his own. But when he learned his wife was deceased, he fled from the citadel in grief (thus, this led to the Whizzer’s later mistaken belief that he was the twins’ father.)

Finally, the High Evolutionary presented the twins to a Roma couple, Django Maximoff and his wife, members of a caravan in the foothills of the mountain. Django’s wife had recently lost twins of her own. The gift of the twins was seen as a kind of divine intervention, their children were being restored to them.

At the end of Bova’s recounting, Pietro realizes that Django is the man who raised him and Wanda. When he asks who his father is, Bova cannot tell him as she doesn’t know. Pietro is left with one unanswered question: Where is Wanda?

Far up the mountainside, Wanda is magically bound by Modred atop the unholy altar as he intends to use her as a vessel to bring his dark master back to this world. She frees herself via a hex and a magical battle ensues. Wanda realizes she can’t fight Modred on this level and cedes the battle. Then she surprises him with a roundhouse left, knocking him off the cliff and down the mountain. But Modred has a surprise in store as well as he appears behind her and knocks her out with a bolt of mystical energy.

Just as Quicksilver is saying goodbye to Bova, Wanda’s face appears as a sinister apparition in the night sky. The vision lashes out at Pietro and Bova with a lightning bolt although Pietro’s speed saves him and Bova. The Vision warns that he will die if he attempts to seek out Wanda. Quicksilver runs down the mountain and encounters Django in the woods. They are attacked by magically animated trees but escape. Braving a number of magical assaults, they return to the village where Quicksilver places a call to Avengers Mansion. The Vision answers the call.

In the mansion dining room, the rest of the active team is enjoying a meal together and discussing Iron-Man’s current dilemma (see Notes below). Captain America has temporarily taken over as a team leader in Iron Man’s absence. The Vision then bursts in and tells them of Pietro’s call. Just as they start getting ready to go, Gyrich refuses to allow them to go! He states that Pietro is not an active member of the team and there is no U.S. security interest, thus they don't need to “start another international incident.” Exasperated, Cap leaves the room to place a mysterious call. The Beast and Gyrich trade insults, then Gyrich gets a call from the U.S. President authorizing the Avengers mission! Cap smirks in the background. Once more, the team is about to leave, but Gyrich still has to throw his weight around -- he demands that the Vision remain behind! One active member must remain behind on monitor duty at all times and the Vision is in the middle of his shift. Fed up, the Vision is about to slug Gyrich when Cap intervenes. He promises to bring Wanda safe and sound. The Vision relents, though he’s extremely unhappy.

Back in East Transia, Django and Quicksilver are ambushed by Wanda. Except it's not Wanda. She is possessed by the demon Chthon!

Notes

Plot by Gruenwald, Grant and Michelinie, script by Michelinie.
Bova's recollection ties together numerous disparate elements of the Marvel Universe's history, and sets the record straight about whether or not the Whizzer is biologically related to Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch (he isn't).
This issue contains an oblique crossover with X-Men #125. In this issue, Bova tells Pietro his mother was a woman named Magda. His father's identity is unrevealed here, except to say that Magda's husband had developed great abilities and used them horribly. In the X-Men series, there is a cutaway scene in which Magneto reflects upon his long-ago marriage to a woman named Magda who fled from him after she saw him use his magnetic abilities cruelly. The clear inference is that Magneto is Pietro and Wanda's biological father, which had been a theory fans discussed for years at that point. John Byrne drew both issues and they each depict identical images of Magda (who looks strikingly like the Scarlet Witch). This fact remained canon for a long time in the marvel universe.
Bova tells Pietro that when the High Evolutionary left Wundagore for his parallel Earth, she remained behind for..."personal reasons." A flashback panel depicts her standing alone on a cliffside watching the Evolutionary's rocket take off. In the concurrent Spider-Woman series, it is revealed that Bova remained behind to care for an adolescent Jessica Drew (who later became Spider-Woman). A similar panel depicts the same scene, only with young Jessica standing beside Bova watching the rocket take off.
Despite Moondragon's telepathic insights from Vol 1 176, Quicksilver seems to maintain a dismissive attitude toward the Vision. He calls him "robot" over the phone and specifically mentions "his sister," who is of course Wanda. This is a rather backhand insult to the Vision, who is Wanda's husband.
During the dinner scene, the Avengers briefly discuss why Iron Man is on a leave of absence from the team: In issue #s 124 and 125 of his own series, Iron Man was framed for murder by Justin Hammer.
Byrne's depiction of Wanda possessed by the demon Chthon appears very similar to his rendition of Dark Phoenix.

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References

Avengers Vol 1 186

Appearing in "Nights of Wundagore!"

Synopsis for "Nights of Wundagore!"

Notes

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