Featured in the most recent issue of Demon Wars: Down in Flames, Marvel’s highly acclaimed artist Peach Momoko weaves her own creative chaos magic by imbibing life into yet another superhero. This time, the Scarlet Witch, in this upcoming May in Marvel’s latest Demon Wars: Scarlet Sin.
The story will be the conclusion to Momoko’s Demon Wars series, which are the current era of hybrid Marvel Comics classics tied with traditional Japanese folklore also known as the Momoko-verse. Introduced in Demon Days: X-Men #1, these rehashed classics featured East Asian-influenced versions of the Avengers, X-Men, and more.
In the current era, the Yokai are at war, and Mariko Yashida, the descendent of the Oni King, must choose a side as the fate of the world is at hand. But suddenly, a mysterious yokai with incredible power arrives and changes everything. Someone whose sole desire is to paint the world… Scarlet?
“When designing Momiji, Demon Wars’ version of Scarlet Witch, the first thought that came to mind to represent Scarlet Witch was her anger and betrayal,” Momoko explained in a Marvel press release. “So with this in mind, I was inspired to create her around the Hannya idea. Hannya in Japan is used in Noh theater to represent a woman’s anger and jealousy, and these vengeful spirits turn her into a demon.”
“In Demon Days, most of my characters, even though many were yokai, were all yokai living in the human world, so they had to ‘look human.’ But in Demon Wars, the story takes place in the Ikai, the yokai world, so I had more freedom in designing the characters,” she continued. “They can be human, animal, or an out-of-this-world creature design. So I had lots of fun designing each character. Demon Wars is coming to an end, and I can’t wait to see how readers will react. Thank you!”
