March Birthday Card

And now, for the cartoon, comic book and movie characters that celebrate their birthday on March… we have not one, but three Avengers who also share a strong bond/link with the X-Men; not necessarily a good thing.

First, we have the Maximoff twins, Wanda and Pietro, who first debuted in X-Men # 4 (March 1964), created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The mutant siblings, having the Master of Magnetism as father, started in the family business as members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants; Wanda originally possessing probability manipulation powers (that later evolved into chaos magic and reality warping), and Pietro with super speed… and a huge ego and overprotective brother's instincts. Eventually, the twins became part of The Avengers when most of the core team left temporarily, and since then they both became regular members.

Besides the problems inherent to being the mutant children of one of Earth's most powerful villains, both Pietro and Wanda have had many relationship issues (Pietro divorced, and Wanda married a highly advanced android that was later dismantled), problems with their own children (Pietro's is very disappointed on him, and Wanda's, in the end, were revealed as missing shards of a demon's soul), and causing some serious mishaps with their powers, with Pietro hurting and betraying a lot of people when he lost his own, and then did very morally questionable actions to recover them, and Wanda rewriting reality and almost destroying the mutant gene for good. Despite that, they still remain as part of the Avengers… probably because it's better to have the siblings around to keep an eye on them.

Moving on, we also have Carol Danvers, created by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan, she first appeared as a member of the United States Air Force in 'Marvel Super-Heroes # 13' (March 1968); she was the security chief of a restricted military base, where Carol met a Kree (blue skinned warrior aliens) hero's human alter ego, and eventually this caused her to become exposed to an alien device that turned her into a Human-Kree hybrid, developing super human strength, speed, stamina and durability, flight, and energy-powers… as well as a rivalry with Mystique, one of the X-Men's most dangerous foes, that would later make another mutant, Rogue, to permanently absorb Carol's powers and memories, leaving her in a coma for a long time until Professor X could help her… and later, he powers developed even more, becoming a living star, until she finally returned to her previous levels. Since then, Carol had become a more prominent figure in the Marvel's heroic community, to the point she's considered a leading figure both due to her experience and power levels, and her military training. 

Besides appearing in cartoons, comic books and video-games, the three characters are soon to appear in live action films, with Pietro already having a couple appearances in the X-Men's films. So, happy birthday to you all… and remember, Pietro, don't be a jerk; Carol, easy on the drinks; and Wanda… don't ask the winds of destiny to change. Seriously. Don't.