DJANGO MAXIMOFF

Real Name: Django Maximoff

Identity/Class: Human, magic-user

Occupation: Doll-maker

Group Membership: The Rom

Affiliations: Mister Doll

Enemies: Chthon;
    formerly the Avengers

Known Relatives: Marya Maximoff (wife, deceased); Ana Maximoff (daughter, deceased), Mateo Maximoff (son, deceased), Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver, adoptive son), Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch, adoptive mother)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Formerly Vladivostok, Russia;
    formerly mobile in the Rom village, Transia

First Appearance: Avengers I#166 (December, 1977)

Powers/Abilities: Django had access to the wood of Wundagore mountain, which contained the magical energies of the demon Chthon. He used a magical item known as the Nivashi Stone in order to animate inanimate objects and cast illusions, and he believed that the Stone was what allowed him to use the wood of Wundagore.

History:
(Uncanny Origins#2 (fb)) - Django and his wife, Marya, were members of a tribe of nomads known as the Rom (commonly referred to as Gypsies).

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition: Brothers Grimm (fb) - BTS) - Long ago, the Elder God Chthon was imprisoned in Wundagore Mountain, in the Balkans of Central Europe. The demon infused the entire mountain and all that was in or on it with his mystical might.

The Uranium used in the machinery of the High Evolutionary granted further power to the wood and earth of Wundagore mountain.

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition: Brothers Grimm (fb) - BTS) - Django Maximoff carved a number of dolls from the wood of Wundagore mountain; the wood, and therefore the dolls, possessed great magical potential.

(Avengers I#186 (fb) - BTS) - Django and Marya lost their children, Ana and Mateo, under unspecified circumstances (see comments).

(Avengers I#186 (fb) / Web of Spider-Man Annual#4/4) - The High Evolutionary gave the children of Magnus and Magda Lehnsherr--abandoned by their mother and their existence unknown to their father--to Django and Marya Maximoff, instructing them to raise them as their own, replacing their own lost children. The Maximoffs were informed of the children's original names, given by their birth mother.

(Avengers I#182 (fb) / 185(fb)) - Django and Marya raised Wanda and Pietro as their own children, amongst the Rom in their nomadic village in Transia.

(Avengers I#185(fb)) - Wanda and Pietro played with the marionettes carved by Django.

(Mystic Arcana: Scarlet Witch#1/2 (fb) - BTS) - Django obtained a job working for a miller who let his family stay on their land as well as to give him work.

(Mystic Arcana: Scarlet Witch#1/2) - Django calmed Pietro and Wanda after they returned to the Miller's land complaining of having been chased by a wolf (they were guided back home by Gregory Russoff in wolf form so they could meet with his wife, Maria, and her coven of sorcerers). Marya then took Wanda to meet Lilia Calderu, who took her to the coven.
    After an eventful meeting, Wanda returned home where she played with her family.

(Avengers I#182 (fb)) - As Wanda and Pietro grew up, their mutant powers became evident.

(Uncanny Origins#2 (fb)) - The Rom frequently had to flee from hostility from bigoted villagers.

(Uncanny Origins#2 (fb)) - Pietro overheard Django and Marya discussing that Wanda and Pietro were neither their own children, nor Rom.

(Avengers I#185(fb)) - Django told stories of the "great war"; Wanda came to believe that the stories had happened to her. Though Pietro knew the truth, he decided not to hurt her with contradiction.

(Avengers I#182 (fb)) - Prejudice against the Rom resulted in difficulty in Django earning enough money to support his family, and he was forced to steal to feed them.

(Uncanny Origins#2 (fb)) - Django was observed in the act of stealing food by Pietro, who attempted to make his adoptive father proud by stealing a much larger quantity of food. When Django chastised Pietro, he fled; after failing to find Pietro for three days, Django asked the local police for help, but was refused. When Wanda was accosted by a village boy, Pietro, who had been watching over her, rushed to Django for help, though Wanda used her powers to defend herself.

(Avengers I#185(fb) / Uncanny Origins#2) - Django apologized to Pietro, telling him that he loved him regardless of what he had overheard. Django told Pietro that Wanda was his true sister and that he must always protect her.

(Avengers I#182 (fb) / 185(fb) / Uncanny Origins#2) - The villagers--having discovered Django (and Quicksilver)'s thefts, as well as being angered over the confrontation with Wanda--assaulted the Rom village. Marya was consumed in flames as they burned her wagon, and Django told Pietro to get Wanda to safety just before he was clubbed from behind. As he lost consciousness, he watched his adoptive children flee.

(Avengers I#182 (fb)) - Django wandered alone for years--homeless but for the shell of sorrow he carried about his shoulders--eventually settling in Vladivostok, where he carved dolls and puppets for children.

(Spider-Woman I#12 (fb) / Avengers I#182 (fb)) - Despite realizing that the man sought his dolls for evil, Django didn't care anymore, and he sold a pair of wooden death effigies, which could be brought to life by one's own spirit, to Nathan Dolly (Mister Doll).

(Avengers I#182 (fb) - BTS / Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition#11: Scarlet Witch) - Django eventually came to believe that Pietro and Wanda had been his original children, Ana and Mateo.

(Avengers I#182 (fb)) - Eventually seeing a picture of the Avengers in the Tass newspaper, Django recognized Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch as his former children. He figured that they had been hiding from him as punishment for the tragedy he had brought upon their tribe. Deciding he had paid enough penance, Django returned to his shamanic magicks, saving his rubles for when he would come to the USA and retrieve his children.

(Avengers I#166) - Django left Vladivostok and embarked on a ship bound for the USA, intending to be reunited with his beloved, lost children.

(Avengers I#173) - As Django's ship approached the New York harbor, Django worked on carving some of magical wood into an effigy of the Scarlet Witch.

(Avengers I#181) - Django arrived in New York and made his way towards Avengers Mansion. Once close enough, he transferred the spirits of Pietro and Wanda into the wooden dolls he had carved, leaving them in an undead state (even their hearts stopped, but magically their blood maintained oxygenation and they underwent no decay). He brought the dolls back to a Bowery hotel room he had rented, telling them they were his children.

(Avengers I#182) - After Django told Pietro and Wanda of their shared past, he sensed the approach of the Avengers and used his Nivashi Stone to provide defense against them. He initially animated some manikins and sent them against the Avengers. When they overcame them and entered his room, he cast an illusion about the room, making it appear as an extradimensional realm, and then seemingly conjured forth magically powered forms of Nighthawk, Princess Python, and the Toad against them. The Avengers were powerless against these conjurations until the Beast recognized the illusion and convinced the others to clear their minds of it. As Django fled with his animated dolls, the Vision destroyed his Navashi Stone, causing Pietro and Wanda's spirits to return to their own bodies.
   However, having at least partially recalled the stories Django had told them, Wanda and Pietro decided to accompany Django back to Transia to learn the truth about their origins.

(Avengers I#183) - Wanda and Pietro departed along with Django aboard a ship (intending to use the time so that they could discuss things further) bound for Europe.

(Avengers I#185) - A carriage brought Django, Wanda, and Pietro into a town in East Transia. That evening, Wanda was summoned to Wundagore mountain by Modred the Mystic (under the control of Chthon). Quicksilver left to investigate, leaving the distraught Django behind.

(Avengers I#186 (fb) - BTS) - Django wandered out into the woods after Pietro and Wanda.

(Avengers I#186) - Django encountered Quicksilver, but they were attacked by the magicks of Chthon, and Quicksilver carried them both to safety, fleeing back into the village and calling the Avengers for help. They were almost immediately incapacitated by the Scarlet Witch, who was under the control (partial possession) of Chthon.

(Avengers I#187) - The Chthon-controlled Scarlet Witch captured the Avengers as they arrived, and added them to the stasis field containing Pietro and Django. When the Beast distracted Chthon and disrupted the field, Django pulled out the doll of the Scarlet Witch, calling the spirit of Wanda into it. The stress proved too much for Django, and he had a heart attack, though he passed the doll on to Pietro before collapsing. Quicksilver and the Avengers united their spirits to return the Scarlet Witch's spirit to her own body, forced the fragment of Chthon into the doll; Quicksilver cast the doll some distance up Wundagore mountain, and the Scarlet Witch caused a landslide on top of the doll.
    Django was dead by the time the conflict was over, and the Avengers buried him in the forests he had loved so much.

Comments: Created by Jim Shooter, John Byrne, and Pablo Marcos.

    When the Avengers ask permission to go to Transia in Avengers I#186, Gyrich mentions it as officially being a "goodwill mission to Bulgaria." I don't know if this means that Transia was supposed to be part of Bulgaria, or not, but most sources seem to refer to Transia as a nation.

    According to Avengers I#182, which came out after Spider-Woman I#12, Django had moved to Vladivostok in Russia by the time he sold the dolls to Nathan Dolly. The Spider-Woman story listed the purchase/encounter as having occurred in the Balkans. Perhaps Django was visiting the store, or selling some dolls to the real store owner when he encountered Dolly during his trip.

    I'm not including any of Pietro or Wanda's extended family, as few of them ever knew Django and would not have considered him a relative. You can check the Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch entries in the Official Handbooks for further information on them.

Initially revealed in Avengers I#186, the High Evolutionary came into the possession of Wanda and Pietro after Magda abandoned them. His servant Bova had tried to give them to Robert Frank (the Whizzer) as his own (after his wife, Madeline (Miss America) had died in childbirth with their second child, which was stillborn), but he fled upon learning that his wife had died. As confirmed in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Avengers 2004, Wanda and Pietro were kept in stasis for decades before being given to Django and Marya Maximoff, explaining why Wanda and Pietro are not closing in on their fifties in 2004, despite being born in 1958 (see below). According to the OHotMU Deluxe Scarlet Witch entry, Django and Marya had lost their own children during World War II, but the World War II reference would most likely be topical for them, unless their own closeness to Wundagore mountain slowed their aging.

    I placed the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's births at 1958 because that's the year that the Miss America title (with Patsy Walker) was cancelled, which seemed a reasonable year for the death of Miss America, the character; it has to have occurred long enough after 1945 for Eric and Magda Lehnsherr's daughter Anya to be a pre-adolescent in the same general timeframe (IIRC Classic X-Men implied that a few years passed between Eric and Magda's marriage and their daughter's birth), and I figure even if she was born as early as 1947, that'd work. So, yes, that would also be a relevant year for Gregor Russoff; by pure coincidence, it's also the year that the First Line formed and the year that details indicate that Namorita was born and Namor was rendered amnesiac. So it was a pretty important year all around.
--Ronald Byrd.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Rom (Gypsies) have no known connection to: