We\u2019ll have the full conversation coming to the AIPT Comics Podcast<\/a> this Sunday. But for now, here\u2019s a feature highlight focusing on Orlando\u2019s Scarlet Witch work and his approach to DC x AEW<\/a>, with a few teases at the other lanes he\u2019s currently speeding down.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Marvel Comics.<\/p>\n Wanda and Vision: \u201cThat\u2019s Just Adult Life\u201d<\/p>\n Orlando was clear that what he\u2019s exploring with Wanda and Vision isn\u2019t just some back-and-forth soap opera. It\u2019s something more grounded.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is oftentimes we can take a relatively childish or reductive look at relationships in comics,\u201d Orlando said. \u201cYou know, are they broken up, they\u2019re back together, they\u2019ve always loved each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Simply put, that binary doesn\u2019t interest him.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is that everything in between happens,\u201d Orlando said. \u201cYou don\u2019t get that represented that often, where like, there\u2019s no question that they care deeply for each other\u2026It just means they don\u2019t work as a couple. Like, that\u2019s just adult life.\u201d<\/p>\n He pushed back directly against the idea that divorced characters need to be enemies, adding, \u201cI do think it\u2019s a childish view to assume that they have to hate each other now or they can\u2019t get along.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, he suggested the bond between them may actually be stronger now.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a way, the relationship may be even stronger than it was when they were married,\u201d Orlando said. \u201cIt\u2019s just not the kind of relationship it was back then.\u201d<\/p>\n That space, where two people still love and rely on each other, but are no longer romantically together, is where Orlando sees something unique: \u201cI think that\u2019s very special for them to have that.\u201d<\/p>\n Courtesy of Marvel Comics.<\/p>\n On Writing Agatha Harkness<\/p>\n Changing topics, we moved onto Sorcerer Supreme, the latest series Orlando is writing with Scarlet Witch in the lead. This time, she\u2019s facing Agatha Harkness, as the Vishanti chose Agatha over Scarlet Witch to serve as the Sorcerer Supreme. As you might have guessed already, Wanda simply isn\u2019t having it.<\/p>\n If Wanda is the emotional anchor of the run, Agatha Harkness is the destabilizer.<\/p>\n \u201cAgatha is supremely confident in herself, even when she\u2019s not,\u201d Orlando said, a sentiment which perfectly captures how she can feel like mentor, antagonist, and ally in the same breath.<\/p>\n One of his favorite dynamics is the imbalance between Wanda\u2019s perception and reality. Wanda feels like Agatha has been a lifelong friend. But as Orlando points out, Agatha is \u201cwell over 10,000 years old.\u201d Wanda\u2019s entire experience with her is \u201ca microsecond in her life.\u201d That realization hits Wanda hard.<\/p>\n \u201cShe realizes the entire time, she\u2019s known Agatha for only a microsecond in her life,\u201d Orlando said. \u201cShe has no idea who Agatha really is like.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s what makes Agatha dangerous \u2014 not just power, but perspective. And so Orlando embraced how alien that kind of lifespan is and the narrative bounty it offers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t fathom someone who\u2019s 10,000 years old,\u201d Orlando said. \u201cWe can\u2019t fathom what we would be like.\u201d<\/p>\n And when conflicts play out at that level of magic, they are not going to resemble anything ordinary. Or, as Orlando put it, \u201cEven a game between sorcerers as powerful as Wanda and Agatha isn\u2019t going to look like you and I playing catch in Swampscott, David.\u201d<\/p>\n Doing Your Thing as Sorcerer Supreme<\/p>\n The tension around Wanda becoming the Sorcerer Supreme is not only about rivalry. Rather, Orlando frames it as something much larger.<\/p>\n \u201cTry to ascend to the height of your own silo\u2026but don\u2019t step into ours,\u201d Orlando said, describing the invisible barrier marginalized people regularly encounter. He added \u201cYou can X, Y, and Z\u2026but don\u2019t take our thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Orland said that once Wanda steps outside the role the world has assigned her, she becomes \u201ca problem.\u201d Suddenly, she\u2019s told to \u201cslow your roll a little bit, maybe pump the brakes.\u201d<\/p>\n In Orlando\u2019s run, magic becomes a metaphor for agency. Wanda wants it to \u201cdo more for people.\u201d She doesn\u2019t buy the idea that \u201cevery spell has a cost\u201d simply because that\u2019s how it\u2019s always been framed. She sees magic as something that could be democratized. But he\u2019s also clear she\u2019s not infallible.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s not perfect,\u201d Orlando said. \u201cShe\u2019s going to break things and eventually break the wrong thing.\u201d Some rules exist to entrench power. Some exist for other reasons entirely. The story often lives in that very tension.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Marvel Comics.<\/p>\n Wanda, \u201cThe Disruptor\u201d<\/p>\n When I asked Orlando how he personally defines Wanda, he didn\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n \u201cI think when we call her the primal disruptor or the disruptor, that is how I will always see her,\u201d Orlando said.<\/p>\n Everything else (Avenger, sorcerer, mutant, reality-shaper, etc.), is just a lens on that identity. Orlando goes on to say he re-framed chaos in a way that feels central to the run.<\/p>\n \u201cChaos and order are not good or bad,\u201d Orlando said. \u201cThey simply are.\u201d If you think order is purely good, Orlando said that \u201cyou\u2019ve never lived in a police state.\u201d If you think chaos is purely bad, he added that \u201cyou\u2019ve never been part of any type of civil rights movement.\u201d<\/p>\n For Wanda, chaos becomes freedom. Or, as Orlando perfectly encapsulated it: \u201cTo be a Scarlet Witch, to practice chaos magic, is to practice freedom magic.\u201d<\/p>\n That means she refuses to do something simply because it\u2019s always been done that way, and Orlando believes that she \u201cwould die before she does something simply because it\u2019s the way it\u2019s always been done.\u201d Whether she\u2019s dealing with someone on the street or some undeniable magic deity, she is going to do what she believes is right and accept the consequences.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not just a character beat; that\u2019s Orlando\u2019s very thesis.<\/p>\n Courtesy of DC Comics.<\/p>\n DC x AEW: Suplexing The Venn diagram<\/p>\n When we turned to DC x AEW, Orlando talked about wrestling and comics as cousins. The methods differ, but he noted that \u201cthe end goal is the same.\u201d<\/p>\n The challenge, for him, is making sure the book works no matter where you\u2019re coming from. If you\u2019ve never watched wrestling and just buy DC books, he wants you to think it\u2019s \u201ca fun love letter to comics.\u201d Meanwhile, if you\u2019re an AEW fan who has never read a comic, it should feel like \u201ca love letter to wrestling.\u201d Ideally, it hits the center of that Venn diagram.<\/p>\n He even pointed to an unlikely example: the promotional one-shot Crisis of Infinite Colonels<\/a>. The lesson wasn\u2019t the gimmick; it was that even something that sounds ridiculous can still read like \u201ca great comic book one-shot or comic book event\u201d if it\u2019s crafted right, according to Orlando.<\/p>\n And crucially, DC x AEW isn\u2019t just a tournament in a ring. As Orlando noted,\u201cvery little in the wrestling ring\u201d happens across the first issue. The fun is in watching bold personalities collide. In his words, the AEW roster has characters who are \u201cextremely bold and extremely indelible.\u201d Basically, you know exactly what happens if Guy Gardner meets Jon Moxley.<\/p>\n Orlando is Everywhere<\/p>\n Orlando rattled off his many projects with the energy of someone who genuinely loves what he\u2019s doing. He described his ongoing X-Men Infinity run on Marvel Unlimited as something meant to be evergreen, welcoming readers who might be discovering the X-Men through media outside comics. From there, he talked about Magical Mysteries of Shazam<\/a> as \u201cMiyazaki meets C.C. Beck,\u201d and sounded deeply proud of that collaboration.<\/p>\n When he later spoke about Tarzan Beyond, though, that\u2019s when the emotion really surfaced. Kala, to him, is Tarzan\u2019s real parent, nothing that \u201ceverything decent about him\u2026that came from Kala.\u201d In the same way Ma and Pa Kent are Superman\u2019s true parents, Kala is the foundation of Tarzan. That through-line matters to Orlando.<\/p>\n And, yes, he even teased a return to Midnighter. It\u2019s happening, for sure, just \u201cnot where anyone on the internet has guessed so far.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/81pmJKyTpQL._SL1500_.jpg\" "\\"DC,")
<\/p>\n![\"Steve](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sorcerer-supreme-2.jpg\" "\\"DC,")
<\/p>\n![\"Steve](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sorcerer-supreme-1.jpg\" "\\"DC,")
<\/p>\n![\"Orlando\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/DC-x-AEW-1-main-min.jpg\" "\\"DC,")
<\/p>\n