Agatha Harkness

With Agatha All Along coming out and being a pretty stand alone show I think it is necessary to give some comic book context for the character. Though she played a fairly major role in WandaVision, not everyone has seen the show. And though it was fairly comic book accurate there is so much more to Agatha Harkness then we have seen. So as your local comic book historian I think it is important that we talk about her on the page counterpart as this show unfolds.

Agatha Harkness made her first appearance in Fantastic Four issue #94. She was first introduced as Franklin Richards governess. She fought off the Frightful Four when they attempted to come for him and was immediately revealed as a powerful witch. She is in fact one of the original Salem Witches.

Nicholas Scratch (who is in fact her son in the comics), we are getting glimpses of that in the show, is actually super evil and attempts to have his mother killed. But she was saved by the Fantastic Four.

Now the really important part of her story is of course that she was Scarlet Witch’s mentor, her magical tutor if you will. It was with Agatha’s help and some stray power from the Salem Seven that Wanda was able to create her children. Her and Wanda are actually quite close in the comics. After Wanda’s children are taken from her Agatha wipes her memories to help her deal with the trauma of losing them. When Immortus started to use Wanda Agatha returned her memories to her to help defeat him. If this sounds vaguely interesting to you then you should check out Avengers West Coast issues #60-#62. Not to be confused with the West Coast Avengers which is very technically a different title.

For a lot of the 2000s Agatha pops up here and there and spends a lot of time as a ghost. She gives helpful hints to Wanda in her ghost form and serves as the narrator for Vision’s solo title. See it would be nearly impossible to separate the two. This is why I predict that this show will end with us finding out that Wanda is alive because there simply is no Agatha Harkness without Wanda Maximoff. Her whole existence hinges upon helping, guiding and working with the Scarlet Witch.

If you want just a fun time I would like to direct your attention to the contest of chaos storyline where Agatha Harkness basically uses magic to make some of your favorite superheroes fight each other. Agatha reforms the Darkhold using pieces of Chthon’s heart that she ripped out of Wanda and uses it to wreak havoc among the Avengers.

Agatha plays a huge role in nearly every story featuring Wanda and the Scarlet Witch. She is key to unlocking the full potential of Wanda’s power which we did get to see in WandaVision. And she helps her both forget and remember her children. So I am hoping that is what we get to see on screen at some point, Agatha giving Wanda her kids back. Her powers though powerful are nowhere near the kind of magic that the Scarlet Witch possesses. Agatha’s abilities are almost exclusively telepathic with a touch of extra dimensional energy, levitation and spell incantation. She does however possess the ability to elongate her life and magically rebirth herself. Which is why she never really stays dead. Not that anyone in comics really stays dead. As Agatha and Wanda are inextricably linked it is no wonder that the show keeps mentioning the Scarlet Witch.