Agatha Harkness has had a long and eccentric history in Marvel comics, starting out as
the governess of Reed and Sue Richards' son Franklin and then later teaching the Scarlet
Witch true magic, and she's hitting live-action for the first time in WandaVision. Here's
everything you need to know.
"Oh, this is gonna be a gas!"
Almost from the moment Kathryn Hahn was announced as playing "Agnes" on WandaVision, Marvel
fans started speculating that her character was some sort of spin on or variation of Agatha
Harkness. It took a little while, but in the closing moments of the show's seventh episode,
"Breaking the Fourth Wall," those theories were seemingly proven correct when Agnes revealed
herself to Wanda — not only as Agatha, but as the power that had been secretly guiding
many of the events in Westview all along.
Agatha's big moment arrives when Wanda, who's been taking some "me time" to recuperate from
the chaotic events of the previous episode, arrives at Agnes' house to pick up her twin
sons.
At this point, astute viewers have already noticed that the show’s bright sitcom-style
lighting has shifted to a much darker palette — and things get darker still when Wanda
makes her way to the basement, which is decked out much more like a creepy dungeon than anything
you'd expect to find in an average suburban home.
Before Wanda can find the boys, she's confronted by a grinning Agnes, who explains she's actually
Agatha — and, via a musical montage that plays out like the opening credits of her
own spinoff series, cheerfully brags that the magical shenanigans viewers have been
watching were due to Agatha All Along.
Agatha Harkness made her comics debut in 1970, in the 94th issue of Fantastic Four, being
introduced as an unorthodox "child-rearing specialist" for the newborn Franklin Richards.
On the first day Reed and Sue Richards handed their son Franklin over to Agatha Harkness
to raise at her creepy house on Whisper Hill, their longtime enemies the Frightful Four
followed them. The Wizard, the Sandman, the Trapster and Medusa all got the drop on the
Fantastic Four, incapacitating all of them as a part of a revenge plot, with their eyes
set on harming Franklin.
Their victory was seemingly well in hand until Agatha stepped in. She set her powerful pet
cat Ebony on the Wizard, who crashed through a window in terror and eventually flew into
a tree, knocking himself out.
She turned the Sandman into immobile stone, and he nearly fell over onto the Trapster.
The Trapster escaped, only to encounter Ebony in a monstrous demonic form. When the cat
grabbed him, the Trapster simply fainted out of fear.
In other words, she wiped out a deadly team of villains in about 30 seconds, which suggested
that it's highly unwise to visit Agatha Harkness without calling her first.
During the whole ordeal, Franklin was just fine, and a confused Fantastic Four escaped
from their bonds to find Agatha knitting next to the baby sleeping in a crib. When Ben Grimm
saw a copy of Tales Of Old Salem on a table, he put two and two together -- this wasn't
your average kindly old lady. This was a powerful, unpredictable witch.
Right after World War II, Agatha Harkness was recruited to help the US government hunt
down a Nazi operative as part of a supernatural team called the Department of the Uncanny.
In a one-off story covered in the pages of Uncanny Avengers Annual, Volume 2, #1, their
target was the villainous sorceress Hilda von Hate.
At the time, Agatha was reluctant to join any kind of organized team -- but she also
hated Nazis, and it turns out, had even dealt with them before while the war was still raging.
The team she joined defeated Hilda von Hate, who turned out to be not just a Nazi with
an on-the-nose name, but a goddess of evil with an island of mind-controlled zombies
at her disposal. Regardless, she too proved no match for Agatha Harkness' powers.
Agatha Harkness realized that a prominent warlock in her former town of New Salem, Nicholas
Scratch, was trying to hunt her down. Worse, he was now the town's leader. She kidnapped
Franklin to use his power to help protect her against the witches, but to no avail.
The witches bound her, and Sue Storm saw them just as they were disappearing.
Reed Richards was able to track a metal connected to the witches to their home in Colorado and
went there in disguise. Just when it seemed like their trip was a washout, Agatha saw
they were leaving and blocked them with flames. His ruse revealed, Scratch turned the Fantastic
Four against each other and imprisoned them. He was ready to execute Agatha and set his
seven children, the supernaturally powered Salem's Seven, to guard the Fantastic Four.
The FF made short work of the Seven. The people of New Salem realized that it was Scratch
who had betrayed them, and they banished him. Agatha revealed that Scratch was her own son.
Salem's Seven later returned and enchanted the witches of New Salem. Luring in the Fantastic
Four, they defeated them and then took them to New York to complete a spell to bring back
Scratch. Franklin used his power to free the witches from their paralysis, and Agatha took
the fight to Scratch. He possessed the FF and ordered them to kill Agatha and Franklin,
but the toddler used the power of love to shake them out of it. Once again, Scratch
was banished.
Agatha Harkness met the Scarlet Witch at the wedding of Quicksilver and Crystal. A Marvel
wedding never goes according to plan, and this time around, Ultron attacked and had
all of the heroes on the ropes. Ultron's mental assault jump-started Franklin Richards' super-powered
brain, and the child fried the robot. After years of being a caretaker for Franklin and
being a frequent help to the Fantastic Four, Agatha decided on the spot that the Fantastic
Four didn't need her anymore and that her new job was going to be mentoring the Scarlet
Witch in true magic.
Agatha's mysteriousness and habit for arbitrary rule-making was at its peak here, as she demanded
total isolation with her new pupil -- and she and her magic cat also kind of freaked
Wanda out. Agatha was also promptly attacked by a villain named Necrodamus, making the
new arrangement even more awkward than it already was.
However, Agatha was true to her word and taught Wanda some rudimentary spells, especially
those giving her control over the earth, including materials like wood and cloth. Wanda was even
able to animate a chair!
The Dread Dormammu possessed both ladies and brought them to his realm. He made the mistake
of trying to turn Wanda against the Vision, and a freed Agatha was able to hold back Dormammu's
magic. Wanda forced him to free the Earth spirit he had captured and made him promise
not to attack Earth again. Then Wanda and the Vision were part of a double wedding,
as Mantis married a tree. Agatha said that Wanda had learned all she needed to know and
later returned to the Fantastic Four.
After Nicholas Scratch was banished to the nether realms, his children, Salem's Seven,
were held as prisoners in New Salem. Scratch found a way to possess Franklin Richards and
freed his children to get revenge on the Fantastic Four and bring the Earth into his dark realm.
Just as it seemed like he was going to win, Agatha harnessed the love the Fantastic Four
felt for Franklin as a weapon, went into Scratch's mind, and threatened to destroy everything.
Scratch backed down, and Agatha stripped him of his powers and turned him into a mortal.
Agatha decided that it was time to return to New Salem and keep watch over her son and
Salem's Seven. She stripped their powers and banished them, but they slowly regained their
abilities. That did not work out well for Agatha, as her grandchildren turned on her
and burned her at the stake. It's hard to keep a good witch down, however, as she drew
Wanda and the Vision to New Salem from beyond the grave at a time when they were thinking
of having a baby.
Salem's Seven, led by Vertigo, planned to sacrifice Wanda and Vision to the winter god.
The Vision won a showdown with Vertigo, who channeled all of the magic of New Salem. Wanda
took that power and used it to help conceive a child. And that's where babies come from,
or at least babies that come from a human-synthezoid pairing.
After Agatha Harkness died, Wanda gave birth to twin boys, Thomas and William. Everything
was happy for the new family until the government decided that the Vision was a threat and dismantled
him. When the Avengers put him back together, he was cold and emotionless. That certainly
didn't help Wanda's psyche, and she started freaking out when her babies began to disappear
and reappear.
Out of nowhere, Agatha returned from the dead but was completely disinterested in how it
happened or how she only showed up at this point. She was there to tell Wanda that her
children were actually shards of the soul of Mephisto and not her real children at all.
She actually mind-wiped Wanda of the existence of her children. This did not go well, and
manipulation on the part of Immortus caused Wanda to go off the deep end.
She allied with Magneto, attacked the Avengers, and did demeaning things to her former teammates.
When Immortus revealed that Wanda was a nexus being and thus possessed tremendous power
over chaos, he froze her and the rest of the Avengers. Eventually, Agatha not only cast
a spell that caused Immortus to provide a handy infodump, but she also helped free the
Avengers.
Months later, Wanda started to remember that she had children and started to crack up again.
This time around, it was serious, as she killed Agatha, destroyed the Avengers, and obliterated
millions of mutants during the House of M event.
A penitent Scarlet Witch later tried to help people out with their magical problems, and
the ghost of Agatha Harkness followed her around to help her and give her advice. What's
a little murder between friends? Investigating a case near her birthplace on Wundagore Mountain,
she learned that her parents weren't actually Magneto and Magda but rather a woman named
Natalya Maximoff.
Agatha knew all of this, of course, but like all good retcon revelations, she played things
close to the vest. Agatha did point out that whenever Wanda received shocking news, she
did not take it well. Natalya was, unfortunately, also dead, but she contacted Wanda from beyond
to reveal that sorcery ran in the family and that Wanda was part of a long line of Scarlet
Witches. Wanda was trying to save magic from dying and worked with Natalya and Agatha to
save the Goddess of Magic from the embodiment of chaos. Natalya gave up her soul to get
the win. However, she managed to not only bring Agatha back from the dead (again), but
she also brought her back as a young woman.
Agatha Harkness' familiar Ebony is no ordinary cat. Originally designed by Jack Kirby as
vaguely feral, Ebony's presence immediately unnerved Ben Grimm, who was continuously creeped
out by Agatha's entire deal.
Ebony served as Agatha's eyes and ears, sensing danger and gathering information from afar
which Agatha was simply able to absorb. Of course, Ebony could do much more than that.
At Agatha's command, she could make her grow to the size of a huge panther. She set Ebony
on the Wizard, who not only was terrified of a huge cat mauling him but found that no
matter how far away he flew, Ebony was somehow still chasing him. He wound up crashing into
a tree thanks to crossing this black cat.
Many years later, Agatha required a particular enchantment that would allow her to see the
future. She cultivated the Everbloom flower from Wundagore Mountain, an important center
of chaos magic. In order to make the flower work, one must kill and eat the being that
ate the petals of the flower. In a difficult decision, Agatha had Ebony eat the flower,
and then she killed and ate her in order to see the future. Ebony was a loyal servant
to the very end.
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