Marvel’s Agatha Harkness Character, Explained

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Marvel's Agatha Harkness Character, Explained

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  • Protecting Both Scarlet Witch and The Fantastic Four
  • Agatha’s Final Fight to Obtain the Darkhold

As a seasoned sorceress and a master of the mystic arts, Agatha Harkness has certainly had her fair share of adventures, to put it mildly! From her tumultuous relationship with the Scarlet Witch to her ongoing battle against evil, this enchantress has seen it all.

Back in 2021’s “WandaVision,” I played the role of Agatha Harkness, the seemingly ordinary yet meddlesome neighbor. Despite Wanda successfully vanquishing the ancient witch and imprisoning her within the magically constructed Westview, she now stars in her own Disney+ miniseries titled “Agatha All Along.” Joining other intriguing Marvel characters like Jennifer Kale, Alice Gulliver, and Lilia Calderu, this new miniseries follows Agatha (and her coven) as they embark on the enigmatic Witches’ Road in an attempt to regain their powers. The trailers hint at significant sacrifices being made along the way, making “Agatha All Along” a must-watch for comic book enthusiasts. But I hear you asking, who is Agatha exactly?

Without a doubt, Hahn’s commitment to her role is captivating enough for any Marvel Cinematic Universe fan, and the audience was given glimpses of her heart-wrenching past as WandaVision progressed. However, it’s also worth mentioning that Agatha Harkness has been a fascinating figure in Marvel Comics since the 1970s. Initially starting as a nanny for The Fantastic Four, she eventually became an integral part of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes by participating in monumental battles. Later on, she harnessed the power of the Darkhold to create conflicts between legendary heroes, a history that deserves to be explored further.

Agatha Harkness and the Salem Witch Trials

Her story starts all the way back in the early 15th century when her first coven (consisting of names like Zoric, Minoru, Corina, and Jacquette Laveau) tries to stop the witch hunts happening throughout Europe. A lynch mob quickly overtook the group, ready to kill them all. To fend off the attackers, Laveau summoned the demon lord Valtorr, who took swift care of the matter. Unbeknownst to the group, though, this incantation required a sacrifice, and Corina was dragged down to his domain.

Agatha’s act of sibling treachery led her to chart an independent course, eventually finding herself in Salem, Massachusetts – a town with a dark past marked by witch trials. This historical event would pit her against Firestar, a powerful mutant. Harkness endorsed the witch hunts, believing they fortified magical beings by eliminating the weak. However, Firestar’s strength necessitated the rounding up of allies and the establishment of New Salem – a coven in the Colorado mountains.

Steering clear from the immediate perils of an advancing civilization, she gave birth to a son named Nicholas Scratch (you might recognize the name), advocated for women’s rights with the aid of The Daughters of Liberty, whom she tutored in mystical practices, and later joined the Department of the Unusual post World War II to confront Hilda Von Hate, a female witch serving the Nazis. She’s quite the busy woman! And it seems Agatha has a hidden side as a patriot too!

In the passage of time, when she owned a house and her very own cat on Whisper Hill, preparing for retirement from teaching, she was summoned by Reed Richards and Sue Storm to assume the role of their son, Franklin’s governess. However, prior to this, Agatha stepped in to save the team and the baby from the grasp of the Frightful Four, who attacked the mansion during a tempestuous night. Her cat, Ebony, even joined the fray by transforming into an imposing panther and ejecting The Wizard out of the window. It’s possible we might witness this astonishing metamorphosis in Agatha All Along. To delve deeper, but not too far, the bond between Agatha and the Fantastic Four is quite profound – she has aided them in vanquishing adversaries such as Grom (an Eternal gone astray), Air-Walker (an android created by Galactus), and Ultron.

Protecting Both Scarlet Witch and The Fantastic Four

Marvel's Agatha Harkness Character, ExplainedMarvel's Agatha Harkness Character, ExplainedMarvel's Agatha Harkness Character, Explained

Moving forward, I’ll cross paths with Wanda Maximoff, more famously known as The Scarlet Witch. Feeling that she needs to harness her impending powers more effectively, Harkness confides in Sue Storm that it’s time for us to guide our son’s destiny. My training under Maximoff eventually ends, much like in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, when Wanda ties the knot with Vision. However, Agatha is summoned back to New Salem, where her grandchildren, who are turning the town against her due to her association with non-coven entities, namely The Fantastic Four, call me back.

Under the name “Salem Seven,” they actually put Agatha through a stake burning and caused significant destruction within the town. However, upon their return, the Scarlet Witch and The Fantastic Four managed to apprehend this vengeful group. In an ingenious move, Wanda harnessed the residual immense power and energy to conceive a child with Vision, thereby advancing their relationship further.

The shocking aftermath of this incident promptly led to Agatha’s resurrection, revealed as none other than Mephisto. In secret, he had been nurturing Scarlet Witch’s children, claiming they were his own creation. This soap opera-worthy drama unfolds as Wanda, under a spell of memory loss, enraged by the discovery that her old mentor, Agatha, was responsible for putting her under this trance to help her deal with grief, took Agatha’s life a second time. However, in an unexpected twist, it was Wanda’s mother, Natalya, who brought Agatha back from the dead. With her magical powers reawakened, Agatha, a renowned practitioner of dark arts, unearths a sinister plot involving Vision’s robot wife, Virginia, manipulating him to eliminate all Avengers. Desiring tranquility, Agatha decided to take up teaching at the Strange Academy, sharing her knowledge with children from her ancient coven dating back to the 1500s. As always in this tale, a hint carries immense weight – and here, it points to a deeper mystery.

Agatha’s Final Fight to Obtain the Darkhold

Marvel's Agatha Harkness Character, ExplainedMarvel's Agatha Harkness Character, Explained

In a previous tale, Corina – originally from Agatha’s first coven and mysteriously imprisoned alongside Valtorr – emerges victorious over the demon lord, taking on the name Korrosion and aspiring to bring about global destruction. Zoe, Nico, and Agatha reunite to banish Corina permanently using a powerful enchanted dagger, an act that significantly reverses Agatha’s age, causing her to retreat from public sight. More recently, in the latest story featuring Agatha, she confronts the Scarlet Witch once more, inciting a conflict among Marvel heroes reminiscent of Doctor Doom’s Secret Wars, but with Corina’s own sinister twist on the event.

During a time when the “Contest of Chaos” faced criticism from critics, notable characters like Wolverine, Storm, Venom, and Cyclops made an appearance. Amidst this, the youthful Agatha sought to craft a new Darkhold and manipulated these heroes as pieces on her board to identify allies capable of controlling the magic she coveted. This tumultuous narrative saw these characters battling demons in the Bermuda Triangle while Agatha performed her rituals, as well as engaging in conflict with the Avengers who aimed to halt her from completing this rite. In the end, Clea Strange (apprentice of Doctor Strange) managed to gain the upper hand during the fight, interrupting Agatha’s experiment, causing an unprecedented explosion. Upon regaining consciousness on a desolate beach, Agatha found herself face-to-face with a young boy who was actually the Darkhold disguised in human form.

It’s clear that Agatha Harkness has been quite busy since first appearing around 40 years ago. She’s had moments where she was a hero and others where she was a villain, even fighting against her own evil grandchildren and instructing budding magic users. However, there have also been instances when she sought to employ magic for her personal desires. As Agatha All Along unfolds further on Disney+, we can expect more of this complex personality.

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2024-09-19 03:31