Agatha Harkness Origins

WatchMojo

Was it really Agatha all along? Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re exploring the comic book history of one of Marvel’s most famous witches.

Transcript

00:00Agatha, who's been messing up everything? The Covenless Witch.

00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're exploring the comic book history of one

00:09of Marvel's most famous witches, Agatha Harkness.

00:12I take power from the undeserving. It's kind of my thing.

00:19In 17th century Salem, Massachusetts, a woman named Agatha Harkness is persecuted for witchcraft.

00:24Are you a witch?

00:25The catch? She actually is a witch, and a powerful one at that.

00:30After growing up around the haunted Wondegore Mountain,

00:32Agatha formed her own coven and moved to Salem in hopes of freely practicing the dark arts.

00:37At first, she even approved of the witch trials,

00:40finding them a necessary sacrifice to cull the weak.

00:43That all changed when one of her coven, Carina, fell to the plight.

00:47Finally seeing the error of her ways, Agatha and her allies fled into hiding,

00:51undisturbed from all humankind.

00:54At least, that was the plan until the Fantastic Four arrived on her doorstep asking for a nanny.

00:58While the team didn't realize the rehabilitated old lady was a witch,

01:02it turned out to be a perfect fit.

01:04When Franklin's latent psychic abilities began to manifest,

01:07Agatha went from retired Wiccan to full-on magical tutor.

01:11Unfortunately, that also attracted a lot of unwanted attention.

01:15Thinking Agatha had betrayed the witch's secrets,

01:18the evil Salem Seven kidnapped both her and Franklin to dole out vengeance.

01:22But Reed and Sue did not take too kindly to losing their kid

01:26and soon put the villains back in their place, back home.

01:29Agatha proceeded to teach Franklin everything she knew.

01:32Turns out she's a pretty good teacher.

01:34So much so that Franklin finished the studies early,

01:38forcing Agatha to seek out a new student.

01:40Her name? Wanda Maximoff.

01:42The Scarlet Witch jumped at the opportunity to get a handle on her immense powers.

01:46But just as soon as Wanda opened up to Agatha,

01:49the Salem Seven popped back up for round two.

01:52And this time, they won, leaving Agatha to burn at the stake.

01:57Soon after, Wanda avenges her teacher in a fit of rage.

02:00However, being exposed to all that concentrated magic

02:03has an unforeseen effect on the hex witch's body.

02:06Somehow, someway, Wanda is left pregnant.

02:10Now, comics being comics, Agatha doesn't stay dead for very long.

02:14But the details of her resurrection get shoved under the rug

02:17when the demon Mephisto arrives.

02:19He captures Wanda's newborn kids and absorbs them into his soul,

02:22leaving the Scarlet Witch distraught, furious, and ready to tear reality apart.

02:27In order to ease Wanda's suffering,

02:29Agatha decides to wipe her memories of motherhood,

02:32allowing the hero to refocus and help save the day.

02:35As they say, though, no good deed goes unpunished.

02:38When Wanda begins to remember pieces of her children,

02:41she confronts Agatha.

02:42And, well, let's just say the next time anyone sees her,

02:45she's nothing more than a corpse.

02:47Apparently, though, you can't keep a witch down for long.

02:50When the living embodiment of chaos starts wreaking havoc across the universe,

02:54Wanda has no choice but to recruit magical backup.

02:57That means reviving the spirit of her mother Natalia

03:00and a certain witch tutor she may have killed in cold blood.

03:03Agatha doesn't hold a grudge, thankfully,

03:05and the three successfully cut chaos's reign short.

03:08But in the aftermath, a magical explosion brings Agatha back to life,

03:12for good this time.

03:13Letting bygones be bygones, she and Wanda part ways,

03:16with Agatha vowing to live out the rest of her days in blissful normalcy.

03:20And, surprisingly, she actually sticks to her word.

03:23Once news of her acclaimed alumni begins to spread,

03:26Agatha is asked to become a teacher at Strange Academy,

03:29a school to help magically inclined youth foster their powers.

03:32But, and there's always a but,

03:34things don't stay quiet for long.

03:36Driven mad with envy, Agatha's old coven mate Karina

03:40breaks out of her eternal prison in hopes of destroying the world.

03:43Thankfully, Agatha's got backup.

03:45Side by side with Strange Academy's best and brightest,

03:48Agatha defeats Karina once and for all.

03:51The whole thing is a classic case of good news, bad news.

03:54The good is that all the arcane arts return Agatha to her youthful form.

03:58The bad?

03:59It brings back her mean streak, too.

04:01The first thing on Agatha's villainous to-do list is finding the Darkhold.

04:06And wouldn't you know,

04:07it's been absorbed by none other than Agatha's star pupil Wanda Maximoff herself.

04:11As you can imagine, Wanda doesn't give up the book's contents lightly.

04:14Though, that's not for a lack of trying on Agatha's part.

04:18After a hard-fought, cross-dimensional fight for the ages,

04:21Agatha concedes to her student.

04:23Or so it seems.

04:24In reality, she was after another kind of darkness contained in Wanda.

04:28The Elder God Chathan.

04:30Unbeknownst to the Avenger,

04:31Agatha snatched Chathan's cursed heart,

04:33and with its power, began to write her own Darkhold.

04:37What better way to test out an all-powerful grimoire

04:39than with a good old-fashioned battle royale?

04:42Agatha's spells force the Avengers to fight each other.

04:44Allowing the witch to harness even more energy for her new Darkhold.

04:48Eventually, the team corners Agatha in the Bermuda Triangle,

04:51but not before the heroes are nearly torn in half.

04:54Regardless, Wanda, with an assist from Captain Marvel,

04:58manages to destroy Agatha and the new addition Darkhold

05:00in a single page-covering explosion.

05:03Afterwards, there's no body to be found.

05:05And while many of the Avengers think Agatha is gone for good,

05:09it's never that easy.

05:10Agatha, injured and barely conscious,

05:13washes ashore nearby.

05:14There, she discovers the magical implosion

05:17didn't actually destroy the Darkhold.

05:19It just transformed it into something else.

05:21That being a wisecracking teenage boy.

05:23Unable to tame the being's endless powers,

05:26Agatha enlists a new batch of Strange Academy students

05:28to reclaim the Darkhold's powers.

05:30But rather than helping her,

05:32Agatha ends up on the wrong end of a grade-A butt-kicking.

05:35Outnumbered and outmatched,

05:37she has no choice but to slither away to lick her wounds.

05:40Though something tells us

05:41Agatha hasn't given up on the Darkhold just yet.

05:44Before we continue,

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06:00As one of Marvel's most enchanting characters,

06:02Agatha's made a few small but memorable roles

06:05in animated programs over the years.

06:07However, she didn't appear in live-action until 2021's WandaVision.

06:11There, she's introduced as the lovingly kooky neighbor Agnes.

06:15But as is later revealed in a viral musical number,

06:19she was Agatha all along.

06:27Chart-topping song aside,

06:29Agatha's nefarious plans are foiled

06:31in the form of a sky-high scarlet-colored beatdown.

06:34Last we saw of her,

06:35Agatha was left inside the pseudo-televised reality

06:38where she can't hurt anyone ever again.

06:45She is next slated to appear in a self-titled series on Disney+,

06:49which will chronicle her building a new coven

06:51to face the legendary Witch's Road.

06:53It seems like, just like in the comics,

06:55Agatha can't help coming back one more time.

07:01Who's scarier with the Darkhold?

07:03Agatha or Wanda?

07:04Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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