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It's been Agatha All Along - Agatha Harkness, of course. And with Agatha's long-awaited starring streaming series which brought Kathryn Hahn back to her Emmy-nominated role now reaching its finale, Agatha has a whole new MCU status quo that reflects her comic book history.
But what's left for Agatha after the Witches' Road, and what will become of her following the series finale? Furthermore, what does Agatha's comic history tell us about her MCU future? Read on for the answers, but be aware - we'll be getting into spoiler territory!
Who is Agatha Harkness?
In comic books, Agatha Harkness is the very picture of an old lady with a witchy secret – but the truth about Agatha's nature is even weirder than it appears from the outside.
Article continues belowThough she looks like an elderly woman (and technically she is), Agatha is even older than she appears, having lived since the time before the sinking of Atlantis tens of thousands of years in Marvel's past. Prolonging her life through magical means by way of her primal, often darkly influenced witchcraft, Harkness has lived countless lifetimes, constantly honing her abilities.
In the 1700s, Harkness settled in Salem, Massachusetts, starting a witch coven that became the targets of the Salem Witch Trials in the Marvel Universe's version of those historical events – an occurrence that Harkness later described as a "culling" of the weaker practitioners from her coven, showing the dark side that Harkness has occasionally displayed, despite being a usual ally to Marvel's heroes.
Agatha's history is rife with attempts to form new covens and consolidate power among women in her circle. Following the Salem Witch Trials, during the American Revolutionary War, Harkness even formed a group known as the Daughters of Liberty who she trained in the magical arts – a practice she would continue at least through World War II when she was recruited by the US Army to help take down Nazi sorcerers.
Oddly enough, as in WandaVision, Agatha has an unseen husband who plays a key role in her history. Little is known about her long-dead husband – including his name, which may have been Harkness. They had one son, named Nicholas Scratch (more on him momentarily), who has been a key part of many of Agatha's stories over the years.
The rest of Agatha's family is somewhat mysterious. Weirdly, she's been shown to have connections to a French magical dynasty known as Clan D'Arqness, which has a penchant for summoning demons.
Agatha Harkness came into contact with the modern Marvel Universe in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #94, when Reed and Sue Richards contacted Harkness, who had spent most of the mid-to-late 20th century as a governess for children, to watch over their son Franklin. Though she initially hesitated, Harkness became Franklin's permanent governess.
Harkness often watched over Franklin while the Fantastic Four were on missions, which often led her to get involved in their adventures, eventually leading her to help Franklin control and harness his own burgeoning superpowers.
It's as Franklin's governess, alongside the Fantastic Four, that Harkness first met Wanda Maximoff. During an adventure in which Vision and Scarlet Witch faced off with a group of demonic entities known as Salem's Seven (in Vision & Scarlet Witch Vol. 2 #3), led by Harkness's son Nicholas Scratch who was technically the demons' father, Scratch managed to capture and actually kill Agatha by burning her at the stake.
However, her astral form survived, and recognizing the magic potential in Wanda Maximoff thanks to her connections to the ancient Marvel deity of chaos Chthon, she became a mentor to Wanda. When Salem's Seven used their own magical abilities to duel Wanda, she absorbed a large portion of Harkness's magical power to defeat them.
Later, Wanda used this power to create her twin sons William and Thomas, though they were ultimately revealed to be the products of the demon Mephisto, who was channeling his own dark magic through Harkness's witchcraft.
Harkness later returned to life and continued her mentorship of Wanda and other Marvel magic users, even sequestering and protecting Wanda after she created the House of M reality and caused the mutant decimation in which thousands of mutants lost their powers due to a spell cast by Wanda.
Harkness has died and returned to life several times since first being burned by Salem's Seven, with her fate apparently being directly entwined with Wanda's. Most recently, she managed to return herself to her physical prime as a much younger woman (who kinda resembles Kathryn Hahn), and managed to recreate the power of the Darkhold in the sentient humanoid form of a teenage boy, who she is now raising.
Agatha Harkness in the MCU
In the MCU, Agatha Harkness's history is somewhat different from the comic book origins we just laid out. Here's where we'll get into some serious spoilers for Agatha All Along, including the two-part finale.
She's ancient, but not quite as ancient as her Marvel Comics inspiration (MCU Agatha was by all indications a young woman in 1693 Salem). She's also significantly more sinister and manipulative in her pursuit of possessing Wanda Maximoff's intrinsic magical potential, gaining her immortality by magically absorbing the life force of her coven all the way back in the era of the Salem Witch Trials.
As it turns out, Agatha is also responsible for the existence of The Ballad of the Witches' Road, which she wrote with her son Nicholas Scratch to lure in witches so she could kill them and steal their power - a con that worked for Agatha for hundreds of years before Billy Kaplan/Wiccan unwittingly used his reality-altering powers to bring the road into actual existence.
At the end of the road, after Billy and Jennifer Kale have achieved their final wishes, with Jen having restored her powers and Billy having resurrected his brother Tommy (though he still has to go find him), Agatha completes the final trial alone. But instead of getting her powers back, she's confronted by Rio/Death, who says it's her time to die.
However, Billy arrives in full Wiccan mode, allowing Agatha to absorb some of his power. With her abilities restored, Agatha fights Death, but it's futile. Death says either Billy or Agatha has to come with her. In the end, Agatha sacrifices herself, kissing Death and dying in a cloud of black energy. Her body instantly decays into a bed of flowers.
Later, Agatha returns as a ghost, coming to an agreement with Billy where she will become his ghostly mentor, much like she did for Wanda Maximoff in comics. They set out together to find Tommy - presumably leading to wherever they'll appear next, which could be the upcoming Vision streaming series.
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