WandaVision MCU Explained: Who Is Agatha Harkness Really?
Agatha Harkness In The Comics - Sorceress, Mentor, And Ally
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has never been one to shirk playing fast and loose with the source material.
While undoubtedly faithful to the spirit and ethos of most of the characters (unless you're name's Peter Parker, in which case we'll just rip off Miles Morales and pretend like we didn't), the MCU has often put its own spin on pre-established Marvel characters and groups, most notably changing the Skrulls from a tyrannical alien race of shapeshifters into a group of space refugees in Captain Marvel. So there's precedent for them to do something similarly drastic with Agatha in WandaVision too.
Regardless of however Marvel chooses to diverge from the comics when it comes to Agatha's depiction in WandaVision, they still form the character's foundation and you can expect to see different elements from them incorporated over the course of the coming episodes.
In the comics, Agatha Harkness was a witch whose history dates back to the fall of Atlantis (which needless to say was a long time ago). She later settled in Salem during the burgeoning days of America's colonisation, and was, yes, involved in the infamous witch trials that took place there. Agatha eventually left the area and founded a new community of magic users in a town called New Salem (later Colorado), and even had a son called Nicholas Scratch. (It's still unclear whether or not Agatha turned her son into Scratchy the rabbit in WandaVision, or whether it's just the show paying homage to the comics, but the more you know, you know?)
Much of Agatha's backstory covered here was established in books that released years after her original debut, which came in the pages of Fantastic Four #94 in 1970, courtesy of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. She was a retired tutor who agreed to watch over the Richards' newborn son, Franklin, and in the same issue uses her supernatural powers to fend off attacks from the Frightful Four, who The Thing accidentally awakens.
Agatha became a mainstay of the Fantastic Four's comics for quite a while following her first appearance, mentoring Franklin and assisting Mister Fantastic and co. with all sorts of threats, and was a key ally of the team. Harkness didn't have an ulterior motive, and while she didn't don a cape or costume, she was essentially one of the first supernatural heroes of the Marvel Age of comics.
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