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.
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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.
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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.