The witch Agatha Harkness, performed by Kathryn Hahn, was the breakout character of the Disney+ Marvel miniseries WandaVision in 2021. The collection ended with Harkness trapped contained in the disguise of nosy neighbour “Agnes” and reduce off from her magic – however she is about to return in her personal spin-off collection, Agatha All Alongside on September 18. Nevertheless, Harkness has an extended historical past than some followers of the present would possibly realise.
Created by Marvel’s Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1969, Harkness was, till just lately, portrayed as an previous lady whose age was unattainable to guess. She has been an ally to the Incredible 4 and the Avengers. She additionally appeared throughout fairly a fraught time in US comics historical past.
Following an ethical panic concerning the “immorality” of comedian books, the US comics business tried to mollify their critics by means of self-regulation, establishing a code for content material in 1954. This code, to which publishers needed to adhere to guard their gross sales figures, prohibited vampires, ghouls, werewolves and horror content material normally. Witches weren’t particularly talked about among the many prohibited inventory characters (maybe as a result of legacy of “good witches” in US media, comparable to The Wizard of Oz and Bewitched), however they needed to be on their greatest behaviour – comedic reasonably than creepy.
Harkness was launched as a nanny for Franklin Richards, toddler son of Mr Incredible and the Invisible Girl, in Incredible 4 #94 (October 1969), a lighthearted Halloween particular. On this problem, she lives in a spooky mansion on Whisper Hill and is simply generally known as a childminder.
Her true nature is revealed to the reader in a later comedian, when the Frightful 4 attempt to kidnap child Franklin, frightening a magical response. The Incredible 4, in the meantime, are none the wiser, having been trapped of their rooms all through the ordeal. Harkness’s powers are lastly revealed to her employers in Incredible 4 #110 (February 1971).
The escalation of Harkness’s powers, and her openness about her witchy nature, got here simply earlier than a change in comics regulation. In the identical month, a narrative that includes drug abuse in Wonderful Spider-Man points 96-98 meant these points needed to be distributed with out the Comics Code Authority (CCA) stamp of approval. Nevertheless, the story was very positively obtained by dad and mom’ and academics’ teams, and reported favourably within the information media, prompting the CCA to replace its code. As a part of that replace, the prohibition on horror and occult tropes was rescinded in 1972.
Extra of Harkness’s private historical past is revealed in points 185 and 186 (Could 1977) when the Incredible 4 uncover a secret group of witches named New Salem, which Harkness used to guide. Harkness’s power-hungry son Nicholas Scratch kidnaps her, believing that she has betrayed the key city to the skin world, however because of the 4’s intervention, the witches of New Salem flip towards him and banish him to a different dimension.
Scratch’s super-villain group, Salem’s Seven, attempt to return him to Earth, however are foiled by Harkness and Richards as soon as extra in Incredible 4 Annual #14 (October 1979).
In his subsequent try to return, in points 222-223 (June-July 1980), Scratch possesses Richards to incapacitate the 4 and enact a ritual to take away the barrier between Earth and the Darkish World. Harkness defeats her son, strips him of his powers and disowns him, thereafter deciding to stay in New Salem.
Harmful liaisons
It’s clear that Harkness was generally a tough visitor character for her creators. There have been few limits on her arcane energy and he or she overshadowed headline characters in their very own comics. Plainly for Harkness to work as a protagonist, the heroes round her needed to be disempowered someway – locked in rooms, possessed, mind-controlled or in any other case taken out of fee.
This works for a comedic story like her first look, however not a lot for arcs with critical, high-stakes battle. In Imaginative and prescient and the Scarlet Witch Vol. 2 #3 (September 1985), we study that Salem’s Seven have lastly killed Harkness. Nevertheless, when she exhibits up in particular person and really a lot alive in Avengers West Coast #51 (August 1989), she brushes off mentions of her loss of life as in the event that they have been of no consequence.
Harkness’s most vital affiliate is Wanda, aka the Scarlet Witch, whom she begins coaching in Avengers 128 (July 1974). Their tumultuous relationship once more revolves round kids. Harkness tells Wanda the best way to use magic to conceive kids along with her android husband, Imaginative and prescient (Imaginative and prescient and the Scarlet Witch Vol. 2 #3), and he or she later messes round with Wanda’s reminiscences of these kids. She erases reminiscences of them to spare Wanda the trauma of dropping them in Avengers West Coast 52 (September 1989), however undoes this ten points later to attempt to launch Wanda from thoughts management (July 1990).
As revealed in The Avengers 503 (November 2004), this manipulation drives Wanda to kill Harkness. Her ghost returns in Wanda’s personal collection, Scarlet Witch (December 2015 onwards), ultimately being resurrected for a second time in problem 14 (January 2017).
The model of Harkness we see in WandaVision is an outright villain, which raises questions on what we will count on from Agatha All Alongside. To this point, all we all know of the premise is that Harkness escapes Westview with the assistance of a teen fan (rumoured to be the magic-wielding hero Wiccan), and assembles a brand new coven. Will probably be attention-grabbing to see if extra parts from Harkness’s previous are launched. New Salem could be enjoyable to see on TV, in all its gargoyle-infested glory, and Scratch would make an attention-grabbing adversary.
With such a prolonged historical past to attract upon and reinvent, there’s a wealth of storytelling potential in Madame Harkness. From enigmatic ally to driving villain to sarcastic antihero, she is as changeable as a witch should be. Let chaos reign.
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