Agatha Harkness – how old and why does she look so young?
We know she was involved in the Salem witch trials, but even when Agatha Harkness has white hair and a Victorian dress sense, she is old than she looks.
When Agatha Harknes first appears in comics (in Fantastic Four #94) she looks like she has appeared from the 19th century, not a comic book in the 1970s. While her white hair and Victorian dress sense may make her look old, she is really a great deal older.
Agatha’s coven was destroy during the Salem trials, which was around 300 years ago. However, Agatha already had her power by that time.
If you were watching WandaVision, you might remember a sense in which Agatha is talking to a woman she refers to as mother, but in the comics Agatha has already been around for a lot longer by the time she is seen in the 1600s.
A couple of hundreds years before the Salem witch trials, Agatha was in Transia (near Mount Wundagore which you might remember as the place that Scarlet Witch finds the text of the Darkhold written on the walls). A little more about that later.
But these 500 years is small change when we consider a couple of other things we know about Agatha from the comics.
First of all, Agatha was said to have been around 500 years before Atlantis sank. The Great Cataclysm that Atlantis took place 20,000 years ago. Now that is old. But even that might only be scratching the surface.
Agatha knows Scrier who is a cosmic being who existed before Galactus and the creation of the universe. Now, was Agatha around before the universe existed? Probably not. Was she around soon after the universe came into being? Maybe. The exact details are unclear in either the movies, TV shows or comic books.
One thing we do know is Agatha is looking a lot younger recently.
When she turned up in WandaVision she did not have white hair and look like the Victorian nanny hired by the Fantastic Four in her first comic book appears.
At the same time as WandaVision, Agatha is looking a great deal younger in the comic books. What happened?
Agatha took a job at Doctor Strange’s school for gifted users of magic (think a cross between the Xavier School and Hogwarts). The attraction for Agatha is two users of magic who are related to old members of coven.
Remember when I mentioned Agatha being in Transia? That’s when she had a coven and collected some power.
The Transian locals are unhappy about the presence of the coven, which leads the coven to cast a spell to draw magic from Valtorr’s realm. The spell is progressing as the locals are starting to pick up pitchforks and flaming torches. But Agatha isn’t so sure.
With the demon Valtorr about to be released into the world through a black mirror, Agatha wants to stop. But Valtorr breaks through and snatches one of the witches. There is a fight and the black mirror is broken, trapping Valtorr and the witch in the realm of toxic vapors.
Hundreds of years later all users of magic have a vision of demons from Valtorr’s realm invading Earth because of the descendent of one the witches in Agatha’s coven.
Feeling somewhat responsible, Agatha attempts to protect her student. You’ll be glad to know she has a little help from the Midnight Suns (a supernatural Avenger group including Blade, Magik, Spirit Rider and Wolverine. Wolverine isn’t exactly supernatural, but no team-up is complete without Wolverine).
When the demon makes it way through the black mirror to the Earth, Agatha is ready with a magic dagger. As the Midnight Suns hold off the minions of the demon and Agatha’s student smashes the black mirror, Agatha is taking out the demon with the magic dagger.
An explosion envelops Agatha and the demon and both are considered dead. Except Wolverine reminds everyone that if you don’t see a body, you shouldn’t assume anything.
Which is exactly right (we knew there was a reason he was on the team, in addition to the whole claws thing and being Wolverine). The demon ends up back in the toxic vapor realm of Valtorr and Agatha walks away looking a lot younger.
Did I mention it was a magic dagger? It appears that Agatha wasn’t just interested in protecting the Earth and her student, she also took the opportunity to use the dagger to drain the power of the demon which gave her a youthful appearance and a new set of chaos power.
Good thinking Agatha.
For more on Agatha Harkness’s past and her transformation into a more youthful appearance, check out Midnight Suns.
For more on Agatha Harkness’s conflict with Wanda and her recreation of the Darkhold through dubious means (making heroes fight one another), check out the Contest of Chaos.
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