Is Agatha Harkness good or bad?
If you saw WandaVision and have seen the trailer for the new Disney+ show, you might know that it was Agatha all along. She’s a witch, but is Agatha good or bad?
Being called names hurt. So be careful throwing around that ‘witch’ name. Sure we have this idea of witches from Halloween. They are all broom riding women with black hats and cats.
Agatha Harkness doesn’t have a hat or a ride a broom (she does have a cat named Ebony). Sure, Agatha is a witch, but we shouldn’t be jumping to conclusions about her.
In her first appearance in comic books, Agatha helped out the Fantastic Four. She took care of Reed and Sue’s son. She taught Scarlett Witch about magic and she at the Strange Academy.
But…she isn’t always doing and hasn’t always done the right thing.
A great example is the limited series Midnight Suns.
With a line up of heroes from Blade, Wolverine, Magik, Spirt Rider and Clea as the Sorcerer Supreme, there is a lot going on in the story and it provides an insight into Agatha’s past.
When a vision hits all magic users showing them one of the students at the Strange Academy letting a demon loose on the world, everyone is a little worried. An attack of toxic vapors (sounds like some over doing the vaping, but are actually entities from a toxic realm) keeps the heroes busy, so Agatha steps in and takes the student who might end the world to safety.
In the first instance, Agatha appears to be protecting, Zoe Laveau, an innocent student. But actually it turns out that Agatha knows a little more about what is going on than anyone else knows about.
Hundreds of years ago, Agatha was part of coven who preformed a ritual to bring forth the demon Valtorr from his realm of vapours. In return, he would protect the coven from the locals who arrived with anger and flames.
The arrival of a demon from Valtorr’s realm is connected to Agatha’s past. Now it looks like Agatha is hiding secret about her past indiscretion. Except it appears that Agatha was hesitate to complete the ritual.
Some of the other witches were less hesitant and as a result Valtorr escapes from his realm and takes a member of the coven captive. Agatha lashes out at the other members of her coven and the threat is avoided, but one of the coven is lost to the realm of Valtorr.
Hundreds of years later, when the demon arrives from Valtorr’s realm, it is as a result of Agatha’s actions. Is she protecting the innocent student or is she responsible for putting the student in danger in the first place?
No massive spoilers here, but we are talking about a superhero story. The demon doesn’t triumph and Agatha does step in to help defeat the demon. She does require the help of the Midnight Suns. But she also uses a magical dagger that drains the power of the demon and has some positive effects for Agatha.
When Agatha next appears, in the Contest of Chaos storyline, she is looking a lot healthier than she did when she was teaching at the Strange Academy. She also has plans that cause a good deal of trouble for a number of superheroes and involves generating chaos magic to recreate the Darkhold (a magic book of dark magic).
For more about Agatha Harkness’s past and her involvement with a demon from a realm of toxic vapors, check out Midnight Suns (also some great action from the Blade, Magik, Wolverine and Spirit Rider line up).
For more about Agatha’s generation of chaos magic to recreate the Darkhold, check out The Contest of Chaos (these are paid affiliate links and as an Amazon Associate I will earn a small income from qualifying purchases, but won’t cost you any more).