Agatha All Along‘s Most Intriguing Mysteries Could All Be Connected

You couldn’t flight talking about WandaVision successful 2021 without proceeding the connection “Mephisto” astatine immoderate point. To not beryllium wholly unfair to comic publication fans, for arsenic overmuch arsenic the bid went connected to try and skewer the Easter-egg-analytical broadside of its fandom arsenic it unpacked Wanda Maximoff’s trauma, it was inactive inherently, albeit loosely, adapting storylines from the comics that surely invited that benignant of speculation. But present that its spiritual successor Agatha All Along is present and adjacent much explicitly playing into the demonical and mystical broadside of Marvel, well, it’s lone going to invitation connecting those disparate dots adjacent further.

Agatha All Along‘s two-episode premiere this week rapidly whisks america from prestige-crime-drama homage to the titular witch preparing to signifier a squad of lone-wolf witches to assistance her get her powers back. But on the mode there’s 3 intriguing characters we conscionable that each could perchance link to everyone’s least-favorite matrimony slayer successful comics. They each person roots successful Marvel’s root material, they each person those ties, but is Agatha truly doing thing with them oregon conscionable messing with us? Let’s interruption it down spot by bit.

Nicholas Scratch

© Marvel Studios

Agatha All Along‘s bull amusement riff Agnes of Westview climaxes successful its tropey homages with “Agnes” returning to her location aft a agelong time moving connected her caller execution lawsuit to wrestle with a fewer of her ain demons, by walking done her location to uncover an empty, but well-maintained child’s room. It wouldn’t beryllium a woman-led prestige detective play without a small trauma now, would it? The country is intelligibly meant to connote Agnes being haunted implicit a kid that she tragically, nebulously lost, but the intrigue for comics fans of people is that schoolhouse awards connected the abandoned shelves uncover that Agnes’ lad is named Nicholas Scratch.

In the comics, Scratch is so the lad of Agatha Harkness, and an irregular villainous foil to the Fantastic Four. Born and raised by Agatha successful New Salem, an isolationist nine of magic users, Nicholas became embittered by his mother’s prime to permission the assemblage and unrecorded among modern society, aft she went to go the babysitter of Franklin Richards for Sue and Reed. Growing up and becoming New Salem’s leader, Scratch turned the municipality against his parent for her perceived betrayal of their concealed commune, kidnapping some her and Franklin. But aft the Fantastic Four intervened and rescued Agatha, Scratch recovered himself banished to the Dark Realm. Over the years Scratch occasionally resurfaced successful the comics, archetypal successful attempts to flight his banishment, and past to conflict backmost against the Fantastic Four and different Marvel heroes with the Salem’s Seven, a radical of superhuman mutants that were each really sired by Scratch and assorted women.

But what makes Scratch’s Agatha All Along notation intriguing is that 1 of Scratch’s past large storylines saw him defeated by Doctor Strange and the Fantastic Four successful 2006’s 4, aft an effort to deceive them into summoning Shuma-Gorath. Banished again, this clip consecutive to Hell, Scratch people began forging connections… starting with an confederation with, you guessed it, Mephisto himself.

Rio Vidal’s Black Heart

© Marvel Studios

Aubrey Plaza’s mysterious greenish witch, Rio Vidal, is arguably the biggest enigma of Agatha truthful far, if lone due to the fact that she’s really 1 of the fewer main formed members who is, seemingly, a quality created from full cloth for the bid alternatively than pulling straight from the comics.

Seemingly. In the 2nd occurrence of the series, Rio is referred to successful Lilia Calderu’s divination of Agatha’s imaginable coven members not by her sanction oregon title, but with a azygous emblem: a achromatic heart. While this mightiness conscionable beryllium a notation to thing other astir the quality of her quality (or adjacent a imaginable romanticist past with Agatha; the amusement decidedly gives the duo an exes vibe, earlier the full “I privation to mystically leap astatine you and stab you with my knife” deal, though that is besides itself beauteous Sapphic), successful the comics determination is a mystical quality named Blackheart… who is nary different than the lad of Mephisto.

Introduced by Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr. successful 1989 arsenic portion of their Daredevil run, Blackheart was a demon crafted by Mephisto retired of a manifestation of evil energies emanating from the municipality of Christ’s Crown, New York, notorious for its past of murders. However, conscionable arsenic rapidly arsenic Mephisto takes his kid nether his wings to larn the ways of devilry, Blackheart’s failures to tempt superheroes to evil’s broadside leads to him concluding that his begetter could ne'er decision good—and Mephisto exiling him to earth. Over the years Blackheart has been a foil to aggregate Marvel heroes, including Ghost Rider, successful his attempts to combat backmost against his begetter and his power implicit him and marque a sanction for himself successful Hell.

The Kaplan Connection

© Marvel Studios

Just whoever Joe Locke is truly playing arsenic Agatha’s young magical groupie “Teen” inactive remains up successful the aerial astatine this point—given that we spot successful the premiere whenever helium tries to speech to Agatha astir his past oregon his existent name, she is magically barred from proceeding it. But the long-running mentation fans person had astir the quality is that Teen is successful information Billy Kaplan, aka the Young Avenger Wiccan, and of course, the re-incarnated mentation of Wanda and Vision’s duplicate son, William Maximoff.

In the comics it’s yet revealed that Wanda created her children, William and Thomas, by inadvertently utilizing her reality-warping chaos magics to propulsion 2 souls that were really portion of Mephisto’s essence, dissipated into aggregate entities aft being defeated by Franklin Richards, into the forms of her young boys. But erstwhile the boys were unmade by the demon and wiped from existence, the souls had been truthful radically altered by Wanda’s magics that Mephisto yet couldn’t usage them either, defeating his plans to regain his existent signifier again. The souls would yet beryllium freed and reincarnated into 2 unrelated boys, Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd, calved to 2 antithetic families and yet reunited arsenic members of the Young Avengers aft they some manifested superpowers with eerily acquainted connections to Wanda’s family, with Tommy manifesting superspeed akin to Wanda’s member Pietro, and Billy an array of mystical abilities.

That mentation is 1 that inactive makes consciousness with what we’ve seen of “Teen” truthful far. Like Billy, he’s openly queer, mentioning his disquieted fellow to Agatha arsenic they statesman their roadtrip to find a caller coven, and similar Billy, helium has a keen involvement successful the arcane, adjacent if helium presently lacks the powerfulness to truly wield it himself yet. There would beryllium thing precise amusive astir the re-incarnated lad of Wanda (who is, astatine slightest successful the timeframe of Agatha, still precise overmuch dead aft the events of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of madness) being the 1 who helps Agatha re-ascend to witchery, and gaining his ain magical powers successful the process. But fixed each the different Mephisto-adjacent hostility mentioned above, it’s besides conscionable different intriguing furniture to it all.

Is It Really Mephisto This Time?

The answer, arsenic ever with astir MCU theories, is “maybe, but astir apt not.” It would be very comic if Agatha was the amusement that really went into the Mysterio of it each aft the mania fans brought to WandaVision with those theories, particularly fixed that it is leaning overmuch much into the supernatural underpinnings of magic successful the MCU successful comparison. But arsenic noted above, each the connections we spot laid retired supra are beauteous escaped astatine bet. The Nicholas Scratch notation could’ve been much astir chiefly the cop-show homage connection—and the trope of the pb detective haunted by a tragic past—rather than Scratch’s ain tenuous nexus to Mephisto. Likewise, Rio could beryllium wholly abstracted from the comics, oregon beryllium revealed to person a wholly antithetic connection, and the Black Heart was much astir referring to her quality alternatively than thing straight from the comics. And adjacent if “Teen” does extremity up really being Billy astatine immoderate constituent during the show, it’s not similar the amusement has to excavation into his comic publication past with Mephisto, and find immoderate different mentation arsenic to however William came backmost into beingness (especially fixed the other furniture of enigma arsenic to wherefore Agatha is being blocked from proceeding thing astir him).

Suffice to say, overmuch similar determination was with WandaVision, it’s a spot aboriginal to definitively get Mephisto-pilled each implicit again. But it’s amusive to speculate successful that tone either mode with the MCU’s successor series.

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