The Comic Book History Behind Agatha All Along‘s Big Rio Reveal

By present you’ve apt heard the news: Aubrey Plaza’s quality successful Agatha All Along, the sequel bid to WandaVision, is not the acerbic “Rio Vidal” astatine all, but alternatively the acerbic personification of death, itself. That’s right: Death, with a superior “D.” 

She’s described successful the bid arsenic “The Original Green Witch”—because the process of decay and decomposition leads to the instauration of c dioxide, water, and mineral salts, which are past absorbed by plants done their roots, etc.—and Marvel’s agelong past with its mentation of Death arsenic an entity and quality has granted her respective titles of her own, including Mistress of Death, Spectre of Death, the Grim Reaper, the Final Goddess, Dark Beauty, and astir fashionable of all, Lady Death (however, the quality is nary longer truly called that arsenic the name’s been usurped by a precise different, independently published character.)

So, what separates Marvel’s incarnation of the cessation of beingness isolated from the others? Well, she’s officially a cosmic entity, for one—the conceptual other of her colleague, Eternity (who made his live-action debut successful Thor: Love & Thunder, successful lawsuit you forgot), and often presents arsenic a woman. Marvel’s personification of Death was established by Mike Friedrich and Jim Starlin, and made her debut in Captain Marvel #26 mode backmost successful the summertime of 1973.

Though Marvel hasn’t precisely fixed Death her ain title, she came adjacent successful the ’70s with War Is Hell, a comic acceptable during the Second World War with a premise truthful ripe for a play TV series, we wouldn’t beryllium amazed if Agatha near Rio astir to perchance get her ain Werewolf By Night-style “Marvel Presents” special. In that book, Death decides to punish a worker named John Kowalski for failing to intervene during the penetration of Poland. As benignant of a macabre instrumentality connected Quantum Leap, each contented of the bid saw Death tasking Kowalski with inhabiting the assemblage of idiosyncratic doomed to die, with the extremity of changing something for the amended earlier the big succumbs to their eventual fate.

However, successful the comics, she’s astir apt champion known for her one-sided transportation with Thanos, the erstwhile archvillain of the MCU. Thanos had (often unrequited) romanticist designs connected Death passim respective of his appearances successful the ’70s and ’80s, and regularly attempted to triumph her affections by murdering arsenic galore radical arsenic possible. As seen successful the 1991 lawsuit bid Infinity Gauntlet, his strategy of annihilating fractional of each beingness with the powerfulness of the titular artifact was primitively different bid for Death’s bully will—a cosmic sacrifice to her that the MCU, erstwhile adapting the plotline successful Infinity War and Endgame, removed Death from the representation entirely.

Though Death is intrigued by the motion successful Infinity Gauntlet, she’s not into-into Thanos similar helium is, and has seldom been enmeshed with the quality beyond this. Instead, since past her motivations person lied with a greater involvement successful the universe’s functional immortals who consistently evade her icy grasp. Yes, Death is 1 of those radical who wants what she can’t have, and has shown greater involvement successful characters similar the regenerative Deadpool, oregon much precocious Spider-Man’s clone, Ben Reilly, who has come backmost from the dormant truthful galore times, she couldn’t assistance but announcement him. 

But if Death is mostly a relic from a ’70s warfare comic and occasional romanticist involvement of a cosmic tyrant, wherefore is she connected Agatha All Along? We don’t cognize yet. As a erstwhile seemingly spurned person of Agatha, it seems the bid is borrowing a leafage from the comics successful making Death a imaginable romanticist lead. Except this time, alternatively of leaning connected the cosmic scale, she’s operating successful the confines of the series’ exploration of the MCU’s magical side. But past wherefore the subterfuge of posing arsenic a pistillate named Rio Vidal? 

We’re besides not sure—but successful the comics, Death would occasionally person a pistillate named Marlo Chandler to acquisition beingness successful carnal form. While that quality was named aft writer Raymond Chandler and his fictional detective, Philip Marlowe, “Rio” is simply a Spanish sanction meaning river, and “Marlo” means “remains of a lake.” There’s immoderate symmetry there. “Vidal” is besides a Spanish sanction meaning “little life” oregon “lively one,” which is ironic, I accidental (Chandler means idiosyncratic who makes candles, if you were hoping for a imaginable 2nd naming connection). A erstwhile occurrence besides had her dressed arsenic a rockstar by-way-of Spanish matador, and arsenic Mexico is 1 of the comparatively fewer cultures with a pistillate personification of Death (in this case, Santa Muerte), possibly there’s a logical done enactment determination successful the sanction aft all?

If Death’s motives for meddling successful the affairs of Agatha’s coven are going to beryllium revealed, it’ll apt hap adjacent week, erstwhile Agatha All Along‘s play finale hits Disney+ the time earlier Halloween. And possibly we’ll spot if Death has a aboriginal successful the MCU beyond the show’s confines… arsenic a physically embodied concept, of course. We’re definite there’ll beryllium plentifulness of decease itself, either adjacent week in Agatha All Along oregon successful the MCU’s future, careless of whether oregon not Rio’s astir to spot it.

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