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WandaVision’s new villain may be teasing an even bigger reveal

The power behind the witch of WestView

Wanda Maximoff in WandaVision Image: Marvel Studios
Susana Polo is an entertainment editor at Polygon, specializing in pop culture and genre fare, with a primary expertise in comic books. Previously, she founded The Mary Sue.

This week’s episode of WandaVision found Vision returning to the Hex, Wanda dealing with the stress of her actions, Agnes up to her old tricks, Jimmy and Monica plotting a new way to break into Westview, and Darcy playing a role in the alternate reality for the first time. Episode 7 also ended with a big turn, one that revealed another hidden Marvel Comics character and spells out the dimensions of the final two episodes of the television event.

We know more now about what’s been happening in Westview than ever before, and it all could point to a final confrontation with some of the greatest powers in the Marvel Universe.

[Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for WandaVision through episode seven.]

The Fantastic Four and Agatha Harkness, an elderly lady with a shock of white hair, holding her black cat, Ebony, in Fantastic Four #94, Marvel Comics (1970).
Agatha Harkness greets the Fantastic Four at the door of her creepy mansion.
Image: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby/Marvel Comics

In “Breaking the Fourth Wall,” the show reveals that Wanda’s chatty neighbor Agnes has really been (sing it with me) Agatha all along. She’s the witch Agatha Harkness, and she’s been behind many of the events in Westview that Wanda didn’t create herself. She created the recast Pietro, she manipulated the Vision into realizing that something was wrong, and she even killed Sparky.

Agatha is a character from the magical side of the Marvel Universe, whose earliest adventures were with the Fantastic Four (a connection that could be pertinent with upcoming plans for a FF movie, and rumors of Reed Richards WandaVision cameo.) Although giving off all the vibes of “creepy old witch who’s definitely got nefarious schemes” she generally used her magical powers to help them combat various supernatural threats, as well as looking after Reed and Sue’s kid, Franklin. Eventually, as part of a process of revamping the Scarlet Witch’s powers as magical in origin rather than genetics, writer Steve Englehart had Wanda study the mystic arts under Agatha.

Since then, Agatha has been primarily tied to Scarlet Witch stories. She and Wanda have a complicated relationship, but were rarely true enemies. It was in an Agatha-related encounter that the Scarlet Witch used some captured magical energy to create children for herself and the Vision, and it was Agatha who later resurfaced to give Wanda the bad news that that “captured magical energy” was a piece of the devil’s soul that he wanted back.

Speak of the devil, by which I mean Mephisto

Agnes/Agatha Harkness in WandaVision Image: Marvel Studios

Fans have been theorizing for weeks that WandaVision would introduce the Marvel Comics character of Mephisto to the MCU, based on the show’s hexagon motif, but Agatha’s presence is the strongest indication yet.

Mephisto is essentially the devil of the Marvel Comics universe. It might be easier to list superheroes who haven’t had a run in with him than those who have. He played a supporting role in the original Infinity Gauntlet story that Avengers: Infinity War was based on. He’s a recurring villain for Doctor Strange. He featured largely in one of the most controversial Spider-Man stories of the last 20 years. In the comics, Wanda’s twin boys were accidentally made out of fragments of his soul.

In a 1989 story arc of Avengers West Coast, Mephisto unmade little Billy and Tommy so he could get his soul pieces back. Agatha, in what she thought was a merciful gesture at the time, wiped the Scarlet Witch’s memory of her children to save her the pain of mourning them. So there’s a history of Agatha being around for the most traumatic moments in Wanda’s life.

But WandaVision’s Agatha seems significantly more villainous than her comic book counterpart, potentially with direct ties to Mephisto, if the vague Satanic imagery in her secret basement lair is anything to go by. The reader might also want to consider Agnes’ oft spoken of but otherwise unseen husband “Ralph,” and the number of “witch” stories that depict them as figurative or literal brides of the devil.

Is Agatha’s presence a lock for a Mephisto reveal? Could Monica’s European physicist contact be longtime Fantastic Four villain and science wizard Victor von Doom? We’ll have to tune in for two more weeks of WandaVision to find out.

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