WandaVision is a bonafide hit and shows that the MCU can work outside of the movie theater. Taking the staid formula of the MCU and turning it on its ear, WandaVision has used its status as a TV show to tell a different kind of MCU story. Fans have all kinds of theories about what's going on and what Marvel characters would or should have appeared on the show.
The reveal of Wanda and Vision's neighbor Agnes to be the witch Agatha Harkness surprised a lot of fans, although some had already figured it out because of their knowledge of the character and her tie to Wanda in particular and the Marvel Universe in general.
10 She Is Very, Very Old
In the show, Agatha is played by Kathryn Hahn, so she looks young and spry but in the comics, Agatha looks anything but. While her magic is definitely strong enough to alter her appearance, she usually just appears as the wizened old woman that she is. With age comes wisdom, so why hide the age?
Now, as for how old she is, that's hard to pin down. According to her, she is old enough to remember five hundred years before the sinking of Atlantis, which was thought to have happened in 10,500 BCE. That's incredibly old and it explains how she knows so much about magic.
9 She Had A Coven In Salem, Massachusetts
In America, the town of Salem and witchcraft are pretty much synonymous because of the infamous witch trials that were held there. Those trials were mostly just religious fervor and misogynistic paranoia taken to the extreme in the real world but in the Marvel Universe, there actually were witches in Salem and Agatha was one of them.
The Salem witch trials also happened in the Marvel Universe and Agatha approved of them, her reasoning being that they culled the weak witches who could get caught, leaving only the strong ones, which is pretty hardcore. Apocalypse would approve.
8 She Has A Powerful Extra-Dimensional Entity As Her Familiar
Many witches have familiars, animals possessed with spirits that help them in their magic. Oftentimes, these familiars are cats, usually black ones. Agatha is no different- she has Ebony, a black cat, as her familiar. However, her familiar isn't some nature spirit moonlighting as a cat- Ebony is a powerful extra-dimensional entity.
Agatha and Ebony have a psychic link and she sends the cat to run errands for her. When Ebony is in danger, it can transform into a massive creature with great strength, speed, and powerful claws. It's also fantastically resistant to damage—the only way to kill it would be to scatter its molecules over a wide area.
7 Fought In Both The Revolutionary War And World War II
Agatha has been around a long time and used her magic at various times over the years to help out the world. Like many, she came to America to find her own fortune and flee persecution, so when the Revolutionary War started, she fought on the side of the nascent nation, joining the Daughters of Liberty in their fight and even teaching them magic.
Likewise, during WWII, she joined the Department of the Uncanny and helped battle the magical side of the Axis Powers, helping to end the threat of the Nazi known as Hilda Von Hate.
6 Is One Of The Most Powerful Magic Users On The Planet
The Marvel Universe is full of powerful magical talents and Agatha is among the best of them. This makes a lot of sense, as Agatha has been around for thousands of years, traveling the world and learning everything she could about magic. Anyone who can get an extra-dimensional entity to listen to them and become a cat to serve them is not to be messed with.
Agatha's magic has allowed her to extend her life pretty much indefinitely, resurrect multiple times over the years, and help out the heroes of the Marvel Universe in their battles when it suits her purposes. She may not be the Sorcerer Supreme but she's a very powerful magic-user.
5 Was Franklin Richards' Nanny
Franklin Richards is the son of Reed and Sue Richards and is one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe, able to create entire universes with his powers. The Fantastic Four find themselves going all over the multiverse on their adventures. They needed someone to watch young Franklin, someone who could protect him, and Agatha was the perfect choice.
Between her own powers and Ebony, Agatha was able to keep Franklin safe from many threats and used her years of knowledge to teach him a thing or two about using his powers. It's a good bet that without Agatha's guidance, Franklin would have become a very different person.
4 Helped Reveal The True Nature Of Scarlet Witch And Vision's Kids
In WandaVision, Agatha has taken special notice of Tommy and Billy, the children of Scarlet Witch and Vision. This sort of follows the comic, as Agatha also was involved with the twins but in a different way—she helped destroy them. She revealed that they were created from fragments of Mephisto's soul and helped the Avengers get rid of them, then wiped Scarlet Witch's memory of them.
Of course, the twins would eventually return, their souls reconstituted in new bodies freed of Mephisto's influence. Both would join the Young Avengers before reuniting with their mother and earning their place in the superhero community.
3 Trained Scarlet Witch In Actual Magic Use
Scarlet Witch is very powerful but her abilities aren't magical in nature. She's able to manipulate reality and this ability opened her up to being able to use magic. Agatha saw the potential in her and decided that it would be safest for reality if she taught Scarlet Witch magic, grounding her powers and giving her greater control.
She accomplished this by lying to Wanda about her powers, telling her that they allowed her to control chaos magic, a branch of magic that didn't actually exist. Agatha's teaching would make Scarlet Witch more powerful and allow her greater control of her powers, until she learned the truth and went a little bit crazy.
2 Scarlet Witch Killed Her
Agatha had died many times over the years and always came back but one of the worst times she died was when Scarlet Witch killed her. Scarlet Witch had discovered what happened to her children and confronted Agatha about it. Agatha tried to calm her down and reason with her, but Scarlet Witch was having none of that and killed her.
Afterwards, with the truth about her children and her powers laid bare, Scarlet Witch would attack the Avengers, killing several of them and ending the team as everyone knew it. She felt they were just as much to blame for what happened to her and her children as Agatha, their lies intertwining the ancient witch's.
1 She's Not Evil
In WandaVision, Agatha has been behind a lot of the bad things in Westville, manipulating events and Scarlet Witch for her own reasons. In the comics, Agatha has done some rather shady things, like lying to Scarlet Witch and mindwiping her, but she's not evil. Her morality is much more complicated than that.
Agatha has lived for thousands of years and magic is a very dangerous and demanding power. Agatha has had to do some rather bad things over the years to survive but she's not some evil magic user out to subjugate reality. She does what is needed and follows her own path, one that is usually beneficial for the people of the Earth.