How Agatha Harkness Became a Ghost

For centuries, Agatha Harkness has enjoyed a unique relationship with death. Like many witches of the Marvel Universe, Agatha used her magical abilities to avoid death and lived far beyond a regular human lifespan. Even when death finally caught up to her, she found a new purpose in the afterlife as a ghost. In her spectral form, Agatha helped the Scarlet Witch make a fateful journey down the Witches' Road and continued to give her protégé guidance and advice.

Once she found her way back to the land of the living, Agatha embraced life with a more youthful look and a dark new mission. Now, let's take a closer look at how Agatha Harkness turned death into a temporary inconvenience before getting her second chance at life. 

HOW AGATHA HARKNESS DIED

Long before Agatha Harkness became the nanny of Franklin Richards for the Fantastic Four, she lived in New Salem, a community populated almost entirely by witches and warlocks. When Agatha moved away from the hidden town, her son, Nicholas Scratch, took over New Salem and tried to convince its residents that Agatha had revealed the secrets of the town's existence to the outside world. 

Nicholas and his mystical children, Salem's Seven, tried to capture and kill Agatha, but the Fantastic Four stepped in and stopped them. However, Salem's Seven eventually captured Agatha again, removed her powers, and burned her at the stake in VISION AND THE SCARLET WITCH (1985) #3 by Steve Englehart and Richard Howell.

Shortly after her death, Agatha approached Wanda and the Vision as a ghost. By providing guidance, Agatha helped the then-married Avengers defeat Salem's Seven and the demon Samhain. She also showed Wanda how she could use magic to conceive children. 

Once Wanda gave birth to Billy and Tommy Maximoff, Agatha was resurrected through unrevealed means and returned in WEST COAST AVENGERS (1985) #50 by John Byrne. With Wanda reeling from a brief possession and the Vision's transformation into an emotionless, all-white being, Agatha approached her former student to help her care for the young twins.
 

WHY WANDA KILLED AGATHA

Although Agatha returned to life to help Wanda, the Scarlet Witch ultimately killed her long-time mentor. When Wanda created Billy and Tommy, she used aspects of lost souls that were under the control of Mephisto. Through a mystic called Master Pandemonium, Mephisto reabsorbed the spirits of the Maximoff twins and effectively erased them from existence. 

To spare Wanda the pain of losing her children, Agatha hid Wanda's memories of Billy and Tommy in WEST COAST AVENGERS (1985) #52 by John Byrne. As Wanda's powers grew unpredictable, Agatha returned to her role as Wanda's caring mentor.  

After a careless comment from the Wasp unlocked Wanda's memories of her children, an unstable Scarlet Witch attacked the Avengers, killed several of her teammates, and destroyed Avengers Mansion. At some point during her breakdown, Wanda confronted Agatha and killed her. 

While investigating the situation, Nick Fury Sr. discovered Agatha's body, which had decayed into an almost mummified state by the time he found it in AVENGERS (1998) #503 by Brian Michael Bendis, Olivier Coipel, and David Finch. As an amnesiac Wanda recovered from her breakdown in HOUSE OF M (2005), she claimed she was taking care of an unseen "Aunt Agatha," but it remains unclear if she had any contact with her former teacher during this era.

THE GHOST OF AGATHA HARKNESS

Once Wanda recovered, Agatha returned as a ghost and started helping her student again in SCARLET WITCH (2015) #1 by James Robinson and Vanesa Del Rey. Despite the circumstances of her death, Agatha advised Wanda as she investigated a mystical disturbance. 

When Agatha joined Wanda on the Witches' Road, the pair encountered Natalya Maximoff, Wanda's late biological mother and the previous Scarlet Witch. After Agatha told Wanda about her magical family history, she apologized for keeping it secret but added she could not let that information interfere with Wanda's fate. 

With guidance from Natalya, Wanda and Agatha faced saved Witchcraft—a cosmic entity and the source of all witches' power—from Chaos, another godlike cosmic entity. When Natalya sacrificed her spirit to save Witchcraft, she also brought Agatha back to life in SCARLET WITCH (2015) #14 by Robinson and Shawn Crystal. 

Alive again, Agatha stepped away from Wanda and began teaching magic to young mystics like the students of Strange Academy. Together with her student Zoe Laveau and several other magical heroes, Agatha faced a mystical apocalypse brought on by Korrosion, a powerful mystic and old friend. When Agatha destroyed a mystical portal called the Black Mirror, her youth was restored in MIDNIGHT SUNS (2022) #5 by Ethan Sacks, Luigi Zagaria, and Alberto Foche. Since regaining her youth, Agatha has recreated the Darkhold in the form of a young boy as part of her quest to increase her mystical power.

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