The News Team's Christopher Glennon has a new Editorial up on the front page of AnimeSuperhero.com:
"When an adaptation takes a character and changes them so far from the source material that they are barely recognizable, we say that’s simply the character “in name only”. The Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Agatha Harkness, who made her debut in the Disney+ series WandaVision, is one such character. The MCU is no stranger to this concept. Iron Man 3‘s Aldrich Killian was a combination of many villains, Namor was given an Aztec mythology-based background in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and even even Ego from Guardians of the Galaxy had his entire life re-imagined. For the most part, these have worked pretty well. The MCU has given its audience something new while staying true to the spirit of the comics. That’s why it’s so disappointing that this approach failed Agatha Harkness.
Agatha Harkness dates all the way back to the days of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Introduced in Fantastic Four #94 (January 1970), Agatha injected a magic element into a book that was mostly science fiction. Agatha was a spooky witch who lived in a haunted house, but the twist was that Reed Richards trusted her so much he employed her to look after his son, Franklin. In her first appearance, Agatha successfully repelled an attack from the Frightful Four. Despite how uneasy the Thing was around her, Agatha was clearly a loyal and powerful force for good. This made her the perfect mentor for the Scarlet Witch, and Agatha soon made appearances in the pages of both The Avengers and The Fantastic Four.
Dr. Strange may have been the Sorcerer Supreme and the primary face of magic in the Marvel Universe, but it made more sense for the Scarlet Witch to learn magic from Agatha rather than Strange. Wanda Maximoff’s original power was to throw hexes and alter probability, but her power was more than mutant-based, it was mystical. Since she called herself the Scarlet Witch, that meant she should learn magic from a witch. Agatha, with her black cat familiar and mystic rituals, taught Wanda what being a witch really meant. Under Agatha, Wanda learned about spells and tapping into the magic of Earth itself. This was different than the kind of magic Dr. Strange dealt in, and being the second female Avenger, it was important for Wanda to have a woman as a mentor."
Read the full editorial here.
"Editorial: How the MCU Wasted Agatha Harkness’ Potential"
"When an adaptation takes a character and changes them so far from the source material that they are barely recognizable, we say that’s simply the character “in name only”. The Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Agatha Harkness, who made her debut in the Disney+ series WandaVision, is one such character. The MCU is no stranger to this concept. Iron Man 3‘s Aldrich Killian was a combination of many villains, Namor was given an Aztec mythology-based background in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and even even Ego from Guardians of the Galaxy had his entire life re-imagined. For the most part, these have worked pretty well. The MCU has given its audience something new while staying true to the spirit of the comics. That’s why it’s so disappointing that this approach failed Agatha Harkness.
Agatha Harkness dates all the way back to the days of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Introduced in Fantastic Four #94 (January 1970), Agatha injected a magic element into a book that was mostly science fiction. Agatha was a spooky witch who lived in a haunted house, but the twist was that Reed Richards trusted her so much he employed her to look after his son, Franklin. In her first appearance, Agatha successfully repelled an attack from the Frightful Four. Despite how uneasy the Thing was around her, Agatha was clearly a loyal and powerful force for good. This made her the perfect mentor for the Scarlet Witch, and Agatha soon made appearances in the pages of both The Avengers and The Fantastic Four.
Dr. Strange may have been the Sorcerer Supreme and the primary face of magic in the Marvel Universe, but it made more sense for the Scarlet Witch to learn magic from Agatha rather than Strange. Wanda Maximoff’s original power was to throw hexes and alter probability, but her power was more than mutant-based, it was mystical. Since she called herself the Scarlet Witch, that meant she should learn magic from a witch. Agatha, with her black cat familiar and mystic rituals, taught Wanda what being a witch really meant. Under Agatha, Wanda learned about spells and tapping into the magic of Earth itself. This was different than the kind of magic Dr. Strange dealt in, and being the second female Avenger, it was important for Wanda to have a woman as a mentor."
Read the full editorial here.
