Marvel recently released the Agatha Harkness: The Saga of the Salem Witch trade paperback, reprinting Agatha Harkness’s appearances in classic issues of The Fantastic Four and The Avengers. Also included is the complete five-issue Midnight Suns miniseries from 2022.
It’s a mostly an entertaining collection. I especially loved the first story, “The Return of the Frightful Four” from Fantastic Four #94 (1969). This issue came late in the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run of the book, with Kirby leaving the book just a few issues later (Fantastic Four #102 was his last issue, though some of his art was used in Fantastic Four #108). Stan Lee would stop writing the book at issue #125.
Despite this, there’s not a hint of weariness or a feeling of “been there done that”. Lee and Kirby are still delivering great action, new characters and new concepts, with Agatha Harkness debuting here. And what a debut it is! The Frightful Four (whose members at the time were The Wizard, The Trapster, Sandman and Medusa) take out the Fantastic Four in the first few pages, resulting in a showdown between them and Agatha Harkness. Agatha (along with her feline familiar Ebony) then takes The Frightful Four to the woodshed, moving about her mansion and effortlessly dispatching them with magic. It’s like Home Alone 20 years before that film came out and with an elderly witch holding down the fort instead of a mischievous boy.
It’s a fun read and pretty revolutionary, because what other comic at that time would take the main characters off the board so quickly and have a brand new character take over the rest of the book? I’m sure back when the issue was released, a lot of readers were enraged that their beloved FF barely showed up in the issue, but it doesn’t take away from Reed and the others one bit, and it’s one of the greatest character introductions ever.
The next issue included is Avengers #128 by Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema (from 1974), which begins the bizarre relationship between The Scarlet Witch and Agatha. The Avengers and FF battle a Z-Grade villain while Mantis hits on The Vision (???). It’s a relatively uninteresting issue with the highlight being Scarlet Witch’s one-on-one battle with the villain at the issue’s climax. The issue shows the beginnings of the Wanda we know today.
Len Wein and George Perez’s Fantastic Four #185-186 (from May-June 1977) follows and this is a slightly better story. Warlock Nicholas Scratch kidnaps Franklin Richards, sending the FF to New Salem, a Shangri-La type town nestled in the Colorado mountains, and reuniting them with Agatha Harkness. My main gripe with the issue is that Joe Sinnott’s inks don’t jibe with George Perez’s pencils. George Perez was a fantastic artist, my favorite of all time, but Sinnott watered down Perez’s work so much that Perez’s signature touches are barely noticeable. Salem’s Seven are a formidable force and I enjoyed the battle between them and the FF, with good old Ben Grimm hilariously dropping a building on one of them at one point out of pure irritation.
Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz’s Fantastic Four #222-223 (from June-July 1980) is up next and this was my second favorite story in the book, with Nicholas Scratch using the Negative Zone to “possess” Franklin Richards and use him as a conduit to return to Earth from the dark dimension where Agatha had banished him. The first part of the story dabbles in horror and Sienkiewicz’s art makes the shadowy corridors of the Baxter Building ripe with dread.
Sienkiewicz’s art is quite beautiful in these two issues, much different from the off-the-wall and impressionistic style he would unfortunately adopt years later. We get a return to New Salem here as well as another standoff with Salem’s Seven when the second part of the story reverts back to standard superhero fare. I loved the horror elements of the story. At one point a mysterious new character, a demonologist named Gabriel, is introduced and the story goes all-in with The Exorcist and The Conjuring style horror.
The Fantastic Four work surprisingly well within a horror framework. Even though Nicholas Scratch isn’t the most intimidating villain ever, he poses a pretty formidable threat here. Susan is also very formidable here and it’s nice to finally see a writer treat her as a powerful individual. In the past, the book at times unfortunately felt like it should be called “The Fantastic Three and that helpless female” because Sue was relegated to crying for Reed, passing out, or being a lustful object for Namor and Victor Von Doom. Here, we get in her head and she uses her powers in expansive ways, setting the stage for John Byrne’s run a couple years later, where he will transform Susan into one of the most fascinating and powerful characters in the Marvel Universe.
The book closes with the complete Midnight Suns miniseries from 2022 (written by Ethan Sacks with art by Luigi Zagaria and Alberto Foche), bringing together Blade, Wolverine, Nico, Magik and Kushala (the 1800s version of Ghost Rider) to battle the “god” Valtorr. It’s a super fast-paced story, the written equivalent of a big bag of potato chips, enjoyable to devour but not very memorable afterwards. The story seems to only exist to change Agatha into the Katherine Hahn incarnation from Wandavision, making her youthful and beautiful. Because God forbid we actually have one elderly character in the Marvel Universe who’s not someone’s aunt or uncle.
Nico is a great character, though writer Ethan Sacks hilariously has her repeat over and over throughout the story that she no longer has her staff. Not only does she say it across the five issues, at times she says it multiple times in the same issue. If you took a shot of whiskey every time she says it, you’d be passed out under the table halfway through the miniseries.
I found Kushala incredibly interesting and this miniseries has set me off on a quest to find her other appearances. It’s nice to see characters like this get a spotlight instead of Wolverine, who pops up in so many books that he’s dangerously close to becoming a parody.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and recommend it. It’s a perfect overview of Agatha Harkness and her history in the Marvel Universe.
‘Agatha Harkness: The Saga of the Salem Witch’ review
Agatha Harkness: The Saga of the Salem Witch
Agatha Harkness: The Saga of the Salem Witch trade paperback has mostly great stories and is the perfect introduction for anyone curious about the character.
The book is a great introduction to the character and shows her history in the Marvel Universe, preparing the reader to follow her future adventures.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s story shines and is a great reminder of how they though outside the box to create some of the best stories ever.
George Perez’s artwork in his Fantastic Four issues seems watered down by Joe Sinnott’s inks.
The Midnight Suns story is fun but pure fluff. And why did Wolverine have to be included in this story?
