You could n’t escape talking aboutWandaVisionin 2021 without hearing the word “ Mephisto ” at some point . To not be entirely unfair to funny book fans , for as much as the series plump on totry and skewerthe Easter - testicle - analytical side of its fandom as it unpacked Wanda Maximoff ’s hurt , it was still inherently , albeit loosely , adapt plot line from the comicsthat sure invitedthat kind of conjecture . But now that its ghostlike successorAgatha All Alongis here and even more explicitly play into the demonical and mystical side of Marvel , well , it ’s only lead to tempt connect those disparate dots even further .
Agatha All Along‘stwo - episode premierethis workweek quickly whisk us from prestige - offence - play homage to the nominal witch preparing to form a team of lone - wolf witches to aid her get her powers back . But along the way there ’s three intriguing character we satisfy that all could potentially connect to everyone ’s least - favorite marriage killer in comics . They all have theme in Marvel ’s reference material , they all have those ties , but isAgathareally doing anything with them or just messing with us ? Let ’s break it down bit by bit .
Nicholas Scratch
Agatha All Along‘s pig show riffAgnes of Westviewclimaxes in its tropey homage with “ Agnes ” render to her plate after a longsighted Clarence Shepard Day Jr. working on her new execution case to squirm with a few of her own demons , by walking through her house to let on an empty , but well - maintain kid ’s way . It would n’t be a fair sex - led prestige detective drama without a little hurt now , would it ? The elbow room is clearly meant to imply Agnes being haunted over a kid that she tragically , nebulously lost , but the machination for comic strip fans of course is that school prize on the abandon ledge reveal that Agnes ’ boy is named Nicholas Scratch .
In the comics , Scratch is indeed the Word of Agatha Harkness , and an irregular villainous hydrofoil to the Fantastic Four . Born and raised by Agatha in New Salem , an isolationist society of sorcerous users , Nicholas became envenom by his mother ’s choice to leave the community and live among contemporary companionship , after she went to become the babysitter of Franklin Richards for Sue and Reed . grow up and becoming New Salem ’s leader , Scratch turned the township against his female parent for her perceived treason of their hush-hush commune , snatch both her and Franklin . But after the Fantastic Four step in and deliver Agatha , Scratch come up himself banished to the Dark Realm . Over the year Scratch occasionally resurface in the comics , first in attempt to get by his banishment , and then to combat back against the Fantastic Four and other Marvel poor boy with the Salem ’s Seven , a group of superhuman mutants that were all actually mother by Scratch and various women .
But what makes Scratch’sAgatha All Alongmention intriguing is that one of Scratch ’s last major storylines check him defeated by Doctor Strange and the Fantastic Four in 2006’s4 , after an endeavor to deceive them into summoning Shuma - Gorath . bar again , this sentence directly to Hell , Scratch naturally begin shape connections … starting with an alliance with , you venture it , Mephisto himself .

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Rio Vidal’s Black Heart
Aubrey Plaza ’s mystic fleeceable witch , Rio Vidal , is arguably the biggest mystery ofAgathaso far , if only because she ’s in reality one of the few principal mold fellow member who is , on the face of it , a case created from whole material for the series rather than pulling at once from the cartoon strip .
ostensibly . In the 2d episode of the series , Rio is referred to in Lilia Calderu ’s soothsaying of Agatha ’s potential coven phallus not by her name or title , but with a unmarried emblem : a dim heart . While this might just be a reference to something else about the nature of her character ( or even a potential wild-eyed yesteryear with Agatha ; the show definitely give the duo an ex vibration , before the whole “ I want to mystically leap at you and stab you with my knife ” mass , although that is also itself jolly Sapphic ) , in the comics thereisa mystical fictitious character name Blackheart … who is none other than the son of Mephisto .
Introduced by Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr. in 1989 as part of theirDaredevilrun , Blackheart was a devil craft by Mephisto out of a reflection of evil energies emanating from the town of Christ ’s Crown , New York , notorious for its account of murders . However , just as quickly as Mephisto takes his child under his annex to study the shipway of mischief , Blackheart ’s failure to influence superheroes to evil ’s side leads to him conclude that his founder could never defeat beneficial — and Mephisto exiling him to earth . Over the age Blackheart has been a foil to multiple Marvel heroes , include Ghost Rider , in his attempts to fight back against his father and his control over him and make a name for himself in Hell .

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The Kaplan Connection
Just whoever Joe Locke is really play as Agatha ’s young magical groupie “ Teen ” still continue up in the aura at this point — give that we see in the premiere whenever he prove to talk to Agatha about his past or his actual name , she is magically blockade from hear it . But the long - escape theory fans have had about the character is that Teen is in fact Billy Kaplan , aka the Young Avenger Wiccan , and of course , the re - incarnated version of Wanda and Vision ’s twin son , William Maximoff .
In the comics it ’s eventually revealed that Wanda create her children , William and Thomas , by unknowingly using her reality - warping topsy-turvyness magic to pull two souls that were actually part of Mephisto ’s essence , dissipated into multiple entities after being defeated by Franklin Richards , into the forms of her young boys . But when the boys were unmade by the demon and wiped from existence , the individual had been so radically alter by Wanda ’s magics that Mephisto finally could n’t use them either , defeating his plans to regain his true form again . The person would ultimately be freed and reincarnated into two unrelated boys , Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd , born to two dissimilar families and finally reunite as members of the Young Avengers after they both manifested power with spookily familiar association to Wanda ’s family , with Tommy manifesting superspeed akin to Wanda ’s chum Pietro , and Billy an raiment of mystic ability .
That hypothesis is one that still makes sense with what we ’ve seen of “ Teen ” so far . Like Billy , he ’s openly singular , observe his worried boyfriend to Agatha as they begin their roadtrip to witness a young coven , and like Billy , he has a keen interestingness in the arcane , even if he presently lacks the power to really exert it himself yet . There would be something very fun about the re - incarnated son of Wanda ( who is , at least in the timeframe ofAgatha , still very much deadafter the events ofDoctor Strange and the Multiverseof madness ) being the one who help Agatha re - ascend to witchery , and gaining his own wizardly powers in the cognitive operation . But give all the other Mephisto - conterminous tension mention above , it ’s also just another challenging stratum to it all .

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Is ItReallyMephisto This Time?
The answer , as always with most MCU theories , is “ perchance , but in all probability not . ” It would beveryfunny ifAgathawas the show that actually went into the Mysterio of it all after the mania sports fan brought toWandaVisionwith those theories , especially given that it is lean much more into the supernatural underpinnings of magic in the MCU in comparability . But as noted above , all the connections we see laid out above are pretty slack at wager . The Nicholas Scratch reference could ’ve been more about primarily the cop - show homage connection — and the trope of the lead detective haunt by a tragic past — rather than Scratch ’s own tenuous link to Mephisto . Likewise , Rio could be alone disjoined from the cartoon strip , or be revealed to have a completely different connection , and the Black Heart was more about referring to her character rather than anything immediately from the comics . And even if “ Teen ” does end up actually being Billy at some compass point during the show , it ’s not like the showhasto dig into his comic book history with Mephisto , and find some other explanation as to how William came back into creation ( specially given the extra level of mystery as to why Agatha is being deflect from hearing anything about him ) .
Suffice to say , much like there was withWandaVision , it ’s a bit early to definitively get Mephisto - pilled all over again . But it ’s fun to chew over in that spirit either way with the MCU ’s successor series .
Want more io9 news ? Check out when to ask the latestMarvel , Star Wars , andStar Trekreleases , what ’s next for theDC Universe on picture and idiot box , and everything you need to know about the future ofDoctor Who .

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