The finale of Agatha All Along has completed the journey of Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness to reclaim her mystical power by taking a trip down the so-called Witches’ Road – a pathway open only to those who practice Witchcraft, and which is fraught with tests and challenges.
At least, that’s what its claimed to be. Spoilers ahead for Agatha All Along, as we explain the truth.
Last chance! Spoilers ahead…
As it turns out, the Ballad of the Witches’ Road is a folk song created by Agatha and her son Nicholas Scratch in the 1700s to lure witches into letting Agatha kill them and steal their power. And while it never actually existed before, it was brought into reality by the power of Billy Kaplan/Wiccan‘s inherited powers from his mother Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch.
If you’re wondering whether the Witches’ Road has a history in Marvel Comics, it certainly does. That history is tied inextricably to both Agatha Harkness and to her protégé Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, so much so that one of the best Scarlet Witch stories of all time takes its name from the concept.
And while it’s quite different from the MCU, we’ve got everything you need to know about the other side of the coin in the comic history of the Witches’ Road.
The Witches’ Road first appeared in 2016’s Scarlet Witch #3 by writer James Robinson, artist Steve Dillon, and artist Chris Visions (the first artist to depict the Witches’ Road itself).
In that story, Wanda Maximoff travels to Ireland to help lift a curse that is blighting the land. Through the adventure, Wanda makes her way to the Witches’ Road, also known as ‘Magika’, which is itself part of the alt-reality Earth-16558.
Over the course of the rest of this volume of Scarlet Witch’s comic, Wanda travels in and out of the Witches’ Road several times under the guidance of the ghost of Agatha Harkness, who was dead at the time (sound familiar?).
As she journeys along the Witches’ road, Wanda’s mission expands to “healing” the power of Witchcraft, which is considered its own special form of magic with its own source of energy and power in the Marvel Universe.
Finally, by the end of her journey, Wanda has reclaimed her power, healed the source of Marvel’s power of Witchcraft, and even fully resurrected Agatha Harkness, who later also used magic to regain her youth (though she also became a bit of a villain in the process).
Meanwhile, in the MCU, the Witches’ Road is all a creation of Billy Kaplan, who unknowingly used his matrilineally-inherited reality-altering powers, much like what Wanda did to Westview in WandaVision – right down to cycling through different decades in each trial.
That makes the trials very real, and does indeed lead to Sasheer Zamata’s Jennifer Kale achieving her heart’s desire when she discovers Agatha is the one who bound her and casts an unbinding spell that restores her magic, granting her exit. She’s later seen flying off to safety above ground.
Likewise, Billy is able to leave the road when Agatha coaches him through using his power to finally resurrect his brother Tommy in the body of a dying boy, who he still has to find. Finally, though Agatha doesn’t exact have her wish granted by the road, she does indeed have her power restored – but she also succumbs to Rio/Death, returning as a ghost.
This final status quo sort of reflects Wanda’s comic book journey on the Witches’ Road with the ghostly Agatha by her side, leaving more questions about how or if Agatha might return, or if Wanda could also be out there somewhere awaiting resurrection
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