This post contains spoilers for the first two episodes of “Agatha All Along.”
“Agatha All Along” is off to a fantastic start. In its first two episodes, the new Marvel series delivered a pitch-perfect prestige crime drama riff, a sapphic showdown of “Killing Eve” proportions, and a whole lot of seasonally appropriate witchy mischief. It also introduced an onslaught of new characters, from the coven Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) forms to travel the Witches Road to the mysterious teenager accompanying them.
The most mysterious new characters are a group known as the Salem’s Seven, who Aubrey Plaza’s character Rio warns Agatha will come for her at sundown. When the group does arrive, they’re portrayed as black-clad wraiths or other dark entities. They’re freaky and fast-moving, dressed a bit like Satanic nuns, and the only hint of their identities we’re given is via a quick close up of the shadowy, burned-looking, non-human face of their leader. So who are the Salem’s Seven, and why are they so pissed at Agatha? To find the answer, we have to look back at an issue of “Fantastic Four” comics from 1977.
Agatha and the Seven have history in New Salem
Fantastic Four Vol. 1 issue 186 is written by Swamp Thing and Wolverine creator Len Wein, and appropriately subtitled “Enter: Salem’s Seven.” The issue picks up in the middle of an ongoing storyline involving Agatha Harkness and The Fantastic Four, who have been captured and imprisoned in a New Salem dungeon. Though New Salem is in Colorado, it’s clear from these first two episodes of “Agatha All Along” that the New Salem of Marvel Comics lore has some overlap with Westview, the town Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) held captive in sitcom stasis during “WandaVision.” After all, we know that it’s where Agatha is trapped, and we know that several other powerful witches are within a three-mile radius. Plus, the show has already invoked the original Salem Witch Trials — which Agatha survived — several times.
At any rate, the New Salem of the comics is a hidden place where witches and warlocks can live magical lives in peace — sort of like Halloweentown, if you’re a former DCOM kid. The Salem’s Seven are seven local residents who possess magical mutant powers, and while initially they’re nothing to be afraid of, their age-old beef with Agatha turns them into dangerous adversaries. In their first introductory comic, we learn that Agatha and the Fantastic Four have been brought to New Salem for Agatha’s trial, where the Salem’s Seven will pass judgment on her for what they see as a betrayal of the community: leaving New Salem and revealing herself to the world. This all sounds pretty consistent with the show so far, but there’s one big difference: the Salem’s Seven are led by Nick Scratch, Agatha’s son — and their father.
If we’re getting the Salem’s Seven, we’ll likely also get Nick Scratch
It’s a confusing family tree to be sure. Wein invented the characters, and they were eventually fleshed out even more by writers Mary Wolfman, Steve Englehart, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, and Christopher Yost. The Seven’s storyline has changed over the years (Yost’s 2014 comic, “New Warriors” Vol 1, even positioned them as allies to the story’s titular Marvel superheroes), but their lineage is typically the same: they were born of Nicholas Scratch and typically unnamed mothers, possessed the powerful lineage of Agatha herself, and could magically mutate from their human forms into something more super-powerful. In Wein’s introductory comic, though, their evil plan doesn’t work. They appear as Nick Scratch’s defense squad and attempt to kill Agatha, but the Fantastic Four intervene, and the New Salem witches ultimately banish Nick to another dimension.
As with “WandaVision,” it seems possible that “Agatha All Along” is pulling more directly from the comics than we might realize. The show has already mentioned Nick, revealing his name on a trophy in an empty child’s bedroom during the “Mare of Easttown” riff in episode 1. It’s also been cagey about the identity of Joe Locke’s character; could he be a decent version of Nick Scratch who grew up in another dimension, who Agatha is cursed to forget? If so, his nervousness when encountering the Seven could have been based on his own past experience with them. It’s a stretch, but Marvel shows love throwing comic fans for a loop, and we already convinced ourselves that Agatha’s bunny was Nick once before. It’s also possible that Nick will appear later and be played by an unannounced guest star.
There’s a lot we still don’t know about the Seven
There’s also the chance that any of the witches we’ve encountered so far could secretly be part of the Seven: in Aguirre-Sacasa’s 2005 storyline “The Resurrection of Nicholas Scratch,” the Seven are mysteriously compelled to go to upstate New York — where Agatha lived at the time — after Wanda’s magical, reality-warping breakdown. Despite appearing multiple times over nearly 50 years in comic books, there are lots of details about the Salem’s Seven that are still unwritten, allowing the show to go in an interesting direction with their characters if it wants to.
In Marvel Comics, the Seven magical children include eldest daughter and priestess Vertigo, yellow spiky demon Thornn, snake-lady Reptilla, buff merman Hydron, animalistic Gazelle, eldest son Brutacus (who looks a bit like Hellboy in more recent appearances), and wind-controlling Vakume. They get involved in a few other plots after their initial introduction, including an attempt to seek revenge on Scarlet Witch from beyond the grave with the help of the devilish being Samhain. But since the Seven can also look human, and have at times lost access to their memories, “Agatha All Along” has room to play with these characters, incorporating them in whatever way works best for the show. We’ll no doubt see more of the Salem’s Seven as Agatha’s story unfolds.
New episodes of “Agatha All Along” premiere at 6 PM PT/9 PM EST each Wednesday on Disney+.
