![]() Marvel ComicsĪs Fantastic Four #186 reveals, Scratch doesn’t just have a city of regular witches to back him up - he also has a team of mutant supervillain witches called Salem’s Seven, all of whom happen to be Nicholas Scratch’s children and, therefore, Agatha Harkness’ grandchildren. Salem’s Seven debuted in Fantastic Four #186, published in 1977. Firstly, what is wrong with you? Secondly, don’t worry there’s even more. If the introduction of an entire city made up of witches out for revenge against Agatha Harkness - led by her own son - isn’t the kind of thing that you think would make a great Disney+ show, then there are two immediate responses. At the end, Agatha reveals the story’s final secret: Scratch is her son. After it’s revealed that he kidnapped Franklin Richards along with Agatha, thereby bringing the Four to his doorstep, the New Salem witches banish Scratch, and he disappears into another realm. Of course, things don’t work out for Nicholas Scratch they never do for anyone fighting the Fantastic Four in a series called Fantastic Four. It was how, in a roundabout fashion, she’d allowed humanity to discover the existence of New Salem via the Fantastic Four searching for her. In the eyes of Scratch, Agatha's crime wasn’t just that she’d left the city and rejoined humanity or even that she’d done so after being the former leader of the town. Marvel ComicsĪs Scratch melodramatically explains, New Salem was formed explicitly in response to the Salem Witch Trials, as a community made up solely of witches who have abandoned humanity. Scratch kidnapped Agatha to stand trial for treason… which is where the fun really begins.įantastic Four #185 introduced Nicholas Scratch in 1977. (“New Salem” should have been a clue, let’s be honest.)Īs luck and the plot would have it, Nicholas Scratch was behind the disappearance of Agatha and Franklin. ![]() Investigating the apparent kidnapping of Franklin and Agatha, the Fantastic Four ultimately discover the town of New Salem, as well as the city’s mayor, Nicholas Scratch - only to almost immediately discover that New Salem is actually no regular city, but instead a one filled with gothic architecture, where everyone wears cloaks and follows Scratch and his so-called “Satan-Staff” because, of course, they’re all witches. ![]() It would take seven years for Agatha to be given any backstory all of her own, but Fantastic Four issues #184 through #186 proved to be well worth the wait, and then some. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl, Fantastic Four #94 immediately revealed Agatha to be a witch, mainly as a plot device to reassure the Fantastic Four (and readers) that Franklin was safe from whatever superhuman threat happened to be around. Originally introduced in the ‘70s as the nanny to Franklin Richards, the son of Mr. Fantastic Four #185, published in 1977, features a kidnapping storyline centered around Agatha Harkness.
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