Who Is Agatha's Son? Nicholas Scratch's Marvel History Explained

What is Nicholas Scratch's comic book backstory? Read on.

By Russ Burlingame

In the third episode of Marvel's Agatha All Along, the show acknowledges the existence of Nicholas Scratch, the son of Agatha Harnkess, while simultaneously suggesting that she may have bartered him away in exchange for power and control of the Darkhold. The question is whether she actually sacrificed him -- as is implied, whether she traded him to a powerful, malevolent force, or whether his fate might be something else entirely. Going all the way back to WandaVision, after all, there was some question as to whether her bunny Senor Scratchy might be an allusion to Nicholas Scratch.

In the comics, Scratch is from New Salem, a secret area in Colorado where witches and warlocks escaped from the Salem Witch Trials. Nobody actually knows who his father is, and there are fan theories that range from demons to Mephisto to "well, Agatha just conjured him up one day." That latter idea could be really compelling on the show, given that it would create inevitable comparisons to Wanda.

After Wanda abandoned New Salem, Nicholas took over as leader, and felt betrayed by his mother's decision to leave the cloistered little magical world. As such, he sent a batch of New Salem witches out into the world to retrieve Agatha, so that she could stand trial and be executed for the treason. Again with the whole idea of mirroring past stories -- that's a pretty ironic thing for Salem witches to be excited about.

In the comics, Agatha's ties to the Fantastic Four -- she was the nanny for Franklin Richards for a while -- brought those heroes into conflict with the witches. Obviously, it's not likely they're going to show up on Agatha All Along. That leaves Agatha potentially open to new threats, although obviously she has her little coven going.

Of course, there's the question of whether the "Teen" that everyone has been speculating about might actually be Nicholas Scratch himself.

Eventually, in the comics, his obsession with punishing his mother turned New Salem against him and he was banished to the Dark Realm. he would obviously show up again and again, often fighting the Fantastic Four and/or Agatha. At one point, he possessed Franklin Richards for a time...which certainly is another idea that could be mirrored on WandaVision, if for instance the "Teen" really is someone good, but eventually finds themselves possessed by Scratch. That's doubly possible since a number of his more recent stories have centered on Scratch hiding his true identity in order to work out his plans -- including impersonating Agatha Harkness to get people on his side, and impesonating Doctor Strange to manipulate the Fantastic Four.

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At a later point, Scratch took over the town of Centerville, where he was the mayor and found himself, Salem's Seven, and Sons of the Serpent standing off against Hellcat, The Avengers, and the Thunderbolts. After he lost power and his teams were driven out of town, he remained behind, working for Dormammu and picking fights with Hellcat for a while. Eventually, he ended up in Hell (thanks to the Richards' children), where he started working for Mephisto. 

Given all the fan theories about Mephisto in WandaVision, and the various legitimate hints about the character, it certainly would not be too far out of the realm of possibility that the pair could be working together now. Only a few more weeks before we find out!

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