Warning! This post contains spoilers for Agatha All Along episodes 1 and 2
The premiere episodes of Agatha all along Mention Nicholas Scratch in the MCU. A lesser-known villain in the original comics, Nicholas Scratch was the son of Agatha Harkness. However, they have long had a challenging relationship, and Scratch himself has a rather obscure career on the page, becoming a powerful magic user just like his mother.
As seen in Agatha all along First two episodes, Kathryn Hahn’s titular witch begins her journey into the aftermath of WandaVision. Intending to travel down Witches Road, Agatha hopes to regain the power she once had before Wanda Maximoff’s Scarlet Witch took it and trapped her in an instant (seen in Vandavision final). However, the new MCU show’s reference to Agatha’s son is notable with their history in the comics. Here’s everything you need to know about Nicholas Scratch, his comics history and powers, as well as his MCU role in Agatha all along.
Nicholas Scratch’s Marvel Comics history explained
Agatha’s son and leader of New Salem
Created by George Perez and Len Wein, Nicholas Scratch made his first appearance in 1977. Fantastic Four #185. The son of Agatha Harkness, Nicholas and his mother were originally part of New Salem.A city of witches and warlocks that’d hidden away from the rest of the world and its judgment, and Agatha was its original leader. Her son’s name is derived from English stories, a mixture of “Old Nick” and “Mr. Scratch”, both of which are alternative names given to the Devil.
Nicholas turned against his mother after she left New Salem to live a normal life (being a nanny to the Fantastic Four’s Franklin Richards). Led by Nicholas, Agatha is abducted by the residents of New Salem who nearly burn her at the stake. However, Agatha was finally released and New Salem was turned against Scratch himself. Scratch was later exiled to the Dark Realm and eventually became a servant of Dormammu, hoping to become the next Sorcerer Supreme. Recently, Scratch has been allied with Mephisto, the Marvel Universe version of the devil. Interestingly, some fans believed that Mephisto was going to appear in WandaVisionPerhaps with connections to Agatha herself.
Nicholas Scratch is also the father of the New Salemites known as Brutacus, Gazelle, Hydron, Reptilla, Thorn, Vacuum and Vertigo. Together, Scratch’s children formed Salem’s Seven, a group of magically mutated superhumans who tried to bring their father back from the Dark Realm, and on more than one occasion battle against their grandmother Agatha and the Fantastic Four. For a time, they also became the new leaders of New Salem. Ultimately, Salem’s Seven has since reformed and are currently seen as allies by Marvel’s First Family.
Nicholas Scratch’s Powers Explained
Dark Sorcery and Wilderness of Satan’s Staff
Like any citizen of New Salem, Nicholas Scratch can wield magic as an accomplished warlock in the Marvel Universe. Scratch is often seen wielding a weapon known as the Satan Staff which helps to focus his power. However, he did not need it to access his magical abilities. Scratch also has the power in the comics to travel between dimensions, as well as the ability to access and draw on power from other realities.
Nicholas Scratch can also summon entities or objects from other dimensions. Likewise, his alliances with Dormamu and Mephisto more than likely made him even more formidable and powerful as a dark warlock with a sold soul. However, Scratch at one point had his magical power stripped away by Agatha Harkness for his dark actions against his mother and the people of New Salem, a testament to Agatha’s apparently greater power as an accomplished witch in the Marvel Universe.
Nicholas Scratch’s role in Agatha all along explained
The rabbit in WandaVision is just the beginning
Agatha all along Episode 1 heavy riffs on premium TV crime drama shows like More from EasttownIntroducing Agatha as “Agnes”, a hardened, embittered detective working at Westview. She’s aloof, ill-tempered, and basically a walking commentary on how TV detective shows excel in policing for female characters with haunted pasts and trauma.
That Trauma for Agnes/Agatha is suggested to be tied to the death of her young sonWhose bedroom Agnes has kept, presumably since the day he died. The drawings in his bedroom and the award for best performer in a children’s choir confirm his rough fate came at a young age. The show very much wants us to believe he died, and not just in the moment, and there will almost certainly be more to it.
Nicholas Scratch’s Comics Changes Explained
Another Marvel villain the MCU has completely changed
Nicholas Scratch’s full role in Agatha: All along — or how important he is to Agatha’s backstory — isn’t revealed in the opening episodes, but he’s more significant than the MCU first suggested. What we know of WandaVision is that Marvel used Agatha’s rabbit “Señor Scratchy” as an apparently innocent nod to her relationship with Nicholas in the comics. 3 years later, however, there is more to it than it initially appeared.
Agatha: All along Follow this link. As in Marvel Comics, Nicholas appears to be Agatha’s real sonBut one who didn’t grow up to become the formidable magic-wielder the character he’s based on was. There is no clue in Agatha: All along That the pair are enemies, or that Nicholas has magical powers, although Wanda’s genetic predisposition to magic suggests he would have been. It seems that the rabbit is named after Nicholas, as a surprisingly touching nod from Agatha to her past trauma.
New episodes of Agatha All Along release every Wednesday on Disney+