Agatha All Along: The Witches' Road explained

The Witches' Road in Marvel Comics
(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Agatha All Along is the latest MCU streaming series on Disney Plus, and it brings back Kathryn Hahn's Agatha Harkness for a journey to rebuild her coven and reclaim her mystical power. And to do so, Harkness and her fellow magic users will have to journey down the so-called Witches' Road - a pathway open only to those who practice Witchcraft, and which is fraught with tests and challenges.

If you're wondering whether the Witches' Road has a history in Marvel Comics, it certainly does. So while you're brushing up on the Marvel movies and shows to watch before Agatha All Along, we've got everything you need to know about the other side of the coin in the comic history of the Witches' Road.

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.

Of course, Wanda is dead in the MCU (at least, for now), so the journey of the Witches' Road falls to Agatha, though we're not exactly ruling out some kind of return for Wanda by the series' end.

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

It's all thanks to the comic history of the Witches' Road, which 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 course of 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.

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.

The Witches' Road in Agatha All Along

(Image credit: Marvel Studios)

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).

Considering Wanda's comic book journey on the Witches' Road culminated in Agatha's resurrection, could Agatha's MCU pilgrimage result in the return of Elizabeth Olsen as the currently dead Wanda Maximoff? Stranger things have happened in the MCU - and probably will again.

We'll find out more as Agatha All Along premieres new episodes on Disney Plus every Wednesday.

On a Marvel kick? Here's how to watch all the Marvel movies and shows in order, along with every new MCU release we know about.

George Marston

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)