Oh, It Was Really Them All Along

I was almost obsessed enough with having an appropriate Halloween post to try and cram this write up to include the two episode finale, overnight, but luckily I thought of the space filling...

I mean fun and interactive quiz idea.

Yeah, there's spoilers... You've had a week.

I've always been a sucker for horror comics, especially the ones set firmly in a superhero universe. The Spectre, Ghost Rider, Etrigan, Sandman, Swamp Thing and the many cross overs between superheroes and monsters are all among my favorites. Proving there is almost always a "first comic I read/owned" story- One of the very first comic books I owned was Marvel Team Up featuring Spidey, the Frankenstein Monster and Man Wolf. (Decades later I got the follow up issue to finish the story which focused on Man Wolf, but also had Dracula show up!)

Superhero comics encompass such a large number of genres to begin with, and their diversity easily covers the many sub-genres within them. The variety of horror and the supernatural in DC and Marvel is fairly vast.

Agatha All Along was a fun walk through different varieties of magic in the Marvel Universe. It's quite cool that we've left the days of "sufficiently advanced technology" magic far behind and are totally committed to the arcane now.

Much like the comics, it preserved the idea that there are always rules to magic, differentiated by the multiple types. (Except for the Scarlett Witch honestly. Probability manipulation? chaos magic? mutant powers? straight up witchcraft? who knows???) By having a trial for each type, it let the show invoke not only the peculiarities of each bit of mystical energy, but also use fun settings and costumes from various sub-horror genres.

The story of Agatha alone is a comic book I would have definitely followed. 

Like many of the supernatural characters in those tales, Agatha clearly isn't one of the standard "good guys." Although, also like many of they mystical gang, she's a heck of a lot of fun, and likeable in spite of doing some awful things. She still does the right thing sometimes, and is (possibly) on an arc after an extremely long life to turn more into a force for good...

But, even if not, she's still loads of fun.

However, I have a much stronger connection to this show.

The first comics (yes again) I started regularly collecting on a monthly bases when I was a "Teen" in 1984 were the West Coast Avengers / Vision &Scarlet Witch cross over.

Billy and his brother Tommy were born in that series. Then vanished due to some weird demon stuff because one writer got his knickers in a twist that

“Wanda was sleeping with a toaster.” (His words not mine.)

Therefore, I have been following this character since his mystical/ improbable birth and up through more recent and excellently written Young Avengers and Annihilation appearances that defined the character in his current state. Time has passed in story until he’s now married to the Emperor Dorrek VIII (AKA Teddy Altman, Hulkling) of the Kree/Skrull Empire and is also the court wizard.

My boy is all grown up in comics, (*sniff*) and the actor looks straight out of those pages.

I look forward to seeing how much of that gets adapted. 

This is very exciting. 

Since Anabelle latched onto the Young Avengers as well, and Rosa reads all the comics we do, it was very exciting all around. 

This formative experience with a coven provides a much more logical reason for his superhero name, Wiccan.

Billy's boyfriend Eddie had some impressive arms there, didn't he? 

Almost "hulking" one might say? 

(Yes the creators said he isn't Teddy. 

But they lie... 

A LOT.)

I'm not sure why, but supernatural comics have more of a connection to music, even in print, than normal superhero fare. Perhaps its part of the magic of music, which I will continue to delay writing about as if forms in my head. Having the Anderson-Lopez team that gave us Frozen and other fantastic music provide the central song to the story in multiple versions certainly helped.

With the coven having all different types of witches and experiencing all different trials allowed looking into multiple version of magic and multiple classic horror characters and settings. The cast was all outstanding choices to highlight each type of magic, what it could do, and what it required. This really extended the palette of the show and provided glimpses to many different forms of comic book supernatural worlds.

Sure many of them died, but given the  "comic book" setting AND that the deaths happened in a magical, generally unreal realm, AND Death was a maincharacter. Any of those folks we lost could easily come back...

With more than a bit of anger as fuel for a new story! (The Emmy submissions called it a series, not a mini-series. YAY!!!!)

The final episodes included some heartbreaking tragedies and also heartwarming character interactions, all highlighted by fantastic performances. It also set up for interesting rewatch potential.

Oh yeah.  And Patti Lupone! She was amazing!  Had to get that in there. I'm no expert but based on my causal knowledge they did a good job with the Tarot stuff, bonus points for that.

Also, I noticed this early on. While other people went for the idea that the witch theme colors matched the Infinity Gems, I went with a more verbal approach. 

I feel it means something but I have no idea what, other than there's probably a 

"took a 'P'" joke in there somewhere.

Protection Witch

Prediction Witch

Plant (Green) Witch

Potion Witch

Parasite or Purple Witch.