Issue(s): Vision and the Scarlet Witch #3
Cover Date: Dec 85
Title: "Ancestors"
Credits:
Steve Englehart - Writer
Richard Howell - Penciler
Jim Mooney - Inker
Jim Salicrup - Editor

Review/plot:
The magical side of the Scarlet Witch has been downplayed in recent years in favor of her mutant powers. But Englehart is back and ready to pick up on old threads, so we have a Salem Seven story.

After a four part series focusing on the Vision, it makes sense to devote a story to the Scarlet Witch's side of the family. I would have preferred, say, a reconciliation with the now-reforming Magneto over something from her mystical past. But this is part of Wanda's history, so que sera, sera.

Actually the Seven have nothing to do with the Scarlet Witch, per se, but they are the grandchildren of her magical mentor, Agatha Harnkess.

It's said that the Seven burned Agatha Harkness at the stake "this past summer".

And so walking home from their battle with the West Coast Avengers against the Grim Reaper's team, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch find themselves facing off against the coven (is that the right word?). I know they are meant to be mystical adepts, but they come across as lame super-villains.

Vision & the Scarlet Witch lose and are captured. The Vision is made inert. Their acting leader, Vertigo...

...invites the Scarlet Witch into their group, but they won't allow her to keep the Vision, who is to be burned. It's witches-only.

We learn a little bit about the Scarlet Witch's taste in movies.

Good soundtrack, though. (But what movie are they discussing? See comments.)

Imprisoned in a cage that prevents the use of her powers, Wanda learns from another prisoner, Gazelle, one of the Seven that didn't want to go along with her capture, that Harkness is dead.

The Scarlet Witch fails to come up with any viable escape plan, so luckily when they are taken to their stakes in the morning, the sun recharges the Vision's solar cells. The spirit of Agatha Harkness appears during the fight, telling the Scarlet Witch to use her magic...

...which seems to be in the context of the battle, but Wanda interprets it to mean that she should use her magic to make it possible to have a baby.

I found this all a little intolerable, actually.

The explosion at the end of this issue apparently wipes out the Salem's Seven, although that's not exactly clear.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 6 - Scarlet Witch becomes pregnant

Chronological Placement Considerations: The Vision and the Scarlet Witch appear in the first few pages of West Coast Avengers #3 before parting company with the Avengers to appear in the opening scene in this book, so the books take place mostly concurrently.

References:

• Agatha Harkness withdrew the powers from the Salem Seven and banished Nicholas Scratch in Fantastic Four annual #14.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I think you might be misinterpreting the scene with Agatha Harkness. Wanda absorbs the mystical energy of the hundreds of witches and she has to channel it in the mountain to keep her and the Vision from being killed. Before she puts it in the mountain, Agatha appears to her, telling her to use some of the magic to become pregnant. Wanda does so. This is clearly what Agatha had planned, hence her last words- "I gave you birth and I'll give you death! And then the wheel will turn again!"
It's worth noting that fans who hated Wanda's pregnancy sometimes complain that Wanda shouldn't be powerful enough to create children using her hex power. It's a good thing you posted this, so fans can see that she DIDN'T use her hex power.

Hmmm. I've extended that last scan to include Wanda's interpretation of events, and made some revisions to my description.

I'm not sure if Wanda is referring to 1984's "Children of the Corn" or 1978's "Dark Secret of Harvest Home"(which is more appropriate to what Vertigo is saying, but didn't have a soundtrack).

I thought it was a reference to 1973's The Wicker Man.

I think the sacrifice in "The Wicker Man" was intended specifically to be a Christian, not a corn-god representative.

Then i retract the soundtrack statement. ;-)

The scene where Vision is holding Wanda while she absorbs the energy is a little suggestive isn't it? I know they're baby crazy but at least they could wait until they were back at home!

One other piece of "historical significance." This is suppose to be the LAST time we actually see an alive Agatha Harkness.

Wikipedia thinks this is the last time the real Agatha Harkness is seen alive, but both marvel.wikia and marvel.com characterize this as her "first" death, with her second, "final" death taking place at the hands of the Scarlet Witch off-panel several weeks (judging by her state of decomposition in Avengers 503 [rotting, but the teeth haven't fallen out yet]) prior to the events of Avengers Disassembled. In fact, the timeline is pretty clear: Wasp and Hawkeye hook up (gross, Chuck Austen) in Avengers 497, leading to Wasp talking to Scarlet Witch about a late period in a flashback in 503 and letting slip that Wanda once had 2 children, which leads to another flashback in which Wanda confronts Agatha at her home on Whisper Hill, where her body will later be found. There were definite clues that something was wrong with Wanda prior to that, but really nothing to suggest that Wanda resurrected Agatha back in '89 and she was a zombie (or whatever) ever since.

In 2016's Scarlet Witch #1, Agatha's ghost says that Wanda murdered her at the time of Disassembled. Agatha has died twice. By the end of Scarlet Witch #14 Agatha is alive again.

I would nope the corn-god ritual was nothing like the Sioux Sun God ritual performed on Richard Harris in "A Man Called Horse". To this day I cringe just thinking about that one!