Part One
Time…Space…Reality. It’s more than a linear path. It’s a prism of endless possibility, where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities, creating alternate worlds from the ones you know. I am the Watcher. I am your guide through these vast new realities. Follow me, and ponder the question...What if?
Earth-M is a vastly different universe from the one we know – the one in which Captain America was frozen in ice for nearly 70 years and led a team of heroes against all odds…the one where Tony Stark sacrificed his life to save it the universe from the Mad Titan Thanos. Yes, Earth-M is different in more ways than one, specifically the unique presence of countless creatures, some of which identify as “Muppets.”
But where this universe differs greatly is in the constant of the relationship between Vision and Wanda Maximoff. In our universe, Wanda lost Vision in the Infinity War, Thanos destroying his android body to retrieve the Mind Stone. Wanda’s grief brought her to the town of Westview, New Jersey where – in a burst of uncontrolled magic – she trapped an entire community into her own fantasy world.
However, in Earth-M, Wanda Maximoff never lost Vision.
And because she never lost Vision, she never came to Westview.
So, without Wanda’s grief and pain, Westview was free of any mystical control from a powerful witch, right? Wrong.
And here is where our tale begins…in 1693 Salem, Massachusetts.
Wandering one night in the woods, Uncle Deadly recited the lines from his favorite William Shakespeare play, “Macbeth,” mostly the ones from the Weird Sisters scene:
What are these
So withered and so wild in their attire,
That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ Earth,
And yet are on ’t?—Live you? Or are you aught
That man may question?
And then he heard some commotion not far from where he held his secluded recital. Peeking through the foliage, he bore witness to an actual coven of witches that proceeded to kill one of their own. But this witch, bound to a wooden post, was anything but helpless in the moment. Her magic was much stronger than the witches that attempted to drain it from her. She reversed the spell, draining the witches of their magical energy and killing them instead – including her own mother.
Marveled by the scene, Uncle Deadly inadvertently drew the witch’s attention towards him. “Who goes there? Show yourself!” she demanded.
“Do not be alarmed,” Deadly said, emerging from the bushes with his hands held high. “For I am no danger to you.”
“Unlikely, creature!” The witch hissed. “Every witch is in danger in these times! You would be well to slay me yourself!”
“True, but I am not here to harm such a beautiful goddess.”
The witch’s guard fell as she heard these words – no one had ever described her in such an alluring way. “You…do not fear me?”
“Not at all, my dear. I have dreamt many of times to encounter a lovely witch like you, so that I can love and marry her. Only a witch’s love do I seek. For what mortal being would ever love a ghastly thing like me?”
Between his captivating words and the pity she felt for him, the witch approached Deadly, moving her blackened fingers across the tentacles from his chin like the strings on a harp. “You are right,” she told Deadly. “No mortal being could ever love you.” At first, her acknowledgment of his own claim stung at Deadly’s black heart, until the witch proclaimed, “But I am more than willing to fall in love with you.”
His black heart now swelling, Deadly took the witch’s hands into his cold grips and inquired, “To what do I call the new love of my eternal life?”
“Agatha,” the witch said. “Agatha Harkness.”
And so, the newfound lovers began an immortal (and immoral) romance, living through centuries of passion and dark magic. In the 1970s, Agatha attended every Muppet Show that would feature Uncle Deadly’s engaging performance with greats like Vincent Price and Ethel Merman (although she once turned Ethel Merman into a goat in a fit of jealousy for her duet with Deadly).
When Deadly’s days of performing at the Muppet Theatre ended, the phantom was left with nothing except for his love for Agatha. By the year 2011, the lovers agreed to settle in Westview. “Look at all the brightly-colored buildings,” Deadly noted upon their first entry.
“Ugh! Gives me a headache!” Agatha exclaimed in genuine disgust. “But look at how dismal all these people are at the same time.”
“Yes,” Deadly reveled. “That is a bonus.”
“So we’re definitely stayin’ here, right?”
“Oh, no doubt, my love.”
Unfortunately, just as the lovers settled in, they received word from the Westview citizens that the town was soon scheduled to be demolished by oil tycoon Tex Richman, who Deadly worked for as a henchman in another life.
Harkness and Deadly refused to allow Richman to destroy their new home.
And so, Agatha used her magic on the town – in just the same way a certain Scarlet Witch had in our universe…
…with a few major differences.
