Calling all witches! Join Marvel fan-favorites Agatha Harkness and Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch, in this spell-binding graphic novel adventure!
Sixteen-year-old Wanda Maximoff is eager for her first day at the highly-coveted magic school the House of Harkness. A place bursting with spellbinding secrets, misfits, and mayhem, Wanda, aka Scarlet Witch, finds herself at odds with the head student and heir to the school, Agatha Harkness. When evil threatens the school, Wanda and Agatha are challenged to put their differences aside to save the day.
Preeti Chhibber is a huge nerd. She usually spends her time reading a ridiculous amount of Young Adult, but is also ready to jump into most fandoms at a moment’s notice. You can follow her on Twitter @runwithskizzers.
Cute and fun, but... I don't have a problem with high school AUs in principle, but the characters need to feel more like the original versions than they do here. This is less an issue with Wanda and more the characters around her, most of whom have no purpose in this book but to be her followers. Seeing Nightmare, of all flipping characters, jump to her aid is kind of nuts.
Wanda Maximoff is a witch in training who is accepted into the elite House of Harkness school at sixteen, even though most of the students have been together since they were very young, and newcomers to the institution are rare. She is given a school tour by Stephen Strange, but when the tour goes awry, it turns out that her guide is really Loki, who seems to be trying to make her angry. Wanda has left her twin brother, Pietro, in Europe, and the two occasionally communicate, but there are so many new people to meet at school. Wanda runs afould of Agatha Harkness, whose father Hiram is the headmaster, almost immediately, but does find some nice classmates, like the kind Goth girl Nico and the cute Jericho. Jericho even asks her to the Nocture Fantastic ball. Unfortunately, Wanda is attacked by monsters at the dance, but she and Agatha are able to use their magic to defeat them. They work together, but soon retreat to their warring ways. Long held school and family secrets are revealed when Professor Sersi lets her displeasure over her treatment be known; eons ago, a Harkness stole her ring, which enabled them to start the school, and since she has no power, she is giving the students a hard time. If she can have her ring back, she will leave the students alone. Wanda is determined to just steal the ring and end the stand off. Will House of Harkness be the same if an actual Harkness is not at the helm?
This is apparently set in an alternate Marvel universe, and certainly incorporates many characters from this. I am completely unversed in Marvel or Wanda's character, so was frequently a little confused. Readers who are invested in The Scarlet Witch (Wanda's Marvel character) will enjoy seeing this backstory and meeting other characters as high school students, like Agatha Harkness, a centuries old witch, and Stephen Strange. It's possible to read this book without knowing all of this information, but since this is the beginning of a lengthy series of graphic novels, it's probably best to either know about the characters or research them in order to fully enjoy the story.
The illustration style is very comic book like, and very brightly colored, and while there are not Batman style "kapow" action words, there is plenty of movement on the page, epic fights, and over the top emotions. The fantasy elements are strong, and the historical portions of the book are particularly lush and atmospheric.
Readers who want a magical graphic novel like Aldridge's The Pale Queen, Steinkellner's The Okay Witch, Mandanna and Ballesteros's Jupiter Nettle and the Seven Schools of Magic, or Messenger, Freen, and Chianello's Keeper of the Lost Cities The Graphic Novel Part 1, will pick this up for the magical academy vibe, while Marvel fans will luxuriate in the alternate universe setting.
A magical school story with Marvel characters. The first half is 1.5 stars (or a little less): Most of it is just characters you should care about because you know them from Marvel, with nothing interesting going on. It's about a prank war between Wanda and Agatha. We're supposed to root for Wanda as the scrappy outsider, but she's a type-A jerk who escalates things, too, so I really didn't care. The second half gets into more plot, and it is a solid 3-star YA story. Not enough to completely wipe away the awkward opening, but if there's a second volume I'll be interested in it.
In the dead heat of August I woke up in the middle of the night to a really weird sound that turned out to be that our AC had broken. It turned into a whole thing being that it was a Sunday and the motor that needed replacing was difficult to find so I needed something to distract me from the stress and panic. Enter this very fun, chaotic, and funny graphic novel about teens at a magic school. It has the trope of a new student, there is of course danger, plenty of magic and trickery, deception, friendship, enemies, and witches. This is a delightfully fun read (in plot, characters, and art) that works equally well whether you’re a fan of Marvel’s Agatha Harkness and Wanda Maximoff or aren’t familiar with the characters. It’s also a perfect in-one-sitting read.
This was a fun alternate universe comic in which our favorite Marvel magic users all congregate at a magic school run by the Harkness family. It was fun to see them all interacting together and the similarities and differences between the characters we know. I appreciated the nods to Wanda's Roma heritage as well as Loki being nonbinary! The art style was a little more manga than I usually read, which was a fun change. It was definitely fun to read about Wanda and Agatha as academic rivals, but I wish it had gone into a little more depth about the different kinds of magic everyone uses and the ending was a little abrupt, but I enjoyed it.
I have no prior knowledge from most of these characters so I had a blast throughout the whole thing. I just love this slice of life-ish AUs from hero stories man. The artstyle??? MWAH. CHEF'S KISS. Everyone was loveable, except for some bastard father but still. While the pacing did rush here and there, I can forgive it since the story as a whole was so compelling.
AND ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. I love happy endings. 10/10. NO NOTES.
High school AU with Wanda, Agatha, Loki, Strange, etc?? GIMME. This was just plain fun and really cute. I loved getting to see Wanda in a happier timeline haha.
I did wish there was more Pietro, but I get why he wasn’t physically there since it’s supposed to be a magic school lol.
Anyways! Had great fun reading this and I think kids will enjoy it too:)
ADORABLE!!! I read this way back when it was an online only comic so I was overjoyed when it finally got a physical run of all the issues together 🥹
A great little AU that showcased one of my favourite dynamics: wanda & Agatha 💖 and has STUNNING art work!! Plus some great cameos from other magic users
Light and frothy AU where Wanda, Agatha, Steven Strange, Nico, Nightmare, and a variety of others are 16 year old magic school students. Wanda is a new student who threatens Agatha's top tanking, they escalate a prank war but have to work together when it turns out someone is specifically targeting the school. It was fun, but not a lot of characterization.
This was great! Really beautiful illustrations with a very manga feel. And the story was solid. I'd definitely watch this TV show if it was ever made. Enemies to...frenemies? Definitely worth watching.
This was really fun! I love Scarlet Witch and Agatha Harkness, so this story about them as teenagers was a must-read! I loved the art style, it was gorgeous, and the story was solid. I would love more stories in this universe!
This was a cute re-imagining of the magic users in the Marvel universe! I really enjoyed the art style, and the magic school angle made their interactions fun and engaging. You don't really need to know anything about Marvel before going into this book, which is also a good thing!