This article may contain a huge spoiler for “Agatha All Along.”
While Aubrey Plaza is starring as the conniving TV anchor Wow Platinum in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” she’s also turned up in Marvel Studios’ new shockingly well-received Disney+ series “Agatha All Along.” Marvel has apparently followed the old advice to get you a girl who can do you both.
In “Agatha All Along,” Plaza is playing “Rio Vidal,” the Green Witch, and an old rival of the titular Agatha (Kathryn Hahn). That is not a character from the comics, so fans (as they always do when this happens) are putting up their corkboards, trying to connect the dots to see if Rio is really a known character in disguise.
Some have suggested Rio might be a gender-flipped Blackheart, son of Marvel’s demon king Mephisto. However, leaked merchandise (specifically, a Funko Pop of Plaza’s “Agatha” character) may have revealed the twist early. This wouldn’t be a new kind of leak for Marvel. Before “X-Men ’97” premiered, the presence of Madelyne Pryor/The Goblin Queen in the show was revealed via action figure listings. Plaza broke out playing the deadpan April Ludgate on “Parks and Recreation” and she’s been typecast as similar characters since. Here’s a link to the leaked Funko Pop post, which contains a massive spoiler for how the rest of the series will play out. A Goth villainess dressed all in black robes? She can do that in her sleep.
What I do question is why Marvel is (possibly) introducing this character now when the character most associated with her is out of the picture. Scroll below for the character reveal, or click away to save yourself the trouble.
Marvel were fools to leave Death out of Avengers: Infinity War
That’s no mere name: Death, sometimes called Lady Death, is indeed the personification of non-existence in Marvel Comics.
If you think you know Thanos from Josh Brolin’s portrayal in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, leave that all at the door. Comic Thanos (created by Jim Starlin and Mike Friedrich) is not a Malthus-acolyte obsessed with “balance.” Nor does he want to wipe out half the universe for population control and misguided environmentalism. He’s a nihilist, so obsessed with causing death that he is in love with its embodiment. Death (who Thanos sees as a black-coaked woman, sometimes with a skinless skull for a face) never pays Thanos any mind, though, so he kills and kills hoping one day that will be enough to pique her notice.
In “The Avengers” post-credit scene, Thanos smiles when told fighting Earth’s heroes would be “to court death.” This scene was director Joss Whedon’s idea, which Marvel then spun into its multi-movie arc. Knowing how Whedon writes dialogue, I’m sure the line was there to make knowing Marvel Comics fans chuckle.
It didn’t pay off, though, when “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Endgame” changed the Mad Titan’s motivations. The film didn’t have time for more of Thanos’ backstory, its makers said, but the change makes the story reach higher than it can grasp. The films unintentionally endorse Thanos’ flawed plan of salvation through genocide by (a). never having the Avengers present any counterargument besides “it’s wrong” and (b). suggesting that Earth’s slow-boiling climate apocalypse was improving after the Snap. In the MCU, the Avengers exist only to avenge a failing status quo.
Lady Death All Along
The revision also fails to recognize what makes Thanos compelling. The most simplistic way to make a super-villain sympathetic is to make them “complex,” i.e. the hard man making the difficult choice for the greater good. But comic Thanos has plenty of pathos; twisted as he is, who can’t understand acting out of love? Comic writer Grant Morrison, in their book “Supergods,” compares Starlin’s Thanos to DC Comics’ premier cosmic tyrant, Jack Kirby’s Darkseid:
“If Kirby’s Promethean dialectic was informed by his experiences in World War II, Starlin’s came courtesy of the post–Vietnam War counterculture. Thanos was Darkseid not as galactic tyrant but as thwarted lover, a gnarled and massive embodiment of the death wish that had overwhelmed so many young Americans in the sixties. […] Kirby’s Satan was a monster of tyranny; Starlin’s was a frustrated nihilist, wooing Death like a lovesick puppy.”
The Avengers just needing to beat a cosmic incel also avoids the messy politics that “Infinity War” and “Endgame” aren’t ready to even scratch. If introducing a new character for Thanos to love would be too complicated, as the Russos claimed, then Goddess of Death Hela (Cate Blanchett) was right there. Blanchett (like Plaza) is definitely the kind of woman you’d kill half the universe for.
“Agatha All Along” is streaming on Disney+, with new episodes releasing on Wednesdays.
