SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Marvel‘s Ironheart and Agatha All Along.
It was Mephisto all along!
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Mephisto makes his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in final episode of Ironheart, and fans have been waiting for this character to arrive for quite some time. While some speculated he may make an appearance in Agatha All Along, theories about his eventual introduction into the MCU have been picking up steam since WandaVision.
In Ironheart, we learn that Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos) aka The Hood has been slowly corrupted by the red cape he wears throughout the six-episode series. It’s not until the finale that we understand why. As it turns out, the cape was imbued with its nefarious powers by Mephisto. He visits Parker in the final episode and, eventually, strikes a deal with Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) to combine her genius with his magic.
Parker Robinson/The Hood (Anthony Ramos) in Marvel Television’s ‘Ironheart’,
Jalen Marlowe/Marvel
Given some of the storylines that Marvel has been focusing on lately, from Agatha All Along to Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, this seems like perfect time to introduce Mephisto.
Who Is Mephisto?
Short for Mephistopheles, the demon was actually popularized by Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, a 16th century play about a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for magical power. In fact, Ironheart teases Mephisto’s eventual arrival very early on, when Riri asks N.A.T.A.L.I.E. — the AI that Riri accidentally models after her dead best friend — why she glitched while standing in front of a wall covered in posters for the German play Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s interpretation of the same myth.
L-R: Ironheart/Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) and Natalie (Lyric Ross) in Marvel Television’s ‘Ironheart’
Jalen Marlowe/Marvel
A big bad in the comics, Mephisto has been around for a really long time. He has a traditionally devil-like appearance in the comics (think: scary red guy with horns), though so far we haven’t seen that side of him in the live-action MCU. He’s also come in contact with many of the MCU’s biggest heroes including Thor, Doctor Strange and even Spider-Man.
Among his many nefarious deeds, Mephisto is responsible for the corruption of both Norman and Harry Osborn as well as Phil Coulson and Otto Octavius. He is also the manipulative force from whom Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) borrowed two lost souls to create her twin sons, Billy and Tommy. When the demon returned to take back the souls, the pair, both heavily influenced by Wanda, defeated him and became reincarnated as human boys.
Billy turned into the son of Jeff (Paul Adelstein) and Rebecca Kaplan (Maria Dizzia). He grew up in New York City, and he renamed himself Wiccan, soon becoming a young avenger with Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) and Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton).
Interestingly, this is not exactly how the MCU has introduced Wanda’s children. In the live-action canon, Billy’s stint as a human boy before Agatha All Along is a byproduct of the destruction of Westview, the town where Wanda had kept residents under a hex so she could live out her dream life with Vision and their kids post-Endgame.
Connections to Agatha All Along and WandaVision
Billy’s MCU debut was shrouded in speculation in Agatha All Along. By the end of Jac Schaeffer’s WandaVision follow up, Joe Locke’s character identity — first only known as Teen — was, indeed, confirmed to be Billy Maximoff, the son of Wanda with chaos magic powers.
Teen (Joe Locke) in Marvel Television’s Agatha All Along
In the third episode of the series, potions witch Jenn (Sasheer Zamata) mentioned Mephisto at the first trial on the Witches’ Road. Agatha All Along played with the identities of Agatha’s dead son as well as Billy, who wanted to venture down, down, down the road to find his lost brother Tommy, sometimes suggesting they could be switched around. At the luxurious beach house, Jenn mentioned the demon in reference to Agatha’s son.
“They say that nobody really knows what happened to him,” Jennifer says. “They say he might be dead. Others say he might be a demon or an agent of Mephisto. But hey, that’s what happens when you have Agatha Harkness as your mom. I doubt she’d even recognize her own son if he showed up on her doorstep.”
(L-R): Lilia Calderu (Patti LuPone), Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata), Teen ( Joe Locke), and Alice Wu-Gulliver (Ali Ahn) in Marvel Television’s ‘Agatha All Along’
A fiery winged creature in Episode 4 of Agatha All Along may have brought some to do a double take to analyze whether that was Mephisto, but it was actually the manifestation of Alice’s (Ali Ahn) family curse.
Who Is Black Heart?
Mephisto’s introduction raises many questions, including whether or not his son Blackheart will eventually join the fold as well. There were a few hints in Agatha All Along that could indicate that is the case.
(L-R): Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza) and Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) in Marvel Television’s AGATHA ALL ALONG
Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel
In Episode 2 of Agatha All Along, Lilia Calderu (Patti Lupone) says that the list of necessary witches to complete the Witches Road includes a “black heart” in lieu of a name for their Green Witch. They initially believe that Mrs. Hart aka Sharon Davis will be able to perform the necessary earth magic, but it turns out the black heart is actually referencing Aubrey Plaza’s Rio Vidal, who is revealed to be Death by the end of the series.
The clue also called back to Rio’s self-described “black heart” that beats for Agatha. Some thought she could represent the gender-swapped child of Mephisto with a probable connection to Wiccan, as she did appear in Westview around the time that Billy came looking for Wanda. Given the Mephisto-Wanda connection, it makes sense that her children would one day come in contact with the demon in the MCU.
At the end of Agatha All Along, Wiccan sets out with Agatha to find his brother, Tommy, setting up for a potential run-in with Mephisto as well as the introduction of Blackheart in the future.
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