House of Harkness

In House of Harkness, we follow Wanda Maximoff as she starts at her new magic school, the House of Harkness. Right from the start, she meets Agatha Harkness, and the two don’t get along, causing chaos to ensue. There’s an evil presence threatening the school, though, so Wanda and Agatha are forced to work together to help save the day.

What I Liked: This is a great graphic novel to introduce people to Scarlet Witch and some of the other Marvel characters that we’ve come to love. While there is a lot of reference to other characters from the Marvel universe, there isn’t a need to be familiar with them. The book does a great job of giving you a brief overview of the main characters in this story.

As someone who isn’t familiar with Scarlet Witch and Agatha, I found this book interesting, and it was great to have their feud be the center stage of this story. The mystery of the demon lurking around the school was in the background for most of the story until the ending, when Wanda and Agatha are forced to work together. While the reveal was pretty quick, it was fascinating to see the history of the school and think about how Wanda was going to get Agatha to safety.

The artwork from this story does a great job of depicting the magic that is used, and the action scenes are well done, too. The illustrations help with the pacing of the book as well as the various sizing of the scenes helps with the pacing.

Final Verdict: House of Harkness is a thrilling adventure from the start that children who enjoy Marvel will delight in. This book is perfect for fans of Wanda Vision, Scarlet Witch, and the Marvel universe. The book is also great for those who aren’t familiar with much of the Marvel universe and just want to read about some of the characters that interest them.

Preeti Chhibber’s HOUSE OF HARKNESS is a graphic novel that brings some of Marvel’s most magical characters to life. Agatha Harkness and Wanda Maximoff take center-stage at a magic school named after the Harkness family. Immediately clashing, the two are constantly needling at one another. When the school is threatened though, will they be able to put aside their differences and fight the evil forces that be?

This graphic novel is not set in the MCU, but it does feature a bunch of Marvel characters. From Agatha Harkness to Nico Minoru and even characters like Nightmare. The combination of characters is a lot of fun and I was thrilled to learn about some Marvel characters that I hadn’t known about prior to reading this book!

Agatha and Wanda’s rivalry is chaotic and quite a bit of fun. Because magic is involved, things aren’t simple. The pranks aren’t small like tripping someone. They get big and bold and wild. It’s fun and some of the back-and-forth scenes were just really funny to see depicted.

The mystery element of the book was fun, but definitely not the most interesting part for me. I didn’t actively wonder about who was behind everything, but I definitely wasn’t upset about the reveal.

Jodi Nishikima & Kiichi Mizushima are the illustrators for this book and they do a wonderful job at bringing this world to life. The images are vibrant and vivid, a sense of vivacity oozing from the pages. The magic looks fantastic, the characters are all wonderfully distinct, and the actions scenes are just incredible.

A fun look at what would happen if Agatha Harkness and Wanda Maximoff attended a magic school together, HOUSE OF HARKNESS is a fun read. The illustrations are gorgeous and seeing Marvel characters in their teenage years is sure to lead to a mess.