Selene (comics)
Selene | |
---|---|
Blink | |
Notable aliases | Black Queen Black Priestess Dark Huntress Moon Goddess |
Abilities |
|
Selene Gallio is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema, the character first appeared in New Mutants #9 (November 1983).[2] Selene belongs to the subspecies of humans called mutants, who are born with superhuman abilities. She is often associated with the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle and is despised as an enemy of the X-Men.
Selene was portrayed by Kota Eberhardt in the
Publication history
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2010) |
Selene first appeared in New Mutants #9 (November 1983), written by Chris Claremont and illustrated by Sal Buscema.[3]
Fictional character biography
Selene is the oldest known human mutant. Functionally immortal, her millennia-long life is attributed to her ability to drain the life essence from other beings to extend her own existence indefinitely. Her name derives from the ancient lunar goddess
Hyborian Age
Selene was revealed to have been an old enemy of the sorcerer Kulan Gath.[6] Kulan Gath was active during the Hyborian Age (before any recorded civilizations) and is known to have faced both Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja. In fact, Sonja reportedly managed to kill him and his spirit would not manifest again until the modern era.[7] Thus, Selene was active at least as early as the Hyborian age.
Rome and Eliphas
Selene came to reside in
Nova Roma
In relatively recent times, Selene was trapped for centuries in the Amazon in the Romanesque town of Nova Roma. She was worshipped as a
In Nova Roma, Selene attempted to kill Amara Aquilla. She knocked Amara into a lava pool, thereby releasing the latter's latent mutant powers as Magma. Selene fought and defeated Magma, and plotted to turn Danielle Moonstar into a psychic vampire like herself and conquer the world. Selene fought the New Mutants, and was cast into lava and buried alive.[9]
Becoming the Black Queen
Selene directed her worshippers to undertake tasks that eventually allowed her to leave Nova Roma. She made her way to New York City, where she encountered
With help from
Selene's time with the Hellfire Club was a turbulent time, due to her contempt for
Selene and the Hellfire Club's relationship with the X-Men came to a head with Rachel making an unauthorized assassination attempt on Selene. Wolverine felt honor-bound to prevent Rachel from being a murderer, and so, saved Selene's life by severely injuring Rachel. Selene herself was enraged, and used the incident to force the Lords Cardinal to agree to hunt and kill Rachel. A battle over this issue immediately commenced between the X-Men and Lords Cardinal, but it was unexpectedly halted when it drew the attention of Nimrod, the super-sentinel who had murdered Selene's assistant Rhoem,[14] and was as bent on killing the X-Men and the Lords Cardinal. The Lords Cardinal and the X-Men hastily agreed to a truce, fighting well-enough to cause Nimrod to flee.
After this battle, in the pages of New Mutants, much was made about Selene having secret plans involving Nova Roma and Magma. Due to a love for
Years later, due to Chris Claremont wishing to undo writer Fabian Nieciza's dismantling of the concept of Nova Roma,[citation needed] Claremont ignored said story and wrote Magma as originally, and later had Magma make cryptic references to having been manipulated into believing Nova Roma was a lie by parties unknown that sought to hurt Magma. Furthermore, the five-issue mini-series "New Mutants Forever" revealed that Claremont originally planned on revealing Magma to be Selene's granddaughter. This family connection would be stated as well (with no build-up) in New Mutants Vol 3 #6-8, which had Selene resurrect Magma's teammate Cypher to try to kill Magma. Furthermore, it was strongly implied during "Necrosha" that Shaw and Emma Frost manipulated the Empath/Magma relationship in order to get Empath inside Nova Roma.[volume & issue needed] In the event that Selene struck first and eliminated both, Empath's powers would then be used to dismantle the city via convincing the residents that their lives were lies concocted by Selene.
Selene ultimately was the deciding vote to vote Shaw out of the Hellfire Club, when tension between Shaw and the newly recruited White King
Needing to replenish her power, Selene first attacked and killed the other surviving
She next appeared back in Brazil, where she had tracked
Selene then returned to her post as the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club, after striking a deal with the demon Blackheart and seemingly throwing out the rest of the Inner Circle. She offered Sunspot the position of Black Rook, which the latter initially refused but then accepted when Selene and Blackheart revealed that doing so would allow them to resurrect the spirit of Juliana Sandoval, the girl who died saving Sunspot's life when the latter first joined the New Mutants. Sunspot had no choice to accept and become Selene's protégé.[volume & issue needed]
But with Shaw's return to the Hellfire Club, Selene was somehow trapped inside the catacombs under the Hellfire Club. However, she gained limited mobility from an alliance with
After M-Day
Selene was one of the few mutants to retain her powers after the events of M-Day.[16]
Selene (disguised as an old woman) befriends
Eli Bard's offering
Selene's relationship with
Necrosha
One week before the event of Necrosha, Selene has the recently resurrected Destiny brought before her where she asks what her future holds.[19]
Selene returns to the place of her birth in central Europe, accompanied by a new Inner Circle, consisting of
Sometime after Selene's death, Blink attempted to resurrect the Black Queen. Blink was eventually stopped by Frost and a small team of X-Men (consisting of Blindfold, Pixie, Husk, Warpath) along with former Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange who managed successfully to purge Blink of Selene's corrupted influence.[23]
Return
It was later revealed that Selene's body and soul had been preserved as airborne particles and somehow stored in stasis in a vault located somewhere in New York City. Lady Deathstrike and the Enchantress gained access to the vault and through the newly enhanced magic granted to her by the sentient virus, Arkea, she was able to fully restore Selene to physical life for the purpose of adding her to the newly formed Sisterhood of Mutants.[24]
Power Elite
In the aftermath of the "
"Dawn of X"
In the "
Powers and abilities
Selene is both a mutant and a powerful sorceress who is immortal.[30] She possesses a wide range of superhuman abilities, but it has never been clearly defined which of these are her actual mutant abilities and which are skills derived from magic or other sources.[31]
Selene is a "psychic vampire" with the ability to sustain herself by psionically draining the life force of other human beings into herself.[32][30] If she drains a person's entire life force, the victim dies and crumbles to dust in seconds. If Selene only drains the victim's life force partially, she achieves a measure of psychic control over her victim's mind, thereby subverting them to her will. Through unknown means Selene can also cause a human being to become a psychic vampire like herself, but be subordinate to Selene's own will. Selene's youthful appearance and vitality depends upon her absorbing the life forces of one or more people on a regular basis. This restores Selene to a youthful and healthy appearance when she has been injured, or when she over-exerts her other powers, and sustains her centuries-long life. A side effect of this process is that Selene remembers the life of anyone she absorbs.
By using the absorbed life energies that sustain her, Selene can enhance her physical strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes, and durability to superhuman levels.[33][34] The amount of energy she has retained from her victims does seem to correlate somewhat with her physical strength and resistance to injury. Selene can momentarily move at superhuman speeds of around 175 miles/hour, though this requires a heavy expenditure of energy and can cause her to age rapidly and require more life energy immediately.[35] It is not known how often Selene must drain a human's life force in order to survive. Great expenditure of power causes Selene to age rapidly, but she can rejuvenate herself by absorbing more life force.
Selene appears to be immune to most forms of conventional injury; she has survived both a knife wound and a crossbow bolt to her heart with no apparent lasting effects. While not indestructible, she once survived and recovered completely from molecular discorporation, though it took considerable time to reconstitute herself.[36]
Selene is also a powerful telekinetic.
Selene possesses an undefined level of telepathic ability.[40] Selene has used her abilities to scan minds for information and was able to communicate mentally.[41] She often uses her telepathy to blend her psychic signature into the background thoughts around her, making her difficult for other psionics to locate or track, or to induce a hypnotic trance in others, during which she slips away at superhuman speed, leaving them with the impression that she simply vanished.
Selene is able to temporarily assume the appearance of others. Like many of her other abilities, it is unknown if this is achieved through magic, telepathy, or other means.[17]
Selene possesses considerable magical abilities and extensive knowledge of sorcery, enabling her to cast and counteract spells.[31] While the full extent of Selene's magical skill is not known, her greatly extended lifespan has given her sufficient knowledge and experience to be considered a threat to Kulan Gath. She was able to cast an illusion sufficient to fool Kulan Gath at his most powerful. Selene was revealed by the Eye of Agamotto to be one of several magic-users with the potential to be Doctor Strange's successor as Sorcerer Supreme.[42]
Reception
Critical reception
In other media
Television
Selene appears in the Wolverine and the X-Men episode "Foresight" (Part 1), voiced by April Stewart.[45] This version displays psychic vampirism and is a member of the Inner Circle.
Film
- Selene appears in Arikiare killed in battle.
Video games
- Selene appears as the final Gambit's stage in Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge.[52]
- Selene appears as a boss in Wolverine: Adamantium Rage.[53]
- Selene makes a cameo appearance in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, voiced by Jeannie Elias.[54]
- Selene appears in Marvel: Avengers Alliance.[citation needed]
- Selene appears in Marvel Snap.[55]
References
- ^ X-Men Vol. 4 #11
- ^ Ashford, Sage (2022-11-28). "10 Marvel Villains With Way Too Many Powers". CBR. Retrieved 2023-03-30.
- ISBN 978-1-4654-7890-0.
- ^ Colucci, Brian (2022-04-04). "Wolverine Isn't Actually That Old, And He Should Stop Pretending He Is". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
- ^ Necrosha one-shot
- ^ Uncanny X-Men #191-192 (March - April 1985). Marvel Comics.
- ^ Marvel Team-Up #79. Marvel Comics.
- ^ X-Force #11 (March 2009). Marvel Comics.
- ^ New Mutants #9. Marvel Comics.
- ^ Uncanny X-Men #183-184. Marvel Comics.
- ^ Wilson, John (2019-12-01). "X-Men: 10 Things Everyone Forgets About The Hellfire Club". CBR. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
- ^ Uncanny X-Men #189-191. Marvel Comics.
- ^ Firestar #1-4. Marvel Comics.
- ^ Uncanny X-Men #207-209 (July 1986). Marvel Comics.
- ^ New Mutants #75. Marvel Comics.
- ^ House of M #7 (November 2005). Marvel Comics.
- ^ a b c New X-Men (Vol. 2) #32. Marvel Comics.
- ^ X-Force #11. Marvel Comics.
- ^ X-Force vol. 3 #19. Marvel Comics.
- ^ X-Necrosha #1. Marvel Comics.
- ^ X-Force #21. Marvel Comics.
- ^ a b X-Force vol. 3 #22-25. Marvel Comics.
- ^ X-Men: To Serve and Protect #3. Marvel Comics.
- ^ X-Men (vol. 4) #11. Marvel Comics.
- ^ Captain America (Vol. 9) #1-4. Marvel Comics.
- ^ Captain America (vol. 9) #6. Marvel Comics.
- House of X#5. Marvel Comics.
- ^ Harth, David (2022-03-07). "10 Villains Marvel Never Should Have Redeemed". CBR. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
- ^ X-Men (vol. 5) #3. Marvel Comics.
- ^ a b c Brehmer, Nat (2018-01-09). "Marvel: 25 Most Powerful Mutants, Ranked From Weakest To Strongest". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
- ^ a b c C. B. R. Staff (2019-01-12). "The 21 Most Powerful Sorcerer Supreme Candidates, Ranked". CBR. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
- ^ a b Shayo, Lukas (2022-05-26). "The 10 Smartest X-Men Characters, Ranked". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
- ^ a b Murray, Kirsten (2019-11-18). "X-Men: The 10 Most Powerful Female Villains, Ranked". CBR. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
- ^ a b Draven, Derek (2021-04-01). "Marvel's 10 Most Powerful Female Mutants, Ranked". CBR. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
- ^ The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol. II #2
- ^ New Mutants #11. Marvel Comics.
- ^ a b Prom, Bradley (2022-08-31). "10 New Characters We Can Hope To See In X-Men '97". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
- ^ Uncanny X-Men #189
- ^ Uncanny X-Men #208
- ^ Marvel Comics Presents #78
- ^ Excalibur Vol 4 #11-12
- ^ New Avengers #53. Marvel Comics.
- ^ McCormick, Colin (2019-06-26). "The 10 Strongest Female Marvel Villains, Ranked". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
- ^ Young, Andrew (2017-02-24). "10 Most Evil X-Men Villains". WhatCulture.com. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
- ^ "Voice Of Selene – Behind The Voice Actors". Behind The Voice Actors. Check marks indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ LaPointe, Sarah (13 April 2018). "Underworld: 20 Juicy BTS Secrets Only Huge Fans Know". CBR. Comic Book Resources.
- ^ The Player: Wesley Snipes, Philip Winchester Interview – Comic-Con 2015. YouTube. July 10, 2015. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
- ^ Snipes "In Talks" With Marvel About Blade Reboot – IGN News. YouTube. July 10, 2015. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
- ^ Jayson, Jay (October 7, 2016). "Marvel Is Doing Something With Blade According To Kate Beckinsale". ComicBook.com.
- ^ Vejvoda, Jim (September 27, 2018). "Dark Phoenix: Exclusive Photos and Director Simon Kinberg and Sophie Turner on Alien Villains". IGN. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
- ^ C. B. R. Staff (2017-04-10). "Super Nintendo: The Best SNES Superhero Games". CBR. Retrieved 2023-03-30.
- ^ "Wolverine: Adamantium Rage Characters". Giant Bomb. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
- ^ "Selene / Black Queen Voice - X-Men franchise | Behind The Voice Actors". behindthevoiceactors.com. December 21, 2019. Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ "MARVEL SNAP - Dominate the Marvel Multiverse in High-Speed Card Battling Action". www.marvelsnap.com. Retrieved 2024-01-04.
External links
- Selene at Marvel.com
- Selene at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
- Selene at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
- Selene:The High Priestess
- "Selene - la belle dame sans merci" at UncannyXmen.net
- Selene on Marvel Database, a Marvel Comics wiki