Margali Szardos
Margali Szardos is a female comic character who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Margali Szardos
At one point, she was conducting a magical ritual where she accidentally summoned Azazel from his prison dimension. She came to believe that she had called forth a demon with the Mutant deciding to indulge this belief as the two became allies and even lovers. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #433) At some point, she came to settle with the Der Jahrmarkt circus in Winzeldorf, Germany, where she acted as the circus' fortune teller, all while continuing to practice her own magical powers. (Nightcrawler v3 #8) Margali later came to gain possession of a mystical wand that would grant her incredible mystical power but would begin to corrupt her mind. (Doctor Strange v2 #57) A disciple of the Winding Way, she came to join a witches coven that became the most powerful in Europe and consisted of other sorceresses that included Lilia Calderu and Maria Russoff. In this time, they came to learn the existence of a young girl that would become a powerless sorceress who would straddle the line between magic and science. The group looked to recruit the girl into their coven and activate her powers. The girl was Wanda Maximoff who was with her gypsy parents Django and Marya. However, their actions drew the attention of Chthon who had set his sights on the Maximoff girl and demanded she be left undisturbed until the time was right for him to control her. During the confrontation, Margali moved to protect the young Wanda and was later told that she would bear a child of her own that would be of occult significance. (Mystic Arcana: Scarlet Witch v1 #1)
She gave birth to two children one of whom was her son Stefan Szardos and the other was a daughter named Jemaine Szardos. (Uncanny X-Men Annual v1 #4) In this time, she joined Jahrmarkt circus as a fortune-teller to cover her tracks and protect the children. (Uncanny X-Men: First Class Giant-Size Special v1 #1) Years later, Azazel had a child with the shapeshifter Mystique though Raven Darkholme came to abandon the child when she was persecuted after her true form was shown to the inhabitants of the German town. Thus, the young Kurt Wagner was abandoned by a river to die but was saved by his father Azazel where he had Margali take care of his son where Szardos hid the true nature of his parentage from him. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #433) He was raised alongside her own children as Kurt Wagnar where the three became to be very close to one another. (Uncanny X-Men Annual v1 #4) She tried to keep Kurt in the shadows but he was desperate to perform. One day, he decided to show off his talents much to her frustration. However. during the performance the circus was robbed where Kurt decided to step in using his powers to teleport to stop them. Margali agreed to let him perform but told him to trick the world into thinking it was all a trick and he was wearing makeup in which he performed. (Uncanny X-Men: First Class Giant-Size Special v1 #1)
Unknown to her, her son Stefan was plagued by evil and felt he would succumb to darkness in the future. He confessed this to his adoptive brother Kurt where he extracted a promise from Wagnar to kill him if he ever turned evil. Years later, outside the Bavarian village of Winzeldorf the time came and Stefan attacked Kurt who unintentionally caused his adoptive siblings neck to snap. Margali came to learn of her son's death but not of the true nature of the circumstances and she in an anger swore revenge against Kurt. (Uncanny X-Men Annual v1 #4)
Margali sent her daughter Jimaine to Doctor Strange in the hope that her child would grow in the sorcerous arts. When Dr. Strange called a meeting to talk to the many would-be disciples, he told them that he was not seeking a new student. This caused Jimaine to lash out at Strange for not accepting her as his student. Margali, calling herself the Sorceress Supreme, then finally revealed herself, confronting Strange for denying Jimaine the chance to further her mystical abilities. Margali, Jimaine, Dr. Strange and the would-be disciples were transported to another realm, where Margali battled Strange. Even as Strange cast a spell to counter Margali and the giantess size she presented herself in, she was able to stand her ground and eventually defeat him. However, Dr. Strange may have been faking his defeat, as he grabbed the mysterious wand from Margali and cast it into a circle of Cyttorak to protect it. With her current source of power gone, Margali's weakness exposed itself and she reverted to her true form, seemingly grateful to Dr. Strange for freeing her. (Doctor Strange v2 #57) Free from the wand's corruption, Margali and Amanda left Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum and returned to Amanda's Manhattan apartment, where apparently Margali remained for a few days before she returned to Winzeldorf. (Doctor Strange v2 #58)
Margali spent the next few years maintaining an extremely low profile, but remained in contact with Amanda, who eventually joined the European super hero team, Excalibur, of which Nightcrawler was a founding member. At a low point of power along the Winding Way, Margali was captured by the Fear-Lord, D'Spayre, whose power was growing, strengthened as he fueled the discontent that was growing within Germany. Unable to act against D'Spayre, Margali was counting on the help of her children. However, after Amanda collected Nightcrawler and teleported him to Germany, she was unable to go any further, as D'Spayre would sense her. Forced to search for their mother alone, Kurt was attacked by an angry mob and knocked out, all of which Margali helplessly watched through a scrying pool. D'Spayre laughed at the rescue attempt, but Margali was given strength by Kurt's arrival and cast a spell through the scrying pool, though D'Spayre prevented it from succeeding. Kurt eventually recovered on his own and was able to confront D'Spayre, just in time before Margali withered to a husk and D'Spayre claimed her power for his own. D'Spayre was defeated and Margali freed, no real harm having come to her. However, she was concerned about how Nightcrawler would react to her after he recently learned about his birth mother, Mystique. Although Kurt was furious with Margali, this fury could not replace the love that the gypsy woman once gave him. (Excalibur v1 #77)
Szardos joined Hellstorm, Moy, and the Mechamage who agreed to remain together to defend the Earth against demonic threats, calling themselves the Shadow Hunters. The formation of the Shadow Hunters was later claimed to be a ruse to placate the Fantastic Four and they disbanded. (Fantastic Four Annual v1 #1999) Margali teamed up with Scarlet Witch and a squad of other sorcerers to push back Ego the Living Planet when he tried to expand across the Earth. (Maximum Security v1 #3)
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Margali Szardos was a female of Caucasian descent who possessed an aged and weathered countenance marked by deep wrinkles, prominent facial lines, and long, flowing white hair. She had an upright, slender, and somewhat frail-looking skeletal frame that belied her immense power, often adorned in a floor-length, high-collared crimson robe, a dark sleeveless tunic cinched by a golden belt, and a massive, ornate golden headdress featuring two large, recurved horns. (Uncanny X-Men Annual v1 #4) In reality, her form and youth was only maintained by her magical wand with her reverting to her true form if it was taken from her. (Doctor Strange v2 #57) She had long red hair and piercing green eyes conveyed both mystery and menace, while her attire—often consisting of flowing robes adorned with arcane symbols—reflected her status as a master of the occult. She was known as Margali of the Winding Road and as She Who Walks the Winding Road. (Uncanny X-Men Annual v1 #4)
Margali’s morality was ambiguous, guided less by human notions of good and evil than by the shifting balance of magical power. She viewed magic as both sacred duty and survival mechanism, and her decisions were often driven by the necessity of maintaining equilibrium along the Winding Way. To those she loved, she could be fiercely loyal and protective; to those who crossed her, she was merciless. Her pragmatism often placed her in morally gray situations, working with dark entities when the need arose but always maintaining a sense of purpose that she believed justified her means. (Doctor Strange v1 #57)
A woman of immense magical power and complex morality, she was renowned among mystics for her mastery of the occult arts and her ties to the ancient magical orders that predated modern civilization. (Uncanny X-Men Annual #4)
Margali had lived many lifetimes’ worth of experience in the study of witchcraft. Her lineage traced back to ancient covens whose members practiced forms of magic both divine and infernal. She was part of the Winding Way, a mystical path that dictated that a sorcerer’s power would rise and fall in cycles, forcing its practitioners to continually struggle for mastery and survival. This philosophy shaped Margali’s outlook on life and magic alike—she saw power as both blessing and burden, to be maintained through cunning, discipline, and occasionally ruthless action. Her reputation in magical circles was both revered and feared, for her methods often blurred the line between healer and manipulator, savior and tormentor. (Doctor Strange v1 #57)
She came to find herself cursed by the wand that she claimed had warped her mind and resulted in her son becoming a murdering maniac. (Doctor Strange v2 #57)
Her first-born son was Stefan and she had a daughter named Jimaine. Margali later came to adopt the abandoned Mutant child Kurt Wagner who was raised among her own children. Margali’s discovery of the infant Nightcrawler marked the beginning of her most enduring bond. She found the blue-skinned child near a German village, surrounded by villagers who believed him to be a demon. Taking pity on him, she claimed him as her own, raising him within the traveling circus where her illusions could hide his appearance from prying eyes. Kurt grew up believing her to be his true mother and regarded her with unwavering affection, unaware of the depth of her magical nature or the darker aspects of her past. Margali nurtured his faith and compassion even as she concealed her own dealings with darker powers, creating a complex relationship defined by both love and secrecy. (Uncanny X-Men Annual v1 #4)
Margali taught all three children the ways of magic, though she was stricter with her own offspring and more protective of Kurt. Tragedy struck when Stefan, having succumbed to madness, began murdering innocents under the belief that they were demons. Kurt, in his attempt to stop him, accidentally caused Stefan’s death. When Margali discovered her son’s lifeless body, her grief and rage turned toward Kurt, whom she believed to be a murderer. In her fury, she used her magic to condemn his soul, sending him into the depths of hell as punishment. This act revealed the full extent of her power—and the depth of her wrath as a mother betrayed. (Uncanny X-Men Annual v1 #4)
Her relationship with her daughter Jimaine evolved into that of master and successor, as Jimaine inherited both her mother’s abilities and her burden along the Winding Way. Though Margali occasionally clashed with Doctor Strange and other sorcerers over her methods, she maintained a degree of mutual respect with many of them. Her pursuit of magical equilibrium often drew her into conflicts that transcended mortal affairs, and her name became synonymous with both wisdom and peril in the arcane world. Even those who distrusted her acknowledged that her presence often heralded balance, however costly that balance might be. (Excalibur v1 #57)
Within that community of outcasts and performers, she raised a young orphaned child whom she discovered abandoned under tragic circumstances—Kurt Wagner. To him, she was a mother, though her love was as severe as it was protective, and her influence would shape his destiny in both the mortal and mystical realms. (Uncanny X-Men Annual #4)
Powers and abilities
Originally, she worked as a fortune teller but at night she secretly began to practice the darker arts of magic. It was said that she was self-taught in the ways of magic as she became a sorcerer. According to her, she was descended from a bloodline of magic users with this trait being present in her entire family. (Nightcrawler v3 #8)
Margali’s mastery of magic was formidable, rivaling that of the greatest sorcerers of her age. Her abilities encompassed necromancy, illusion, dimensional travel, and summoning. She was capable of imprisoning souls, manipulating reality, and drawing upon the mystical currents of the Winding Way to augment her power. Her spells often required elaborate ritual components—sigils, incantations in ancient tongues, and blood-bound artifacts. Despite her mortal origins, she had long surpassed human limitations, existing partly within realms beyond physical understanding. Her knowledge of demonology was vast, and her command of the astral plane placed her among the elite practitioners of magic on Earth. (Doctor Strange v1 #57)
Margali Szardos demonstrated a high level of proficiency in various mystical arts and reality manipulation. She possessed the ability to manipulate the souls and physical forms of others, as seen when she forcefully transported the astral forms of several individuals into a pocket dimension of her own creation. Within this realm, she exhibited absolute environmental control, manifesting a complex landscape based on Dante’s Inferno that included freezing temperatures, rivers of boiling blood, and various supernatural entities. She proved capable of casting powerful illusions and 'image-projections' that allowed her to communicate remotely or manifest a giant, intimidating avatar of herself to confront her targets. Her defensive capabilities included the generation of mystical shields and force fields that could repel physical attacks and powerful energy blasts. Furthermore, she displayed the power of transmutation and matter manipulation, as she conjured various objects and mystical bindings to restrain her opponents. Her power was sufficient to bypass standard mental and physical defenses, and she exhibited the capacity for chronokinesis by freezing individuals in time or suspending their physical movements entirely. (Uncanny X-Men Annual v1 #4)
As a witch queen, Szardos was skilled in the arts of magic with her aware of many mystical relics such as the Eye of Agamotto which she could summon to aid her with a gesture. According to her, she walked the path of the winding way allowing her to perform numerous magical spells. Her magic was strong enough to match and in some cases even overpower that of Doctor Strange. (Uncanny X-Men Annual v1 #4) In fact, her power led to her being considered the Sorceress Supreme with her claiming that her strength was second to none. In reality, her power stemmed from her wand that came to corrupt her mind. Her power caused her to disguise her true form allowing her to become gigantic in size and make her seem young whilst hiding her elderly mortal form. (Doctor Strange v2 #57)
The Wand of Power was said to had been the original source of her mystical abilities. (Doctor Strange v2 #57)
Her magic allowed her to create a facsimile of Hell such as one based on Dante's Inferno. (Uncanny X-Men Annual v1 #4)
At one point, she joined a team of magic users to combat mystical threats who called themselves the Shadow Hunters. (Fantastic Four Annual v1 #1999)
Notes
- Margali Szardos was created by Chris Claremont and John Romita Jr. where she made her first appearance in Uncanny X-Men Annual v1 #4 (January, 1980).
Alternate Versions
- In Fantastic Four v3 #16 (1999), an alternate version of Margali Szardos appeared in the reality designated as Earth-99315 in the Multiverse. This world had suffered an invasion from the Kree and an extraterrestrial insectoid race. A version of the Defenders emerged on this Earth which consisted of a variant of Margali Szardos, Destiny and Legion. The trio joined forces to shift the karmic balance that was offset by the various wrongs they committed in their lives. In order to liberate their world from the alien invaders, Margali and her allies used their mystical powers to transport the Fantastic Four of Earth-616 to Earth-99315. Whilst there, the foursome assisted the warriors Redwing and Lucas kill the queen of the invaders. With the task completed, Margali then transported the Fantastic Four back to whence they came.
In other media
Television
Video games
- In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Margali Szardos was referenced in the setting of the video game. She was mentioned as a gypsy who was responsible for raising Nightcrawler.
Appearances
- Uncanny X-Men Annual v1: (1980)
- Uncanny X-Men v1:
- Doctor Strange v2:
- Excalibur v1:
- X-Men v2:
External Links
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