Morgan le Fay (Marvel)
Morgan le Fay is a female comic supervillain who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Morgan le Fay was a powerful female magic user who came from ancient times on the planet Earth.
Her origins were traced to around to 8,000 years after the great cataclysm that sunk continent of Atlantis with one of the new islands to had emerged in this time being Avalon. In that time, a sea-princess named Igraine of Avalon came to marry a man of the sacred clan where she bore him a daughter named Morgan. As was custom, the child was taken at the age of 7 to the House of Virgins in order to undergo her training that was located at the great sun temple of the Crystal City of the volcanic island of Ruta. At 14 years old, the males were made warriors or scribes whilst the women were given in marriage to the sacred clan for magical purposes. It was in this time that Morgan waited as she wanted love but her destiny forbade such a fate for her. In this moment, a young priest named Myraddin warned of a upcoming and long foretold catastrophe that would affect them all. The ancient priest of the sun entrusted to Myraddin with secret scrolls and his daughter Igraine. The catastrophe was an eruption of the volcanic island where the resultant tidal wave drowned the remaining islands of Atlantis. During this time, Myraddin and Igraine had taken Morgan from the House of Virgins where they escaped on a merchant ship from Tingail. They later arrived on the isle of Britain where Myraddin changed his name to Merlin and established a place of druidic worship at Stonehenge. He also arranged for Igraine to marry Gorlois who was the Duke of the Tin Islands with Morgan being adopted by the man. Shortly afterwards, her adoptive father was slain at the hands of Uther Pendragon who Igraine as his wife. In time, she became pregnant with his son who was named Arthur Pendragon who was Morgan's younger half-brother. Around these years, Morgan had developed into a fine woman woman where she followed Merlin to the Aran Island with her becoming his apprentice. In return, she promised to become his lover with this being a vow that she failed to keep to him. (Namor the Sub-Mariner v1 #62)
Protesting the conversion of Britain to Christianity, Morgan opposed her half-brother, the now King Arthur of Camelot. Le Fay joined forces with her nephew Mordred and Arthur's bastard son to overthrow Camelot. After learning of the conspiracy, Merlin chose Sir Percy of Scandia as his secret weapon against the conspiracy, becoming the Black Knight. He was sent to save Arthur from Le Fay and Mordred's assassins. Out of gratitude, Arthur formally knighted the Black Knight and agreed to never ask him to reveal his true identity, much to Le Fay and Mordred's chagrin. However, since the Black Knights were unable to provide any evidence of Le Fay and Mordred's attempted regicide, Arthur would never know that Mordred and Le Fay had arranged the attempts on his life until it was too late. Shortly after the appearance of the Black Knight, Mordred again attempted to take the throne by kidnapping King Arthur at night and secretly imprisoning him in a dungeon in the castle. Arthur was once again freed by the Black Knight. (Black Knight v1 #1) Shortly thereafter, after Mordred defeated all the other knights, Arthur was challenged to joust against Mordred. Mordred secretly hoped to poison Arthur with a spear, but the Black Knight accepted the challenge and easily defeated Mordred. Mordred and Le Fay tried to help the Norman conquerors when the king went out to pay tribute to his followers in the outer barony Sir Robert de Quincey, But the Black Knight was able to stop the invasion. (Black Knight v1 #2) On his next birthday, Arthur goes lion hunting, unaware that Le Fay and Mordred secretly paid a group of gypsies to release more lions than he alone can handle. The assassination attempt was once again thwarted by the Black Knight. Arthur later rejected Sir D'Arcy of France's application to join the Knights of the Round Table, as well as his application to marry Arthur's ward Lady Rosamund. (Black Knight v1 #3) Le Fay's battles with Arthur and the Black Knight inspired Kang the Conqueror to travel back in time to take over Camelot. (Thor Annual v1 #17)
In 1211, she was visited by a time traveller from the future named Doctor Doom with the two becoming lovers. She was known to had taught him dark arts which he came to use in his native time. (Mighty Avengers v1 #9) From their dalliances, she came to be pregnant with his daughter that she named Caroline le Fay who was banished into the future that was Doom's native era. Once there, she was cared for by the loyal followers of le Fay. (Fearless Defenders v1 #4)
Modern
After the destruction of Asgard, le Fay embarked on her own schemes at taking over the world. This saw her acquiring the Norn Stones and through manipulating the Scarlet Witch she came to be able to wield the power of Surtur's Twilight Sword. (Avengers v3 #1) This allowed her to reshape reality to that of Arthurian times set in 1998 where she herself was the ruler Queen Morgan the First with Mordred by her side. In this world, the Avengers were changed to become her servants where they were a team of loyal warriors known as the Queen's Vengeance. Despite her seeming mastery of reality, several of the Queen's Vengeance came to remember their true identities and attempted to convince their comrades. This led to a battle amongst the warriors as they Avengers attempted to battle Morgan le Fay. (Avengers v3 #2) She enjoyed the challenge and used the Twilight Sword to easily overpower the heroes. However, she was confronted by the resurrected Wonder Man who was brought back by the Scarlet Witch's magic as well as empowered with enough strength to fight le Fay. During the battle, Morgan badly injured the Vision with this angering Wanda Maxmioff who managed to give Wonder Man enough power to defeat le Fay thus causing reality to return back to normal. (Avengers v3 #3)
She came to swear revenge against Doctor Doom and travelled through time to his youth intend to murdering him when he was a boy as she felt he had betrayed her. However, she decided that killing him at this point would give her no satisfaction as he needed to know the reason why she intended to kill him. Thus, she emerged in the modern age during the time of the Dark Reign when he was returned back to Latveria. Morgan le Fay managed to overpower his armed escorts and eventually defeated him when the [[Dark Avengers] arrived on the scene. The Iron Patriot Norman Osborn told her to desist with the sorceress refusing which was when the Sentry arrived to pull her head from her body seemingly killing her. However, the nature of time travel meant that she her prior self was aware of the death and returned to the point of her demise allowing her to attack the Avenger team again. (Dark Avengers v1 #2) Her army of mystical beasts overwhelmed the Dark Avengers with le Fay turning Ares to stone after which Hawkeye seemingly killed her with a volley of arrows though once again this death was only temporary. Upon returning again, she renewed her assault with the Dark Avengers unable to defeat her until the Iron Patriot along with Doctor Doom travelled back in time through a Timecube to the point in Morgan le Fay's past at her castle when she started her assault. (Dark Avengers v1 #3) Confronted by the two future travellers, she attempted to use her magic to stop them but was stopped by Doctor Doom though the Latverian ruler was unable to kill Morgan as it threatened the timeline. Instead, he banished her to prehistoric England where she had to survive dinosaurs that attempted to prey on her. With her defeat in the past, her forces and presence in the future nullified leading to their defeat. (Dark Avengers v1 #4)
Her daughter Caroline le Fay conducted a ritual to summon dark entities to Earth but there was a secondary purpose to the summoning as it transported her to Morgan le Fay with the two setting forth to conduct their plans for the world. (Fearless Defenders v1 #12) After being freed, Morgan than set about taking control over the City of the Dead located beneath Velletri, Italy and using the mystical necropolis to take over similar such sites across Europe. With the dead under her control, she set forth her armies to take over all of Europe leading to a confrontation with an Avengers team along with Euroforce. (Avengers World v1 #12)
This saw her conquer the wild world where she came to rule as the people feared her. During this time, creatures known as the Skrullduggers arose that slaughtered hundreds in their blind fury until they were tamed by Morgan le Fay. Afterwards, Weirdworld was visited by the Roxxon Energy Corporation under the leadership of Director Dario Agger who using a combination of science and magic struck at Morgan le Fay with them taking her by surprise. Thus, her palace was burnt down and she was captured with the Skrullduggers being released to terrorise the people of Weirdworld. Morgan le Fay was then detained at a special facility built in that magical world where experiments were made into producing limitless power that was drained from her. Thus, she remained trapped there for sometime but the danger of the Skrullduggers breaking into Earth led to the corporation hiring super-powered support with Weapon H being drafted into this assignment. He came to determine the true nature of Roxxon's mysterious power generation project where he disagreed with them experiments on Morgan le Fay leading to him being bewitched into freeing her. (Weapon H v1 #10)
House of X
With King Arthur missing, Otherworld fell into disarray with le Fay stepping in as Queen-Regent of the realm. Around this time, the waters of Avalon came to be polluted by the plant life of Krakoa that had become the home of the Mutant nation. In anger, she sought to remove the resultant gateway into Otherworld that formed from the plants and set out a call to Otherworld's defender namely Captain Britain. Brian Braddock came to arrive with his sister Betsy Braddock where her status as a Mutant made her an enemy of the realm. Thus, Morgan le Fay commanded her forces to slay her as she declared war against Krakoa. (Excalibur v4 #1)
Overview
Personality and attributes
During the time she was Doctor Doom's lover she was known to had enjoyed the time they had spent together and had hoped that he had not simply used her to learn dark arts. She once put forth a demand that when next they meet that he should bring something from his future to her that was of value and that he should not return if he does not bring it to her. (Mighty Avengers v1 #9) When he never returned, she came to believe that he had only been with her to steal her mystical knowledge and felt betrayed by him with le Fay intending to get revenge on Doom. (Dark Avengers v1 #2)
Morgan came to be pregnant from her affair with the time travelling Doctor Doom with the birth being unexpected. This led to their daughter Caroline le Fay who was not raised by either parent but instead sent into the modern age where she was cared for by Morgan's loyal wealthy servants. The young Caroline knew not why she was sent away but believed that it was part of her mother's grand strategy in conquering the world and thought that she was instrumental in achieving this goal. (Fearless Defenders v1 #4)
She was capable of harming her own nephew Mordred when he questioned her decisions. (Avengers v3 #3)
Powers and abilities
Such was her mystical potential that she was listed as a possible Sorcerer Supreme candidate by the Eye of Agamotto. (New Avengers v1 #53)
Through an incantation, she could see images of the future through the waters of Avalon. It allowed her to witness her own lifeline in history and witness threats to her life. (Dark Avengers v1 #3)
She was able to enact a powerful spell that was able to raise the fallen kingdom of Atlantis with this killing its water-dwelling inhabitants after it came to the surface. (Namor the Sub-Mariner v1 #62)
The nature of her mystical time travel abilities meant that if killed in the future she simply returned back to her own time and returned to the point of her death without any harm. (Dark Avengers v1 #2)
It was said that her heritage was close to that of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim allowing her to wield Asgardian mystical relics such as the Norn Stones. (Avengers v3 #1)
Among her servants and creations included:
- Wicker Man : a magical device that was a twin of a relic of the Druids where mortals were sacrificed to empower it. It was a vast man-shaped cage formed of mystical energy that drew demonic life by sapping the life force of the hapless mortals within it. The Wicker Man was able to use its large frame to attack its foes and could draw on other magical energies for its use. (Black Knight v2 #4)
With her magic, she was able to split herself into three incarnations namely the Wise Witch, the Maiden Warrior and the Beautiful Sorceress. (Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain v1 #2)
Morgan was able to use a special star sapphire jewel to help her take over a host body for her reincarnated soul. (Namor the Sub-Mariner v1 #62)
She possessed a castle that was situated in the Valley of the Wailing Mists. (Mighty Avengers v1 #9) Her place of residence was a fort that was known as Castle Le Fay. (Namor the Sub-Mariner v1 #62)
Notes
- Morgan le Fay was created by Stan Lee and Joe Maneely where she made her first appearance in Black Knight v1 #1 (May, 1955) and her modern appearance in Spider-Woman v1 #2 (May, 1978).
Alternate Versions
- In Age of Ultron v1 (2013), an alternate history was shown to be created in an effort to stop the domination of Ultron. This altered chain of events instead saw the world terrorized and devastated by the Age of Morgan le Fay. Following a war between Latveria and Asgard, the world became dominated by magic with Morgan le Fay conquering half the world despite resistance from the Avengers.
- In Conan 2099 v1 #1 (2019), a possible version of Morgan le Fay was shown in the world of Marvel 2099. This version as an old woman had to flee from Doctor Doom and went to seek the aid of King Conan. However, he rejected her and she came to curse him in turn. The curse made him immortal until the Earth burnt underneath his feet and that she would remain until that time. As a result, the pair survived across the years until the year 2099 where Conan used a Nova Corps ship to take him to the Sun with some earth.
In other media
Television
- In Ultimate Spider-Man, Morgan le Fay appeared as an antagonist in the animated television series episode "Halloween Night at the Museum" where she was voiced by actor Grey DeLisle.
- In Avengers Assemble, Morgan le Fay appeared in the animated television series in the episode "Weirdworld" where she was voiced again by actor Grey DeLisle.
- In Marvel Future Avengers, Morgan le Fay appeared in the anime series in the episode "Out of Time" where she was voiced by Japanese actor Kairi Satake and by English actor Laura Bailey in the dub.
Appearances
- Black Knight v1: (1955)
- Spider-Woman v1: (1978)
- Black Knight v2:
- Namor the Sub-Mariner v1:
- Mighty Avengers v1:
- Dark Avengers v1:
- Fearless Defenders v1:
- Avengers World v1:
- Weirdworld v2:
- Weapon H v1:
- Excalibur v4:
- Conan 2099 v1:
External Links
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
