Karma

The niece of notorious Madripoorian criminal General Nguyen Coy, Vietnamese-born Xi'an "Shan" Coy Manh has been chiefly concerned with raising her two younger siblings Leon and Nga since coming to the United States. Coy Manh has demonstrated extreme determination when it comes to the well-being of her friends and family, which has brought her into conflict with local and national United States authorities on several occasions. During one superhuman conflict, Coy Manh went as far as to kill her own brother Tran in order to save the lives of her other siblings. Coy Manh's own body is helpless while she is using her mutant ability, posing a notable weakness. Having honed her abilities under Charles Xavier at various times, Coy Manh is currently a faculty member at the Xavier Institute

Apocalypse

The man known as En Sabah Nur was one of the earliest mutants on the planet. Twenty years ago, Apocalypse, along with his trusted ally, Sinister, witnessed the first televised proof of the existence of other super-beings when Legion accidentally murdered his father, Charles Xavier. Apocalypse, a strict believer in the survival of the fittest, launched his offensive against humankind. With Xavier dead, and Apocalypse beginning his offensive ten years earlier than he did in the Marvel Universe, there was no one to stand in his way.

Eventually, Magneto created a team of mutants called the X-Men. By this point Apocalypse had already gathered his Horsemen. Originally, the Horsemen were his lieutenants, and he had many of them. After Apocalypse took over all of North America he announced the War of Secession, a battle between all of his Horsemen; he let it rage until only four Horsemen remained.

As time moved on, Apocalypse defeated most of the world's governments. The only remaining threat to his rule was the X-Men and the Human High Council in Europe. It was only a matter of time before the entire world would be his.

Apocalypse planned a surprise attack while he negotiated a peace treaty between mutants and humans. Named the Kelly Pact, it called for peace and the end of genetic testing, something Apocalypse never planned to do.

However, Apocalypse did not realize his kingdom was crumbling around him. His greatest and oldest ally, Sinister, had deserted him. His most powerful Horseman, Mikhail, had gone rogue. And Abyss and Holocaust were engaged in personal battles that distracted them from the big picture. Apocalypse had surrounded himself with powerful men who were proving to be less than reliable.

Apocalypse finally learned the whereabouts of Magneto and captured the X-Men's leader. A lesser player, the X-Ternal traitor Guido Carosella actually captured the most important piece of the puzzle, the M'Kraan Crystal, and delivered it to Apocalypse. Magneto planned to use it to change the past and ensure the Age of Apocalypse never came to pass.
The X-Men teleported into Apocalypse's New York City base and attacked his forces. Magneto was freed by X-Man, Sinister's genetic creation. Magneto fought Apocalypse and tore him apart by using all the magnetic powers at his disposal.

Hellcat

Patricia Walker was the only daughter of Joshua Walker and Dorothy Walker, a comic book writer. While she was still a child her mother acted as her agent, helping her at modeling and commercial work. Dorothy Walker’s greatest success was the creation of a comic book named after her young daughter, featuring romantic adventures of Patsy and her real-life friends as teenagers. The Patsy Walker comic book was very popular and continued for over a decade as Patsy grew into and out of her teens. Patsy Walker felt very strange about her mother’s fictionalized exploitation of her, and was relieved when the series ceased publication. Constantly exposed to comic books, Walker grew up to idolize the heroes her mother’s colleagues wrote about. However, she ceased daydreaming soon after high school and married her childhood friend, Robert Baxter (who had appeared in the Patsy Walker comic as her romantic interest.) Baxter was in the officers training program of the Air Force, and Walker spent the next several years of her life on a number of Air Force bases.

While her husband was assigned to a security post at the heavily government-subsidized Brand Corporation in New Jersey, Patsy Walker met the Beast and learned his secret identity. Walker had long idolized "super heroes", and she elicited the promise from him that in exchange for keeping his secret, he would help her become a "super heroine". Walker’s marriage eventually came to a bitter end, and she sought out the Beast, who was now a member of the Avengers, to remind him of his promise. Tagging along with the Avengers to investigate criminal activities at the Brand Corporation, Walker discovered a costume like that worn by Greer Nelson in her identity as the Cat. Putting the costume on, Walker dubbed herself Hellcat and used her natural athletic abilities to help the Avengers. Walker believed that the costume had somehow enhanced her agility and speed, and by the power of suggestion more than anything else, it had.

Although she hoped to join the Avengers, Hellcat was persuaded by the Titanian priestess Moondragon to accompany her to Titan to undergo a period of training. During her stay on Titan, Hellcat’s minor psionic potential was artificially enhanced by various electronic organic devices (Moondragon used similar technology to give powers to Angar the Screamer and Ramrod) and was given extensive martial arts training. Upon her return to Earth, she met the Defenders and decided to accept their offer of membership rather than the Avengers. Hellcat remained a core member of the loosely organized Defenders for several years, becoming particularly close to the and Valkyrie. Eventually she met Damion Hellstorm, who in his costumed guise of the Son of Satan, joined the Defenders for a short time, and after he was cured of his demonic aspect found that she was in love with him. Renouncing her costumed identity, Patsy Walker decided to marry Hellstrom. The couple was married in Greentown, Ohio, where her father currently resided. The wedding, attended by several of her Defenders colleagues, was interrupted by her ex-husband "Buzz" Baxter, who had assumed the costumed guise of Mad Dog, and the Mutant Force. The Defenders repulsed the attack and Hellstrom subdued Mad-Dog. The Hellstroms then moved to San Francisco where they established themselves as occult investigators. In this capacity, they helped several superheroes in mystical problems, notably the Avengers' West Coast branch. In helping the Avengers, Patsy again donned the Hellcat costume and remained on hand to help them capture the villains Tiger Shark and Whirlwind.

Sometime later, however, Hellstrom's dark soul reasserted itself and Patsy was driven mad at the sight of it. She languished in a near-vegetable state for months afterward until the mercy-killing entity Deathurge sensed her despair and, at her request, freed her spirit from her body, effectively killing herself. She soon after contacted Earth from a spirit plane and announced her intention via radio to return in the near future.

Patsy had ended up in the realm of the demon Mephisto, fighting an eternal battle in the so-called Arena of Tainted Souls, alongside fallen Avenger Mockingbird. Months later, the Avenger villain Grim Reaper resurrected Patsy and Mockingbird, among others, tainting them with his hatred for the Avengers and setting them against the team. With the help of the Scarlet Witch, Patsy and the others reverted to their true personalities and aided the Avengers against the Grim Reaper before returning from whence they came. Before she disappeared, Mockingbird was able to send a warning to her husband Hawkeye about a plan Hellstrom was developing. Hawkeye and his team theThunderbolts confronted Hellstrom and then used their sorcerous connections to go to Hell in order to restore Mockingbird. They were tricked however, by Hellstrom, and the Thunderbolts rescued Patsy instead, restoring her bodily to Earth.

Patsy remained despondent and depressed due to her perceived failures in life and time spent in Hell. She nevertheless presented a good front, wrote an autobiography and began a book tour. Shortly thereafter, Patsy returned to Centerville to find her high school rival Hedy had joined with the corporation that was built upon the Patsy comics fortune and turned Centerville into a tourist attraction. Patsy discovered the town was also infiltrated with demonic forces, led by the evil warlock Nicholas Scratch. Scratch had allowed a cult called the Son of the Serpents to use the citizens of Centerville for their occult purposes, and altering the Avengers, Patsy resumed her Hellcat identity and defeated the Serpents alongside her team.

Patsy was still despondent about life when later Scratch's minions attacked Hellcat. She then uncovered a plot by the extradimensional villain Dormammu to take over the various dimensions of Hell, each led by different demons, among them Mephisto, Hellstrom, and Satannish. Hellcat helped Mephisto thwart Dormammu by uniting the demons along with the death godsPluto and Hela. She also revealed Hellstrom's father was actually Satannish, a pawn of Dormammu. Ultimately, she escaped back to Earth by proving to Mephisto that he would be better served to have her on Earth. Revitalized by her adventure, Patsy rededicated her life to super heroics as Hellcat. (Hellstrom later admitted that he manipulated Patsy into believing the accusations of his origins in order that she could distance herself from him and return to a more "normal" life.)

Patsy's supernaturally-tinged senses brought her to the attention of a homeless man. She tried to recuperate him, and he turned out to be the Defenders' villain Yandroth the Magician, who began systematically attacking Earth by binding the spirit of Mother Earth itself. Patsy escaped and managed to contact the various members of the Defenders to stop him, re-forming the team after a long hiatus. As a result of the battle, several of the Defenders were cursed to continually band together, and Patsy and the remaining Defenders elected to stay together as a team to support them. As part of the curse, the Defenders found themselves distancing themselves from humanity until they struck upon the idea that in order to have peace, they would enforce it by ruling the world. Hellcat and the support Defenders organized a team to defeat the so-called Order, after which the Defenders were freed from their curse but disbanded once again.

Icarus

Jay is the son of Thomas Zebulon Guthrie, also referred to as "Ty" and "Zeke," and Lucinda Guthrie. Jay's older siblings Sam (Cannonball) and Paige (Husk) are mutants as well, and both have been members of the X-Men. Another of their siblings, Jeb, has developed the mutant ability to project electricity from his eyes, as well as his sister Melody (a.k.a. Aero) who was de-powered during M-Day. He has several other human brothers and sisters, and his whole family is generally hated by his home town due to the fact that they all seem to be developing mutant powers. When Sam and Paige left home to become X-men, Jay took over the role of the father in the house, feeling that he had to protect his younger brothers and sisters.

When he himself developed mutant powers, (red, angel-like wings that allow him to fly, strong regenerative abilities, and can vocally mimic any sound he hears or imagines; for example, he can sound like a whole choir when he sings) he hid them from his family. However, when performing in his band he exposed his wings to the crowd as a 'stage gimmick'.

Jay fell in love with Julia Cabot, but due to a long feud between the Guthries and the Cabots a fight broke out. Jay was struck down by Julia's father, who had acquired and modified some superpowered armor. Believing Jay to be dead, Julia dragged Jay's body to the river. She wrapped his arms around her, heading for the deepest part of the river. The two sank to the river's bottom and Julia subsequently drowned. Neither Jay nor Julia were aware of Jay's mutant regenerative powers, but when Jay sank to the bottom of the river, these powers manifested. Jay awoke at the bottom of the river with Julia in his arms. He swam to the surface with her and brought her to the riverbank. When he discovered she was dead, he tried (unsuccessfully due to his healing factor) to stab himself in the heart with a sharp piece of wood. Warren Worthington arrived on the scene, found Jay, and helped him carry Julia's body back to the Guthrie house.

After Julia's death, Jay attempted to kill himself a few more times, hoping his healing factor would fail. Eventually his mother sent him to the Xavier Institute against his will. Jay speculated this was just so she wouldn't feel guilt if he tried to hurt himself again. Originally placed with the Hellions squad, he traded places with Wither and joined the New Mutants. He is portrayed as a sullen, withered lover who keeps mostly to himself, but he always reminds his teammates how fortunate they are to be a "family" when they feud. His team seems to talk to him about their problems, as he isn't usually one to join the fights.

After the events of Decimation, Icarus was one of the few of the New Mutants team who didn't lose their powers. However, someone cut off his wings and left him bleeding at the doorsteps of the mansion. Emma Frost has stated that his healing factor was not working to heal these injuries. It was later revealed by Dr. McCoy that his healing powers came from his wings and without them this power won't work.

Jay was, seemingly, tricked by William Stryker. Stryker told Jay if he gave his wings "back to god" his friends would be saved by Stryker. He called Stryker to inform him the children were leaving on a bus, which led to the bombing of the bus carrying the de-powered students, and the assassination of Wallflower, as she was the one in Nimrod's vision of the future that killed the Purifiers. As X-23 put it to Dust after he gave her a piece of paper containing the address of Stryker's church, he shouldn't be trusted because "he smells like death". Choosing not to trust Jay, X-23 went to the church disguised as Dust, only to be gunned down upon entering. After this, Stryker confessed he was responsible for the death of Julia Cabot before he shot Jay, killing him.

Silver Samurai

Silver Samurai was a mutant rebel in his homeland of Japan. Alongside Sunfire, he stood as the last line of defense against the hordes of Apocalypse. During Sunfire's tragic, and diversionary, battle with Apocalypse and Nemesis, Samurai led the surviving people of Japan to safety. He and his wife, Viper, fought their way from the island of Japan through hordes of Apocalypse's Infinites. Tragically, Viper was killed saving Samurai's life. Never able to forgive himself for the death of his wife, Samurai threw himself into fighting Apocalypse's forces in Asia.

After Apocalypse was destroyed by Magneto, Samurai discovered that Sunfire was actually alive. Samurai made his way to America and reunited with Sunfire by joining Magneto's cause. Unknown to theX-Men, he also delivered a top-secret weapon to Magneto. Samurai also has a long-standing feud with Wolverine. What caused this has yet to be revealed.

It is clear Samurai sacrificed much in the service of Japan and now is one of Magneto's bravest warriors. But only the stoic Silver Samurai knows whether he is truly brave or does in fact wish to join his beloved Viper in death.

Selene

Selene Gallio is a fictional character, a comic book supervillainess from the Marvel Comics universe. The character first appeared in New Mutants vol. 1, #9. She is a mutant, and an enemy of the X-Men often associated with the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle.

Fictional character biography

Her long life is attributed to the fact that she is a psychic vampire, able to drain the life from others to extend her own. Her name derives from the ancient lunar deity Selene, daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. She has claimed to have already been old when mankind was just emerging.

Hyborian Age

Selene was revealed to have been an old enemy of sorcerer Kulan Gath. 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. Thus, Selene was active at least as early as the Hyborian age.

Rome and Eliphas

Selene is assumed to have been wandering the world for millennia. She approaches Eliphas, a well respected senator whose wife had left him for a general named Mascius. Selene offers him immortality in exchange for helping her kill and absorb every soul in Rome. Eliphas goes about drawing pentagrams and performing rituals at several locations in the city, but warns a small girl to get her family out. The girl's father alerts the authorities and Eliphas and Selene are captured before the spell can be carried out. Just before they are burned at the stake, Selene kills the guards. She then curses Eliphas for his perceived betrayal with an eternal life of torture, turning him into a vampire-like creature. Eliphas is buried alive for 700 years until a farmer discovers him in his field.

Nova Roma

In relatively recent times, she was trapped for centuries in the Amazon in the Romanesque town of Nova Roma (New Rome). She was worshipped as a goddess and worked to maintain the isolation of the town so she could maintain control. Eliphas, having at some point in time changed his name to "Eli Bard," finally locates Selene in Nova Roma, where she is worshiped as a god. Still in love with her despite her curse, Bard realizes that he must make an offering to her before he approaches her. She also was able to marry several times and have descendants. These include Amara Juliana Olivia Aquilla. Her most recent known husband was Marcus Domitius Gallio, a Senator of Nova Roma.

In Nova Roma, Selene attempted to kill Amara Aquilla. She knocked Amara into a lava pool, thereby releasing her 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.

Becoming the Black Queen

Selene directed her worshippers to undertake tasks that eventually allowed her to leave Nova Roma. In New York City, she nearly seduced and attacked the Juggernaut. She attacked Phoenix III and fought the X-Men.^[5] Selene soon became the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. She then overcame and destroyed her ancient enemy, Kulan Gath. She was later revealed to have been manipulating a power struggle within the Hellfire Club.

After Selene left Nova Roma, the citizens regained their memories and sought to return to their previous lives. Later stories attempted to suggest Nova Roma had been an illusion, sustained by Selene, and later the mutant known as Empath.^[8] This was ultimately disproved by Magma, who discovered that the supposed revelation of Nova Roma being an illusion was a ploy to steal her away from her home and torment those who loved her. It is possible that Selene was the one who made Magma think Nova Roma was not real.

Of all the X-Men and their related teams, she possesses particular hatred for Magma and Rachel Summers. In particular, Rachel almost killed her once, before being stopped by Wolverine. She was seen during a membership change in the Hellfire Club, where she apparently has been kept prisoner beneath the building. However, she gained limited mobility from an alliance with Donald Pierce. She tried once again to take vengeance on Rachel, but was thwarted in this attempt as well. Selene remained trapped for a time beneath the Hellfire Club headquarters.

After M-Day

Selene was one of the few mutants to retain her powers after the events of M-Day.

Selene, disguised as an old woman, befriends Wither and they live together in Mutant Town. She encourages him to use his powers and not be afraid of his natural gifts. She then asks him if he would use his powers to save his or her life. She had been killing a large number of people by draining the life out of them, and during her last feeding her disguise was spotted by a witness. She reveals to Wither that Laurie has died; while he was away. Later she is attacked by the police and managed to kill two of them before being shot multiple times. Wither arrives and kills the other two officers, only for Selene to drop her disguise, telling him she is immortal and that they are two of a kind and should be together. She tells Wither that she will be his queen if he agrees, then kisses him, and he consents.

Eli Bard's offering

Selene's relationship with Eli Bard the rogue member of the Purifiers, is explained by Warpath to the other members of X-Force. It is revealed he had originally planned to sacrifice the Purifiers to Selene but changed his plans upon seeing Bastion reprogram an offspring of Magus. Using the Technarch transmode virus he re-animated the corpses in the burial grounds of the Apache tribe that he decimated decades earlier as well as Caliban and presented him to Selene for the purpose of finding other dead mutants and resurrecting them by the same means, so Bard can sacrifice them and their powers to her. Wither did not appear with her. There were, however, several figures standing behind Selene in the shadows, but it is unknown if he was among them.

Necrosha

Selene will be the primary antagonist in the upcoming Necrosha storyline in October 2009 that will run through X-Force, New Mutants and X-Men: Legacy.

Powers and abilities

Selene is both a mutant and a powerful sorceress. 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.

Selene is a "psychic vampire" with the ability to sustain herself by psionically draining the life force of other human beings into herself. 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 sustain 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. 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 rivaling those of Quicksilver, though this requires a heavy expenditure of energy and can cause her to age rapidly and require more life energy immediately. 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.

Selene's most direct weapon is the telekinetic power to animate and/or levitate inorganic matter on a molecular level, by projecting part of her absorbed life force into it. She can affect nearly anything within her line of sight, and can warp and alter the molecules of inanimate matter to her whim, causing objects to wrap around and constrict others, creating lifelike humanoid structures to combat her opponents, or simply reducing objects to dust. She can use this power in more standard ways, such as creating powerful force-fields around herself, and can levitate herself and others but cannot truly fly. Selene can also control and manipulate fire in a variety of ways, though she cannot create the fire herself; whether this is a facet of her telekinesis or a separate power is unclear.

Selene possesses formidable telepathic powers that allow her to blend her own psychic signature into the background thoughts around her, making her difficult for other psionics to locate or track. Selene is not as powerful as high-order telepaths such as Professor X or Jean Grey, and is vulnerable to psionic attack should she be directly engaged. She often uses her telepathy to induce a hypnotic trance in others, and then slips away at superhuman speed, leaving them with the impression that she simply vanished.

Selene possesses considerable magical abilities and extensive knowledge of sorcery, enabling her to cast and counteract spells. 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 poweful.

In more recent appearances, Selene has been depicted as a being of semi-substantial living darkness with the ability to appear and disappear at will and, similar to Blackheart, imprison people in the dark energy she appears to be composed of.

Selene was revealed as one of several magic-users with the potential to be the next Sorcerer Supreme after Doctor Strange by the Eye of Agamotto.