Sersi

Origin

Sersi, a virtually immortal member of the Earth-born race called the Eternals, has lived amongst and interacted with humans more than almost any other member of her race. Several thousands of years ago, Sersi inspired the legend of “Circe” in Homer’s epic “The Odyssey,” and also met, mixed with and influenced several other historical characters, such as Merlin and King Arthur Pendragon, throughout the course of human history. She is the daughter of the Eternals Helios and Perse, and was probably born some time after the Great Cataclysm. The Great Cataclysm was a destructive event of planetary proportions which destroyed the continents of Atlantis and Lemuria during an extended ice age known as the Hyborean Age. It was noticed at a young age that Sersi differed from her fellow Eternals; she desired to live amongst humans. It was during her time with Gilgamesh in ancient Mesopotamia, when she was still a child, that Sersi first met Captain America, who had temporarily traveled back in time. While Sersi still had the appearance of a young child at that time, due to Eternals aging at an extremely slow rate, she was already thousands of years old.

Creation

Sersi first appeared under the name of “Circe” in Strange Tales #109 in June 1963. She then appeared with the other Eternals in Eternals #3 in September 1976, created by Jack Kirby. This series was intended as a stand alone series outside the rest of the Marvel Universe, but the characters were subsequently introduced into the mainstream Marvel Universe/Earth 616 in Thor #283-284 and have remained there ever since. When Sersi first appeared she was shown as a glib, eccentric hedonist who was always looking for, and ready for, a good time. It was later revealed that Sersi had already appeared in Strange Tales #109 (before her appearance in the Eternals), but it was under a different name.

Major Story Arcs

A few thousand years after her encounter with Captain America, Sersi lived in ancient Greece where she met the poet, Homer. It was due to her time spent there that she would inspire Homer to one day write one of the earliest, and most important, works in Western literature, The Odyssey. The character Circe, who lived on an island in the Aegean called Aeaea, and turned the hero Odysseus’ men into pigs, was based on Sersi.

Unlike the majority of her fellow Eternals, who stay in their hidden cities, Sersi revels in her humanity, and has lived amongst humans more than any other Eternal, save the Forgotten One. Thus, it’s of no surprise to find that Sersi has lived in various places of historical importance, from Nero’s Rome, to Camelot, the Court of the legendary King Arthur, where she helped Merlin the magician to defeat an impostor who had usurped his position.

In more recent times, Sersi was one of the Eternals anthropologists whom Dr. Samuel Holden introduced to the world at large at New York’s City College. Sersi became fascinated with the soft-spoken Doctor, and began a relationship with him. Although she gives the impression that she would rather be at a party, added to her reputation as a flirt, Sersi has proven to be a staunch ally to the Eternals in their recent struggles with the Deviants.

Sersi does value her independence however, and often refuses to come to the Eternals’ gatherings. It was during an instance such as this that Domo of the Eternals sent the Delphan Brothers to bring her to Olympia so that all the Eternals could form the Uni-Mind in order to debate their future. Sersi had decided not to attend as she would continue doing what she wanted regardless of the outcome anyway. Unbeknownst to the Delphan Brothers, two of Sersi’s party guests were actually members of the Avengers known as the Wasp and Starfox (they had actually crashed the party, much to Sersi’s delight). They came to Olympia as well, where it was revealed that Starfox was actually the son of A’lars, brother to Zuras. While the majority of Eternals decided to leave Earth for space, Sersi chose to remain.

Avengers Membership

Some time later, the Avenger Captain America, had need of someone with illusion casting or shape changing abilities to help with a case he was working on. He found Sersi’s address in the Avengers database, and considered it worthwhile asking her for help. Sersi was more than happy to aid Cap (she quite fancied him, and was constantly flirting with him, much to his embarrassment). She told him it would require a favor from him in return, which turned out to be an invitation to dinner.

Sersi also aided the Avengers in their struggle against the Deviants and the Elder God Set. When her fellow Eternal, the Forgotten One, was injured while serving as an Avenger, the Avengers came to Sersi for help.

Sersi proved to be a powerful addition to the Avengers roster, although her harmless flirtation still managed to embarrass Captain America. Sersi served with the team for quite a long time. Then, during an attack on the Earth by the Brethren, Sersi formed a Uni-Mind with the Brethren leader, Thane Ector. Such a union, between two different species, is forbidden by the Eternals, as it may lead to the breakdown of the Eternals mental disciplines.

Some months after this, Sersi became more aggressive, and was one of the Avengers involved in the attempted murder of the Kree Leader, the Supreme Intelligence, during the Avengers involvement in the Kree-Shi’ar War.

This aggressiveness may have been due to the Uni-Mind Sersi shared with the Brethren, or, it may also have been due to the machinations of Proctor, a man from an alternate reality who had been spurned by the Sersi from his world. Proctor had created the Gatherers, and was planning to kill all the Sersies across the multiverse.

During this time, Sersi began a relationship with fellow Avenger Dane Whitman, the Black Knight. Unbeknownst to both of them, however, was the fact that Proctor was actually an alternate reality version of the Black Knight himself.

Sersi’s now aggressive nature caused tensions between herself and her teammates. These tensions weren’t helped by the fact that the newest Avenger, Crystal, had come between Sersi and the Black Knight. These tensions came to a tumultuous climax when the Avengers traveled to the planet Polemachus, at the behest of its leaders Arkon and Thundra. When the priest Anskar cowardly murdered the young Polemachan girl, Astra, Sersi slew him in fiery retribution.

Returning to Earth, Sersi fled to Warrior Falls, Wakanda, in a futile attempt to try and escape the guilt she felt at her responsibility for Anskar’s death, and the fear she felt due to her rash actions. The Black Knight found her, however, and convinced her to return to Avengers Headquarters. Sersi confessed to the Black Knight that she feared she was going insane. Little did either of them realize that Sersi’s apparent instability was due to the subtle manipulations of Proctor.

Upon her return to Avengers Headquarters, Proctor used his powers to cause her to attack her fellow Avengers. She was stopped only due to the intervention of the Vision, who was secretly the Anti-Vision, a member of Proctor’s own team of Gatherers who had infiltrated the Avengers in the guise of their teammate. The real Vision was being held prisoner in Proctor’s Andean mountain base.

By this time, Sersi’s fellow Eternals had become aware of her unstable nature, and had sent three of their kind, Ikaris, Arex, and Sprite, to New York in order to return her to Olympia. The Eternals feared Sersi was suffering from what they call the Mahd W’yry, a breakdown of the mind due to the Eternals extended lives. Sersi rejected their fears as archaic, and refused to accompany them back to her homeland. The Avengers also didn’t want to let them take one of their members against her will, especially when they learned that if she was found to be suffering from the Mahd W’yry, the Eternals planned to ‘cleanse’ her of it by molecular dis-corporation, which would result in her death.

The ensuing battle between the Avengers and the Eternals was contained only when Sprite, who had learned of Sersi’s feelings for the Black Knight, insisted that the Knight be made her “Gann Josin”. This is a concept the Eternals use to describe an intimate joining of two minds as soulmates in their own personal Uni-Mind.

Before this could be further discussed, however, Ikaris used his powers to cause it to happen. The Eternals departed, leaving Sersi behind. The Black Knight was less than enthusiastic at being used in this manner, for he had come to the conclusion that it was Crystal he loved, not Sersi.

The Avengers had little time to reflect on these matters before they were once again involved in other affairs, beginning with the assault on Proctor’s Andean citadel, and then against the Kree suicide squad. Then they became involved in the Genoshan conflict, where Sersi fought Exodus, and even venturing to Deviant Lemuria, in a battle against Ghaur.

Unfortunately relations between the teammates continued to deteriorate, and Sersi remained in an unstable state. The Avengers called on former member Hank Pym to discover the cause of her problems. At one point, Sersi confided to the Avengers’ butler Jarvis that she had been having dreams of a sort about a strange man dressed in black who was assaulting young men she had befriended. Jarvis probed her further in an attempt to have her open up about her fears. This resulted in her using her powers to pull the image of Proctor from her mind. Neither Jarvis nor Sersi had ever seen Proctor however, and both failed to recognize him.

Around this time, two police officers question Sersi. They are both found later, dredged from a river, having been turned into stone.

Proctor was in fact causing Sersi to befriend young men who he would then murder. He then contacted the NYPD and, on the pretense of being a concerned citizen, aided them in framing Sersi for the murders. Sersi was astounded at this new calamity in her life, and was astonished to find that members of the Avengers, her supposed friends, actually believed her capable of the crimes.

This was all part of Proctor’s plan however, and he intended to have Sersi destroy the Avengers, her only real hope of salvation. When the police attempted to arrest her, Sersi destroyed Avengers Mansion, and fled to the Brooklyn Bridge. In her maddened state, she used the Gann Josin mind meld to call the Black Knight to her side and the two of them prepared to fight their fellow Avengers with all their power. When Sersi threatened Crystal however, the Black Knight faltered, and broke the Gann Josin bond, freeing himself from Sersi’s control. Shocked by his betrayal, Sersi destroyed the Brooklyn Bridge, and seemingly the Avengers with it.

Confused, bewildered, and shocked at the person she had become, she was finally approached by Proctor, who revealed to her at last the full extent of his mad plan. Capturing her, Proctor returned to his New York base of operations, and revealed that it was he who was behind her madness and seizures, and it was he who was responsible for the murders of the young men. With the full memory of events returned to her once more, Sersi broke free from Protor’s control long enough to stumble upon his trophy room. In this room was Ute – the defeated Watcher who Proctor used to traverse the multiverse – who lay in stasis, as well as the various Sersi’s of other worlds Proctor had already defeated. In her confused state, the Gatherer Rik was able to contain her once again.

The Avengers didn’t perish in the destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge, but were instead rescued by Thena and Sprite of the Eternals. Based on the description Jarvis gave to them of the man in Sersi’s dream, the Avengers reached the conclusion that he was responsible for her actions. A short time later they were approached by the astral form of Ute who warned them that Proctor must be defeated or all that is would cease to be. Meanwhile, the Black Knight, who had suspicions of his own, had reached the conclusion that he and Proctor were one and the same person, albeit from differing realities.

Proctor meanwhile, had begun his final gambit: using the life energies of Sersi and Ute to collapse the various realities on one another.

The Avengers and their allies, Thena and Sprite, rushed to the scene, only to be confronted by the Gatherers. While his fellow Avengers fought the various Gatherers, the Black Knight approached Proctor himself, only to be defeated by the Ebony Blade from Proctor’s own world. Sersi and the Watcher looked on helplessly from the vortex that contained them as Proctor began to ‘gather’ the Black Knight’s essence into himself.

Proctor would have succeeded in ‘gathering’ the Black Knight if not for the timely intervention of Quicksilver, Crystal’s estranged husband. Quicksilver was still suffering from injuries sustained in Genosha though, and Proctor would have defeated him were it not for the combined powers of Crystal and Thunderstrike, who caused a terrific bolt of lightning to strike Proctor. This freed Sersi and the dying Watcher.

Approaching Proctor, Sersi used his own sword to end his madness once and for all. Meanwhile, with his dying breaths, Ute used his powers to undo the damage that had been done to Avengers Mansion, the Brooklyn Bridge, and various other locations, as well as opening a dimensional rift into another reality. Sersi, fearing that the manipulations of Proctor were irreversible, decided to enter this door between worlds, so that she may be able to live free of his madness, of his curse.

With his own mind clear for the first time in months, the Black Knight decided to join Sersi in her exile. He felt in some way responsible for the suffering Sersi had endured, and he knew that he couldn’t remain in the Avengers if it meant interfering with Quicksilver’s attempts to reconcile with Crystal.

Journey to the Ultraverse

While Sersi and Black Knight took a sabbatical from the Avengers, the two of them were actually headed for the Ultraverse, a world similar to their own, but also with vast differences. Becoming separated in the dimensional rift, Sersi ended up in Equatorial Africa, while the Black Knight found himself in Miami. If Sersi thought she would be free from disaster in this new world, she was mistaken. Almost straight away, she was possessed by the spirit of one of the Infinity Gems, fabled jewels of power that had once been the embodiment of the being known as Infinity.

The Gem that possessed Sersi had been separated from its fellow Gems for untold millennia, and now intended to use Sersi to reunite with them once more. The six other Gems had also been transported to the Ultraverse, along with Loki, the Norse God of lies. Sersi’s Will proved too strong for the Gem though, and her bond with the Black Knight caused her to seek him out. The Gem, realizing that she would fight it, gave her one day to make peace with her past.

The Black Knight meanwhile, had taken up with the super team Ultraforce, the mightiest heroes of the Ultraverse. Learning of Loki’s control of the Infinity Gems, he attempted to contact the Avengers, but was foiled when Sersi showed up. The Seventh Gem, realizing that it could use Ultraforce to reunite with its ‘brothers’, forced Sersi to send them after the six other Gems. The Black Knight and Ultraforce failed to wrest the Gems from Loki’s control, however, and with her last act of free will before the Seventh Gem took control of her completely, Sersi returned them to their base.

Now totally under the Seventh Gem’s control once more, Sersi became aware of the Grandmaster‘s presence in the Ultraverse. This Elder of the Universe had once controlled the Mind Gem, and had journeyed to the Ultraverse in an attempt to regain it once more. Realizing that it could use the Grandmaster in order to get close to Loki, and thus the other six Gems, the Seventh Gem forced the Grandmaster to do its bidding as well.

The Grandmaster approached Loki, and proposed a game. If he won, the Grandmaster would be given the Mind Gem. If Loki won, he would be told the location of the Seventh Gem. At first, Loki tried to gain the location using the Gems he already possessed. The Grandmaster was immune to their power though, protected as he was by the Seventh Gem. Thus, Loki eventually accepted his challenge. The game was called Worlds and Warriors, a simplified version of an Earth card game. Instead of cards, however, actual heroes would be used. The Grandmaster choose the Avengers, while Loki was given Ultraforce. Due to his membership of both teams, the Black Knight was made the ‘wild card.’ Members of each team were pitted against members of the other. The Avengers, for their part, were told it was in order to stop Loki, and to save the Black Knight, while Ultraforce were told that the Avengers were part of an invading force. The various battles ended in stalemates however, and Loki, claiming that he had only played not to lose, claimed victory. The Grandmaster, still in the thrall of the Seventh Gem, revealed Sersi to Loki. She would never have been able to get close to him were it not for the diversion. Launching herself at him, she was able to separate him from the Gems before he could act. Free at last to reunite with its brothers, the Seventh Gem released Sersi from its power. Reuniting with the six other Gems, they were rendered entirely sentient, enabling themselves to anthropomorphize into something calling itself Nemesis.

Nemesis proclaimed a desire to create, and, joining elements from both the Avengers and Ultaforce’s worlds, created an amalgam universe. There were too many conflicting elements though, and when Topaz of the Ultraverse made physical contact with Loki, elements from two wildly different continua, the structure snapped.

In her panic, Nemesis teleported to the Ultra’s Earth, and intended to continue creating there, even if it meant the destruction of the world that already existed there. The six other Gems were resisting her though, for the being called Nemesis lacked the controlling influence that was needed to unite them. The Avengers and Ultraforce joined forces to stop her. Creating a diversion, they attacked her together, allowing the Black Knight to get close enough to separate the Gems once more. In the resulting explosion, the Avengers are returned to their Earth, while Ultraforce, Sersi, and the Black Knight return to the Ultraverse. In time however, the two Avengers found a way to return to their Earth, but not before traveling back in time to the era of the Crusades, where they fought the man who would become Exodus.

Onslaught

Upon their return to their to their original superhero community, Sersi and Black Knight were separated once more. The Black Knight found himself in New York, but finding the Avengers dead in the wake of Onslaught, he joined the Heroes For Hire (both fictional group and 1997 limited series title). Sersi found herself in Lemuria, and learning of yet another plot by Ghaur, escaped to get aid. Also finding the Avengers dead, she turned to the Heroes For Hire. Foiling Ghaur’s plot, Sersi and the Black Knight decided that after all they had been through, they both needed some time apart.

Sersi returned to Olympia, and, apart from aiding the Avengers in their battle against Morgana Le Fey, remained there until she met and joined the New Breed, a group of Eternals posing as a human super team, in order to control the Deviants, who have become mindless monsters. Her ties to the Black Knight, and indeed the Avengers, remain strong however, and she may team up with them again in the future.

Civil War

Due to Sprite’s attempt to become a human, Sersi lives for a time in New York, where she plans parties for a living. She cannot remember her origin as an Eternal, or her powers. She is hired by Druig, currently deputy Prime Minister of Vorozheika, to publicize this small former Soviet republic by organizing a party at the Vorozheikan embassy. After the party is saved via the efforts of Mark Curry (who temporarily regained his powers, through means unknown even to him), and Iron Man, Iron Man questions Sersi about registering, as she was a former Avenger. Sersi is shown to be perplexed by what he means, and Iron Man later is confounded when he finds that there are no longer any records of Sersi in the Avengers database.

If the Eternal known as Sprite is to be believed, the Eternals’ memories of their history and lives are actually a complex illusion on his part (a possible retcon of the Eternals’ origin) and Sersi is actually much closer to a million years old instead of being “just” a few tens of thousands of years old (she has had the Eternal Makkari as an on-again, off-again lover for hundreds of thousands of years if Sprite’s story is true as stated). By the end of the series, she decides she wants to resume her normal life, wishing to be neither an Eternal, nor lead the life of an Avenger that is offered to her by Tony Stark.

Chaos War

During the Chaos War, Sersi is summoned by Hercules to join his new God Squad. To stop Amatsu-Mikaboshi from killing the Gods of the many pantheons of Earth. Hercules‘ God Squad team includes Venus, Thor, Silver Surfer, Sersi and Daimon Hellstrom. The God Squad fight the forces of Amatsu-Mikaboshi and help Hercules seal him off in a side-continuum of the multiverse.

Death

During Loki and the Dark Celestials‘ attack on Earth, Iron Man and Doctor Strange travel to Olympia to seek the aid of the Eternals. Once there, they discover that Sersi, Thena and the rest of the Eternals are all dead, with Doctor Strange noting that they had seemingly killed each other rather than having been attacked by an outside force. During a discussion with the dying Ikaris, it’s revealed that the Eternals destroyed themselves due to having been driven violently insane by the revelation of their true origin.

Powers and Abilities

Strength Level: Sersi is super strong. She can physically lift about 20 tons with ease (she can supplement her physical strength by psionically levitating heavy objects).

Known Superhuman Powers: Sersi possesses the ability to manipulate cosmic energy to augment her life force, granting virtual immortality and invulnerability, the ability to project cosmic energy from her hands or eyes in the form of light, heat, concussive force and possibly other powers. As a Eternal, Sersi’s physical abilities (like strength, stamina, durability, reflexes, etc..) are at superhuman levels.

Matter Transmutation: Sersi’s greatest skill is the psionic rearrangement of molecular structures of objects, which is far greater then that of any other Eternal. Her abilities are so great that she can actually manipulate matter down to the subatomic level. Sersi’s abilities work on both organic and inorganic and there doesn’t seem to be a object she cannot affect. Sersi’s transformations are usually permanent, unless she herself, another person, or a device that can rearrange or transmute matter undoes them.

Mind Control: Sersi can control the minds of Eternals, Deviants, and humans.

Telekinesis: Sersi can telekinetically manipulate objects and generate a force field.

Telepathy: Sersi can communicate telepathically, though she can not mentally read the mind of any Deviant.

Teleportation: Sersi can teleport herself and others, but risks becoming paralyzed in pain at her destination.

Sersi has total mental control over her physical form, giving her invulnerability and immortality; ability to levitate and thus fly at supersonic speed; ability to cast illusions to disguise her appearance and that of others from the perceptions of normal human. Sersi also has the ability to teleport herself and other over great distances but like most Eternals, Sersi find this method of transportation physically unpleasant and uses this power sparingly.

Other Skill and Abilities: Sersi is a trained dancer and has perfected her talent over the centuries.

Appearance

Gender: Female

Height: 5′ 9″ (1.75 m)

Weight: 140 lbs. (63.5 kg.)

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Black

Alternate Realities

Earth-398

Sersi of Earth-398 was known as Sorceress and was a member of the Queen’s Vengeance.

Other media

Film

• 

  Sersi appears as one of the central characters in the 2021 live-action Eternals movie, portrayed by Chinese-English actress Gemma Chan. She is depicted as an empath and the most compassionate member of the Eternals, and lives alongside Sprite in London during the present day. She is also in a romantic relationship with museum employee Dane Whitman, though she had been the lover of Ikaris in the past. After being attacked by Kro, she and the other Eternals reunite for a journey to save the world from the Celestials.

• Sersi was one of the Eternals created in the World Forge by the Celestials, specifically Arishem, and they were sent to multiple planets to protect sentient life from the Deviants, and help life evolve for a Celestial’s birth, while having their memories reset after every mission, thinking they came from a planet called Olympia. Along with her fellow Eternals, Ikaris, Ajak, Kingo, Sprite, Druig, Makkari, Gilgamesh, Thena and Phastos, she was assigned to Earth to protect the humans, which Sersi grew very attached to, aiding their needs, learning their tongues and customs. After a long relationship with Ikaris, she married him, living across the world. With the Deviants believed to be gone, Ajak told them to live their own ways. Ikaris disappeared and after waiting for a while, Sersi left to associate with the humans more, getting acquainted with historical figures like Charles Darwin. In the present, she lived in London with fellow Eternal Sprite, and in a relationship with her colleague Dane Whitman. After helping to substitute teach a class for Dane, until an earthquake began, which she helped the kids take refuge from.

• Afterwards, she helped celebrate her boyfriend’s birthday, gifting him a Middle Age ring with his family’s crest and Dane questioned her on inexplicable things which transpire around her, like water turning into coffee, and Sprite story-telling their past adventures. She tried to downplay these by blaming his coffee addiction and her ex being a pilot after Sprite mentioned he could fly. Sprite then came in, stating it’s past her bedtime. Sprite couldn’t move in with him yet, as she hadn’t revealed her or Sprite’s true nature. Sprite encouraged her to do so as his time won’t last as long as theirs. Amidst this, they were attacked by a Deviant, which were thought destroyed, which she had buried in transmuted concrete. She was then reunited with Ikaris, who chased it off.
• She then revealed her true nature to Dane, who questioned their neutrality during all the dark times of history. She explained it smoothly but told him she had to deal with the resurgent Deviant threat. Ikaris would later bring them Ajak, whom they found was killed by the Deviants, and whose communication sphere passed onto her, which activated to transport her to Arishem, who implied it was nearly time. They later reunited with Kingo, who became a movie star, which she found amusing.

Video Games

• Sersi appears in one of the Marvel Heroes: Chronicles of Doom shorts, where she and Ikaris are defeated by Doctor Doom while trying to protect the Cosmic Cube. Sersi was voiced by Brett Walker.
• Sersi appears as a playable character in Marvel Future Revolution.
• Sersi appears as a playable character in Marvel Future Fight.
• Sersi appears as a playable character in Marvel Super War.
• Sersi appears as a character in Marvel Puzzle Quest.

Merchandise

• Sersi was featured in the HeroClix figure game.
• Sersi was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Gilgamesh Build-a-Figure wave.
• Sersi was featured in Funko’s Pop! line of bobbleheads.
• Sersi was featured in Bandai’s S.H. Figuarts line.
• Sersi was featured in Lego’s product line for the Eternals movie.