BLACK QUEEN

 

BLACK QUEEN

Real Name: Selene Gallio

First Appearance: The New Mutants (Vol. 1) #9, November 1983

Powers: The Black Queen is both a sorceress and a mutant, possessing a wide range of powers and abilities not specifically attributed to either source. She possesses the powers of psychic vampirism, psychokinetic manipulation, and limited telepathy. Her psychic vampirism allows her to drain the life energy from others upon physical contact. She uses this life energy to revitalize herself, maintain her youthful form, and enhance her strength, speed, reflexes, and recuperative abilities to superhuman levels. She can either completely drain a person of their energy (leaving them as ashes or a withered husk) or absorb a portion of it, giving her some measure of mental control over her victim. When properly satiated, Selene is able to change her age at will, appearing as a small child, a young woman, or an old crone at her choosing. On one occasion, Selene demonstrated the ability to change her appearance entirely to pose as one of her victims, Magma, while making the girl take on Selene's appearance at the same time. Whether this is a spell Selene can always perform, can only use with people she has drained, or specifically just with Magma due to their allegedly common ancestry, is unknown.

She can telekinetically manipulate inanimate objects, causing them to move about under her direction seemingly coming to life or disintegrate like her victims do. She can cause giant grasping hands to reach out of the earth or stone, or cause the ground to swallow up and entomb her victims. Selene can also psionically control fire, igniting it with her mind and causing it to move and flow by her command.

She can use her telepathy to read minds and hypnotize others to do her bidding, and create telepathic illusions. She can hypnotize others into a momentary trance, rendering them insensate and immobile. She can take advantage of this opening in combat, or use her great speed to leave the area, giving the illusion that she disappeared before someone's eyes.

For a time, Selene manifested herself as a shadow-being, presumably a side effect of her mystical imprisonment under the Hellfire Club and bartered freedom. She moved about constantly surrounded by a living darkness, which could become tangible enough to grab, cover, and manipulate solid matter. Selene herself seemed to phase in and out of the shadows, with only parts of her body being substantial at a time while the rest of it was merely part of the blackness. Later, she seemed to have abandoned this new ability, and quit the Hellfire Club's grounds.

Selene's old lackey Frederick von Rohem was not a mutant, but instead was the latest in a genetically-prepared line of servants to Selene. With a thought, she could trigger a psychic "switch" in von Rohem, transforming him from a toadying jeweler into an animalistic state. He was borderline feral, developed claws on his fingers, and seemed to gain an increased level of agility and sensory perceptions.

The Black Queen has an extremely long lifespan due to her status as an External. Externals are mutants who, in addition to having powers from their active “x-factor” gene, are gifted with near-immortality. An External’s immortality manifests at the point of mortal death. Externals apparently can die at the hands of another External’s powers, the Legacy Virus, the destruction of their astral forms.