Morgan Le Fey

• Morgan Le Fey is one of the most powerful sorceresses in the entire history of Earth. She is half-human and half-faerie and is said to be the daughter of Gorlois, Duke of Tintagil and his wife, Igraine. Arthur Pendragon was Morgan’s half-brother. Because she is part-faerie, one of her parents must have been at least part-faerie, although which one is unknown (most likely either her father is faerie/part-faerie or Gorlois is not her true father and her real father is of the faerie).
• Her magical abilities are seemingly endless. She has the ability to control minds, engage in astral projection, manipulate mystical energy, cast illusions, project mystical bolts (which can damage beings and objects even when she is in astral form), create mystical force shields, and remove spirits from their bodies in order to place those spirits under her control. That is but only some of the things that she can do.
• Thanks to her faerie heritage, Morgan is vulnerable to “cold iron” or steel. These can cause her harm in both her physical and astral forms. Otherwise, Morgan is virtually immortal. Her soul managed to survive the physical death of her body, and she has even survived the destruction of her astral form.
• NOTE: Morgan Le Fey’s history is quite extensive, enough so that writing an entire profile on her would be quite a daunting task indeed, especially since Morgan has a background in the real world. This profile will deal mostly with her history in regards to her appearances in Marvel Comics.
• In her first Marvel Universe appearance, Morgan Le Fey transmitted her power into a false version of the sword Excalibur. She also transmitted the spirit of one of her former servants into a human criminal named “Slappy” Struthers, which happened whenever he touched the false Excalibur sword. Taking the name Excalibur for himself, Struthers attacked Magnus, one of Morgan’s former disciples and lovers, in an effort to find out the location of the Darkhold. This brought him into conflict with Jessica Drew, alias the crime fighter known as Spider-Woman. During their second encounter, Spider-Woman knocked the false sword from Excalibur’s hand, which severed his ties to Morgan Le Fey and returned him and to his normal human self.
• During this business with Excalibur, Morgan became aware of Jessica Drew. She had sensed that Jessica had spent a portion of her life on Wundagore Mountain (where the Elder God Chthon had been imprisoned). It was because of this that Morgan believed that Jessica had absorbed a portion of Chthon’s magic, a power that Morgan coveted so much that she sought to gain control of Spider-Woman in order to obtain this magic. Transporting her spirit through time, Morgan tormented Jessica Drew with haunting illusions while Jessica was attempting to escape the villainous Hangman. She also managed to capture Magnus, who had become a mentor to Jessica. Morgan then forced Magnus to send Spider-Woman to locate the Darkhold, a book of great mystic power created by the Elder God, Chthon. What Morgan didn’t know was that Magnus had sent Spider-Woman to the home of Jack Russell, alias the Werewolf (By Night), a man who had his own encounters with the Darkhold. He also send a telepathic summons to Jessica’s boyfriend, SHIELD agent Jerry Hunt in hopes that he would aid Spider-Woman. During the final battle, Morgan seemingly destroyed Magnus with a blast and easily fended off Spider-Woman’s attacks. She also seemingly incinerated Jerry Hunt. As Morgan opened a mystical portal and attempted to bring her body into the modern era, an enraged Spider-Woman fired a venom blast through the magical portal and seemingly disintegrated Morgan’s body. As Morgan Le Fey’s spirit faded from the modern era, Magnus revealed that he had used an illusion to make it seem that Morgan had destroyed him and Jerry when, in reality, they were both alive and well.
• Unbeknownst to anyone, Morgan has also used an illusion to make it appear that she had been slain. Still interested in Spider-Woman, Morgan Le Fey bided her time until the moment came when she decided to plague Jessica Drew with taunting images. The first of such images came about during Spider-Woman’s battle with Angar the Screamer, although at the time the image seemed like it was a part of Angar’s sonic assault (SPIDER-WOMAN#35). The second time Morgan taunted Spider-Woman was when she created an image of herself in the clouds as Jessica was gliding through the air (SPIDER-WOMAN#37). The third image came during one of Jessica’s dreams, in which Morgan appeared during an encounter with medieval knights, telling Jessica that their day of reckoning was getting closer (SPIDER-WOMAN#39). The fourth image appeared as a ghastly reflection in the moon (SPIDER-WOMAN#40).
• When Morgan finally confronted Spider-Woman again (in SPIDER-WOMAN#41), she sent her spirit forward in time and reenacted the events of King Arthur’s discovery of his wife Guinevere’s affair with Sir Lancelot. She did this reenactment by transforming people at a Camelot Fair, with Jessica’s boyfriend David Ishima as Lancelot, Jessica’s close friend Lindsay McCabe as Guinevere, and Jessica herself as Morgan Le Fey. The real Morgan seemingly killed Lindsay and told Spider-Woman she would restore her only if Jessica swore allegiance to her. Jessica refused and hurled a sword at Morgan’s spirit form, which disrupted Morgan’s power and sent her spirit back to her castle in the past. Not long afterwards, Morgan’s spirit appeared before Jessica again and once more threatened her life (in SPIDER-WOMAN#44).
• A few months later (in SPIDER-WOMAN#50), Morgan yet again sent illusions to torment Spider-Woman in an attempt to drive her insane. However, Magnus helped Spider-Woman by sending Jessica’s astral self back in time so she could confront Morgan Le Fey at the woman’s castle. During the battle, Spider-Woman punched Morgan Le Fey across the room and out through a window. Because her physical form left the castle, Morgan’s body died and decomposed as it plunged to the ground. (NOTE: Centuries earlier, Merlin had cast a powerful spell that imprisoned Morgan inside her castle; should she ever leave, she would perish.)
• However, before her apparent destruction, Morgan cast a spell that prevented Jessica Drew’s astral form from returning to her physical body. By doing this, Morgan planned to take Jessica’s body for her very own. Her plans were foiled by Magnus, Dr. Strange, the Shroud, and several Avengers. Magnus was killed during the melee, while Morgan swore revenge against Dr. Strange, the main individual who prevented her from taking over Jessica’s body.
• When Morgan Le Fey next surfaced, she possessed the body of Lissa Russell, sister of Jack Russell, the Werewolf By Night, at a Renaissance Pleasure Fair in Southern California. She came into contact with both Jack Russell and Iron Man and was eventually driven from Lissa’s body when Jack, as the Werewolf, slashed Lissa across her back with his claws.
• At some point, Morgan came to believe that the sunken continent of Atlantis was her homeland of Avalon, so she plotted to raise Atlantis to the surface, a plan that began with her reincarnation in the body of oceanographer Dr. Vivian Morgan. After Atlantis was raised, Morgan gathered her Darkhold followers to the shores of the newly raised continent. She was confronted by Thor, but she managed to enslave him using her newfound Gaea-spawned power. She also captured Nathaniel Richards, father of the Fantastic Four’s Mr. Fantastic. Meanwhile, after her followers obtained the Ebony Blade for her, Morgan tapped into its full power and used it to capture the Fantastic Four and Kristoff, but she was attacked by the Fantastic Force and the Genetics Council. Psi-Lord of the Fantastic Force freed those enslaved by Morgan, but this caused the thousands of souls entrapped within the Ebony Blade to be channeled by Morgan herself, which incapacitated her completely.
• Months later, after she recovered, Morgan captured the Scarlet Witch in hopes of using her reality-warping power to access the vast power of the Twilight Sword, a weapon forged by Surtur. Her plan was a success, and she restructured reality to suit her needs. In this new reality, Morgan Le Fey ruled from her castle, using the transformed Avengers as her loyal army of warriors (called the Queen’s Vengeance). However, several of the Avengers managed to throw off Morgan’s control, bringing them into conflict with their own teammates in Queen’s Vengeance. Morgan didn’t worry about losing some of the Avengers because she knew that, as long as she still had the Twilight Sword and the Scarlet Witch in her possession, she could reshape reality again at a moment’s notice. However, unbeknownst to Morgan, the Scarlet Witch pushed her power to the limit and summoned the energies of the thought-to-be-deceased Wonder Man, who liberated the Witch from imprisonment. After a battle between the rebel Avengers and Queen’s Vengeance, the Scarlet Witch channeled the power of the Avengers and placed it into the energy form of Wonder Man, who then tore the Twilight Sword from Morgan’s grasp. Reality was then restored back to its normal state and Morgan was banished back to the astral realm.
• In her last major appearance to date, Morgan Le Fey traveled to the Otherworld and captured Brian and Meggan Braddock. She concocted a bizarre plan to steal a set of magical arrows that Thor had left behind for the Avengers to use in case they ever encountered anyone with his kind of power level. She planned on using them to slay Braddock, which would in turn destroy all of Britain (his power was derived from the energy and will of the people of Britain). By doing this, Morgan would then free the power of Avalon and absorb it into herself.
• However, unbeknownst to Morgan, Brian Braddock had become aware of her plan and passed the mantle of Captain Britain onto a dying Kelsey Leigh as a way to prevent Morgan from using him to destroy all of Britain. So, when nothing happened to Britain after Morgan fired an arrow into Braddock’s shoulder, Morgan realized that Braddock had passed the mantle of Captain Britain onto Kelsey Leigh and had one of her minions, apparently a Black Knight, stab Kelsey with one of the arrows, which destroyed a portion of England as a result. As the Knight continued to attack Kelsey, the Scarlet Witch and Captain America arrived in the Otherworld and struck the Knight down, saving Kelsey in the process. Kelsey then struck Morgan with the Sword of Might and apparently dispersed Morgan’s essence, possibly returning her to the astral plane once more.
• SIDE NOTE: Morgan Le Fey was one of a number of magic-related individuals who sensed the release of the Hellphyr from the Tome of Ahered-Na in WITCHES#1. Whether or not Morgan was on Earth or in the astral plane remains to be seen. Also, the Black Knight who did Morgan’s bidding in her last storyline seems to be a mystery. He used a sword, and Morgan mentioned that she had brought him "from beyond the veil" once before, so it’s possible that this Black Knight was the same loyal servant she used to possess “Slappy” Struthers, alias Excalibur (although this isn’t confirmed). I gotta tell yah...since Spider-Woman Jessica Drew has made her big comeback, it's time for Morgan Le Fey to make hers! She hates the Avengers and she hates Jessica; and since Jessica is now a member of the New Avengers, Morgan has the chance to kill two birds with one stone!
• MORGAN'S LIST OF APPEARANCES:
• Spider-Woman Vol.1#2, 5-6; Iron Man Vol.1#150; Spider-Woman#35, 37, 39, 40-41, 44, 50; Avengers Vol.1#240-241; Iron Man Vol.1#209, Black Knight Vol.2#1-4, Namor#58-62; Fantastic Four: Atlantis Rising#1; Fantastic Four Vol.1#401; Fantastic Force#9; Fantastic Four Vol.1#402; Fantastic Four: Atlantis Rising#2; Avengers Vol.3#1-3, 80-81; Witches#1

Link

Back