Morgaine le Fey

**Morgaine le Fey** is a character in comic books published by the American company DC Comics. She first appeared in *Batman* #36 (August 1946), but her first appearance in *Swamp Thing* comics was in *Swamp Thing* Vol. 2, #87 (June 1989).

## History

Morgaine (or Morgana) le Fay, was born from an ancient civilization, the Homo Magi who were direct descendants of the first inhabitants of Atlantis before it sank. She was the daughter of Atheron and Staegys. Naturally gifted in magic, Morgaine was the one who trained both her sisters, the elder Vivienne Inwudu (future Lady of the Lake) and the younger Nimue Inwudu (future Madame Xanadu) in the use of it. While her sisters were kind spirits who looked at the newly evolved branch of humans, the Homo Sapiens, who had no access to magic at all, with sympathy and curiosity, Morgaine looked at them with contempt, as they were the responsible of the extinction of the Homo Magi, who she deemed superior in every way. Since her immortal youth, Morgaine mainly interacted with normal humans using them as playthings at best, or as pawns in her much larger schemes. She even seduced men of power, such as Julius Caesar, just for fun. Nobody could resist her magic charm… and when they did, she didn’t take it lightly. The most famous of these episodes obviously dated back to the Arthurian times, when she tried to seduce Uther Pendragon, the High King of England, and was rejected. Wanting to ruin Uther’s life, as well of the one of his wife Igraine, Morgaine used a powerful spell to make everyone believe she was one of Igraine’s daughters: she taught magic to her “sisters”, Morgause and Elaine, turning them into powerful threats for their father, and later dedicated her life to destroy King Arthur, Uther’s heir (and even conceiving a son with him, Mordred). The Elder Folk exiled Morgaine for her constant meddling with humans’ world, but this didn’t stop her. There was, however, another Homo Magi who constantly opposed her during her life at Camelot: Merlin, who, among other things, fused Etrigan the Demon with Jason Blood to fight her.

Morgaine’s battle with The Demon eventually led to the destruction of Camelot itself, so the witch was left wandering the earth, looking for another kingdom to conquest. She maintained her beauty and youth for centuries, until Merlin, in a last trick against his centennial rival, took them away from her. Still immortal but ugly and old, Morgaine became obsessed with regaining her appearance, and she tried more than once to involve the immortal Jason Blood into helping her obtain Merlin’s Eternity Book, either by deceiving him or by promising him the spell to finally make him mortal again, as immortality was a burden for him. Morgaine and Blood crossed paths for centuries, and the two crossed their destinies with other exceptional beings as a result. When the Huntress used the Justice League‘s transporters, she unwillingly unleashed Morgaine over Gotham City, allowing her to take possession of the Philosopher’s Stone, and to put in motion another one of her plans. She visited Gotham’s hospital, the maternity ward, and turned many of the unborn babies into demons at her service. Among the women in labor, however, there was also Francine Langstrom: as Morgaine threatened her, her husband, Man-Bat, appeared to defend her, and soon he was joined in the effort by Etrigan the Demon. She retreated, but she came back to Gotham many other times, always clashing with The Demon, usually targeting Jason Blood’s girlfriend, Glenda Mark. Her first major success came when she devised an extremely powerful spell that allowed her, Enigma (an alternate Riddler from the Anti-Matter Universe) and the alien Despero to take the symbolic places of, respectively, Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman. Morgaine rewrote history, creating a new timeline in which she and her allies ruled supreme over Earth… unfortunately, “Despero” was actually the alien tyrant Kanjar Ro in disguise, and this eventually disrupted the spell, bringing everything to its normal state again. This, however, wasn’t certainly meant to be Morgaine’s last attempt to earn a kingdom worthy of her might…

Morgaine le Fay is an ancient and malicious being, a vain and egomaniac woman who spends her immortal existence in seeking godhood, pretending the “inferior” Homo Sapiens to worship her. As one of the Elder Folk, she possesses natural magic abilities, that grant her an infinite variety of powers, increasing the more spells she learns and the more artifacts and devices she collects: from destructive bolts of magic to matter manipulation, from flight to dimensional travel, from reality transformation to shape-shifting, from controlling the elements to telepathy, there’s little she cannot do; with her body constantly decay, she is forced to wear a magical golden armor to keep it together, but she can transfer her own decay on people or objects with a mere touch. One of the most powerful and dangerous Homo Magi in existence, Morgaine has been conspiring for ages to become the godly queen she has always believed to be, a campaign that will end only when the entire universe will bend its knee in front of her.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Magic**
* **Immortality**
* **Disintegration**
* **Summoning**
* **Eldritch Blast**
* **Heat Vision**
* **Geokinesis**
* **Dimensional Travel**
* **Flight**
* **Occultism**
* **Genius Level Intellect**

## In other media

*Main article: Morgaine le Fey In other media*

## Notes/Trivia

She is based on Morgan le Fay, the mythical sorceress and half-sister of King Arthur.