Real Name: Selene
Occupation: Goddess (self-styled)
Identity: Selene's power and history are unknown to the general public
Legal Status: Former citizen of the Roman Republic and of Nova Roma
Other Aliases: The Black Priestess
Place of Birth: Unknown
Marital Status: Widowed
Known Relatives: Marcus Domitius Gallio (husband, deceased)
Group Affiliation: Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club
Base of Operations: New York City
First Appearance: NEW MUTANTS #9

History: Selene's origin is yet unrevealed, but she is known to have lived for several millennia, and to have been a foe of the sorcerer Kulan Gath. In past ages she was renowned as a sorceress whose power was feared and respected by practitioners of black and white magic. She eventually came to live in the ancient Roman Republic. For unknown reasons, she accompanied the large number of Roman citizens who fled Rome in the First Century B.C. and sailed to the New World, where they founded Nova Roma ("New Rome") in a hidden section of the Amazon jungle in what is now Brazil. The founders of Nova Roma fled Rome because they foresaw that its republican government would be replaced by an imperial one. For reasons that remain unknown. Selene found herself unable to leave Nova Roma, and remained there for roughly two thousand years. Nova Roma she led the dreaded Cult of Fire as its Black Priestess.

In recent years Selene married Marcus Domitius Gallio, a senator of Nova Roma who plotted to abolish its republican government. The intervention of the New Mutants both thwarted Senator Gallio's schemes and led to Selene's apparent destruction. However, Selene not only survived, but somehow found herself able to leave Nova Roma. She soon traveled to New York City. Over the two millennia that she was trapped in Nova Roma, a religious cult worshipping Selene as a goddess had continued to survive in the outside world. Selene made contact with a leader of the cult, Friedrich von Roehm, in New York City. Von Roehm was also a member of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, an elite group secretly dedicated to achieving world domination. Von Roehm successfully sponsored Selene for membership in the Inner Circle, and she rapidly rose to the high rank of Black Queen of the Inner Circle.

Height: 5 ft. 10 in.
Weight: 130 lbs.
Eyes: Red
Hair: Black

Strength Level: Selene possesses superhuman strength, enabling her to lift (press) about 1500 pounds under optimal conditions.

Known Superhuman Powers: Selene is a mutant with various superhuman attributes. She sustains herself by psionically draining the life force of other human beings into herself. Because of this, she is often referred to as a vampire, although she is not a true supernatural vampire, like Dracula. If she drains a person's entire life force from him of her, the victim dies and the victim's body crumbles into dust. If Selene drains only part of victim's life force, Selene achieves a measure of psychic control over her victim's mind. 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.

It is not known how often Selene must drain life force from another human in order to survive. It is known that great expenditure of power causes Selene to age, but she can rejuvenate herself by absorbing more life force. Selene will not age as long as she maintains her supply of absorbed life force. She is also unaffected such as knife wounds.

She has physical strength, stamina, speed, and reaction time that are all several time greater than those of a normal woman.

Selene possesses telekinetic abilities that give her complete psionic control over inanimate object and fire. She can cause inanimate objects to move according to her will by projecting part of her absorbed life force into them. She can cause inanimate objects in her presence to disintegrate. She cannot, however, rearrange the atomic or molecular structure of matter.

Selene can include a momentary hypnotic trance state in people around her. She can also momentarily move at speeds rivaling those of Quicksilver.