Enchantress

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Background

Powers & Abilities

Amora’s signature ability is her incredible beauty, and her nigh-supernatural ability to vamp men-who-like-women.

Her body and features are perfect by contemporary Western cannons. And she apparently uses magic to adjust her exact shape to follow trends. For instance during the early 1960s her body type was reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe, but she later made herself slimmer and more model-like.

It takes an unusually strong will to reject her advances, and she has superb emotional and social manipulation skills.

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Other assets

Amora enjoys an opulent lifestyle. She owns at least one palace. She presumably has entire coffers filled with gold and jewellery that she can easily liquidate, since she could buy anything she needed even on Earth.

Like Loki, the Enchantress has an unbelievable ability to make her fellow Asgardian accept that she isn’t a viper in their midst. This seemingly involves discretion and secrecy, lying and pleading, magic, her social status, her connections, swearing that she’s reformed, etc.

As an Asgardian, she can also cram lengthy speeches within a few seconds while fighting.

Being an Asgardian, the Enchantress is physically thrice as dense as a human being, and has superhuman strength and durability. She is about “Class 20” at this stage – Amora can crush solid stone into gravel with her bare hands.

She is also nigh-immune to disease and somewhat proofed against handgun rounds.

During the 1960s Amora learned a bit about Midgard, and was fully trained to operate some of the equipment in Baron Heinrich Zemo’s lab. Though she could comfortably operate on Earth, she didn’t quite get several important aspects – such as Midgard having billions of inhabitants over immense areas.

The magic of looooove, part 1

The Enchantress is also a powerful magician. She is one of the most accomplished spell casters in all of Asgard, though not as mighty as Karnilla the Norn Queen or the cunning Loki.

Her power was reportedly halved by Odin when she was banished to Midgard, though what this actually means is hard to tell. It is possible that she has, in DC Heroes terms, 18 APs of Sorcery when she’s not banished – but she’s seldom seen in that state during the 1960s.

Her spells include  :

• Dimensional travel (usually to Midgard), and teleportation (often accompanied by smoke).
• Astral flight so quick as to basically be teleportation.
• Transdimensional and/or long-distance scrying to see events in specific places – sometimes she enchants a crystal ball to do so.
• Beams of magical force – some concussive, some mimicking fire, some mimicking lightning, etc. These attack can still be dodged by a sufficiently fast and agile person, though – the Enchantress isn’t a crack shot.
• Turning flesh to immobile wood or stone.
• Turning objects into live animals, such as poisonous serpents.
• Petrification making the person rigidly immobile for a while, but still aware.
• Projecting a ghostly image of herself and allies, which can speak and listen, over at least 7,000 kilometres. She can also project just her voice.
• Mesmerising people into a stupor with eye contact at very close range – even Thor would be out for a few minutes if caught by surprise.
• Triggering a rock slide or cave-in from thousands of miles away.
• Taking remote control of a plane or train she’s looking at.
• Have an entire vehicle and all aboard travel across the dimensions.
• Plant light suggestions even in Captain America’s mind from thousands of miles away.
• Making Iron Man (Tony Stark) fall asleep in the middle of a battle.
• Instantly conjuring a thick mist to cover her retreat.
• Shrinking Giant-Man (Henry Pym) in giant form down to the size and strength of a child.
• Hurling herself, the Executioner and Zemo several days into the past.
• Making a distant cable snap, or twisting thick steel rails, with but a gesture of her hand.
• Invisibly altering the flight of Cap’s shield.
• Paralyzing the Wasp’s wings, or even the entire 1970 roster of the Avengers (including the Vision).
• Invisibly blunting the reflexes, speed and precision of an opponent.
• Being magically alerted by pre-placed, long-lived wards (one was triggered when a person would enter Baron Zemo’s abandoned lab).
• Casting very realistic illusions of gigantic but immaterial monsters.
• Supernaturally locating a source of danger if she suspects something close by is wrong.
• Electrifying a large volume of air, stunning and paralysing those within.
• Detect feelings of love among nearby persons.
• Telekinetically hurl debris falling onto her toward a selected opponent, or rescuing a man from falling to his death.
• Animating a magically impervious giant from enchanted ruins, though she was knocked unconscious when her creation was destroyed.
• Bewitch a small Asgardian army into being unable to fight (though she may have had her full power at that point).
• Striking down the Hulk himself and seemingly killing him for a few moments (in DC Heroes this is feasible with enough Hero Points, which she did seem to spend – and it is possible she had her full power at that point).
• Taking the illusionary form of somebody else, fooling everyone.

The magic of looooove, part 2

Amora could also brew and/or procure magical potions – usually love philters. She is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a capable enchantress of magic items, but she seldom uses these skills. She is known to be the author of the Executioner’s axe enchantments, but that’s about it.

When duelling, the Scarlet Witch’s and the exiled Enchantress’ power seemed evenly matched. However, a good part of this effect came from the Enchantress not grasping what the Witch’s probability alteration power was actually doing, making it difficult for her to counter Wanda’s hexes.

Despite her magical and physical power, the Enchantress seldom throws herself into a conflict, chaining spell after spell to disable and crush the enemy.

It is possible that it is some sort of limitation of magic which would make that painful and/or fatiguing, but this is more likely a product of genre. It was not uncommon for 1960s Marvel characters, particularly women, to be oddly passive and ladylike during a battle.

History

Amora does not feature in the known ancient Norse and Germanic mythological texts. Her name seems based on the Italian word amore (“love”).

Perhaps her family is from a region of Asgard where the gods have a different culture and language. Or perhaps she and/or her parents preferred to hang out in Midgard’s Southern Europe rather than in the Nordics and Germany back in the days.

Amora is about the same age as Thor, Sif, Balder, Brunnhilde, Loki, etc. and was thus born more than a millenium ago. Since Asgardians apparently mature to adulthood at a Human-like pace then live for millennia, the odds of all these folks being born within a few years of each other are extremely low.

This may imply some sort of societal organisation in Asgard about when children can be conceived.

As with many Asgardian nobles, Amora appears to just live a life of adventure and intrigue. Nothing is ever mentioned about societal organisation, the economy, agriculture, everyday life, what nobility means on Asgard, etc.

Some call her the gangster of love

As a teenager, Amora developed a sort of arm’s length alliance with Loki. They recognised that they were both quite untrustworthy and callous – but still occasionally needed backup. They apparently both attended a sorcery school in the city of Asgard.

Amora was particularly interested in Loki’s brother, young Thor Odinson. A relationship with Thor would make her the most important young woman in Asgard. However, Thor shared a mutual attraction with the teenage goddess Sif, and could thus ignore Amora’s charm.

After Sif foiled one of Loki’s plot, the teenage god of mischief recruited Amora for his vengeance. The future Enchantress gleefully drove a wedge between Sif and Thor using Sif’s warrior temper, then she and Loki manipulated Sif into stealing an enchanted mirror.

Amora snatched the magic mirror away from Sif and used it to make Thor fall in love with her instead.

The plan went awry after Sif allied with new girl Brunnhilde. They stole back the mirror then broke it and the enchantment. Thor forgot his time with Amora as if it had been a dream, and he and Sif started an actual relationship.

Some call her Amora

Amora eventually left the city of Asgard for independent studies. Her main teacher was Karnilla the Norn Queen, but she also seduced a number of male magicians so that they would teach her.

She apparently never lastingly returned to the city of Asgard, but had a number of estates in unrevealed regions of the Asgard landmass.

It may be at that point that Amora played a brief game with Natalia Romanova – then a tween. She made it possible for young Romanova to almost escape from a Red Room training facility, then cruelly took her out near the exit.

(Aside from boredom, the Enchantress’ motivation is unclear. I’d imagine that she foretold that Natalia would become one of the most beautiful women in Midgard, hence her odd decision to tell a 10-year-old-or-so kid about the power of pulchritude.)

Valkyries & executioners

When Odin disbanded the Valkyriors after the coming of the Third Celestial Host, Amora approached their former leader – Brunnhilde. The ex-Valkyrior was horribly bored, and Amora recruited her as her muscle.

Brunnhilde eventually realised that Amora was far from benign. But the Enchantress had been secretly weaving a spell to retain the services of the powerful valkyrie. She placed Brunnhilde’s body in suspended animation and enslaved her spirit, making it possess and empower the body of other women to serve the Enchantress.

Amora later attracted the amorous attentions of the grim killer Skurge the Executioner. Though Amora had zero romantic interest in Skurge, she occasionally had him do jobs for her, pretending that she might eventually grow to like him.

(We later learn that Skurge and Amora had a purely physical, on-and-off relationship going on. This did not satisfy Skurge, who wanted Amora to actually love him rather than use him as a sex partner.)

’cause she speaks of the pompatus of love

In 1964, Odin wanted his son Thor to renounce his relationship with mortal Jane Foster. He agreed with Loki’s suggestion to have the Enchantress charm the God of Thunder.

Amora eagerly came to New York City, had some designer clothing made, and simply went for kissing Dr. Don Blake. She expected no resilience from a mortal.

However, Blake had begun accessing part of Thor’s essence and memories – enough to resist Amora. Miffed, the Enchantress sent the Executioner to kill Jane Foster. He failed and the Enchantress came to curse Skurge out of spite, but Thor banished them both back to Asgard.

There they were judged by Odin… and banished back to Midgard, with their power diminished and a warning not to kill any mortal.

Lost in this new realm, Amora needed a local ally. She picked Baron Heinrich Zemo. As the core of the Masters of Evil, this trio launched a dense series of plots to destroy the early Avengers.

Thus, Amora and the Executioner manipulated the Avengers into splitting apart and fighting each other, but this eventually failed. Undaunted, the Masters tricked the Avengers into recruiting their henchman Wonder Man (Simon Williams). When that failed they allied with Immortus for another attempt at the Avengers, which nearly worked.

The next plan had Amora and Skurge free the Black Knight (Nathan Garrett) and the Melter (Bruno Horgan) to stall the Avengers. This mostly worked, but Captain America broke away and confronted Zemo on his own, which resulted in the Nazi’s accidental death.

People talk about her, baby

Loki soon recruited the exiled duo to threaten Jane Foster and distract Thor from Asgardian matters. However, Balder came to the rescue. Despite Loki’s assurances that Thor would be dealt with, the Thunder God then came in. Skurge and the Enchantress fled.

The Enchantress later magically detected that one of Zemo’s mercenaries had not left the Nazi’s hidden base. The man, one Erik Josten, stubbornly dug his way into Zemo’s lab, and the Enchantress came in to make him her agent. Using the same machines that had turned Simon Williams into Wonder Man, she turned Josten into Power Man.

With Josten as her agent and through subtle, invisible spells the Enchantress sabotaged the Avengers. The team had recently changed their rosters as “Cap’s Kooky Quartet”, composed of ex-criminals. The Enchantress convinced the authorities that they had gone rogue. The discredited Avengers had to disband in shame.

However, Captain America deduced that the Enchantress was behind their fall, and found her. Having started to develop a romantic interest in Josten, the Enchantress let him fight alone to assess his worth as a warrior, but was disappointed when he did not kill Captain America.

She teleported away, and Josten surrendered after Amora’s scathing remark destroyed his morale. The Avengers proved that they had been manipulated, restoring their status with the authorities.

Say she’s doin’ ’em wrong

In 1967, the Enchantress allied with the Olympian God Ares and used a love potion on Hercules. This allowed Ares to tell Zeus that Hercules had forsaken Olympus for the love of an Asgardian. It also gave Amora a new strongman to serve her.

Given Hercules’ power, the Enchantress went for a straight assault on Avengers Mansion. With her occasional help, he flattened most Avengers until exposure to sulfur broke the spell of the Waters of Eros that the Enchantress had used to enthrall her.

Hercules turned against her. The Enchantress was about to take on everybody when she realised that she was attracted toward Hercules and did not find it in herself to strike him down. She simply left the battlefield. Hercules was exiled by his father, and joined the Avengers.

A few months later, Amora and Skurge were recruited by the Mandarin. As part of an ambitious plan of global blackmail, the Mandarin had them raid an unspecified Asian country using Asgardian resources – including an army of trolls. However, the pair was by then fed up with obeying a mortal.

When they ran into Hercules and the Scarlet Witch they thus decided to fight them instead of sticking to the plan. In particular the Enchantress wanted to kill the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) out of jealousy, as she felt that Hercules was interested in Maximoff.

Amora gained the upper hand against Wanda, but Herakles was way stronger than Skurge. The Asgardians were defeated.

Well don’t you worry baby (part 1)

By that point Amora and Skurge had the control of an army of trolls, and had apparently regained the assets Odin had stripped from them when they were exiled. The Executioner definitely had his axe and helmet back, and the Enchantress seemed more powerful.

This may have been linked to a previous time-travelling adventure of the Executioner, their alliance with the Mandarin… or something else entirely. In any case the Enchantress and the Executioner covertly returned to Asgard to use their troll legion and invade.

Skurge led the trolls in a surprise attack against the city of Asgard. With the Enchantress’ magical support they might have won had the Hulk not intervened. The Hulk single-handedly routed the troll army and the Enchantress was forced to retreat, though she nearly killed the jade giant with her parting spell.

Well don’t you worry baby (part 2)

Odin caught the rebellious duo and banned them anew, again stripping them of part of their power. He dumped them into some sort of prison dimension. There, a mysterious woman approached Skurge and convinced him to walk away from the Enchantress, leaving her alone.

Blaming all men for Skurge’s untimely departure, the Enchantress made her way to Earth in 1970, using a glamour to disguise herself as Brunnhilde the Valkyrie. She recruited several super-heroines (Black Widow, Medusa, the Scarlet Witch and the Wasp) as part of a women’s lib  themed team, the Lady Liberators.

The Enchantress was after a parallel-time projector which she could use to restore her powers, and the Lady Liberators trounced both the Masters of Evil and the Avengers to reach it.

However, when the Enchantress revealed herself, the Scarlet Witch blocked her deadly spell with an hex to protect the Vision. This unexpectedly turned the spell against the Enchantress, seemingly disintegrating her.

’cause she’s right here right here at home

Amora actually ended up on Polemachus. She promptly seduced the land’s musclebound ruler Arkon the Magnificent. After the Black Knight (Dane Whitman) ended up on Polemachus, the Enchantress assumed that the Avengers would soon follow and convinced Arkon to do something about it.

With her magic overclocked by Polemachus’ ambient mana , the Enchantress teleported the whole of Avengers’ Mansion to Polemachus. She also greatly reduced the powers of the Avengers – allowing for their capture by Arkon’s forces.

The Avengers freed themselves, and the Enchantress defeated the Scarlet Witch in a duel. However, the Black Knight demonstrated to Arkon that he had been duped by the Enchantress. Arkon had his troops stop fighting, and the Enchantress quickly departed.

Description

Amora definitely prefers green for her wardrobe.

Personality

An aristocratic seducer, revelling in her beauty and wealth – and originally with many generic 1960s Marvel female character traits. She’s known to be ruthless and power-hungry, though this isn’t that apparent in her behaviour.

Amora is smart, mentally quick on her feet and pragmatic – markedly more so than most 1960s comics female characters. Unlike many Asgardians she is *not* overconfident, and will react and adjust when her plans go awry.

If things go pear-shaped she will order a retreat without hesitation. Her powerful and flexible spells mean that she and her allies will probably escape.

She is also vengeful. If somebody ruined her plans, she is liable to take a vicious parting shot against them (backed with a large dose of Hero Points ) before leaving.

Even the Enchantress tends to underestimate mortals, though – albeit not as much as most Asgardians. She’s unlikely to spend Hero Points against mortals.

Paid in men and gold

The Enchantress will usually let the strongman she’s currently working with do most of the work while she hangs back. She just oversees the situation and casts a spell here and there to keep her plan on rails.

With the exception of Skurge, she usually selects strongmen she feels could be of romantic interest. Letting them do most of the fighting allows her to gauge their true worth, since the Enchantress comes from a warrior culture.

This often comes to bite her back when she uses a selected, mesmerised hero as her heavy lifter. The Enchantress will grow attracted toward their courage and prowess, but finds herself in a situation where her burgeoning attraction will obviously not be reciprocated. This is how she came to develop feelings for Hercules.

Some flashbacks depict Amora as seducing men in an almost reflexive way. This is presumably because she could do it in her sleep and hey, it’s usually useful. Some scenes give the impression that she also does that because she doesn’t want to be alone. She much prefers operating along with a male accomplice who admires her, even if this is just Skurge.

Amora likes luxury, and feels that she only deserves the very finest clothing and accommodations.

Quotes

“Create a wardrobe for me ! Immediately ! The cost is of no concern !”

“At least on Earth I’ll be near handsome Thor again ! And then who knows —??”

“The Wasp ! A simple spell will be enough for so tiny a foe !”

“My supernatural power of enchantment makes me sense that all is not as it should be here ! That briefcase — something is wrong with it !”

“I have journeyed from fabled Asgard, my lord Hercules — to witness this clash of tempestuous titans ! In the hallowed halls of Odin, the gods call me… the Enchantress !”

“Behold, Ares, how the Enchantress keeps her word ! He who has conquered kings and sons of kings is but a helpless slave… of love !”

“Where the Black Knight has gone — the Avengers must soon follow ! Are you still so smitten with the pale-blooded Scarlet Witch that you are blind to all danger ?”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Marvel comics from 1964 to 1971 (Avengers vol. 1 #84), plus flashbacks.

Helper(s): Chris Cottingham, Darci.

Writeup completed on the 28^th of September, 2014.