The Enchantress
by Sean McQuaid
Real name: Amora
First appearance: Journey into Mystery 103
Favorite quote: "Wouldst thou care to test they firm resolve--against my yielding lips?" (Defenders 4. Enchantress beguiles the Black Knight, who samples said lips and becomes the latest in her long line of love slaves. Amora's got more pucker-power than Rogue; one smooch and you're done for.)
Team affiliation: Amora's most devoted admirer and frequent partner-in-crime was Skurge the Executioner, from whom she frequently withheld her favors to keep him on a short leash. The frustrated Skurge eventually abandoned her and died heroically on a quest, an event which (to the surprise of many) devastated Amora. Before his demise, they were both members of the original Masters of Evil and allies to fellow renegade Asgardian Loki. Amora has also employed a plethora of pawns such as Valkyrie, the original Power Man, Wonder Man, Hercules, the Black Knight and the Lady Liberators.
Powers: As a near-immortal Asgardian goddess, Amora possesses considerable superhuman strength and stamina, although she rarely exercises these attributes. She is one of the most powerful sorceresses alive, capable of force bolts, illusions, paralysis, mind control, inter-dimensional travel, force fields and transmutation; however, she has channeled the bulk of her magical studies and energy into the enhancement of her already formidable beauty and seductive powers. Few men can resist Amora, and those who do earn her bitter enmity.
Favorite story line: It's a guilty pleasure, but my favorite Enchantress story is the goofy tale from Avengers 83 in which Amora (posing as the heroic Valkyrie) leads a group of frustrated super-heroines in forming the Lady Liberators and revolting against their male colleagues. It's just too ridiculous. My favorite serious Amora story would be her entanglement with the Valkyrie, first fully chronicled in Defenders 107-109.
Least favorite story line: The bits and pieces I've gleaned from recent Thor storylines strike me as unfortunate -- a semi-reformed Amora became Thor's ally and lover for a while, and she's now a powerless, amnesiac scullery maid in the employ of some Frost Giant. Whatever the artistic merits of these stories, it's a shame to see Marvel's foremost classic villainess reduced first to a hero's clingy gal-pal and then to a powerless menial. Its like seeing Doctor Doom start dating the Black Widow, then give up world conquest to help Jarvis tidy Avengers Mansion.
Who was that Enchantress I saw you with last night? The silly "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe to which the Avengers and FF were recently exiled features alternate versions of many existing Marvel characters, including an alternate Enchantress. This Amora remains a big-league villainess and foe to the Avengers, albeit with a new twist; she's secretly the mother of her reality's Scarlet Witch. She's also inhumanly leggy (see the new Avengers 1 if you dare), leading some readers to speculate that the Heroes Reborn version of Enchantress is the love child of Amora and Stilt-Man....
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