BIOGRAPHY - Page 2
Despite the failure, Selene was now aware that there were more people like her and she decided to leave Nova Roma to see what the world had to offer her. Arriving in New York, Selene was astounded by its size, as well as all the souls she had at her disposal. There, she ran into the Juggernaut and went on a date with him, intending to steal his lifeforce. It remains to be seen which villain would have been in for the ruder surprise as the date was disrupted by Colossus of the X-Men. After accidentally shoving Juggernaut, the two men got into a devastating bar brawl, leaving Selene looking for a new meal. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #183]
Selene kept on prowling New York until running across the newly arrived Rachel Summers. Sensing the immense power potential in Rachel, Selene decided to make the young girl her disciple, whether she was willing or not. After a first attempt to seduce her to the dark side failed, 
Selene followed Rachel and murdered the man who had taken her in. Selene’s power and psychic influence proved too much for Rachel in her weakened state and it was only the interference of the X-Men, as well as Professor Xavier (who mentally attacked Selene) that made the energy vampire flee and give up her claim on Rachel. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #184]
Instead, Selene approached Friedrich von Roehm, owner of an exclusive Park Avenue store. Von Roehm was the current hereditary high priest to one of the cults devoted to Selene. She reminded him of her duty to her, telling him that she was in need of an appropriate residence and a powerbase to bring certain plans to fruition. Von Roehm had the perfect idea: Selene and the 
Hellfire Club were made for each other, so he created forged credentials and a false background for his goddess and had her apply for the title of Black Queen in the Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle. Selene auditioned to Sebastian Shaw, already not-too-subtly showing that she would not be satisfied with a subservient role. Selene was followed to the Club by Rachel and Amara, both of whom had a bone to pick with Selene, but to no avail – she easily surprised and beat the two girls. While they eventually shook off her mind control, it took the united threat of the X-Men to prevent a crisis between the X-Men and the Hellfire Club. [New Mutants (1st series) #22-23, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #189]
The Hellfire Club was one such avenue to power for her, though she was certainly not above using other opportunities when they presented themselves. When her sworn enemy, the wizard Kulan Gath, remade all of Manhattan into the Hyperborian age, Selene was only too happy to play 
both heroes and Gath’s troops against each other. Kulan Gath intended on casting a spell that would expand the influence across the entire world, but he was opposed by many heroes as well as Selene herself. The sorceress saw an opportunity to turn the clock back on society and revert it to a time she admired. When Gath was defeated, Selene intended to use his master spell for herself, but she was stopped by the combined efforts of the X-Men, New Mutants and Doctor Strange. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #190-191]
Sebastian Shaw and his partners, Tessa and Emma Frost aka the White Queen, were not at all happy with Selene’s presence, but had little choice but to accept her as the new Black Queen. Their dissatisfaction was justified as she barely made a secret out of her own desire for leadership. Despite some half-hearted attempts to get rid of Selene (such as Frost trying to groom the innocent-but-powerful mutant Firestar into an assassin, who was to take out Selene), the Black Queen remained scheming. [Firestar (1st series) #3-4]
Selene’s machinations continued, but one of her victims was soon to strike back. Rachel Summers, now more secure in her power as Phoenix, infiltrated the Hellfire Club and tried to assassinate the Black Queen. She was violently stopped at the last moment by her own teammate, Wolverine, who was afraid of her going down the same road as her mother, Jean Grey, ending up as Dark Phoenix.
The attempt on Selene’s life was enough for her to call in the rest of the Inner Circle, demanding they hunt Phoenix down. Despite some arguing between the group, they all saw the X-Men as a threat and decided enough was enough. Selene and the Inner Circle tracked the X-Men down and ended up fighting the team, until the arrival of the mutant-killing robot, Nimrod. Both groups had to combine their forces to survive against the threat with a temporary alliance, which led to more cooperation between the Club and the X-teams… a move which displeased Selene. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #207-209]
For some time, Selene continued working together with the Inner Circle which slowly drifted apart. Von Roehm and Leland had died, Shaw was voted out by his ambitious peers, Magneto followed other interests, leaving only Frost and Selene. Despite the new status quo, Selene did more or less nothing of consequence during that time. At one point, she tried to seduce the Hulk, who was in his nasty, no-nonsense Mr. Fixit persona at the time, but had to realize that in him was a foe who could resist both her wiles and her power. [Marvel Comics Presents (1st series) #78]
Selene joined up with the mysterious omnipath known as the Gamesmaster, both of them intending to forge the next generation of the Hellfire Club – the Upstarts – towards a secret goal of which only they were aware. The Upstarts apparently had to prove themselves by dispatching of former club members. Shinobi Shaw seemingly killed his father Sebastian, whereas Trevor Fitzroy tried to dispose of the White Queen and murdered most of the Hellions. The plan backfired, at least for Selene, as one of the Upstarts – the future criminal Fitzroy – captured her and placed her in a molecular “spooler” – an exotic form of torture to gain the attention of the Gamesmaster. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #301]
Forgotten, Selene remained a prisoner of this device of torture. Nevertheless, she began devising a complicated plan to escape – by forcing Amanda Sefton to save her, intending first for the young sorceress to take her place in the torture device. Her plan didn’t go the way she intended, as not only did the hero escape unscathed, but Selene had left the device to soon before its spooling cycle was completed, and now seemed victim to wounds that refused to heal. [Excalibur Annual #2]
Selene eventually recovered in Paris, where new arrivals Nate Grey and his companion, the miraculously resurrected Madelyne Pryor, came to her attention. Much like she had tried to corrupt Moonstar and Rachel before, Selene next set her sights on Madelyne. Whether she saw her as easy pickings due to her amnesia and her previous corruption by the demons S’ym and N’astirh, or whether she was interested in her slumbering power either way, Selene offered Madelyne answers and power, to which Madelyne readily accepted. [X-Man #7]
While Madelyne remained as a guest in Selene’s home, the energy vampire put the next part of her plan to regain a powerbase into motion, by attacking her fellow immortal mutants the Externals. Much like Selene, the Externals all possessed the power of longevity through various means. Despite their similarities, Selene had only disdain for them, not even bothering to come to their meetings. With little need for the rest of the Externals, she began killing them all and gaining their powerful life energies for herself. Once she was through, there were only two known immortal mutants left, the last External Candra and the fearsome Apocalypse. Candra soon perished in a battle against the X-Men and, as even Selene herself acknowledged, Apocalypse was a target too big for her as she clearly feared him. [X-Force (1st series) #53-54]
Selene then sent Madelyne on a mission to find Trevor Fitzroy, the former Upstart who had tortured her in front of the Gamesmaster. Madelyne did so and Selene got her vengeance on Fitzroy in an apparently gruesome but unshown manner. However, surprisingly, she let him live. [X-Man #16-17, 20]
Given the rising anti-mutant sentiment in the world, Selene wanted to re-establish the Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle as a powerbase. Apparently seeking strength in numbers, Madelyne and Fitzroy were to be her candidates, her Black and White Rook respectively. Selene suggested this to her equal number, the recovered Sebastian Shaw, the Black King. He and his assistant Tessa 
were less than pleased to have Selene in their lives again, but finally gave in to her logic, accepting her and her candidates, after Madelyne had proved herself. [X-Man #21-23]
However unexpected to both sides it was Selene’s protégé Madelyne who soon grew closer to Shaw and started an affair with him, much to the displeasure of Selene and Tessa who feared an alliance of the two. [X-Man #28]