# Sersi
**Sersi** is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by [Marvel Comics](https://www.edgepedia.org/marvel-comics), an Eternal, one of an immortal, near-human offshoot of humanity created by the Celestials, whose signature power is the transmutation of matter. She was created by writer and artist [Jack Kirby](https://www.edgepedia.org/jack-kirby) and first appeared under the name in *The Eternals* #3 (September 1976), where she was initially spelled "Sersy"; the spelling was corrected in the following issue, which the character herself acknowledges in dialogue.[1](https://www.comics.org/character/684/) • [2](https://www.comicbooks.com/issue/the-eternals-4-30313) In Marvel continuity she is identified with the sorceress Circe of Homer's *Odyssey*, and she later became a full member of the Avengers and the lead character of the 2021 [Marvel Studios](https://www.edgepedia.org/marvel-studios) film *Eternals*, in which she is played by Gemma Chan.[3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/) • [4](https://time.com/6112800/the-eternals-marvel-explained/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Created by | Jack Kirby; first appearance as "Sersy" in *The Eternals* #3 (September 1976), correctly spelled in #4[1](https://www.comics.org/character/684/) • [2](https://www.comicbooks.com/issue/the-eternals-4-30313) |
| Retroactive debut | *Strange Tales* #109 (June 1963), in which a sorceress named Circe was later retconned to be Sersi[5](https://www.comicbasics.com/sersi/) |
| Species and age | An Eternal, roughly 7,000 years old in comics continuity[3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/) |
| Signature power | Matter transmutation, rearranging the molecular structure of objects and, in the film, living beings[4](https://time.com/6112800/the-eternals-marvel-explained/) • [6](https://nerdist.com/article/sersi-eternals-powers-mcu-secret-wars/) |
| Avengers tenure | Joined the team in *Avengers* #314 (February 1990), written by John Byrne; left after the Gatherers saga in *Avengers* #375 (June 1994)[3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/) |
| MCU portrayal | Gemma Chan in *Eternals* (2021), directed by Chloé Zhao; the film grossed $402 million worldwide[4](https://time.com/6112800/the-eternals-marvel-explained/) • [3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/) |
## Creation and mythological identity
Sersi belongs to the cosmic mythology Jack Kirby built in *The Eternals*, a series he wrote, edited, and drew himself after returning to Marvel in 1975 following five years at [DC Comics](https://www.edgepedia.org/dc-comics).[7](https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/kirby-100-when-gods-walk-the-earth) • [3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/) In Kirby's premise, the Celestials, colossal armored space gods, experimented on early humanity roughly a million years ago, producing three branches: ordinary humans, the monstrous Deviants, and the Eternals.[4](https://time.com/6112800/the-eternals-marvel-explained/) Kirby's structural device was to present each Eternal as the real-world source of a human myth: Ikaris is Icarus, Thena is Athena, Makkari is Mercury, and Sersi is Circe.[3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/)
The Circe identification reaches back before the character existed. In *Strange Tales* #109 (June 1963), a [Stan Lee](https://www.edgepedia.org/stan-lee) and Jack Kirby story had the [Human Torch](https://www.edgepedia.org/human-torch) and the Thing encounter a sorceress named Circe; later continuity retconned that figure to be Sersi, making the 1963 issue a retroactive first appearance.[5](https://www.comicbasics.com/sersi/) • [3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/) Within the fiction, Sersi lived on the island of Aeaea at the time of the [Trojan War](https://www.edgepedia.org/trojan-war) and transformed Odysseus's crew into pigs, the episode from the *Odyssey*; she considers Odysseus's son Telemachus the love of her life.[5](https://www.comicbasics.com/sersi/) Her name itself derives from Circe, a sorceress and minor goddess of Greek mythology.[8](https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/11/3/60)
## Powers
Sersi's defining ability is matter transmutation, the power to rearrange the molecular structure of objects, changing one material into another at will.[9](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Sersi_%28Earth-616%29) • [4](https://time.com/6112800/the-eternals-marvel-explained/) Among the Eternals, her command of transmutation is the strongest; Sprite, whose own specialty includes matter rearrangement and elemental transmutation, is described as surpassed among the Eternals only by Sersi.[10](https://www.marvel.com/characters/sprite/in-comics?=___psv__p_48305051__t_w__r_www.bing.com%2F_) In the 1990s Avengers run she stated a limit: she cannot change things that lack a "molecular structure."[6](https://nerdist.com/article/sersi-eternals-powers-mcu-secret-wars/)
Like other Eternals, she has the standard Eternal physiology: cosmic-energy-augmented near-immortality, superhuman strength, durability, flight, and a healing factor.[9](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Sersi_%28Earth-616%29) The Marvel Database power grid lists her strength as a bench press of at least 20 tons, extendable through levitation and telekinesis, with lifting capacity over 25 tons.[9](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Sersi_%28Earth-616%29) Her power set has shifted across eras: the 1976 series showed a trickster with magic-trick-like transformations, *Avengers* #309 (1990) revealed her as a powerful telepath, and the 2021 film narrowed her abilities to matter transmutation alone.[6](https://nerdist.com/article/sersi-eternals-powers-mcu-secret-wars/)
## Comics history
**Kirby's original series.** Sersi appears from *The Eternals* #3 onward as an Eternal living among humans in a Manhattan apartment, cheerful and worldly, a deliberate contrast to the solemnity of Ikaris and [Thena](https://www.edgepedia.org/thena). She hosts society parties and uses her powers for pranks as often as for heroics, and in *Eternals* #5 she transformed a Deviant's hand into wood, an early display of the transmutation power later central to the film.[3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/) • [6](https://nerdist.com/article/sersi-eternals-powers-mcu-secret-wars/) The original series ran 19 issues plus an annual from 1976 to 1978.[3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/)
**The Avengers years.** After a decade as a peripheral figure, Sersi joined the Avengers in *Avengers* #314 (February 1990) under writer John Byrne, portrayed as a flamboyant New York socialite alongside [Captain America](https://www.edgepedia.org/captain-america), Thor, Vision, and She-Hulk.[3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/) Her romantic arc with Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, developed through the Gatherers saga (*Avengers* #355-375, 1992-1994, by Bob Harras and Steve Epting), in which she succumbed to Mahd Wy'ry, a cyclical madness to which Eternals are prone. In a 1992 storyline her consciousness was bonded with Dane's to stave off the madness, and she left the team at the saga's end.[3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/) • [11](https://time.com/6112817/eternals-post-credits-scenes/) She later spent time in the Ultraverse until her sanity returned, then occasionally fought alongside the Avengers again.[5](https://www.comicbasics.com/sersi/)
**Reboots.** In 1985, Peter Gillis and Sal Buscema relaunched the Eternals in a twelve-issue maxi-series in which Sersi visits Sam Holden, one of the few humans who remembered Kirby's events.[3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/) In 2006, [Neil Gaiman](https://www.edgepedia.org/neil-gaiman) and [John Romita Jr.](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-romita-jr) launched a seven-issue *Eternals* miniseries in which the Eternals have forgotten their true nature and live ordinary human lives; Sersi appears as a New York party planner running an events agency, until Ikaris begins awakening them one by one.[3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/) Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribić relaunched the franchise in 2021, revising the mythology so that all Eternals were created at the same time, a million years ago.[3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/)
## The Marvel Cinematic Universe
In *Eternals* (2021), the twenty-sixth [Marvel Cinematic Universe](https://www.edgepedia.org/marvel-cinematic-universe) film, directed by [Chloé Zhao](https://www.edgepedia.org/chloe-zhao), Sersi is played by [Gemma Chan](https://www.edgepedia.org/gemma-chan), who had previously appeared in *Captain Marvel* (2019) as an unrelated character.[4](https://time.com/6112800/the-eternals-marvel-explained/) She is the ostensible protagonist of the ensemble film, a modest academic living in London and dating the human Dane Whitman (Kit Harington), and she was in a past relationship with Ikaris (Richard Madden).[4](https://time.com/6112800/the-eternals-marvel-explained/) • [12](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/eternals-strangest-marvel-film-date) Her power is the ability to manipulate molecules and atoms, transforming inanimate objects with a touch.[4](https://time.com/6112800/the-eternals-marvel-explained/)
The film diverges from the comics in characterization: where the Kirby character is worldly and hedonistic, the screen version is introverted and melancholy.[3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/) Her narrative role is broadened, and she makes the final decision to halt the [Emergence](https://www.edgepedia.org/emergence) of the Celestial Tiamut, transmuting the forming Celestial into stone and saving humanity at the cost of a rift with her fellow Eternals.[3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/) • [6](https://nerdist.com/article/sersi-eternals-powers-mcu-secret-wars/) In the film's mid-credits scene, the Celestial Arishem takes Sersi, Kingo, and Phastos from the planet, saying he will search their memories to judge whether humanity deserves to survive.[13](https://time.com/5516692/marvel-post-credit-scenes-breakdown/)
The film received mixed reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes reporting 47 percent among critics and 78 percent among audiences, and grossed $402 million worldwide, a performance regarded as disappointing for Marvel Studios.[3](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/)
## References
1. [Circe (Sersi), Grand Comics Database](https://www.comics.org/character/684/)
2. [The Eternals #4, ComicBooks.com](https://www.comicbooks.com/issue/the-eternals-4-30313)
3. [Sersi of the Eternals: Editorial History and Key Issues, My Comics Collection](https://www.mycomicscollection.com/en/blog/sersi-eternals-comics-history/)
4. [How the Eternals Fit Into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, TIME](https://time.com/6112800/the-eternals-marvel-explained/)
5. [Sersi: Bio, Origin & History, Comic Basics](https://www.comicbasics.com/sersi/)
6. [Do Sersi's ETERNALS Powers Point to Her MCU Future in SECRET WARS?, Nerdist](https://nerdist.com/article/sersi-eternals-powers-mcu-secret-wars/)
7. [Kirby 100: When Gods Walk the Earth!, Marvel.com](https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/kirby-100-when-gods-walk-the-earth)
8. [Marvel Presents a Global Utopia and Confronts Nationalism: Eternals as a New Mythology, Humanities (MDPI)](https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/11/3/60)
9. [Sersi (Earth-616), Marvel Database](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Sersi_%28Earth-616%29)
10. [Sprite In Comics, Marvel.com](https://www.marvel.com/characters/sprite/in-comics?=___psv__p_48305051__t_w__r_www.bing.com%2F_)
11. [How Eternals' Two Post-Credits Scenes Could Shape the Future of the MCU, TIME](https://time.com/6112817/eternals-post-credits-scenes/)
12. [Eternals review, Sight and Sound (BFI)](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/eternals-strangest-marvel-film-date)
13. [Breaking Down Every Single Marvel Post-Credits Scene, TIME](https://time.com/5516692/marvel-post-credit-scenes-breakdown/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Visual arts and design › Illustration and illustrators › Comic books and characters › Comic book characters and teams › Marvel Comics characters and teams*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license