Salem's Seven
PURPOSE: Formerly protection of New Salem and accumulation of personal power
AFFILIATIONS: Agatha Harkness was Former Grande Dame of New Salem, former governess of Franklin Richards,
former teacher of the Scarlet Witch, Salem's Seven : Fantastic Four, Scarlet Witch, Doctor Strange
ENEMIES: Fantastic Four (former), Nicholas Scratch, Shuma Gorath
CURRENT MEMBERS: Brutacus, Gazelle, Hydron, Reptilla, Thornn, Vakume, Vertigo
FORMER MEMBERS : None
UNIVERSE : Earth-616, Marvel Universe
BASE OF OPERATIONS: New Salem, Colorado
FIRST APPEARENCE : Fantastic Four # 186 (1977)
HISTORY :
Salem's Seven was a group of magically mutated superhumans, all of whom shared the same father, Nicholas
Scratch, and all of whom lived in New Salem, Colorado. New Salem was a community of practitioners of an
ancient religion who possessed occult powers. Its citizens remained in isolation from the rest of the
world to avoid being persecuted as witches and warlocks. The most powerful sorceress in New Salem was
its leader, Agatha Harkness. Her only known child was the warlock known as Nicholas Scratch (which may be
an assumed alias). Scratch had a number of wives, who bore him the many children who were known collectively
as Salem's Seven.
Like all the citizens of the New Salem Community, the members of Salem's Seven were human beings and were
ordinarily human in appearance. In human form they all possessed certain skills at wielding magic just as
the other New Salemites do. The members of Salem's Seven, however, could mystically assume magically mutated
forms in which they possessed the unusual superhuman powers described below.
Salem's Seven's grandmother, Agatha Harkness, left New Salem to live in the outside world, where she became
the governess of Franklin Richards, the son of Reed and Susan Richards of the hero team Fantastic Four. Scratch
hated Harkness and had her and Franklin abducted to New Salem, intending to have her executed for treason to
their community. (In fact, Harkness had never done anything to betray the New Salemites.) The Fantastic Four
went after Harkness and Franklin but were captured as well. The Fantastic Four escaped their cell only to be
confronted by Salem's Seven, who served as Scratch's elite warriors. However, the Fantastic Four overcame Salem's
Seven, found Harkness in time to prevent her execution, and turned the community against Scratch. The New
Salemites then mystically banished Scratch to another dimension.
Sometime later, Salem's Seven traveled to New York City and attempted to bring Nicholas Scratch back to Earth.
Agatha Harkness used her occult powers to strip Salem's Seven of their abilities to assume their magically
mutated forms and banish them back to New Salem. She also cast a spell further entrapping Scratch in the
dimention to which he had been exiled.
Over a period of years, Salem's Seven used their remaining mystical abilities to turn the spells Harkness had
used to deprive them of their magically mutated forms back upon her. As a result, Salem's Seven regained their
abilities to assume these forms, and Harkness was greatly weakened. Salem's Seven turned the New Salem Community
against Harkness, and the Seven became the supreme sorcerers of the community. Vertigo, the eldest of Harkness's
granddaughters and the leader of the Seven, became high priestess (queen) of the New Salem community. Salem's
Seven captured the weakened Harkness and executed her by burning her at the stake.
Harkness's spirit apparently influenced her pupil, the Scarlet Witch, to go to New Salem, where she journeyed
with her husband, the Vision. There, both the Scarlet Witch and the Vision were captured by six members of
Salem's Seven. The seventh member, Gazelle, had opposed the others' plan to entrap the Scarlet Witch. As
punishment, Gazelle was sentenced to be slain as a human sacrifice. Vertigo asked the Scarlet Witch to join
their coven. But the Scarlet Witch refused, so Vertigo planned to sacrifice her as well as Gazelle and the Vision.
The Vision broke free after dawn of the following day and battled Vertigo, who took upon herself and wielded
the combined magical powers of all 665 New Salemites. The Vision defeated her nonetheless, and as a result,
Vertigo lost control of the community's magical forces, which threatened to kill all the New Salemites. The
Scarlet Witch channeled much of these tremendous magical forces into a mountain, which then exploded, killing
Salem's Seven and apparently all the other New Salemites. The Vision and the Scarlet Witch, however, both survived.
Later, the spirit of the deceased Thornn captured the Scarlet Witch and brought her into a supernatural dimension
ruled by a mystical entity known as Samhain. There she encountered the spirits of the rest of Salem's Seven
(except for Gazelle), who all sought vengeance upon her, intended to return to Earth, and were now allied with
Samhain. There the Scarlet Witch also discovered Harkness's spirit, which had been bound helplessly to an ethereal
stake ever since her physical demise. But Harkness had mystically contacted the Vision, telling him how to help
fight Samhain by destroying a book of druidic magic to which Samhain was mystically bound. By doing so, the Vision
made it impossible for Samhain to retain his humanoid form. Harkness could not defeat this entity as long as he
had Samhain's form, but now she broke free from the stake and used her magical powers to entrap the entity within
the spirits of his allies, the six members of Salem's Seven other than Gazelle. Harkness's spirit went free and the
Scarlet Witch returned to Earth.
The Seven were eventually returned to earth through the machinations of Nicholas Scratch.
Salem's Seven was recently resurrected when the The Scarlet Witch's mental break down and manipulation of
magic restored them to life. Their father, Nicholas Scratch, manipulated them into releasing Shuma-Gorath
but they then changed sides and aided the FF, Diablo, and Doctor Strange in defeating Scratch and
Shuma-Gorath. The seven are now living with Strange and are friends of the FF.
Salem's Seven Team Members
Brutacus -
Son of Scratch,
Powers :
transforms into a leonine humanoid with red horns which has strength and durability sufficient to match the Thing or the Vision
Gazelle -
Daughter of Scratch,
Powers :
transforms into a cloven-hoofed person with super-speed and agility.
Hydron -
Son of Scratch,
Powers :
transforms into bipedal merman who can fire controllable streams of water from the stump-end of his left arm.
Reptilla -
Daughter of Scratch,
Powers :
transforms into serpentine form with a single long tail instead of legs, and two poisonous serpents instead of her arms. She has the ability to constrict and to also bite with her hand-snakes.
Thornn -
Son of Scratch,
Powers :
transforms into a yellow demonic humanoid with large red thorns jutting from the arms and legs. He has the ability to throw explosive or stunning thorns.
Vakume -
Son of Scratch,
Powers :
transforms into a featureless purple humanoid. He has the ability to become intangible and control air, creating winds and vacuums.
Vertigo -
African-American and eldest daughter of Scratch
Powers :
Vertigo has no special transformation powers. She is not the same character as Vertigo of the Savage Land Mutates, but possesses the same ability to attack a person's sense of balance.
For more Info see Fantastic Four
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES :
Met Scrier circa 18,000 BC (Silver Surfer #135, 1998); in Salem in 1692,
chose to lead her people into isolation (Nova #6-7, 1994);
Abigail Harkness fled Salem (X-Men: The Hellfire Club #1, 2000);
became Franklin Richards’ nanny, defeated Frightful Four (Fantastic Four #94, 1970);
revealed powers to Fantastic Four (Fantastic Four #110, 1971);
aided Fantastic Four against Over-Mind (Fantastic Four #114, 116, 1971);
let Reed Richards communicate with entire Earth (Fantastic Four #123, 1972);
forced to aid Annihilus (Fantastic Four #140-141, 1973);
left Fantastic Four's service, met & began training Scarlet Witch (Avengers #127-128/Fantastic Four #150, 1974);
left Wanda (Avengers #137, 1975),
alongside Fantastic Four, vs Scratch & Salem’s Seven (Fantastic Four #181-182 & 185-187, 1977);
yearly return to New Salem (Fantastic Four Annual #14, 1979);
opposed Scratch when he possessed Franklin, remained in New Salem (Fantastic Four #222-223, 1980);
apparent burning at stake (Vision & the Scarlet Witch #3, 1985);
helped Wanda against Samhain (Vision & the Scarlet Witch #3, 1986);
watched Wanda’s children & altered Scarlet Witch’s memory after children’s’ apparent dissolution (Avengers West Coast #50-52, 1989);
restored Wanda’s memories, defeated Immortus (Avengers West Coast #61-62, 1990);
restored Tigra (Avengers Spotlight #38, 1990);
returned as Franklin’s governess (Fantastic Four #368, 1992);
opposed Necromancer (Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #47-48, 1992);
alongside Strange, aided Scarlet Witch in opposing Chthonic energies (Darkhold: Pages From the Book of Sins #4-7, 1993);
aided in sending Franklin to future (Fantastic Four #376-377, 1993);
helped Scarlet Witch vs Lore (Scarlet Witch #1 & 3-4, 1994);
reconciled with Susan Richards (Fantastic Four #416, 1996);
freed Silver Surfer of his soul virus (Silver Surfer #135-137, 1998);
counseled Wanda on her powers (Avengers #10-11, 1998);
after Wanda went insane, attempted to help her, apparent corpse was found (Avengers #503, 2004);
“Aunt Agatha” attended amnesiac Wanda (New Avengers #26, 2007)
Return to Dragon Hero Main Page
Return to Marvel Universe
Return to The Vault
