WITCH QUEEN

Real Name: Unrevealed, possibly Mirza (see comments)

Identity/Class: Demon magic user; former human magic user (ca. 2589–2566 BC to modern era) (see comments)
;    citizen of ancient Egypt

Occupation: Ruler of her own spirit realm; former queen of ancient Egypt

Group Membership: Leads her own army of spirits and goblins

Affiliations: Cult of Black Magic (Lawrence Thornton, others), Unholy Goblins

Enemies: Barbec, Bucky (James Barnes), Captain America (Steve Rogers), Charles Lafoux

Known Relatives: Lawrence Thornton (son, deceased)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Half-World Dimension;
   formerly Giza, Egypt in the ancient past

First Appearance: (Mentioned) Captain America Comics#20/1 (November, 1942); (seen) Amazing Mysteries#33/2 (July, 1949)

Powers/Abilities: The Witch Queen is a powerful sorceress and commands vast forms of magic and curses. She is immortal and no longer ages but requires a physical body to dwell on the Earthly plane. She can read minds, mentally control others, create realistic illusions, and summon and control spirits and demons. Her physical body as well as and any other can be preserved via her magic, enhanced by the Book of Toth, to never age by being placed in a form of suspended hibernation. She gains sustenance by devouring the souls of mortal beings. In her undeath, she has become a demon and ruler of her own dimension called Half-World.

Height: Unrevealed (5'7"; by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed (130 lbs.; by approximation)
Eyes: Purple
Hair: Black

History:
(Amazing Mysteries#33/2 - BTS (fb)) - In the ancient past, the Witch Queen ruled Egypt during the time of the pharaohs and sought power over life and death. Becoming a powerful sorceress, she bargained with demons.

(Amazing Mysteries#33/2 - BTS (fb)) - Under unrevealed circumstances her reign had ended with her death, and she was placed inside a tomb with spells of protection placed on it that allowed her body to stay perfectly preserved and eternally youthful until someone would come and return her physical body to life. Her still powerful spirit was restless and she became a demon herself in death. She ruled a spirit realm called Half-World for thousands of years and commanded legions of undead spirits and goblins.

(Amazing Mysteries#33/2 - BTS) - Legends of the Witch Queen lasted throughout the ages and her tomb was sought out by archeologists and Egyptian scholars for centuries.

(Captain America Comics#20 - BTS) - The Witch Queen desired to return from the dead and placed one of her children, possibly a demonic simulacrum, in the form of a boy inside a nearby tomb where he was discovered in 1912 by an explorer called Gerald Thornton. Due to the magic placed on the child, his mummified body did not age. After reading magical hieroglyphics (likely a spell from the Book of Thoth) inside the tomb, Gerald Thornton managed to bring the lifeless child mummy to life the next day. The surprised explorer (possibly under the mental influence of the Witch Queen) adopted him, renamed him Lawrence, and returned to England to raise him.

(Captain America Comics#20 - BTS) - World War II broke out and her tomb was briefly abandoned from further exploration.

(Captain America Comics#20 - BTS) - <1942> Lawrence, now an adult, took on the identity of British officer Captain Tarleton and returned to serve in Egypt during the German invasion of North Africa. Calling himself the Spawn of the Witch Queen he reformed the Witch Queen's Cult of Black Magic and acquired, by unknown means, the Book of Thoth. He began casting rituals to return his mother the Witch Queen to life by sacrificing American and British soldiers that camped nearby. The plot to return the Witch Queen to life was halted when Captain America, Bucky and Barbec of British Intelligence began investigating a series of recent mysterious deaths and destroyed the Book of Thoth by placing it in a burning brazier. With the Book of Thoth destroyed Lawrence's life ended as well and he turned to dust. The tomb's entrance began to cave inward, but Captain America and Bucky managed to escape the falling rubble. Barbec did not and was crushed beneath a pillar that left the mark of the Witch Queen on his head as a final curse.

(Amazing Mysteries#33/2 - BTS) - World War II ended and the Witch Queen's tomb lay forgotten and buried once again beneath the sand.

(Amazing Mysteries#33/2) - Sometime after the war ended her tomb was rediscovered by archeologists Dr. Smedley and Charles Lafoux. Seeking another way to return from the dead, the Witch Queen now sought a consort and mentally influenced archeologist Charles Lafoux into digging out the remaining rubble blocking the buried tomb's entrance while his partner Dr. Smedley went to Cairo looking for more workers as the previous ones had upon discovery of the tomb fled in panic. Gaining entry inside the Witch Queen's tomb, Charles Lafoux found her preserved lifeless body in a chamber deep within the structure and read a magical papyrus scroll (Book of Thoth) that was placed in her lifeless arms and summoned her spirit returning her to life. The Witch Queen informed the horrified man that he was going to be her king and rule by her side, and he would be the one to provide her with new living human souls to torment. She also stated that his fiancée Mary, back in England, would be the first. Seeing the only alternative to the Witch Queen's evil plans was his death, Charles took a pistol and shot himself.

Comments: Created by an unidentified writer, Al Avison & Syd Shores.

The Amazing Mysteries story was only 4 pages and left some unanswered questions. When Charles Lafoux encountered her, did he use the tomb's magics connected to the Book of Thoth to return her to life or did she only appear to him as a demonic spirit.

Charles Lafoux's fiancée Mary's face resembled that of the Witch Queen's. Is it possible they may have more of a spiritual connection or maybe they were ancestors, and this was the reason Charles Lafoux was the Witch Queen's chosen consort? Maybe the Witch Queen assumed her appearance to make Charles less apprehensive and compliant by using a form that was familiar and trusting to him to get him to do her bidding.

What if she seduced Dr. Smedley making him her alternative consort after Charles Lafoux took his life? As a demon with powerful magics, why would she require the need of a physical body? She no longer required one so maybe her need was more geared to her personal vanity, or she needed a physical body to remain on the earthly plane for longer durations due to some unrevealed magic protections placed on her by another sorcerer to prevent her from returning to life and conquer the world anew.

The exact time period the Witch Queen ruled over in the ancient past was never revealed but her tomb existed near the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx which places it around the Khufu dynasty roughly 4600 years ago that ruled from 2589–2566 BC. It is possible that she may have been one of Khufu's many wives (he had at least two, Meritites and Henutsen) whose tombs have been found around the Great Pyramid.

The Witch Queen is loosely based on the 1918 novel the Brood of the Witch-Queen by Sax Rohmer. In this story her name was revealed as being Mirza and she was some sort of vampiric sorceress

You can read the novel online Brood of the Witch-Queen.

Profile by AvatarWarlord.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Witch Queen has no known connections to:

Witch Queen's Tomb

The Witch Queen was placed inside a tomb with spells of protection placed on it that allowed her body to stay perfectly preserved and eternally youthful until someone would come and return her physical body to life. The tomb lay buried for thousands of years beneath the Egyptian sands near the pyramids of Giza. The tomb was occupied by her son, the Spawn of the Witch Queen (Lawrence Thornton) and the Cult of Black Magic, who planned to resurrect her but collapsed after Captain America and Bucky destroyed a copy of the Book of Thoth. It lay buried once again until the war ended when it was rediscovered by archeologists Dr. Dennis Smedley and Charles Lafoux.

--Captain America Comics#20 (Captain America Comics#20, Amazing Mysteries#33/2

Half-World Dimension

After the Witch Queen's death in the ancient past, her power was still so great, that she devolved into a demoness and became ruler of her own hellish dimension called Half-World. Nothing is known about the dimension other than it was somehow associated with Duat, the Egyptian underworld, and was populated with vast numbers of undead spirits and goblins.

--Amazing Mysteries#33/2

Unholy Goblins

These were demonic spirits native to the Witch Queen's Half-World dimension and served her. A group of them aided the Witch Queen in preparing Charles Lafoux into accepting and becoming her consort.

--Amazing Mysteries#33/2

Charles Lafoux

An archeologist from England along with his associate Dr. Smedley rediscovered the Witch Queen's tomb that lay buried beneath the sands near the pyramids of Giza. The Witch Queen sought him out to be her consort and rule beside her. All he would have to do was find others for her to steal their souls and feed on. When he was told that his beloved Mary would be the first, he took it upon himself to commit suicide to end the Witch Queen's evil plot.

--Amazing Mysteries#33/2

Dr. Dennis Smedley

He was an elderly English archeologist who along with his associate Charles Lafoux rediscovered the Witch Queen's long-lost tomb. Superstitious workers fled the tomb site and Dr. Smedley planned to go back to Cairo in the morning and hire new ones to help dig out the remainder of dirt blocking the tomb's entrance.

--Amazing Mysteries#33/2

Mary

She was an attractive young woman from England and was Charles Lafoux's fiancée. The Witch Queen told Charles that Mary would be the first soul she would torment and feast on. Upon Charles' death by his own hands, she had some sort of psychic link to him and felt that he was trying to reach out to her telling her he loved her and would wait for her in another world.

--Amazing Mysteries#33/2

images: (without ads)
Amazing Mysteries#33, p15, pan1 (full body main image)
Amazing Mysteries#33, p15, pan6 (face closeup)
Amazing Mysteries#33, p13, pan5 (mummy form)
Amazing Mysteries#33, p13, pan8 (tomb)
Amazing Mysteries#33, p15, pan5 (Unholy Goblins)
Amazing Mysteries#33, p13, pan1 (Dr. Smedley)
Amazing Mysteries#33, p13, pan 4 (Charles Lafoux)
Amazing Mysteries#33, p15, pan7 (Mary)

Appearances:
Captain America Comics#20 (November, 1942) - unidentified writer, Al Avison (pencils), Syd Shores (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Amazing Mysteries#33/2 (July, 1949) - uidentified writer, unidentified artist, Stan Lee (editor)

First Posted: 07/18/2021
Last updated: 10/12/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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