Cerebra's Files
Black Queen
Real Name: Ms. Steed
Affiliation: Hellfire Club London
Alternate-X Versions: Damask (AOA)
Codename Etymology: Pronounced blăk kwēn
[From Middle English, blak] + [Old English, cwēn: woman, wife, queen; akin to Gothic qens: wife, Greek gynE woman, Sanskrit jani]; The wife or widow of a king or chief, a female monarch, also a chess piece that can move multiple horizontal, vertical, or diagonal spaces in one turn.
Powers: Ms. Steed has the ability to psychically skin the layers of a person's brain, using psionic projections that look like long blades on chains. This form of telepathy can be very painful for the victim. During the Club's failed attempt to take over London using a demon, she killed the Black King, who had been driven insane by the monster. She was apparently in contact with Onslaught as well, although their connection was never fully revealed. When Brian Braddock approached Steed about the chaos in London, she attacked him, but her blades bounced off his forcefield, which he then threw at her, nearly taking her head off. The Black Queen's current whereabouts are unknown, although she may have been arrested by the authorities. In the "Age of Apocalypse," Ms. Steed was known as Damask.
*Although Ms. Steed is the first London Branch Black Queen we have seen, there have been two Black Queens of the New York Hellfire Club:
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