CLEOPATRA

Real Name: Cleopatra VII

Identity/Class: Normal Human (Macedonian) (69-30 BC)

Occupation: Monarch

Group Membership: The House of Ptolemy

Affiliations: Marc Antony, Julius Caesar, Clea, Dr. Strange, Helen of Troy, Iron Man (Tony Stark), Alec Jones, Salome, Venus

Enemies: Mad Pharaoh, Zota

Known Relatives: Ptolemy Auletes XI (father, deceased), Cleopatra VI (mother), Cesarion (son by Julius Caesar, alias Ptolemy XIV), Ptolemy XII, Ptolemy XIII (brothers/husbands, deceased), Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene, Ptolemy Philadelphus (children by Marc Antony, deceased), Ptolemy I (Fifth Century BC ancestor, deceased))

Aliases: Queen of the Nile, Siren of the Nile

Base of Operations: Alexandria, Egypt and Rome (now part of Modern Italy)

First Appearance: Ideal#1 (July, 1948)

Powers/Abilities: Cleopatra possessed the normal human strength of a woman of her size, height and build who engages in extensive regular exercises. She had no superhuman powers. She was a shrewd and wily monarch of great ability and boundless ambition who often used her feminine wiles to get what she desired.

History: (Historical) - Cleopatra was the third and eldest daughter of Ptolemy XI, Pharaoh and King of Egypt of the Thirty-First Dynasty, which ruled from the Late Third Century BC to the First Century BC. Upon her father’s death in 51 BC, Cleopatra at seventeen years old and her brother Ptolemy XII at the age of twelve succeeded jointly to the throne with the provision that they should marry. In the third year of their reign, his viziers advised Ptolemy to remove her from the throne and he claimed sole control after sending her into exile. Cleopatra gathered an army in Syria but was unable to assert her claim to the throne until Gaius Julius Caesar, the Roman General and statesman, who had arrived at Alexandra in 48 BC, backed her. According to tradition, she was smuggled into Caesar’s presence by his servants, but this may be historically inaccurate. At Alexandria, they reportedly became lovers, which espoused their cause. Rallying together their forces, they pressed their forces against the Egyptian armies. With the death of Ptolemy XII, Caesar placed Cleopatra on the throne. She followed him to Rome as his guest, but returned to Egypt to secure her position as Queen of Egypt.

(Historical/Dr. Strange III#33) - By custom, Cleopatra was forced to marry her younger brother, Ptolemy XIII, who at the time was only eleven years old. After securing their joint rule, she gave birth to Caesar’s son, Cesarion, who became Ptolemy XIV. Around 44 BC, Cleopatra and Caesar encountered the Twentieth Century Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Strange and his confidante, Clea, who had been transported through time. Cleopatra mentioned that the sorcerer Zota opposed her and Caesar.

 (Strange Tales I#124/2) - Zota placed Cleopatra under a spell which left her immobile and cast her into the far future so that he could usurp she and Antony's rule, but she was found by Dr. Strange, who journeyed to the past and defeated Zota, then lifted the spell from Cleopatra and sent her back to her own time.

(Historical/Ideal#1) - After Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, Cleopatra refused to take sides in the civil war that resulted after his death. Roman General Marc Antony came to her for an explanation of her conduct, but she took him to bed with her and made him one of her lovers as well. He later returned to Rome where he married Octavia, the sister of Caesar’s heir apparent, Octavian Augustus Caesar. Cleopatra would conceive him two sons.

In 36 BC, Marc Antony led an expedition against the Parthians in the Middle East and sent for Cleopatra to join him at Antioch where they married. After their successful campaign in 34 BC, he celebrated his triumph with her at Alexandria where he continued to reside. In 34 BC, Octavian declared war against Egypt for his sister’s honor and Antony divorced Octavia.

(Fantastic Four I#212 (fb)) - The immortal Sphinx (Anath-Na Mut) witnessed the romance of Cleopatra and Marc Antony during his centuries-long life.

(Tales of Suspense I#44 (fb)) - Cleopatra was opposed by the sorcerer Hatap, who seemingly perished in battle. However, Hatap was actually in a state of suspended animation.

(Tales of Suspense I#44) - Reviving in the modern era, Hatap kidnapped Tony Stark and brought him back in time with him, where he intended to resume his battle against Cleopatra. However, Stark became Iron Man and helped Cleopatra against Hatap and the Roman forces. After Hatap's death in battle, Cleopatra offered to make Iron Man her new king, but he was drawn back to his own time.

(Historical) - Cleopatra insisted on taking part of the campaign and at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, she believed Marc Antony’s defeat to be inevitable and withdrew her fleets, withdrawing with Antony to Alexandria. Upon the approach of Octavian, Antony was deceived by false reports of Cleopatra’s suicide and took his own life with his knife. Cleopatra had created the deception out of her fascination for Octavian, ready to betray Antony for power. Hearing that Octavian vowed to put her on exhibit in Rome, Cleopatra took her life as well by poison. Later traditional legends later claimed she lost her life by the bite of an asp. Her sons, the last remaining members of the Ptolemy dynasty, were put to death by Octavian, and Egypt was seized as a Roman Province.  

(Venus#1/2) - To prove her worth as an editor to Whitney Hammond, Venus recruited ten of her handmaidens---including Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, and Salome---to come to Earth as part of a Beauty Magazine project focusing on beautiful women, thus beating the line-up in their rival publication Lovely Lady Magazine.

(Adventures Into Weird Worlds#24) - A writer named Alec Jones was given a special elixer by his friend Dr. Karl Veblin that was able to ressurect the dead. Having writers block, he decides to travel to Egypt with his elixer and purchases the mummy of Cleopatra to use her knowledge of love and war for use in a book. Injecting the Mummy with the elixer restores the fabled beauty to life but as instantly as she is resurrected, she quickly falls to ground once again dead as before. Puzzled by this outcome, Alec Jones reaches for her dead body and he is quickly bitten by an asp and succumbs to its poison. The elixer had worked all too well, as it had also ressurected the asp that had originally killed Cleopatra as well.

(Tales to Astonish I#31/2) - An artist who received an extraterrestrial paintbrush which could bring anything he drew to life used its power to bring Cleopatra, Julius Caesar and Davy Crockett back to life; however, the effects of the brush were eventually undone.

Comments: Adapted by unknown creators.

Historically, Cleopatra is always portrayed as one of the most sexual and romantic figures in history, along side figures like Salome and Mata Hari, but these are actually modern additions to her legend. She was a shrewd and intelligent woman who enticed men by their base natures to get what she wanted, but there is no historical evidence that she was a great beauty. 

Contrary to belief, Cleopatra was not Egyptian; she was Macedonian by birth.

It is unclear if Cleopatra was yanked from time by Venus or if she was granted divine nature by her when she reappeared in Venus #1.

Cleopatra apparently also has appearances in Battlefront#24 and Mystery Tales#26.

Cleopatra is one of the great celebrity figures of history; celebrity in that she is often featured in time-traveling stories, such as the TV series “Voyagers” and “The Time Tunnel,” as well in Marvel and DC Comics.

The life of Cleopatra has been the basis of numerous literary works often with some distortion of the historical facts. The most notable of mention is the play Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare, Cleopatra by Samuel David, All For Love by the Playwright John Dryden and Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw. Elizabeth Taylor portrayed her in the 1963 motion picture, “Cleopatra,” which initially tanked at the box office, but later went on to become one of the most famous movies ever made.

Resource material for this bio: Funk and Wagnall’s New Encyclopedia #6 (Cleopatra), American People’s Encyclopedia #5 (Cleopatra) and Egypt: It’s Land, It’s People, It’s History by the Editors of National Geographic.

Thanks to AvatarWarlord72 for adding Cleopatra's appearance in Adventures Into Weird Worlds.

By Prime Eternal (Marvel Info) and Will U (Historical Data)

CLARIFICATIONS: Cleopatra should not be confused with:

• Moira Brandon, who portrayed her on the silver screen, @ Avengers West Coast#100
• Cleopatra, pet cat of the Roman, @ Wolverine II#183
• Cleolanthe, witch and ally of Jergal Zadh, @ Conan the Barbarian#152
• Cleopatra, Athenian princess, wife of King Phineus of Salmydessus, c. 13^th Century BC
• Cleopatra, Aetolian princess, wife of Meleager, c. 12^th Century BC
• Cleopatra I, wife of Ptolemy V, c. 210-180 BC
• Cleopatra II, wife of Ptolemy VI, c. 185-145 BC
• Cleopatra III, wife of Ptolemy VIII, c. 185-150 BC
• Cleopatra IV, wife of Ptolemy IX, c. 115 BC
• Cleopatra V, wife of Ptolemy X, c. 100 BC
• Cleopatra VI, wife of Ptolemy XII, c. 95-51 BC

Images taken from:
Dr. Strange III#33, page 11 (not counting ads), panel 3