Sersi Fact — November 6, 2026

Today's Fact

Thirteen years before Jack Kirby gave her a series of her own, she was already on the stands — blonde, centuries old, and tidying evil spirits back into a box.

SERSI DEBUTED 13 YEARS BEFORE THE ETERNALS — AS CIRCE IN A HUMAN TORCH STORY, ONE ISSUE BEFORE DOCTOR STRANGE!

The Featured Fact

In Strange Tales Vol. 1 #109 (June 1963), in the story "The Sorcerer and Pandora's Box," the Human Torch battled a cranky collector called the Sorcerer, who had opened Pandora's Box and set its imps — Hatred, Forgetfulness, Sleepiness, Disease, Fear and worse — loose on the town of Glenville. In flashback, the issue showed the woman who had sealed those evils away in the ancient world: Circe, the enchantress of Greek legend. Thirteen years later, in The Eternals Vol. 1 #3 (1976), Jack Kirby introduced the Eternal Sersi — and had her admit that Circe had been her all along.

The timing is what makes it delicious. Strange Tales #109 reached the stands one issue before #110 introduced Doctor Strange — Marvel's Sorcerer Supreme had not debuted yet, but an immortal enchantress was already doing his kind of work inside his own anthology title, credited as a figure out of myth rather than as a character in a shared universe. Kirby drew both the 1963 flashback and her 1976 "debut," and Roy Thomas later underlined the connection when he folded the Eternals into the Marvel Universe in Thor Vol. 1 #284 (1979), where Sersi again owns up to being the Circe of legend.

And when she finally arrived under her own name, Kirby spelled it wrong: The Eternals #3 introduced her as "Sersy," with a Y. The Greeks had made the same mistake in-story — in The Eternals Vol. 1 #4 (1976), recounting her past to Margo Damian, Sersi sighs that the Greek storytellers never could spell her name right, moments before cheerfully confirming that yes, she really did turn Ulysses and his crew into pigs for their table manners. A first appearance that is a flashback, a debut that is a retcon, and a name nobody in three thousand years could spell: that is a first appearance with footnotes.

Why It's Obscure

A flashback, a borrowed comic, a borrowed name — and an official ruling four decades later.

1963

The flashback did the work — Circe appears only in flashback in Strange Tales #109, sealing the imps into Pandora's Box in ancient times; the Marvel Database logs the cameo as her "First Silver Age Appearance."

The host

Not her comic — the story belongs to Johnny Storm, who beats the Sorcerer by choosing "flame" out of the box, welds it shut and dumps it in the ocean — where, this being Marvel, it promptly resurfaced in Chamber of Darkness #3.

The Y

Spelled "Sersy" at her debut — The Eternals #3 (1976) printed her name with a Y before the modern spelling settled in, echoing her own on-panel complaint an issue later about Greek storytellers mangling it.

2005

Made official — Marvel's Women of Marvel handbook (2005) formally confirmed in print that the Circe of Strange Tales #109 and Sersi were one and the same, settling a retcon fans had argued over for decades.

Gallery

The pigs, the enchantress, and the hero whose comic she quietly debuted inside.

Comic page from The Eternals #4 showing Sersi recounting how she turned Ulysses' crew into pigs, the transformed sailors oinking at a banquet table — **Boors into pigs**Kirby's own retelling in The Eternals #4 (1976): Sersi explains that Ulysses' crew ate like animals, so she made it official — "OINK! OINK!" included, exactly as Homer reported.

Comic artwork of Sersi in her green costume, fists raised — **The enchantress herself**Sersi in her green costume — the matter-transmuting Eternal whose hospitality, five thousand years on, still begins with rearranging whatever displeases her.

Comic artwork of the Human Torch, Johnny Storm, wreathed in flame in his blue Fantastic Four uniform — **Her unwilling co-star**The Human Torch, Johnny Storm — the hero whose 1963 solo story carried Sersi's secret first appearance in its flashback, thirteen years before she had a series, or even a correctly spelled name, of her own.

Sources

Every fact on this page was checked against at least two independent sources before publication.

Bullpen Bulletins

Wikipedia — Sersi Publication history: first appearance as Circe in Strange Tales #109 (June 1963), debut as "Sersy" in The Eternals #3 (September 1976), and the retcon identifying the two as the same woman.
Marvel Database — Strange Tales Vol. 1 #109 Issue record listing Circe (Sersi) in flashback as a "First Silver Age Appearance," the Pandora's Box imps, and a continuity note confirming she admitted the identity herself in Eternals #3.
CBR — Sersi Secretly Debuted in a Silver Age Human Torch Story Walks the whole chain: the 1963 flashback, Kirby drawing both versions, Thor #284's follow-up reference, and the 2005 Women of Marvel handbook confirmation.