Gloriana Tenebrae

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Categories: Seven Soldiers Characters | Sheeda

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BillR -- This "Gloriana Tenebrae," the vampire queen Neh-Buh-Loh spoke of in
Grant's JLA:C arc, is giving off serious vibes of Medusa, the "evil witch" fairy
tale archetype, Gozer the Gozerian from Ghostbusters, Lilith, queen of monsters,
and, hell, numerous other things, into one solid amalgamation.

Mario --"Gloriana" is the name given to the title character in Edmund Spenser's
"The Faerie Queene" (who is equated with Queen Elizabeth I, but that's probably not
relevant). As "Tenebrae" means "Darkness" the name "Gloriana Tenebrae" is fitting
for the queen of the "dark faeries".

She may be linked to creepy/fairy-ish figure of the Sheela Na Gig (http://www.sheelanagig.org).

Given the Arthurian context, it's not unlikely this is an analogue of Morgana le Fay.

Gloriana's costume appears to be very much based upon the most famous garments of Queen Elizabeth the First of England, who was also nicknamed Gloriana for the exceptional progress made in England during her reign; Elizabeth was also obsessed with maintaining an appearance of youth in public, which according to some reports led to her death. A similar approach was later taken by Alan Moore in The League of Extraordinary Gentleman: The Black Dossier, wherein it is revealed that Elizabeth referred to herself only as Gloriana and was in fact half-fairy, her mother Anne Boleyn being actually named Nan Bullen, and daughter of Oberon.

In Frankenstein #4, Gloriana shares one or two traits with Morrison's Marvel villain, Cassandra Nova Xavier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra_Nova), in her first appearances - namely, appearing as a frail old woman one moment and a tentacled monstrosity the next.

Appearances

Gloriana Tenebrae appears in...

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