History
Dr. Erik Selvig was a Danish scientist, and one of the leading experts in Cosmic Cubes. He began working for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Kobik Initiative as a consultant, but was asked to run the project following the death of its overseer Dr. Karen Fowler. Folwer's death happened as a consequence of the violent merging into a single being of the Cosmic Cube fragments that were being studied. This being adopted the form and mentality of a young child and became known as Kobik, and Selvig became its caretaker.
However, Kobik's abilities allowed her to exist at the same time in various places. While she was being studied and cared for by S.H.I.E.L.D., Kobik was also being secretly raised by the Red Skull. Some of the fragments that composed Kobik belonged to a Cube that had fallen under the Red Skull's possession several years earlier. The memory of Skull's obsession for that Cube was misinterpreted by Kobik's childish mentality as affection, so she went to him in search for love. The Red Skull took advantage of the child's affinity and naivety and taught her the ways of Hydra.
Kobik's innocently deranged set of values caused her to rewrite the past of Selvig's life, inserting a life-long loyalty to Hydra into it, believing that turning a person into a Hydra zealot was a positive thing. The discovery of Selvig's new allegiance inspired the Red Skull.
Under the command of the Red Skull, Selvig proposed the creation of Pleasant Hill, a picture-perfect town inhabited by reformed super-villains, whose appearance and memories were tampered with using Kobik's power.[1]
Selvig was accompanying Kobik in Pleasant Hill's daycare when Baron Zemo unleashed a co-ordinated assault on the town using an army of villains who had snapped out of their reality-warped selves, a conflict sparked by the Red Skull. Scared by the sudden destruction being sown by the villains, Kobik ran away. Moonstone confronted Selvig to know the location of the kid, and beat him up to no avail. Selvig returned in his home and remained there until Steve Rogers arrived with Maria Hill to get her medical help, having being lured by the Red Skull posing as an inhabitant named Father Patrick.[2]
Selvig nursed Hill and helped Rogers find Kobik, as part of the Skull's plan to have Kobik rewrite Rogers' past and allegiance when they met.[3] Both Selvig and Maria Hill later tried to escape from Pleasant Hill. They were intercepted by the Trapster and brought to the town hall, which Zemo had turned into a lock-up and the headquarters for his rebellion.
Kobik had been abducted by Zemo, and captured inside a device that would've stripped her out of her sentience, turning her into a regular Cosmic Cube. When the Avengers arrived to the scene, they managed to free Kobik. Selvig tried to convince Kobik to return to his side, but the small child showed her disillusion with her experience among humans due to the way S.H.I.E.L.D. used her. She teleported both Baron Zemo and Erik Selvig to the Himalayas in resentment. As they tried to find their way back to civilization, Zemo forced Selvig to come with him, intending on using him for his plans.[4]
Baron Zemo was eventually tacked down to Bagalia, and Captain America confronted him.[5] At this point, Cap's allegiance had been rewritten by Kobik, and the Sentinel of Liberty answered to the Red Skull, who ordered Rogers to dipose of Selvig. Instead of killing Selvig, Captain America faked his death and kept him at an undisclosed location.[6]
Once Zemo recovered Kobik, or rather, the fragmented pieces of her Cosmic Cube form after her human form had been destroyed, Selvig was ordered to merge the shards back together. However, this would have required him destroying Kobik's sentience, something Selvig refused to do as he saw Kobik as a daughter. After safeguarding the pieces away from Zemo, Selvig killed himself.[7]Trivia
- Erik Selvig is a character originally created for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He is modeled after his MCU counterpart's actor, Stellan Skarsgård. However, his citizenship was changed to Danish in Earth-616.[3]
See Also
- 20 appearance(s) of Erik Selvig (Earth-616)
- 6 minor appearance(s) of Erik Selvig (Earth-616)
- 3 mention(s) of Erik Selvig (Earth-616)
- 2 image(s) of Erik Selvig (Earth-616)
- 2 quotation(s) by or about Erik Selvig (Earth-616)