Erik SelvigDoctor Erik Selvig

Dr. Erik Selvig, astrophysicist and professor, contributes his substantial knowledge to help the Avengers defeat their foes.

Biography

Biography

Dr. Erik Selvig is a Dutch native who worked as a scientist for S.H.I.E.L.D. before becoming the guardian of Kobik, a being born of Cosmic Cubes. Selvig found his world turned upside down as Hydra and Captain America (Steve Rogers) both became involved in the child-like entity’s life. Selvig sacrificed himself in the end to protect the innocent being.

Guardian of the Cube

One of the leading experts in Cosmic Cubes, Dr. Selvig began working for S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Kobik Initiative as a consultant. After the death of Dr. Karen Fowler, he was asked to run the project. Fowler’s death occurred when the Cosmic Cube fragments she was studying violently combined into a single being, which adopted the form and mentality of a young child. This being became known as Kobik, and Selvig became its caretaker.

Doctor Erik Selvig meeting the Cube Fragments, Kobik

S.H.I.E.L.D. Scientist

Selvig is an average human being with no super human abilities. However, he is set apart from his peers thanks to his great intellect, one that got him hired by S.H.I.E.L.D. to study Cosmic Cubes. As a doctor, he can also treat patients and does so for Maria Hill after Baron Zemo attacks her Pleasant Hill facility.

Threats to Kobik

Dr. Selvig comes in the crosshairs of both Red Skull and the Hydra Captain America while he serves as Kobik’s caretaker.

Doctor Erik Selvig and Red Skull

Cube Compatriots

S.H.I.E.L.D. is Selvig’s most prominent ally, but his dedication to the “good guys” is tested with the arrival of Kobik, which presents him with a new world of conflict. Like Captain America, thanks to this event Selvig’s past is rewritten so that he is instilled with an undying devotion to Hydra.

Doctor Erik Selvig and Kobik

gender

Male

eyes

Blue

hair

Blond

Universe, Other Aliases, Place of Origin, Identity

  • Universe

    • Marvel Universe

  • Other Aliases

    • None

  • Place of Origin

    • Denmark

  • Identity

    • No dual identity

Kobik's Caretaker

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. She believed that turning a person into a Hydra zealot was a positive thing. The discovery of Selvig’s new allegiance inspired Red Skull.

Under the command of 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.

Doctor Erik Selvig and the Pleasant Hill Initiative

Selvig was accompanying Kobik in Pleasant Hill’s daycare, when Baron Zemo unleashed a coordinated 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 find her location, but was unsuccessful. Selvig returned to his home and remained there until Steve Rogers arrived with Maria Hill to get her medical help after Red Skull lured her in while posing as an inhabitant named Father Patrick.

With the intent to rewrite Rogers’ past and allegiance, Selvig nursed Hill and helped Rogers find Kobik. Both Selvig and Maria Hill later tried to escape from Pleasant Hill. but were intercepted by the Trapster and brought to the town hall. The town hall served as Zemo’s rebellion headquarters, as well as a jail.

Kobik had been abducted by Zemo and trapped inside a device that would strip her of her sentience, turning her into a regular Cosmic Cube. When the Avengers arrived to the scene, they rescued Kobik. Selvig tried to convince Kobik to return to his side, but the 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 out of resentment. As they tried to find their way back to civilization, Zemo forced Selvig to come with him, intending to use him for his plans.

Zemo was eventually tracked down to Bagalia where Captain America confronted him. The Super-Soldier’s allegiance had been rewritten by Kobik and he was answering to the Red Skull, who ordered Rogers to dispose of Selvig. Instead of killing Selvig, Captain America faked his death and kept him at an undisclosed location.

Once Zemo recovered the fragmented pieces of Kobik’s Cosmic Cube form after her human form was destroyed, Selvig was ordered to merge the shards back together. However, this would have required him to destroy Kobik’s sentience, something Selvig refused to do since he saw Kobik as a daughter. After safeguarding the pieces away from Zemo, Selvig killed himself.

Doctor Erik Selvig sends Kobik away to safety