Emerald Empress

The Emerald Empress is the wielder of the Emerald Eye of Ekron, a mystic device of vast power. She is a founding member of the super-villain team known as the Fatal Five and a long-time enemy of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Pre-Crisis

Before the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Emerald Empress was originally a woman named Sarya, a 30th-century native of the planet Venegar.

The Empress's powerful Emerald Eye of Ekron

Venegar (also spelled as Vengar) was once the site of the highly advanced but long-dead Ekron civilization, whose great scientific secrets were presumed lost. But Sarya came across an ancient map that led her to the hidden Crypt of the Eye. There she discovered the Emerald Eye of Ekron, resting on a green pedestal. Sarya and the Eye quickly formed a symbiotic relationship, and she realized that she could use its almost limitless power to fulfill her wildest ambitions. Within a matter of hours, she conquered her home world and became known as the Emerald Empress. But she proved to be a despotic ruler and the citizens of Venegar soon rose against her in open rebellion. 

The planet's military possessed enough high tech super-weapons that even the Eye was unable to deal with all of them on its own, so the Empress took the Eye and fled into space. Using the Eye's power she terrorized the wealthy merchants of the space lanes, looting their riches with the goal of bankrolling an army to invade Venegar. For these reasons the Empress become the most wanted female criminal in the history of the galaxy.

Around this time, the Legion of Super-Heroes was forced to confront the even greater menace of the Sun-Eater, which threatened the very existence of the galaxy. The Legion decided they had no choice but to recruit the galaxy's worst super-villains to help them in a common cause. The Emerald Empress was among the villains who briefly joined with the Legion to destroy the Sun-Eater. Afterwards, they decided to form their own team in direct opposition to the Legion, and so the Empress became a founding member of the infamous Fatal Five, along with Tharok, Persuader, Mano, and Validus. The Empress worked with the Five on many occasions, including several epic clashes with the Legion, but also continued her solo career in further attempts to dominate her home planet or any other she took a shine to.

Leader of the Fatal Five

The Empress eventually grew dissatisfied with merely being a member of the Fatal Five. During a period when Tharok (with whom she had previously clashed for leadership) and Validus were unavailable, she decided to remake the team with herself as its leader. Of the remaining founding members, she only retained Persuader. The other original member, Mano, had fallen out of her favor and was informed he must prove himself by killing a Legionnaire in order to be readmitted. Mano attempted to kill Brainiac 5, but was thwarted and captured by Ultra Boy and Timber Wolf. Disgusted with Mano's performance, the Empress decided to take a different route and recruited three female super-villains to round out her Fatal Five: Flare, Caress, and Mentalla. The latter was a telepath who wanted revenge on the Legion after they rejected her application for membership.

The new Fatal Five had another epic confrontation with the Legion and was successful in winning the initial clashes. However, the Empress misjudged the loyalty of Mentalla, who still secretly aspired to prove her worth to the Legion. At a critical point in the conflict, Mentalla turned against the Fatal Five and helped the Legion just when they were facing certain defeat. Enraged at the betrayal, the Empress killed Mentalla with a lethal blast from the Eye. Horrified by Mentalla's murder, the Legion rallied and routed the Five. Mentalla was considered to have died a hero and was posthumously made a Legionnaire.

Sarya’s Death

The Emerald Empress of pre-Crisis continuity had a final confrontation with the Legion, during which it was revealed that the Eye was the one who controlled the Empress and not the other way around. As the conflict escalated, the Eye made the Empress a host for its energies until she was physically dying from the excessive absorbed power, but the Eye would not allow her to actually die. Craving death, The Empress approached one of her most hated adversaries, Sensor Girl (aka Projectra), and explained her plight to the Legionnaire. Sensor Girl took pity on the Empress and granted her wish, using her illusory powers to completely mask the Empress's presence from the Eye. The Eye, unable to possess what it could not see, shut down. The Empress reverted to the woman once known as Sarya, and quickly withered into an old crone and crumbled into dust. Just before she died, Sarya expressed relief to finally be free of the Eye's influence, suggesting that she had actually been far older than her youthful appearance as the Empress had indicated. 

Post- Zero Hour

The Emerald Empress would appear again in the post- Zero Hour reboot of Legion continuity. Cera Kesh was a homely and overweight teen-aged girl who possessed a modest superhuman ability, so she tried out for the Legion of Super-Heroes. Her application was rejected and to add insult to injury, the Legionnaire Inferno (aka Sun Boy), whom she harbored a crush on, poked fun at her weight. Nursing a growing hatred for the Legion as a result, Cera stumbled across the Emerald Eye of Ekron through a twist of fate and bonded with it. Deciding to call herself the Emerald Empress, she turned to a life of crime and joined the Fatal Five of this continuity, leading to clashes with the Legion. She also used the Eye's power to transform herself from a dumpy teenager into a tall, statuesque, green-haired beauty very much like the original incarnation of the Empress.

Meanwhile a longtime Legion foe, Leland McCauley, had discovered a duplicate Emerald Eye of Ekron. He presented it to his girlfriend, a young woman named Ingria Olav, with the idea that she would become the Emerald Empress. Ingria turned out to be a weak and unskilled wielder of her Eye, and when she was confronted by the Cera Kesh Empress, she lost her nerve and was killed by Cera's Eye. The Cera Kesh Empress, now the only Emerald Empress, then took possession of both Eyes.

Whatever villainy this Empress would accomplish with the power of two Emerald Eyes of Ekron was never revealed, since Legion continuity was eventually rebooted yet again.

Later Reboots

After the latest Legion reboot, another Fatal Five appeared to plague the Legion of Super-Heroes, including a female member simply known as the 'Empress.' This Empress was initially unconnected to the Emerald Eye of Ekron and had no superhuman powers. She was still as dangerous as the other members of the Five, being a sadistic murderess trained with the knowledge and ability to kill any known life form. She eventually encountered the Eye and became its wielder. Unlike in previous continuities, where who-was-controlling-who was open to question, this Empress appeared to break the Eye's will and take undisputed control. 

The Empress subsequently appeared in The Brave and the Bold, battling Batman and the Jaime Reyes version of the Blue Beetle. She and the Fatal Five also made an appearance in Final Crisis, joining forces with Superboy-Prime's Legion of Super-Villains.

In other media

The Emerald Empress appeared along with the rest of the Fatal Five in an episode of Justice League Unlimited, once again battling the Legion of Super-Heroes. In this episode, the Eye was shown to be more powerful than a Green Lantern Power Ring. She and the Fatal Five also made a cameo appearance in Justice League: The New Frontier. 

She returned to leadership of the Fatal Five in the Legion of Super-Heroes animated series. In this series she is shown to have an almost affectionate relationship with the Eye. After a period when she was separated from the Eye due to imprisonment, she hugged it when it was returned to her. Unlike in other continuities, she was not shown to suffer any negative physical effects whenever the Eye was disabled or damaged.

Powers 

With the exception of Cera Kesh (who possessed a modest but undisclosed super-ability in order to try out for the Legion), the Empress has no innate super-powers of her own. But as the wielder of the Emerald Eye of Ekron, the Empress has direct access to its immense power, which she employs in a variety of ways. With it, she can fly and survive unharmed in the cold vacuum of space. At her command, it can attack her enemies with energy blasts powerful enough to take down even the likes of Superboy. It also protects her from attack by generating a nearly impenetrable force field around her. The Empress has even shown an ability to wield the Eye's power to suit more specific needs depending on her situation: it has given her superhuman strength on more than one occasion, and in another instance she was able to use its power to grow to gigantic size. 

The Eye itself has few weaknesses and is virtually indestructible. It can be temporarily stunned or disoriented if struck by a powerful enough attack, but the effect is momentary. A truly devastating blow can possibly shatter the Eye, but it will quickly re-form itself with no hint of any damage. It can sometimes be tricked into shutting down if its ability to 'see' is blocked (such as when Sensor Girl masked the presence of the Empress from the Eye), though this is difficult to accomplish since the Eye can see through nearly every spectrum and wavelength. For some reason it has an adverse reaction to green Kryptonite; when exposed to the material it can become dazed or immobilized. If the Eye is successfully attacked, the Empress will often 'feel' the effects of the attack as well, due to their symbiotic relationship.