Erik Selvig (Earth-11584)

History
Dr. Erik Selvig was a renowned Swedish-American scientist in the fields of Astrophysics and Astronomy, who worked closely as an associate with Dr. Jane Foster on her theories concerning wormholes. Dr. Selvig was in fact like a second father to Jane, helping to look after her when her parents died when she was younger (he had worked with them in the past and been a close family friend.) Little else is known about Dr. Selvig's personal life, other than he had been divorced in the past.

When Jane found herself being ostracized from the scientific community over theories that were not widely accepted, Dr. Selvig joined her in her quest to prove the other scientists wrong, despite the damage it did to his own academic career. Joining with an intern named Darcy Lewis, the three took up residence in Tucumcari New Mexico, trying to prove the Foster theories about wormholes and other realms. Though their work was time consuming, they appeared to be close to a breakthrough when they were confronted by a freak storm out in the desert. In an attempt to escape it, they accidentally ran over a man stumbling through the windstorm. Not knowing what else to do, they took him to the hospital, giving him the alias Donald Blake.

When the man, calling himself Thor, awoke the next morning and began spouting off what appeared to be nonsense about the realm of Asgard, Dr. Selvig was highly skeptical and wanted little to do with him. Jane was taken by the man though, and aided in his attempts to prove who he was. In the process, though, SHIELD had all of their research confiscated. Thor was eventually able to penetrate the SHIELD base where his hammer Mjolnir was situated, but was unable to claim it and was captured. Against his better judgement, Dr. Selvig vouched for Thor and brought him back to Tucumcari, buying him a drink and asking him to skip town. Over the course of the evening, Dr. Selvig found himself getting very drunk, and was then brought home by Thor, the two seemingly having buried their issues. The following morning, Dr. Selvig was nursing a hangover which was not aided by the attack on them by the Destroyer Armor. Selvig was powerless to stop Thor from sacrificing himself to save him, Jane, and the Warriors Three, but did pull Jane away from Thor when Mjolnir arrived to restore his powers. After Thor's departure, Selvig and Foster's research was returned to them. Much later, Selvig was confronted by SHIELD director Nick Fury, who asked him to consult on the Tesseract project.

Dr. Selvig experimented with the Tesseract, finding it to be a device capable of generating a great amount of power and treating it as a stable alternative energy source. However, his theories were proven wrong when the Taskmaster seized the Tesseract and used it to open a portal across space, bringing Loki to Earth. Loki used a mind control spell on Dr. Selvig, clouding his mind and getting him to help build a device that could create a stable portal to Earth using the Tesseract. Selvig succeeded in doing so, but subconsciously built in a fail safe that would allow the device to be shut off easily. After using the device to help bring the Chitauri to Earth for an invasion, Loki's mind control spell was lifted. Selvig instructed the Black Widow on how to shut off the device, witnessing the destruction of the Battle of New York first hand. Afterwards he joined Jane Foster in London, teaching at a prestigious university and trying to help Jane move on past Thor, thinking he wouldn't return to her.

Selvig used the knowledge he gained from the Tesseract project to help Jane build the Field Bridge device, though some of his knowledge appeared to be lost, as he couldn't find a stabilizing power source for the device. Despite this flaw, Jane tested it in an attempt to join Thor on Asgard. However instead, she found herself on Svartalfheim and absorbed the substance of the Aether while there. Selvig blamed himself for the failure, and could only watch when Jane was taken to Asgard for healing. Several days later Jane and Thor returned with Thor's brother Balder, informing Dr. Selvig of Malekith and his attempts to use the Aether and the Field Bridge technology to bring darkness to the whole of the Nine Realms. Dr. Selvig was instrumental in helping Jane recalibrate the Field Bridge technology, and using it to defeat Malekith's purpose.

In the years since, Dr. Selvig has been said to be a scientific advisor to SHIELD in addition to his teaching, working on everything from the Hulk project to the attempt to create a new Ant-Man.

Powers & Abilities

 * Scentific Mastery: Dr. Selvig is, along with Jane Foster, one of the foremost authorities on astrophysics and astronomy in general. He is also well versed in other scientific theories, and operates as a general scientific advisor for SHIELD. It is speculated that he helped work on the Hulk's final directive project, and possibly even assisting in some of the quantum calculations in Thaddeus Ross' attempts to replicate the Ant-Man technology.
 * Engineering Skills: Selvig possesses at least some degree of engineering skill, as he was able to build a device to contain the Tesseract and use it to open a portal to deep space. However this knowledge, if he ever truly possessed it, seems to have left him as he was unable to perfectly duplicate the technology when working on the Field Bridge.

Weaknesses
Dr. Selvig possesses no special abilities or powers that make him any less susceptible to normal injury or danger. In addition, he has a known blind spot when dealing with Jane Foster, given his fatherly attachment to her. As proven by Thor, he also can't hold his liquor.

Film Details
Dr. Selvig appears in the following films within the Earth-11584 continuity. In all cases he is portrayed by actor Stellan Skarsgaard.
 * Thor (2011)
 * The Avengers (2012)
 * Thor: The Dark World (2013)
 * Ant-Man (2015) [mentioned only]
 * The Incredible Hulk 2 [mentioned only]