Set (Serpent God)
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Set is the name a malevolent seven-headed serpent god within the continuities of Conan the Barbarian and Marvel Universe.
He is apparently an amalgam of the name of the Egyptian god Set and the appearance and characteristics of the Egyptian monster Apep and the Greek mythological figure the Lernaean Hydra. This interpretation of the figure may also be influenced by H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.
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[edit] Conan
This iteration of Set,the god of chaos, has its origins in Robert E. Howard's first Conan short story The Phoenix on the Sword, (first published in Weird Tales, December, 1932); This story introduces Thoth-Amon, a follower of "the serpent god Set".
The "god" was later extensively used in Marvel Comics' various Conan series starting in the 1970s. Of those series, the issue which contains the first mention of "Set" is Conan the Barbarian Vol.1 #7 (July, 1971).
Set was shown visually for the first time in Marvel Feature Vol.1#6 (May, 1976), a Red Sonja story which was set in the same world as Conan.
In the 1982 movie Conan the Barbarian, the villainous Thulsa Doom leads the "Cult of the Serpent God Set".
[edit] From Conan to the Marvel Universe
The Conan stories printed by Marvel Comics were originally meant to be set in the Marvel Universe's prehistory, but his status as a property which is no longer licenced for use by the company means those stories' status as canon is unresolved.
However, this iteration of "Set" is still a definite part of Marvel continuity. He was first mentioned in an official "Marvel Universe" comic in Sub-Mariner#9 (January, 1969 - which predates the first Conan comics), in which the Sub-Mariner is controlled by the Serpent Crown, a device which Set can use to influence people's minds.
That story was written by Roy Thomas, who shortly afterwards brought Conan to Marvel and adapted many of Howard's stories. Thomas's "Set" was clearly inspired by Howard's use of the character, and Thomas would later be instrumental in integrating the character into the history of the Marvel Universe (along with the Conan stories and other elements of Howard's work). Set remains an important part of Marvel Universe canon today [1].
[edit] Marvel Universe history
Though Set has rarely appeared in the comics, it is credited with playing a pivotal role in the development of life on Earth in the Marvel Universe.
The serpent god Set was created approximately 3 billion years ago, when the being known as the Demiurge spread its substance over the Earth and created the Elder Gods, of which it was one. Set created several lesser snake demons, such as Damballah; but it hungered for power, and decided to obtain it by eating the weaker gods and absorbing their magic. The process worked, but it also turned Set into a demon.
The other gods began to imitate Set, and soon, all but Gaea, goddess of the earth, had become demons. Fearing they would hurt Earth's evolving lifeforms, Gaea mated with Demiurge to conceive a son with the power to destroy the other gods: Atum, the sun god. Atum began to kill the demons and absorb their energies, which caused it to take on a demonic form himself, that of the "Demogorge the God-Eater". He continued to destroy the demons, until the last ones left realized that they would only survive by banishing themselves into other dimensions. In Set's case, it created its own 'pocket dimension' to hide, but lacked the power to escape from it by itself. It would remain there for a billion years.
Eventually, about 65 million years ago, Set began to feed on the energies of the dinosaurs. This gave it the power to manifest on Earth again. However, when Gaea decided to let dinosaurs die out and be replaced by mammals, Set took control of the dinosaurs and made them attack the mammals. Gaea responded by summoning Atum (who had been living in the Sun) and the deity reassumed his Demogorge form and battled Set. Demogorge ripped Set's head off, but the demon possessed the power to grow two replacements instantly. Still, Demogorge continued to rip off Set's heads.
Eventually, Set's power was exhausted, and it returned to its dimension, imprisoning itself again; by this time, it had seven heads. Demogorge changed back into Atum and returned to the Sun. This titanic battle may have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs in the Marvel Universe. Set remained imprisoned for several million years more.
At some point, Set somehow created a new race, the Serpent Men, to serve it on Earth. They tried to influence mankind's prehuman ancestors, but failed, and were rejected by the Celestials for their empowering experiments. Still, Set would try to influence humanity (and strike at them) through the millennia. However, most of the Serpent Men were killed off by the forces of King Kull of Atlantis.
Just before the continent of Lemuria was sunk by the Celestials in the "Great Cataclysm" the Serpent Men and some human alchemists created the Serpent Crown, and object which mystically accessed the powers of Set in his pocket dimension. The Crown could grant great powers to its wearers but it also left them open to the serpent god's influence and even its control.
After the cataclysm the Crown was lost to the Serpent Men, whose numbers rapidly decreased during the "Hyborian Age" which followed. Other worshipers of Set emerged however, including the sorcerer Thoth-Amon, an enemy of Conan the Barbarian's who at one point wielded the Cobra Crown a device similar to the Serpent Crown which also served as conduit for Set's power on Earth, though it was quickly destroyed.
The Serpent Crown itself was eventually found by a group of homo mermanus (a race of aquatic humanoids), who had made their home in the sunken Lemurian continent. The Serpent Crown was used for centuries by their leader, Naga, who converted his people to the worship of Set and who's appearance came to resemble that of a serpent through his extended use of the Crown.
Eventually, the Crown was stolen from Naga by a group of "Lemurian" dissidents who created their own society, which was later called the "Ancients" when it was discovered in the twentieth century. The Crown was kept hidden in Antarctica by these "Ancients" for centuries, until it was buried in the avalanche which destroyed their society. This event was ultimately engineered by Set, who used its influence through the Serpent Crown to manipulate the society's leader into causing the devastating avalanche.
The Crown (disguised as the "helmet of power") was later found by a psychic called Paul Destine ("Destiny"), who used it to attack the homo mermanus of Atlantis, which lead to Namor the Sub-Mariner suffering through a period of amnesia. Years later, in contemporay times (circa late 1960s Marvel Comics publications), the Serpent Crown finally re-emerged and once again Set's influence came to be manifested on Earth for a period.
Though Set itself rarely appeared in the comics, its presence was regularly evoked through the use of the Serpent Crown. In various stories either followers of Set (such as Ghaur), or individuals mind controlled by Set via the Crown (such as the Squadron Supreme), attempted to facilitate the serpent god's return to the Earth Dimension. These attempts were stopped through the intervention of various Marvel Super Heroes (see the Serpent Crown entry for the full details).
One exception to this came during Marvel's Atlantis Attacks crossover in 1989 when Set was briefly returned to Earth (West Coast Avengers Annual #4, Thor Annual#14). In this storyline the Deviant priest Ghaur and the homo mermanus villainess Llyra managed to create a massive new Serpent Crown with which they intended to facilitate the return of Set. Their plan also involved kidnapping seven superheroines whom they intended Set to mate with in order to spawn his offspring. The plan was defeated when Thor, taking control over the Demogorge, ripped off Set's heads and sent each to a different dimension; this caused Set's dimension to implode, destroying its body and apparently eliminatintg the threat of the serpent god for several centuries.
A sequel of sorts to that story came in What If... ? Vol.2 #25 (May, 1991) by Jim Valentino, ("What if Set had come to Earth?") which explored what might have happened had Set remained in the Earth dimension.
[edit] Other versions of Set in the Marvel Universe
In the Marvel Universe all previous iterations of Set (such as the Egyptian Set and Greek Learnean Hydra mentioned above) are said to be legends largely inspired by the original ancient serpent god Set.
There are two exceptions to this where characters have misrepresented themselves as Set. "Seth", Marvel's version of the god from the Egyptian pantheon and a more accurate version of the real Egyptian mythological Set (appearing in human form, being the son of Osiris, etc.). In Marvel continuity this character adopted the name to make use of the "original" Set's fearsome reputation.
There was also En Sabah Nur ("Apocalypse"), a mutant who, when he first emerged in ancient Egypt, was mistaken for Set (or perhaps the above "Seth", though probably both as they are all parts of the same legend in the Marvel Universe). The character did not correct this error and instead used it to his advantage during his early activities in that era.
