Pluto (Marvel Comics)

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Pluto

Pluto by Erik Larsen
Publication information
Publisher Marvel Comics
First appearance Thor volume 1 #127 (Apr 1966)
Created by Adapted from the mythological Hades by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
In story information
Alter ego Hades
Team affiliations Gods of Olympus, Death Gods, Lorelei, Loki, Ares, Phobos, Deimos, Hippolyte,
Notable aliases Hayden P. Hellman, Aidoneus, Mr. Pluto, Dis
Abilities Manipulation of magical energies,
Superhuman strength, stamina and durability,
Immortality,
Regenerative healing factor,
Energy-draining touch,
Ability to manipulate the spirits of the dead under his control,
Helmet grants Invisibility.

Pluto is a fictional deity in the Marvel Comics Universe based on the Roman God of the same name. Pluto first appeared in the pages of Thor #127, written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby.

Contents

[edit] Fictional character biography

Pluto is the Olympian god of the Underworld and the dead. Much of his past is like how he was related in the Greek Myth. He was similar to the other Marvel Greek Gods like Zeus. After defeating their father Cronus, Pluto and his brothers Zeus and Neptune as well as his sisters Hera, Hestia and Demeter drew lots to divide Cronus' empire among them. Pluto gained control of the Underworld as the judge of the dead. But in the Marvel Universe, Pluto is a scheming god that plans to overthrow Zeus, which no Greek Myth supports.

His most infamous act is when he takes Zeus' and Demeter's daughter, his niece Persephone (also known as Kore) as his wife against her will. This event goes on to cause him some dismal failures in the future; for instance the Avengers once defeat him when Persephone issues an edict against him. He also became a major enemy of Hercules, when the young Hercules captures Pluto's dog Cerberus as one of his Twelve Labours.

When worship of the Greek Gods dies out, Zeus forbids Pluto to take anymore souls into his underworld. He became bitter and begins a long history of plotting against his more powerful brother. After numerous failures, Zeus decrees that Pluto can only leave the Underworld if he finds someone willing to rule in his place. Pluto travels to Earth and disguises himself as Mr. Hellman, a movie producer, and invites Hercules to make a movie about himself. Hercules signs the contract into ruling the underworld unaware of that the contract actually binds him to serve as ruler of the Olympian Underworld in Pluto's place. Thor learns of Pluto's deception and challenges him on Hercules' behalf. Pluto sends Thor into the Olympian Underworld where his goal is to defeat Pluto's minions. After witnessing Thor's remarkable progress, Pluto becomes disgusted and destroys the contract, releasing Hercules.

Pluto attempts to invade both Olympus, home of the Greek Gods and Asgard, home of Thor and his fellow Asgardians on numerous occasions, each without success. Pluto eventually allies himself with Queen Hippolyte, Queen of the Amazons, and Ares, his nephew and Olympian God of War, who also believes that Zeus refusal to force the humans to worship them is a mistake. However Hippolyte only wants Hercules to be hers and has no interest in Pluto's desire to be worshipped by humanity again. Pluto attempts to sponsor the divorce of Hercules and Hebe to marry Hercules to Hippolyte as well as Ares to marry Venus.

According to Olympian law, Hercules and Venus are not allowed to fight their partners when Hippolyte and Ares assist Pluto in conquering Olympus. However, this plan ultimately fails as Zeus, after some hesitation at first, finally forbids the unions.

To circumvent Zeus' decree, Pluto attempts to conquer Earth with the help of Lorelei. Pluto transforms Lorelei into a copy of the Valkyrie and drains her of her power and memories. He then uses the absorbed power to take control of the real Valkyrie to turn Earth into a realm of the dead itself. The Valkyrie's presence mask his own influence and Zeus' decree still allows Pluto to annex other realms of the dead. Pluto is eventually stopped by the Defenders who bring Lorelei along, thinking her to be their teammate. The clash of the two Valkyrie's releases Lorelei from the spell and together they turned on Pluto and ended his plan.

With the disappearance of the Asgardians after Ragnarök, Zeus fears for the continued existence of the Olympians as well and decides that they should mingle among humanity to hide from any force threatening them. Hades becomes a mafia inspired crime-lord, joking that he is still a lord of the underworld. The plan is though and the Olympians returned to Olympus, where they come under siege by the Japanese god Amatsu-Mikaboshi.

[edit] Powers and abilities

Pluto possesses all of the conventional superhuman attributes of an Olympian. Pluto is superhumanly strong, considerably more so than the majority of the Olympians. Among his race, his strength is equaled only by Neptune and Ares and is exceeded only by Zeus and Hercules. Pluto's body is also virtually tireless, granting him almost limitless superhuman stamina equaled only by his nephews Ares and Hercules and by his brothers Neptune and Zeus. Pluto's body is highly resistant to all forms of physical injury. He has proven capable of withstanding powerful impact forces, temperature extremes, and powerful energy blasts all without sustaining injury.

However, it is possible to cause him injury, but he is capable of completely recovering with superhuman levels of speed. The speed and extent of his healing powers far exceeds that of most other Olympians. Like all other members of his race, Pluto is immortal in the sense that he is immune to the effects of aging. He hasn't aged since reaching adulthood and is also immune to all known diseases.

Pluto controls vast magical powers which he can use for numerous effects including generating powerful energy blasts, temporarily increasing his physical attributes, granting superhuman powers to other beings or objects, creating highly durable force fields, interdimensional teleportation, etc. As a Death God, Pluto has a pact with Death that allows him to claim the souls of any worshipper of the Greek Gods and take them to his Underworld as his servants. He is capable of draining the energy and life-force from those that he touches, skin to skin, with his hand, even other gods. The various Death Gods have their own alliance, though there is some internal competition as well, as seen when both Hela and Pluto tried to claim the soul of Odin after his death.

Pluto also is in possession of a helmet that renders him invisible and undetectable, even to his fellow gods. He also owns several adamantine axes. These axes are nearly indestructible and Pluto can use these axes to channel his magical energies.

Although he typically prefers to use minions, Pluto is a formidable hand to hand combatant. He is particularly skilled in employing his energy manipulating capabilities during combat situations.

[edit] Other media

[edit] Television

[edit] External links

  • Pluto at Marvel Appendix