Pantheon (Marvel)

Latest revision as of 06:34, 3 November 2023

The Pantheon in Maestro: War and Pax v1 #1.

The Pantheon are a team that feature in Marvel Comics.

History

The Pantheon were a secretive team of superpowered beings that were led by Agamemnon (Incredible Hulk v2 #379) In reality, Agamemnon was born Vali Halfling, the offspring of a human and an Asgardian god many thousands of years ago making him virtually immortal. The immortality factor from his godly father became active after he hit puberty causing him to remain trapped in that appearance. (Incredible Hulk v2 #401)

Over time, Agamemnon came to learn that his genetic structure and its power had less of any effect on later generations of his offspring. He came to need advanced technology to distil his immortality and power. An opportunity for this came when the alien Troyjans began targeting Earth. (Incredible Hulk v2 #424) Many centuries ago, he would agree to a tithe with Armageddon where he would offer some of the Pantheon in exchange for the Troyjan empire to spare Earth from invasion. (Incredible Hulk v2 #416) In addition, their technology helped him crack his genetic encoding and reducing Agamemnon immortality into a formula one that he intended to use to augment the genetics of his offspring. (Incredible Hulk v2 #424)

Every fifty years, Agamemnon would leave his sanctum at the Mount to live among humanity. In that time, he would mate with humans in order to pass own his power thus creating new members that would later be recruited into the Pantheon. The reality of this was not known to Pantheon members who never knew that he had left their headquarters with this practice continuing for many centuries. (Incredible Hulk v2 #401) One of his offspring came to be known as Achilles who as a young boy survived the Holocaust due to his invulnerability. (Incredible Hulk v2 #386) Whilst living through World War Two, Agamemnon came to find and recruit Achilles into the Pantheon. He would later fake his own death among society in order to return back to the Mount. (Incredible Hulk v2 #401) On September 30, 1955 in Detroit, there was a young man named Walter Charles who was one of Agamemnon's descendants, although he himself did not know it. Charles became part of a gang, and after an arrest, Achilles and Ulysses rescued him from jail where they brought him into the ranks of the Pantheon. (Incredible Hulk v2 #408) By 1959, Walter Charles had made no name for himself at the Pantheon, with him being seen as a big disappointment to everyone. He showed no talent and no ambition and was filling the position of janitor in the halls of the Mount. Ulysses and Achilles stood looking at him, where the former admitted that he had no talents and should have been let go from the Pantheon. However, just as they were walking away, the Pantheon members Perseus and Jason began heckling Charles. Charles snapped, gravely injuring Jason's eye and attacking Perseus with such ferocity that Ulysses and Achilles both had to hold him back. (Incredible Hulk v2 #409) Ulysses had begun questioning Agamemnon's orders and Agamemnon arranged to have him killed. First he asked Jason to kill Ulysses, but Jason refused. Agamemnon told the rest of the Pantheon that Jason was a traitor, and had turned rouge. Jason left the Pantheon and went into hiding, waiting for an opportunity to get his revenge on Agamemnon. Agamemnon then asked Achilles to kill Ulysses, and Achilles agreed. (Incredible Hulk v2 #424)

Agamemnon came to use Jason as his personal triggerman who he used to eliminate threats from within the Pantheon. In exchange, he offered his son power but over time Jason came to despise the role and turned against his father thus being labelled a renegade. (Incredible Hulk v2 #424)

After being brought to the Mount, the Hulk revealed that he had faked being unconscious and wanted to see who his captors were leading to a fight with the Pantheon. The skirmish only ended when a giant hologram of Agamemnon appeared where he told the Hulk that they were not his enemies. He then gave a tour of the Mount and explained the mission of the Pantheon along with a desire to recruit the Jade Giant. (Incredible Hulk v2 #381)

Overview

Each gained power and immortality as a result of being the children of the god-like Agamemnon. (Incredible Hulk v2 #424)

They were said to be a think tank who observed the world and watched for disasters where they sought to avert them. (Incredible Hulk v2 #381) In reality, Agamemnon saw them as being dispensable as he lost the ability to care about others beyond being his personal lab rats. During his rule, the Pantheon would experience the mysterious disappearance of anyone that would disagree with their leader. (Incredible Hulk v2 #424)

In terms of recruitment, Agamemnon often added to the ranks of the Pantheon by recruiting his own offspring. This saw him leaving the Mount every 50 years to live among humans and procreated with the Pantheon unaware of him leaving their headquarters. The children were unaware of their origins until Agamemnon arrived to recruit them into his team. (Incredible Hulk v2 #401) Unknown to anyone, the superpowered genetics and the power afforded by them came to be diluted in future generations of children fathered by Agamemnon. (Incredible Hulk v2 #424)

Their headquarters was a hidden within a mountain plateau that was known as the Mount. It was an entirely self-contained world with over 1,500 people residing inside of it. The base had everything required for its existence including every comfort and defence. One third of the Mount's occupants had been nuclear families where their children were cared for by day. In some cases, the Pantheon came to encounter orphaned children who had no homes to go to with them being brought to the safety of the Mount. In addition, there were fully equipped science facilities that were more advanced than anything in laboratories on the planet where scientists had cured AIDs. Farming and hydroponic facilities provided much of the food for the population who were all vegetarians as a result. (Incredible Hulk v2 #381)

Members

• Agamemnon : a male demi-god whose mother was human with his father being a god leading to him being an immortal who was several centuries old. (Incredible Hulk v2 #381)
• Ajax :
• Andromeda :
• Atalanta :
• Cassiopea :
• Delphi :
• Hector :
• Jason :
• Paris :
• Prometheus :
• Ulysses :

Notes

• The Pantheon were created by Peter David where they made their first appearance in Incredible Hulk v1 #368 (April, 1990).

Alternate Versions

• In Maestro: War and Pax v1 #1 (2021), an alternate version of the Pantheon was shown to had existed in the Multiverse on Earth-9200. They were shown as one of the survivors when the world was left as a wasteland following nuclear war.

In other media

Video games

• In The Incredible Hulk: The Pantheon Saga, the Pantheon appeared in a loose adaptation of the comic in the setting of the video game.

Appearances

• Incredible Hulk v1: (1990)
• Heroic Age: Prince of Power v1:
• Maestro: War and Pax v1: (2021)

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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