Pluto (Marvel)

Revision as of 13:00, 11 April 2021

Pluto in Incredible Hercules v1 #130.

Pluto is a male comic character who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Origin

Thor Odinson encounters Pluto in Thor v1 #130.

Pluto was one of the Olympians and served as the deity that ruled the underworld of Hades along with the dead. He was one of the children of the Titan Cronus and brother to both Zeus and Neptune. Similar to Greek mythology, he aided his kin in the defeat of Cronus alongside his many siblings whereupon they drew lots to divide the Titan's empire amongst themselves.

He came to be sentenced to rule over the underworld of Hades by Zeus and could only be freed from this position if he found someone to replace him. Thus, Pluto was given the role of judge of the dead and tasked with ruling the underworld. He would feel confined to this role and resented the other Olympians for being freed leading to him becoming a god that schemed to overthrow Zeus. (Thor v1 #127)

During these years, he was involved in many schemes such as the kidnapping of Zeus and Demeter's daughter Persephone to make her his wife against her will. He also gained an enmity with Hercules the son of Zeus after he captured Cerberus as part of the Twelve Labors with the dog serving guardian of the underworld.

By the 6th century, his influence was felt among the Romans where Tyrannus came to be a believer of the god. He helped guide the Roman in an attack against Avalon in a bid to take the throne of King Arthur only for him to be challenged by the Black Knight Sir Percy of Scandia. Tyrannus proved inadequate in fighting the knight and fled but his master Pluto manifested and did battle with the Black Knight. The Olympian came to deal a critical strike against foe but Sir Percy managed to wound Pluto using the Ebony Blade. This forced Pluto to return to his nether-realm to nurse his wounds but vowed that the Black Knight was now targeted by death who now knew his name. (Mystic Arcana Black Knight v1 #1)

Modern Day

In time, worship of the Olympian gods began to die out leading to Zeus forbidding Pluto from claiming anymore souls for Hades. This led to Pluto becoming bitter and plotting to topple the king of Olympus. After repeated failures, Zeus decreed that Pluto could only leave Hades if he could find a person to replace him in his stead. As a result, the monarch of Hades went to Earth and disguised himself as Mr. Hellman where he masqueraded as a movie productor. In this guise, he invited Hercules to the set of a movie where he stated he wanted to make a movie about the Olympian conquering the netherworld and defeating its master. The flattered Hercules agreed and signed the contract completely unaware that this was a binding ageement that meant that he would replace Pluto as custodian of Hades. This deception was discovered by Thor Odinson who decided to aid Hercules by challenging Pluto on his behalf. This saw Pluto sending the Asgardian into the Olympian Underworld where Thor had to defeat his numerous minions. Upon witnessing Thors progress, Pluto beheld the Asgardian destroying something that took centuries for the lord of Hades to build. In disgust, he destroyed the contract and decided to release Hercules from the terms leaving himself the master of the Underworld again.

He later invaded the Earth with an army of mutates from an alternate future. During this time, he clashed with Thor but was ultimately thwarted by the intervention of Zeus.

The Defenders defeated by Pluto in Defenders v2 #4.

He next attended a meeting among the Hell-Lords that included Hel, Daimon Hellstrom, Satannish and Mephisto where they discussed the coming threat of Dormmamu into their realms. It was proposed that only with a united front could they stop an attack from the Dark Dimension but Pluto and Hel decided to depart as they felt their respective realms would be defended by their fellow gods in their respective pantheons. (Hellcat v1 #2)

Olympus Group

Together with Hera, they were responsible for creating the Olympus Group that served as a new seat of power for the Olympians. They inherited the shares of Zeus and later bought out Poseidon where they planned the deaths of both Hercules along wtih Athena.

A trial was held by Pluto to judge Zeus similar to how all were treated when they entered the Underworld where he staffed 501 jurors in a mock Athenian trial. The reason for this move was so that Pluto could take over both the mortal realm of Earth and the godly realm of Olympus. He attempted to remove Hercules from the proceedings by offering the soul of his adoptive father who told him to rescue the king of the gods. Ultimately, Zeus was found guilty and forced to drink the water from the river Lethe that caused him to lose his memory and be reborn as a child.

After the Olympians were killed and reborn, Hades came to be left behind on Earth whilst the others were somewhere else in the universe. During this time, the Anti-Tree formed within Hades with the twisted plant being a dark shadow of the Asgardian Yggdrassil where it came to corrupt Pluto. The death god became a rotting figure who was subservient to the wishes of the tree. (Valkyrie: Jane Foster v1 #3)

Overview

Personality and attributes

Powers and abilities

An artifact in his possession was the Gem of Tartarus that could inhibit others and imprison them. (Defenders v2 #3)

One of his undead servants was a magic using woman named Ampharon. (Defenders v2 #2)

In his guise as Link, he established a mortal cult called the Cult of Hades consisting of those that felt alone and wanted to be with others that they thought of as family. (X-Force/Champions Annual v1 #1998)

Notes

• Pluto was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby where he made his first appearance in Thor v1 #127 (April, 1966).
• The character was based on the Greek Hades but the name was changed to his Roman counterpart namely the Roman Pluto.

In other media

Pluto in The Mighty Thor.

Television

• In The Marvel Super Heroes, the character made an appearance in the Mighty Thor segment. The story line followed the comic whereby it showed Pluto as the lord of the Olympian underworld who masqueraded as a film director and with the aid of Hippolyta tricked Hercules into signing the Olympian Contract that made him the new ruler of Hades. Thus, Pluto appeared in Olympus and freed until Hercules chose Thor as his champion with the Asgardian succeeding in his quest whereby the lord of the underworld was forced to return to Hades to rule it once more.
• In Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., Pluto appeared as an antagonist in the episode "The Tale of Hercules" where he was voiced by actor Robert Englund. He was shown as being the Olympian lord of the underworld who frequently attacked the mortal world and Olympus only to be defeated by Hercules. Among his last plans was breaking into Olympus to steal the Shield of Minerva that turned those that gazed into it into stone. He succeeded in turning Hercules and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. Into stone until Hulk used a mirror that reflected the shields power back on itself turning it into stone and returning those affected by its power back to normal.

Appearances

• Thor v1: (1966)
• Defenders v2:
• Hellcat v1:
• Mystic Arcana Black Knight v1: (2007)
• Incredible Hercules v1:
• Fearless Defenders v1:
• Valkyrie: Jane Foster v1:

External Link

• Marvel Database Entry
• [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto_(Marvel_Comics)

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