Son of Titans and God of the Dead, Pluto claims the Greek underworld, Hades. As its Hell Lord, he commands its forces, and he seeks more power to satiate his realm-conquering pursuits.
Lord of the Underworld
The eldest son of Titans Cronus and Rhea, Pluto is confined with his siblings in Tartarus, the Olympian underworld, because Cronus feared a prophecy that one of his offspring would overthrow him. However, Rhea secretly gives birth to another child, Zeus, who frees Pluto and the others from Tartarus upon reaching adulthood. The siblings join forces to dethrone their father, Pluto using a Helmet of Invisibility during the battle. Conquering Olympus, Zeus, Pluto, and Neptune cast lots for creation with Zeus claiming the sky, Neptune the seas, and Pluto the underworld, responsible for watching over the imprisoned Titans.
Eventually desiring companionship, Pluto falls in love with the goddess Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Pluto takes Persephone by force, and Persephone agrees to stay with him, but to appease her family she must spend equal parts of the year on Earth and in the underworld. Rarely leaving his realm, Pluto is often visited by people seeking advice from the shades of the dead or on heroic quests, such as Orpheus, Odysseus, and Aeneas.
Circa 1270 BC, as part of his Twelve Labors, Heracles, AKA Hercules, breaks into Hades and fights with its three-headed watchdog Cerberus, earning Pluto’s enmity. As Christianity began replacing worship of the Olympians, Zeus limits Pluto’s control over the souls he was allowed to claim, and Pluto grows frustrated with his diminished power. Zeus also requires Pluto to remain in Hades as its ruler unless he could find a fitting replacement. Furious, Pluto leads his forces in an attack on Olympus, nearly triumphing, but the Olympians conquer Pluto’s forces through the efforts of Ares, God of War. His conquest foiled, Pluto begins work on a massive energy smelter in hopes of using it to destroy Olympus.
Eterna-Power
Pluto possesses greater physical abilities than most Olympian gods, including superhuman strength (Class 75), durability and longevity (he is effectively immortal). Wielding his “Eterna-power,” Pluto can drain the strength of others, create illusions, alter memories, wield mystical flame and force bolts, construct force fields, create time funnels, disguise his own form, slow the bodily vibrations of others, transport himself to other dimensions, exit his body in his astral form, and manipulate energy and some magic.
When in his other-dimensional land of Hades, Pluto’s powers are at their peak. He often wields technology allowing him to view others from across time and space and bring others to Hades. Pluto frequently wields a battle-axe composed of indestructible Adamantine, as well as his Helmet of Invisibility. Pluto commands the forces of Hades, including all souls and servants who dwell there.
To Not Suffer Fools Gladly
Pluto’s plots often involve increasing his power, expanding his realm to Earth and Olympus, and revenge. His power-hungery nature leads him into conflicts with other gods, such as demi-god Hercules, Ares, and Asgardian God of Thunder Thor Odinson, AKA Thor. He also goes up against superhuman teams, including The Defenders, the Champions, and X-Factor.
When the Japanese god of evil Amatsu-Mikaboshi, AKA Mikaboshi, becomes the Chaos King, Pluto goes up against him with an army. Him and his army fails and the Chaos King, in his desire for utter destruction of all realms, destroys Olympus.
Familial and Hell-Lord Allies
Though family, Pluto and his brother Zeus often come to blows, especially when Zeus requires Pluto to stay and rule Hades until he can find a replacement. Many of his Pluto’s actions are dictated by revenge against Zeus and finding a suitable stand-in ruler so he can do whatever he wants. He partners up with several Hell-Lords, when their not in-fighting with each other, and other demons against Zeus and even attacks Olympus, nearly taking it over.
Pluto’s nephew and occasional enemy Ares becomes his ally. He taps Ares to lead his army against the Chaos King, allying himself with other gods such as Hera and Zeus, and unlikely allies Emil Blonsky, AKA Abomination, Obadiah Stane, AKA Iron Monger, mutant Sean Cassidy, AKA Banshee, and Rita Demara, AKA Yellowjacket. Though the Chaos King defeats and enslaves Pluto and his army.
Pluto joins the Olympus Group—a foundation formed by Zeus on Earth after the destruction of Olympus—with the other Olympian deities to study humanity. It’s a Wall Street traded company that Poseidon inherits after Zeus perishes, but Poseidon sells all his shares to Hera and Pluto who control of 95 percent of the company’s stock.
A History in Hades
In the 6th century AD, Pluto aided the Roman conqueror Tyrannus in trying to usurp King Arthur’s throne, but Sir Percy of Scandia, AKA Black Knight defeated them with the Ebony Blade. Circa 1949-1951, Asgardian trickster god Loki Laufeyson, AKA Loki, apparently replaced Pluto as ruler of Hades, during which period he clashed repeatedly with the Olympian goddess Aphrodite Ourania, AKA Venus: Pluto’s whereabouts and activities during this period are unrevealed, as are the details of how and why Loki assumed his post, but Pluto ultimately returned to his traditional role as ruler of the Olympian underworld.
In recent years, plotting to trick Hercules into ruling Hades in his place, Pluto disguised himself as mortal film director Hayden P. Hellman and recruited Hercules to star in a movie. When Hercules signed the contract, he was bound to Hades forevermore. Thor fought through Hades’ forces to free Hercules until Pluto, disgusted by the display, shredded the contract, and resumed his rule.
Seeking to add the Earth to his nether realm, Pluto recruited a group of mutates from an alternate future (Reality-6943) and utilized them against the Asgardians Thor, Sif and Balder, but Zeus noticed Pluto’s actions and forbade him from taking over Earth, banishing Pluto to Hades once again. Turning his attentions to Asgard, Pluto marshaled his forces in an attack during a time when the Asgardian ruler Odin Borson, AKA Odin, could not fight back. The Asgardian death goddess Hela and Thor tried to stop Pluto, and Thor was narrowly saved from the killing blow of Pluto’s axe by the Norns (aka the Fates, who spin the web of destiny). When Odin regained his full power, Pluto and his forces retreated from Asgard. In a new plot, Pluto teamed with Ares to drive Asgard and Olympus into war with each other. Pluto kidnapped the Asgardian Krista, framing Hercules and causing Thor to attack Olympus, but Pluto’s plot was again exposed; he fled to Manhattan with Krista, battling Thor and Hercules, and departed when he realized his plot was ruined.
Pluto next allied with several Hell-lords and other demons in a complex scheme, forcing Zeus to stand down to avoid the combined attack. Pluto had Zeus command his children Venus and Hercules to marry Pluto’s allies Ares and Amazon queen Hippolyta, an event that would neutralize two of Zeus’ key champions in any future conflict with Pluto since Olympians were legally forbidden to oppose their spouses.
Hercules’ allies, the mortal heroes later known as the Champions, fought Pluto’s forces before convincing Zeus that Pluto’s alliance with the demons must have been contingent upon his promising Zeus’ death; realizing he had been tricked, Zeus called off the weddings and again banished Pluto to Hades. Pluto later allied with the Titan Typhon, sending him against Hercules, but the Avengers humbled Typhon. When the cosmic Stranger discovered Pluto’s energy smelter, he traveled to Hades with coerced allies Ben Grimm, AKA the Thing, and Bruce Banner, AKA Hulk, to thwart Pluto’s plot. Pluto hoped to drive the Stranger into the smelter, but was driven in himself and wrongly presumed dead. Seeking revenge on Thor, Pluto allied with Thor’s adoptive brother, Loki, and kidnapped mortal Jane Foster to lure Thor to Hades. Loki then transported the powerful Asgardian Rock Troll Ulik to Hades to fight Thor, but Ulik turned on Pluto, who ultimately had to be saved by Thor. Humbled, Pluto returned Thor and Foster to Earth. Pluto and several other death gods and demons, including Mephisto and Hela, chose to combine their nether realms to increase and share their power, but this act inadvertently released the entity Demogorge the God-Slayer, who quickly devoured all those involved; Thor reversed the process, his valor convincing Demogorge that the current gods’ time to pass had not yet come.
After Hercules was injured in a battle alongside the Avengers, a furious Zeus sentenced the Avengers to life in Hades. Pluto tortured the heroes until they escaped and won Zeus’ favor once again. Later, seeking to exploit the temporary warrior’s madness afflicting Thor, Pluto allied with Ares and attacked Thor, who savagely beat Ares. Pluto convinced Zeus that Thor had initiated the attack and Zeus prepared to go to war with Asgard until Ares admitted that Thor was innocent. Zeus furiously banished Pluto to Hades, this time forbidding Pluto to ever leave his realm again. Communicating in secret, Pluto and Loki agreed to trade foes with each other, and Loki unsuccessfully manipulated Typhon and other Hades denizens into attacking Hercules. Keeping his end of the bargain, Pluto astrally convinced Thor’s enemy the Flame (Hrinmeer, a light elf/fire demon hybrid) to battle Thor, but Loki foiled the plot for his own reasons. Escaping Hades again and disguising himself as the mortal Link, Pluto formed a group of mortals into the Cult of Hades, designed to worship him. He manipulated Cult member Victoria into gathering Hercules and the other former Champions, in whose minds Pluto had placed a false spell that would resurrect one of the mighty Titans on the Earth to ravage it. The Champions and mutant heroes X-Force turned the Titan against Pluto, forcing Pluto to abandon the plot.
Now on friendlier terms with Zeus, Pluto helped Olympus recover after it was pillaged by the Dark Gods of Narcisson. Pluto’s ally Hippolyta desired revenge on the Fantastic Four for their defeat of Hippolyta’s mortal minions, the Bacchae, and Pluto supported her in kidnapping several Fantastic Four allies. The Fantastic Four and Hercules convinced Persephone to change Pluto’s mind, and he let the humans return to Earth. At the Asgardian Amora, AKA Enchantress’ request, Pluto helped mortal heroes the Thunderbolts enter the Hell-lord Mephisto’s realm.
When the powerful extradimensional entity Dormammu sought to conquer the various realms of the dead, Pluto allied with Hela and Hell-lord demons to oppose Dormammu, using an idea proposed by the mortal Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat, to drive Dormammu away. The Lords of the Splinter Realms—an ancient coalition of gods and demons ruling various nether realms—then allied with limbo/Otherplace’s mortal then-ruler, Jimaine Szardos/Amanda Sefton, AKA Magik, to vanquish the Archenemy, a mystical threat to their realms.
Pluto teamed with the Asgardian sorceress Lorelei in binding the mortal Samantha Parrington to a Valkyrie, an Asgardian chooser of the slain, planning to use the Valkyrie to command an army of the dead with which to conquer Earth. Pluto betrayed Lorelei, trapping her in another Valkyrie form and leaving her amnesiac on Earth. Establishing a temple on Earth that would hide his actions from Zeus, Pluto took his Valkyrie and marshaled his forces in an attack on Earth, though Earth’s Defenders team opposed them. Regaining her will, Lorelei fought Pluto for control of Valkyrie while the Defenders destroyed the temple, an act that allowed the realms of the dead free access to Earth beyond Pluto’s control. Valkyrie (Parrington) broke free from their control, and Zeus, finally noticing Pluto’s deception, promised to punish Pluto, who fled with Lorelei at his side. Pluto and other gods later assumed mortal identities on Earth, with Pluto becoming an organized crime leader.
After the Shinto god Mikaboshi killed Zeus, Pluto focused on his lucrative mortal holdings and allied with Hera’s restructured Olympus Group. Pluto subsequently put Zeus on trial in Tartarus and allied with Meggan Braddock, Meggan, to defend his realm from other Hell-lords. Mikaboshi eventually de-throned Pluto and ended up controlled by the evil god calling himself the Chaos King, along other Hell-Lords and death gods, until Hercules banished him to another universe.
When the Hell Dimensions and their leaders battled for dominance, their battle erupted from a volcano. Pluto and the other Hell-Lords battled X-Factor and subsequently perished when mutant/Asgardian Tier Sinclair’s struck them all down and became the King of Hell. Though Guido Carosella, AKA Strong Guy, stabbed him in the back and took Tier’s place on the throne of Hell. Meanwhile, Pluto returned to Hell to watch from the sidelines.
Later, when the Night Goddess Nyx slayed all of the Olympian Gods—who then resurrected as their darker, most true selves—the undead Pluto was spared, but corrupted by Yggdrasil’s shadow, the Anti-Tree. The Anti-Tree broke Hades with its half-dead master Pluto taking orders from it.
