Zeus PanhelleniosZeus

The youngest son of Titans, Zeus rules a peaceful Olympus for centuries while he and his siblings populate the realm. The immensely powerful king of the Olympian gods is also the father to the demigod and Avenger Heracles, AKA Hercules.

An Immemorial Origin

Born tens of thousands of years ago, Zeus is the youngest son of the Titans Rhea and Cronus, who rose to power in the realm that would become Olympus after slaying his father, the sky god Ouranos. The Titans’ mother, the Elder Goddess/Earth Mother Gaea, and the fatally wounded Ouranos prophesize that Cronus would likewise be overthrown by one of his children. To avoid this prophecy, Cronus swallows each of his children as they emerge from Rhea’s womb. Appalled, Rhea keeps her sixth child, Zeus, from Cronus, giving Zeus to Gaea, who hides him in the Caves of Dicte on what would become Crete’s Aegian Hill, where he suckles from the goat Amaltheia and minor goddesses care for him. 

Zeus grows to adulthood among local shepherds before poisoning Cronus’ cup on the Titaness Metis’ suggestion, forcing him to disgorge Zeus’ siblings. Per Gaea’s prophecy of how the Titans could be defeated, Zeus frees the Cyclopes and Centimanes from the realm of Tartarus in which Cronus had imprisoned them. The Cyclopes teaches Zeus how to wield his energy-manipulating powers in battle, and Zeus and his allies fight a 10-year war with the Titans (the Titanomachy) that ends with many of the Titans, including Cronus, dead, and the males imprisoned in Tartarus. 

Well over 20,000 years ago, Zeus and his brothers, Hades and Poseidon, draw lots to divide their conquered territory. Zeus wins the heavens (Olympus), Hades the underworld, and Poseidon the seas, with the surface world shared equally among them. To mark their dominion’s boundary, Zeus commands two eagles to fly in opposite directions. Where they meet was declared the world’s center. There they condemn the Titans’ general, Atlas, to hold the Heavens aloft as the Axis Mundi (world axis), and where Atlas stands is christened Atlantis, or “isle of Atlas.” 

Zeus marries his sister Hera and sets Demeter to watch over the land, and Hestia (later Vesta) to watch over the people. His potential rivals thus occupied elsewhere, Zeus rules a peaceful realm for untold centuries while he and his siblings populate the realm via interbreeding with humans, Titans, and other races. Zeus, in particular, dallies with many women; some of his children become gods or demigods, while others remain fully human.

The Powers of an Olympian God

Immensely powerful, Zeus has superhuman strength—lifting 90 tons or more via energy augmentation—endurance, durability, healing, and longevity. He ceases aging at adulthood and is resistant to conventional injury and disease, recovering from most wounds in minutes; even if slain, his immortal spirit can be resurrected by other gods under certain circumstances.

He can unleash devastating electricity in the form of lightning bolts (generally referred to as thunderbolts) from his hands or from the sky. He can also generate and manipulate other energies. 

With his Olympian physiology, he possesses the power of flight. He can create interdimensional apertures sufficient to transport the entire Olympian army and project his image, voice, and energy bolts from Olympus to Earth. He can also enchant living beings and inanimate objects.

Zeus can also alter his appearance, sometimes replicating the forms of other gods, mortals, or even animals. Zeus has limited precognitive abilities, and during ancient times maintained an oracle at Dodona. 

Like other Olympians, he can be banished to the Land of Shades by the snuffing of Olympus’ Promethean Flame. Zeus sometimes travels via mystical horse-drawn chariot.

All-Powerful Enemies

The immensely powerful Typhon, sired by Gaea, bests Zeus which leaves the Almighty God fleeing for his life. However, he heals from his battle wounds and defeats Typhon. Zeus also suffers the wrath of Hera, who is not so forgiving of his siring a son with a mortal, and eventually sides with Zeus’ brother Hades, AKA Pluto, against him. Pluto covets Olympus and often plots against his sibling, attempting to steal his crown and powers. 

Zeus’ enemies also include the omnipotent, all-powerful, and cosmic beings known as the Celestials. He joins with other gods to defeat them, but they retreat after the Celestials threaten to destroy their gateways to Earth. Instead, they lay plans for millennia to defeat them.

Facing off with the Japanese God of Evil, Amatsu Mikaboshi, AKA Mikaboshi, he becomes mortally wounded and perishes. 

Familial and Avenger Allies

Zeus’ family are the Olympians, or the Greek gods, whom he leads and remains loyal to, despite whether they are loyal to him. He has complicated relationships with his sons Hercules and Ares but will come to their aid. 

He allies with other Gods, such as Odin Borson, AKA Odin, the All-Father and King of Asgard. Together, they teach their sons lessons and join the Council of Godheads to face the Celestials.

The Avengers help Zeus on numerous occasions, whether it’s preventing Zeus and the Olympians from being overthrown or saving them from dangers they cannot manage without them. Despite the aid of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, when Zeus comes to believe they were responsible for injuring his son Hercules, he punishes them, nearly to death, but Hercules calms him down.

A God’s Work is Never Done

While Hades (who became known as Pluto) remained in the underworld, Zeus, Demeter, Hera, Poseidon, and Vesta, together with Zeus’ children Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Hephaestus, and Hermes, comprised the Dodekatheon, the high council of Olympian gods. As the civilization of ancient Greece began to arise, Zeus decided to make the gods’ presence known so the people would worship the gods. Zeus learned the principal nexus between his realm and Earth lay atop Greece’s Mount Olympus (in modern day Pieria Prefecture, Greece), near Olympia, the Eternals’ principal city; Zeus named the gods’ own dimension after Mt. Olympus following this discovery. Zeus met with the Eternals’ leader, Zuras, agreeing the Eternals would act as the gods’ Earthly representatives; however, many Eternals were thought to be the gods themselves, leading to the gods resenting the Eternals. After Zeus romanced the mortal Semele, the jealous Hera tricked Semele into asking Zeus (who had sworn to grant her any wish) to reveal himself to her in all his glory. Feeling honor bound to comply, Zeus did so, and Semele was consumed by his energies. Zeus preserved Dionysus, his son by Semele, bringing him to Olympus; Vesta later relinquished her seat in the Dodekatheon to Zeus’ son Dionysus. 

Foreseeing a future attack on the gods that could only be thwarted with a certain mortal’s aid, Athena arranged for Zeus to sire a mortal with god-like power. Zeus took the form of Amphitryon and lay with his wife, Alcmene, fathering the man who would become Hercules. Eventually pitying the long-imprisoned Titans, Gaea sent her newest and fiercest children, the Gigantes, to battle the Olympian gods, but thanks to Hercules (summoned to Olympus by Athena), Zeus and the Olympians triumphed over the Gigantes, banishing them to Tartarus as well. Enraged, Gaea mated with Tartarus’ primordial fires and sired the immensely powerful Typhon (fashioned from the slaughtered Gigantes’ gore) to avenge the Gigantes. Typhon assaulted Olympus and initially bested Zeus, cutting the sinews from Zeus’ limbs. Zeus and most Olympians fled to Egypt, hiding in animal form, but Athena goaded Zeus into action. After Hermes and Pan duped Typhon into consuming mortal food that sickened him, a healed Zeus defeated Typhon, dropping Sicily’s Mount Etna atop him. Zeus then limited Typhon’s power, transformed him into humanoid form, and banished him to Tartarus. 

Circa 1246 BC, after Hercules’ mortal death, Zeus split Hercules’ divine aspect from his mortal shade and brought him to Olympus as a god. To appease Hera, whose anger over Hercules’ adulterous origins had long plagued Hercules, Zeus wed Hercules to Hera’s favorite daughter, Hebe. At some point, Zeus resurrected the hunter Cephalus and empowered him as the Huntsman to track and instill terror in any quarry. During the Trojan War, when a time-traveling, semi-amnesiac Asgardian Thor Odinson, AKA Thor, God of Thunder allied with the Trojans and opposed interfering Olympians, Hera and Athena goaded Zeus into confronting Thor. Following a fierce struggle, Zeus learned of Thor’s honor and, foreseeing a pact made over 2,000 years in the future, made peace, and Thor returned to his own time, though Thor’s similarly time-traveling step-brother Loki Laufeyson, AKA Loki, guided the Greeks to overcome the Trojans. 

Under unrevealed circumstances, the Olympians were drawn into conflict with the Ennead (Heliopolitan/Egyptian gods). While the Olympians’ worship peaked in Greece and then Rome from about 2500 BC to 500 AD, and when Christianity rose to prominence in the Roman Empire, Zeus divorced the Olympians from Earth. Although, Poseidon was allowed to watch over his undersea Atlantean worshippers. 

When a younger Thor (before his Trojan War adventure) fell through a portal between Asgard and Olympus, he encountered and battled Hercules. Zeus halted the struggle and sent Thor back to Asgard; both Thor and Hercules forgot this encounter, for reasons known only to Odin and Zeus. Circa 1000 AD, both Thor and Hercules arrived on Earth in response to prayers from battling Vikings and Greek warriors (the latter of whom had been brought forward in time). Defending their worshippers, Thor and Hercules’ battle escalated into an Asgardian-Olympian war, but Zeus met with Odin, and the two taught their arrogant sons a lesson, making each side seem to achieve victory with massive losses. As such, Zeus and Odin made a pact that their people should never again war against each other. 

Soon thereafter, Zeus attended the Council of Godheads, discussing the threat of the virtually omnipotent Celestials’ judgment of Earth. Zeus accompanied Vishnu and Odin in futilely assaulting the Celestials, who, via threat of burning the gateways between Earth and their respective realms, forced the godheads to vow not to interfere with Celestial affairs for the next millennium. As part of their plan to battle the Celestials in 1000 years, Zeus and all of the other godheads instilled power into the Asgardian-forged Destroyer armor; if the Asgardians were to fall, the Olympians would next challenge the Celestials. Over the next millennium, Hera joined Gaea and the other mother goddesses in seeking a peaceful alternative, gathering humans representing mankind’s highest ideals. 

When Pluto led an assault on Olympus that the gods could not overcome, Zeus called in Ares to end it. Ares’ slaughter of Pluto’s forces in brutal fashion appalled the other gods, who criticized his very nature; disgusted by their ingratitude and disrespect, Ares departed Olympus and dwelt among humanity. In the mid-20th century, Zeus allowed several Olympian gods to interact with humanity, partially due to concern over Pluto, who had tired of Hades and now coveted Olympus. Zeus himself once traveled to Earth to try to directly guide humanity, but he was dismissed as a hoax and returned to Olympus. In the 1980s, Zeus considered creating more topical gods. In recent years, after a drunken Hercules stole Dionysus’ wine-making pig, Zeus applauded as Thor, sent to retrieve the pig, soundly defeated Hercules. When Pluto duped Hercules into signing a contract to take over rule of (and banishment to) Hades, Zeus advised Hercules to find another to fight in his stead; Thor created such chaos in Hades that Pluto released Hercules. When Hercules was later mesmerized by the Asgardian Amora the Enchantress into traveling to Earth, Zeus was enraged that Hercules had traveled there without his leave and banished him to Earth. 

After Typhon returned to Olympus and banished the Olympians to Hades’ Land of Shades, Hercules and the Avengers defeated Typhon and restored the Olympians, leading Zeus to welcome Hercules back. After Hercules returned to Earth following a disagreement over mankind, however, Zeus angrily dispatched the Huntsman to return him. When Namor the Sub-Mariner, AKA Namor, risked his life to save Hercules, Zeus was reminded of mankind’s nobility, and Hercules happily returned to Olympus. Zeus and the Olympians were again dispatched when Ares snuffed the Promethean Flame in alliance with Amora, but all were restored when the Flame was re-lit following Ares’ defeat. After Pluto duped Thor into assaulting Olympus, Zeus stopped him and helped reveal the deception. Later, realizing Typhon had escaped Tartarus alongside the witch Cylla, Zeus located them on Earth, where they had been battling Hercules, and returned them to Olympus. 

Promising Zeus’ death, Pluto allied with various demons and death gods, threatening to invade Olympus unless Zeus coerced Hercules and Aphrodite to marry Hippolyta and Ares; this would prevent Hercules and Aphrodite from opposing their spouses, who were also Pluto’s allies. Zeus initially complied, even dispatching the Huntsman to bring the two unwilling gods to Olympus, until Johnny Blaze, AKA Ghost Rider, one of Hercules’ allies in the then-forming Champions of Los Angeles, correctly surmised how Pluto had gained his alliance; Zeus banished Pluto back to Hades, but forgave his foes at Aphrodite’s request. 

When Krokarr, Manduu, and Y’androgg, a trio of giants from a star within Olympus’ dimension captured and imprisoned Zeus and the other Olympians, Hercules enlisted Ben Grimm, AKA the Thing, to help defeat the giants and free the Olympians. Zeus subsequently allied the Olympians with Odin’s Asgardians to forcibly prevent Thor and the Eternals from interfering with the Celestials’ judgment; partially motivated by his long resentment of the Eternals, when Odin ended the battle, rather than slay Thor, Zeus departed with his forces as well. Zeus soon after observed from Olympus the Celestials melting the Destroyer, slaying all of the Asgardians animating it, as well as Gaea subsequently appeasing the Celestials with the gathered Young Gods. Zeus happily granted Thor power to help restore the Asgardians and subsequently sent Apollo to aid Thor in driving off the god-slaying Demogorge, who had been summoned by an alliance of Pluto and other death gods. 

Still bitter over the Titans and Gigantes’ continued imprisonment, Gaea sent the then-virtually mindless Bruce Banner, AKA the Hulk, to Olympus to punish the gods. Zeus summoned Hercules, who led the Titans’ and Gigantes’ slaughter and reimprisonment. When Hercules proved his humility and restored the Nova Roman Amara Aquilla, AKA Magma’s faith in the Olympians, Zeus brought Jaime Suarez, recently killed in a fire, to Elysium to live in the afterlife among heroes. After a drunken Hercules was left comatose by a savage beating from Baron Helmut Zemo, AKA Zemo’s Masters of Evil during an attack on the Avengers, Zeus blamed the Avengers and had them sent to Tartarus for torture and execution. With aid from the sympathetic Aphrodite, Athena, Hephaestus, and Prometheus, the Avengers confronted Zeus but were overpowered and nearly slain. After nearly slaying the revived Hercules in his battle frenzy and learning the truth, Zeus healed those he had injured, apologized, and renewed his vow that no Olympians should set foot on Earth. 

Dejected by being defeated by the Avengers, Dionysus nearly blew up Olympus with a nuclear warhead stolen from Earth; but Hercules convinced Dionysus to relent, and Zeus rendered Dionysus mortal, running Dion’s Bar. When Thor suffered from warrior’s madness, Ares ambushed him and received a savage beating. Claiming Ares’ pummeling had been unprovoked, Pluto goaded Zeus into action against Thor, but the Asgardian warrior maiden Sif convinced Zeus of the truth, which the honor-bound Ares confirmed, resulting in Pluto’s re-banishment. Via a later alliance between Pluto and Loki, Typhon again banished the Olympians to the Land of Shades, but they were restored once again after the Avengers defeated Typhon and restored the Flame. 

Learning of Ares and Hera’s contest to see who could hurt Hercules more, Zeus created the seemingly human Taylor Madison as the perfect soul mate to Hercules, knowing Hera would strike through her. After Hercules fell in love with Taylor, and Hera assaulted her, Zeus revealed his involvement and then ended Taylor’s existence. Unable to understand why the enraged Hercules attacked him, Zeus stripped his immortality and much of his powers. When Zeus later offered to restore Hercules’ immortality, Hercules refused, feeling the challenges and risks would make him a better person. 

When Narcisson’s Dark Gods posed as the Asgardians and assaulted the Olympians, leveling Olympus and leading the Olympians to seek vengeance, Zeus was skeptical of Thor’s claims to the contrary, but Hercules helped Thor defeat the Dark Gods; after the Dark Gods’ defeat, Odin helped rebuild Olympus. Zeus subsequently helped prove the New Warrior’s Trey Rollins, AKA Aegis’s worthiness to wear Athena’s breastplate. Zeus soon after sent Hercules to aid Hercules against the god-slayer Desak Sterixian, AKA Desak, and confronted Pluto over another Earthly assault, though Pluto escaped. 

After Odin apparently perished in battle with Surtur, and Thor inherited his power and became ruler of Asgard, Zeus assured Thor he was more than his father’s equal. Zeus later attended a Godheads’ Council regarding the Heart of the Infinite-empowered Akhenaten; Zeus and Thor narrowly survived Akhenaten’s assault, though Thanos of Titan went back in time and prevented Akhenaten’s empowerment, diverging those events to Reality-4321. Retaining memories of the attack, Thor and Zeus assisted the cosmic beings against Thanos, who ultimately destroyed, then re-formed, all reality, sacrificing his new power to do the latter. Zeus later attended another Council that judged Thor unworthy of taking Odin’s place in their group when he violated their covenant of non-interference with humanity. Zeus later advised the Council not to act against Thor’s increasing interference, and Thor was convinced to return Asgard to its realm and stop influencing mankind directly by his Reality-3515 (“the Reigning”)’s future self; Thor and the Asgardians all perished soon thereafter via their Ragnarok.

Blaming losing touch with humanity as part of what killed the Asgardians, Zeus formed the Olympus Group corporation from the Dodekatheon. Zeus was outvoted by the group which allowed Hercules to continue his new labors, which Hera indirectly guided. When the evil Japanese god Mikaboshi, assaulted Olympus, and the Olympians were unable to fight him off, Ares refused Zeus’ summons. Zeus had Hermes abduct Ares’ son, Alexander, to force Ares’ compliance. After Mikaboshi’s forces abducted Alexander, Ares struck down Zeus before agreeing to help recover his son. Posing as Alexander, an extension of Mikaboshi impaled Zeus, nearly slaying him. After five years of battle (though virtually no time had passed on Earth), Zeus recovered sufficiently to lead an assault on Mikaboshi’s forces, but Mikaboshi mortally wounded Zeus. Sacrificing his remaining energies to free the brainwashed Alexander, Zeus perished, but Alexander destroyed Mikaboshi. Zeus passed into Tartarus, and Hera inherited his Olympus Group shares, plus his thunderbolts. Hercules and his young ally Amadeus Cho, AKA Brawn, stormed Tartarus to rescue Zeus, but Pluto put Zeus on trial. Seeing how Hercules fought for his father, breaking the traditions of Cronus and himself, Zeus drank from the memory-erasing River Lethe and was reborn anew on Earth in youthful form. 

Fighting alongside Hercules against Harpies and Asgardian Trolls and Dark Elves, Zeus gradually learned humility and respect for compassion and diplomacy. Meanwhile, however, Hera, having allied with Pluto and through him gained control of Typhon, plotted to create a new reality via the Continuum technology, wiping out current existence in the process. Captured by Typhon while trying to stop Hera, the young Zeus convinced Hera he had changed. Hera ordered Typhon to reverse Continuum, but, having escaped her control, Typhon refused and then slew both of them. Though Continuum was reversed, and Typhon slain by Hercules, Zeus and Hera happily passed on to the underworld, reunited at last in love.

Though the Olympian Gods, including Zeus, were slain in Olympus by Nyx, the Queen of Night, and then reborn as Dark Gods, warmongering and ruthless—apparently their true forms. Zeus led his people to do terrible things, terrorizing the universe, which led the Guardians of the Galaxy to clash with them. Zeus faced off with Peter Quill, AKA Star-Lord, and the Guardians. The only one who could hold Zeus back long enough was Athena, giving the Guardians the opportunity to use a black hole bullet to banish him from reality.