Real Name: Hades (his Greek name; "Pluto" is his Roman name)
Occupation: Ruler of Hades, the Olympian underworld (realm of the dead)
Identity: Publicly known in ancient Greece and in the Roman Empire. Today Pluto is generally believed to be a mythical character.
Legal Status: Citizen of Olympus and monarch of Hades
Other Aliases: Aidoneus, Dis, Hayden P ("Mr. Pluto") Hellman
Place of Birth: Unknown, probably in Olympus or an adjacent dimension.
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives: Persephone (wife), Ouranos (grandfather, deceased), Gaea (grandmother), Cronus (father), Rhea (mother), Zeus, Neptune (brothers), Hera, Demeter, Vesta (sisters), Apollo, Ares, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Hercules, Hermes (nephews), Artemis, Athena, Venus (nieces)
Group Affiliation: Gods of Olympus
Base of Operations: Hades
First Appearance: THOR #127

History: Pluto is the eldest son of Cronus, ruler of the superhuman extra dimensional race of Titans, and his wife, the Titaness Rhea. (Cronus the Titan is not to be confused with the Eternal known as Chronos or Kronos. Fearing that he would be dethroned by one of his offspring just as he himself had overthrown his own father Ouranos, Cronus imprisoned each of his own offspring in Tartarus, the darkest section of Hades, the Olympian underworld, as soon as he or she was horn. (Later legends erroneously claimed that Cronus had actually swallowed his children and that they remained alive inside him until Zeus released them.) Appalled, the children's mother Rhea gave birth to Zeus without Cronus's knowledge and gave him to the primeval Earth goddess Gaea to be raised in secret. The adult Zeus freed his siblings and led them in a successful revolt against Cronus and the Titans. Pluto's unique contribution to the war was stealing Cronus's principal weapons from his palace while wearing a helmet of invisibility.

Zeus became ruler of the pocket dimension called Olympus and of the race of Olympian gods. Zeus confined the defeated Titan warriors to Tartarus. He knew that they needed a stern warder and that the brooding Pluto was the only one of his siblings who found life in the underworld suitable to his temperament. Therefore, Zeus assigned ruler ship of the entire underworld to his elder brother. Pluto was quite pleased with this new role and rarely left the underworld over the following centuries.

The most infamous exception was when Pluto carried off Kore, the goddess of spring, to the underworld, to force her to become his wife, Kore's mother, the fertility goddess Demeter, was outraged, and refused to allow crops to grow in ancient Greece until Kore was returned. Eventually, a compromise was reached, and Kore spends only a portion of the year in Hades with her husband. As queen of Hades, Kore is known as Persephone.

Pluto's nephew Hercules, before his ascent to godhood, was forced to perform twelve great feats, known as the Twelve Labors of Hercules, for King Eurystheus of Argos. As one of these Labors Hercules had to invade Hades and capture Cerberus, the guardian of the underworld who could take the form of a savage, three-headed dog. As a result Pluto became one of Hercules's greatest enemies.

Since the time of his appointment as ruler of Hades, Pluto had populated his realm with the "shades" (astral forms) of mortals who had worshipped the Olympian gods. When the worship of the Olympian gods died out, giving way to Christianity, Zeus forbade Pluto from collecting any more "souls." Pluto obeyed the edict resentfully, having become accustomed to an evergrowing number of subjects in his realm. The bitter Pluto finally convinced himself that Zeus had proven himself to be an incompetent leader by allowing the worship of the Olympians to come to an end. Zeus, noting Pluto's increasingly ominous rebelliousness, warned him against attempting to overthrow him and sentenced him to remain monarch of Hades until Pluto could find a willing replacement

In one of Hercules's sojourns on Earth, Pluto appeared on Earth the guise of Hayden P. Hellman (nicknamed "Mr. Pluto"), a movie producer at California's Stardust Studio. Thus disguised, Pluto had the naive Hercules sign a contract that Hercules believed was for appearing in a project film. But in fact, it was an Olympian contract binding Hercules to become Pluto's successor as ruler of Hades. Having signed the contract, Hercules was unable to battle Pluto on his own behalf, but the Asgardian god Thor fought against Pluto's forces to free Hercules. Shocked by the massive destruction wreaked in Hades by Thor, Pluto realized that he loved his kingdom and could not bear to forsake it. Pluto therefore released Hercules from the contract.

But Pluto still wished to add new conquests to his kingdom. He traveled to an alternate future of Earth in which nuclear radiation had transformed many human beings into inhuman-looking mutates. Pluto brought an army of mutates back to his own time to conquer Earth for him. Pluto and his mutates were opposed by Thor his fellow Asgardians Balder and Sif, and the United States armed forces. Finally, Zeus himself intervened, banishing both Pluto and his mutates to Hades.

Later, Odin, monarch of the Asgardians, physically died, but time had been magically suspended about him so that his spirit would not yet leave his body. Pluto attempted to claim Odin's soul but was opposed by Odin's Son Thor and by the Asgardian death goddess Hela. Rather than allow Pluto to deprive her of Odin's soul, Hela restored Odin to life. Odin interrupted the battle between Thor and Pluto, and Pluto returned to Hades. Still later, Pluto and his nephew Ares conspired to provoke a battle between Thor and Hercules. But Thor and Hercules learned of the deception, and Thor managed to defeat Pluto on Earth.

Sometime later, Pluto made alliances with other death gods of other death gods of other dimensions, and then demanded that Zeus command Hercules and the goddess Venus to marry Pluto's allies Ares and Hippolyta. Zeus, fearing that Pluto would otherwise lead the other death gods in an attack on Olympus, at first agreed. In fact, Pluto still intended to conquer Olympus; Pluto believed that Hercules and Venus were the only two Olympians who could prevent his taking over Olympus, but, according to Zeus's law, once they were married to Ares and Hippolyta, Hercules and Venus would be unable to oppose them in combat. But finally, Zeus called Pluto's bluff, withdrew his commands for the marriages, and sent Pluto back to Hades. Pluto has met with the death gods of other pantheons on yet another occasion, when the primordial Demogorge threatened all gods.

Pluto remains in Hades today, but it is not likely he has given up his dreams of conquest.

Height: 6 ft. 5 in.
Weight: 520 lbs.
Eyes: Grey, but usually invisible
Heir: Black, bald on top

Strength Level: Pluto is one of the strongest of the Olympian gods, and can lift (press) 70 tens. Among the Olympian gods, his level of strength is matched only by those of Neptune and Ares, and exceeded only by those of Zeus and Hercules.

Known Superhuman Powers: Pluto possesses the conventional physical attributes of an Olympian god. Like all Olympians he is immortal he has not aged since reaching adulthood and cannot die by any conventional means. He is immune to all Earthly diseases and is resistant to conventional injury. If wounded, his godly life force would enable him to recover with superhuman speed; it would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of his bodily molecules to cause him physical death. Even then, it may be possible for Zeus or a god of equal power to revive him. Pluto possesses superhuman strength and his Olympian metabolism gives him far greater than human endurance at all physical activities. (Olympian flesh and bone is about three times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the Olympians' superhuman strength and weight.)

Pluto's extraordinary energy-wielding abilities are equaled among the Olympians only by those of Neptune, and surpassed only by those of Zeus. Only a few of Pluto's many energy-wielding powers have as yet been depicted. Pluto can fire powerful force belts from his hands, erect powerful, nearly impenetrable force fields, and nearly impenetrable force fields, and create interdimensional apertures to enable him to transport himself from one dimension to another. He can weaken an opponent's strength with his touch. Pluto can create mystical flame and sheathe himself with such flame while himself remaining unharmed. Pluto can create weapons of mystical flame, such as a spear or sword of fire, which can paralyze an opponent, it has been alleged that Pluto is less powerful on Earth than he is in his own realm of Hades.

Weapons: Pluto has a helmet of invisibility made for him by the Cyclopes, one-eyed giants who were trapped in Tartarus along with Pluto by Cronus. Using it, Pluto can make himself magically invisible even to other Olympians.

Pluto wields a large battleaxe through which he can project and focus his force bolts (although he is fully capable of projecting the bolts without it). The battleaxe is made of enchanted adamantine and is virtually indestructible. One of the axes was smashed by a spell of the Norns in recent years but Pluto has others. All of them were constructed for Pluto by the Cyclopes.