HECATE HECATE
Real Name: Hecate
Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Olympian titan)
Occupation: Café owner, goddess of witchcraft, explorer
Group Membership: Olympian Gods
Affiliations: Ardina, Clea, Kyknos, Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff), Warhawk, Warhawks;
formerly the Elementals (Hellfire, Hydron, Magnum, Zephyr)
Enemies: Basilisk, Elementals, Emerald Warlock (Declan Dane), Griffin, Hercules, Man-Bull, Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), Zeus
Known Relatives: Perses (father, deceased), Asteria (mother, deceased), Aegialues, Absyrtus (sons), Scylla, Medea, Chalciope (daughters), Leto (maternal aunt), Coeus, Crius (grandfather, deceased), Eurybia, Phoebe (grandmother, deceased), Apollo, Artemis (cousins)
Aliases: Hekate, Dark Angel of Legend, Goddess of the Crossroads, Mistress of Magic, Mistress of the Moon, Mother of Hounds, "New Dark Queen of Brooklyn", Patroness of those who walk the Right-Hand Path, Triune Goddess, Witch-Queen
Place of Birth: Olympus
Base of Operations: Her Café on the island of Santorini, Greece;
formerly Brooklyn, New York City;
formerly mobile
First Appearance: Ms. Marvel I#11 (November, 1977)
Powers/Abilities: Hecate has superhuman strength (lifting 25 tons), durability, speed and endurance. She is unaging, able to resist temperature extremes and immune to diseases and most toxins. As goddess of magic, Hecate is an immensely powerful sorceress, able to conjure devastating blasts, read thoughts, project fear into the minds of others, create substantive objects from others' memories, alter the forms of physical objects and people as well as possibly many other feats. She can command dogs, and canine creatures become vicious in an undefined radius around her. She can alter her own form at will. In her true form, she has three faces, one on the front and one on either side of her head. Hecate can grant power to mortal sorcerers.
Height: 6'3" (variable)
Weight: 465 lbs. (variable)
Eyes: Lavender (variable)
Hair: Black (variable)
History: (Mythology) - Hecate was one of the few Titans to remain in power after Zeus conquered Olympus. As an underworld goddess, she was convinced she was to rule the underworld as wife to Hades but was offended when he abducted Persephone to be his bride. She retaliated by becoming a goddess of the occult and showing off the secrets of the dead to the world's first witches. Her mortal priestess, Eidyia, had several children by King Aeetes of Colchis -- one of whom, Medea, became one of her most devout followers, but learned much of her own magic from the goddess Circe herself.
(Herc#4 (fb) - BTS) - When Zeus forbade the gods to meddle in mortal affairs he wiped out Hecate's memory and cast her out of Olympus by Zeus.
(Ms. Marvel I#11-13) - Hecate was an exceptionally long-lived being who was confused with the Olympian goddess Hecate and who for reasons of her own continued to pose as the goddess. After rescuing the Elementals -- Hydron, Magnum, Hellfire and Zephyr -- from space, she learned they were seeking a powerful ruby scarab and went to stop them. Ms Marvel, acting on a preminition of her friend Salia Petrie's death on a space shuttle, encountered them. Thinking she was after the scarab as well, Hecate and Ms Marvel clashed as the Elementals found it and used it to levitate a small island and fling it on top of the feuding females. Hecate blasted it with one mind beam, but the blast also killed Salia Petrie as Ms Marvel had predicted. Realizing that Ms Marvel only cared for her friend, Hecate and the heroine teamed up against the Elementals and defeated them. Ms Marvel, however, regressed into Carol Danvers and took the scarab to use it against Hecate. But the scarab merged the personalites of Danvers and Ms Marvel and she forgave Hecate, who took the scarab to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.
(Order I#4 - BTS) - Clea invoked Hecate (still amnesiac at this point) in the creation of Ardina.
(Herc#3 (fb) - BTS) - Hecate was caught and imprisoned at the Raft.
(Herc#3) - When the Juggernaut's transformation into one of the Worthy destroyed the Raft Hecate escaped with Basilisk, Griffin and Man-Bull on a boat.
They attempted to rob a bank in Brooklyn at Cadman Plaza, but Hercules stopped the robbery. Griffin tried to escape with some money, but was shot down by the Warhawks. Hecate took the Shield of Perseus and looking into it returned her memory and she once again became the goddess she had once been. She declared herself the New Dark Queen of Lost Brooklyn and feasted on the people's fear.
(Herc#4) - Hecate's magic turned Griffin into his beastly form. That night Hecate, remembering everything and seeking revenge on Zeus by going after Hercules, joined Kyknos in his scheme and started by using her magic to transform Brooklyn into a place more fitting for Ares' return.
(Herc#5) - Hecate transformed humans and animals and everything else further, turning Brooklyn into a place filled with monsters. Hecate and Kyknos later watched people beat each other to death to bring back Ares with their sacrifice. They were both surprised when Basilisk, Man-Bull and Griffin delivered Hercules, petrified by the Shield of Perseus, to them.
(Herc#6) - Fed by the fear Hecate watched Kyknos' battle against Hercules, Basilisk, Griffin and Man-Bull until the people's fear in Brooklyn changed to hope. This hope and the prayers of Hercules' worshippers diverted Hecate's spell, whose energies now empowered Basilisk, Griffin and Man-Bull instead of Kyknos and his followers. The trio defeated Kyknos and Hecate's spell was broken. She fled while Brooklyn returned to normal.
SECRET WARS III HAPPENED
(Scarlet Witch II#2 (fb) - BTS) - Hecate cut her connection to Earth's magic and moved to the Greek island Santorini where she chose to live among humans. She opened a café and was content to serve food and drinks to her patrons.
When the Minotaur came to the island Hecate felt the dark magic that protected the creature.
(Scarlet Witch II#2) - Scarlet Witch sought Hecate's advise and visited her on Santorini. Hecate believed she had come to deal with the Minotaur, but Scarlet Witch was not aware of the threat. Hecate offered her grilled goat and retsina, but Scarlet Witch was a vegetarian and not drinking anymore since she was taking medication against her depression. Scarlet Witch though took Hecate up on her offer of coffee. Scarlet Witch told her how magic felt broken in the world, which Hecate had felt for some time. Hecate then told Scarlet Witch about the Minoatur that murdered people at night and was rendered invisible by some of the broken magic Scarlet Witch had mentioned. This Minotaur felt different than the original one, but Hecate didn't know why. Hecate then asked Scarlet Witch to deal with the Minotaur, which would put her in debt with the Scarlet Witch.
Hecate's physical form was destroyed when the Emerald Warlock, who had been behind turning the second-rate villain Man-Bull into the Minotaur, made her pay the cost for the magic he had used to empower the Minotaur.
Comments: Created by Chris Claremont & Sal Buscema
Pretty much a let down as an appearance. Not only does Danvers give in too easily, but Marvel cheats the reader by not making Hecate the Olympian goddess she is supposed to be. Marvel has already established the Olympian gods as major participants in the MU, what did they hope to establish by not making this Hecate the actual goddess is anyone's guess.
Since the Eternals have been masquerading as
the Olympians for centuries, it's probably likely that this Hecate
is also an Eternal, though perhaps not an Earth Eternal. She has
several powers and things in common with Sersi, the Eternal who
masqueraded as Circe in ancient times.
--Both of the above points are true -- however, the fact that
Hecate was mistaken for an Olympian goddess does not mean that
she was mistaken for another person, who would have been the
Hecate from mythology. It is possible that in the MU, there was
never an Olympian goddess named Hecate, but just the woman from
this profile who deliberately led others to believe that she was
a goddess. I'm not saying I agree with this, or have any evidence
to support it, but I'm just trying to present all options. This
issue is undefined -- and likely to remain that way--Snood.
Decades later Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente revealed Hecate to be the actual Olympian goddess. She had amnesia and couldn't remember her true origins when she fought Ms. Marvel.
--Markus Raymond
Herc and Scarlet Witch update by Markus Raymond.
Profile by William Uchtman
Clarifications: Hecate should not be confused with:
images:
Herc#3, p20 (true form)
Ms. Marvel I#11, p17, pan4 (amnesiac form)
Ms. Marvel I#12, p9 (showing off)
Scarlet Witch II#2, p6, pan2 (living among humans)
Appearances:
Ms. Marvel I#11 (November, 1977) - Chris Claremont (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Ms. Marvel I#12 (December, 1977) - Chris Claremont (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Ms. Marvel I#13 (January, 1978) - Chris Claremont (writer), Jim Mooney (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Order I#4 (July, 2002) - Jo Duffy & Kurt Busiek (writers), Dan Jurgens (pencils), Bob Layton (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Herc#3 (July, 2011) - Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (writers), Neil Edwards (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Herc#4 (August, 2011) - Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (writers), Neil Edwards (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Herc#5-6 (September-October, 2011) - Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (writers), Neil Edwards (pencils), Cory Hamscher (inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Scarlet Witch II#2 (March, 2016) - James Robinson (writer), Marco Rudy (artist), Emily Shaw (editor)
First Posted: 07/20/2002
Last Updated: 04/08/2018
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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