PHORCYS
Real Name: Phorcys
Identity/Class: Demon (Elderspawn)
Occupation: God of the Sea
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Olympian Gods (especially Aphrodite);
formerly Sirens (including Venus)
Enemies: Agents of Atlas (Gorilla Man/Ken Hale, Human Robot/M-11, Namora, Uranian/Bob Grayson, Venus, Jimmy Woo), Hercules (Heracles), Hulk (Bruce Banner), Korg, Red She-Hulk (Betty Ross), She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters), Skaar, unidentified creatures of Yomi, countless unidentified victims over the millennia, unidentified leviathans from the deep
Known Relatives: Ceto (wife), Echidna, Gorgons (Euryale, Medusa, Stheno), Graeae (Deinos, Enyo, Pephredo), Scylla, Sirens, Thoosa, Zirnitra (daughters), Typhon (brother-in-law/son-in-law), Vârcolac (son-in-law), Set (father), Gaea (mother-in-law), Pontus (father-in-law), Damballah, Dragon of the Moon, Siapep, Sligguth, Yamato-no-Orichi (brothers), Ishiti, Tartessus (sisters), Argus, Briareus, Brontes, Cottus, Cronus, Crius, Coeus, Gyges, Hyperion, Japet, Nereus, Oceanus, Ophion, Steropes (brothers-in-law), Dione, Furies, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis, Tethys (sisters-in-law), Cerberus, Hydra, Ladon, Nemean Lion, Orthrus, Pegasus (grandsons), Angerboda, Chimera, Chrysaor, Phaea, Maralith, Sphinx (granddaughters), Callirhoe (granddaughter-in-law), Geryon (great-grandson, deceased), Chthon, Hyppus (uncles), Isuus, Oshtur (aunts), Demiurge (grandfather), many other distant relatives
Aliases: Kraken
Base of Operations: Mobile throughout Earth's oceans
First Appearance: (Mentioned) Marvel Tarot (2007); (seen) X-Men vs.Agents of Atlas#2 (January, 2010)
Powers/Abilities: He possesses the average strength of an over 200' tall nearly 200 tons heavy god (incalculable, but he can lift far over 100 tons). He has a pretty strong grip with his clawed arms and could use the tentacles surrounding his maw to get hold of things or living beings as well. His maw was filled with razor-sharp teeth and could devour most beings in one swoop, but he could probably also take a good bite out of larger beings. Though he possessed extreme longevity he could be injured and from time to time lost a few tentacles in combat, but he regenerated pretty quickly. He possessed a psychic influence over his daughters, the Sirens, which could be reversed to control him in case he lost control over a Siren (which happened). Phorcys could rise from any water body large enough to hold him and was possibly a teleporter through magical means. It is likeley that a Siren's song could open a portal or mystically summon Phorcys to wherever the Siren resided at the moment....as long as there was, as mentioned before, a water body large enough to hold Phorcys.
Height: 220' (by approximation)
Weight: 190 tons (by approximation)
Eyes: Red
Hair: None
History:
(Marvel Tarot) - Phorcys, son of Set, fathered many monsters along with Ceto. They were all second generation descendants of Set.
(Incredible Hercules#138/2 (fb) - BTS) - Forbidden to attack mortals Phorcys until they attacked him or willingly submitted themselves to him.
(X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas#2/2 (fb) - BTS) - Phorcys made his daughters, the Sirens, in Aphrodite's image. The Sirens became his loyal thralls and influenced humans to become Phorcys' food.
(Assault on New Olympus#1/2 (fb) - BTS) - The Sirens were slain, robbing Phorcys of his means to gain the sustenance he craved. He didn't know that one of the Sirens survived and eventually became a heroine by the name of Venus, who was mistaken for the goddess Aphrodite by many humans.
For centuries Phorcys lived in the depths of the ocean where he fought leviathans.
(X-Men vs.Agents of Atlas#2) - In the modern era Aphrodite, seeking revenge on the Siren Venus, who was working with the Agents of Atlas and mistaken for her, summoned Phorcys and sent him after his wayward daughter and feeding girl.
(Assault on New Olympus#1/2) - With Venus' ongoing existence revealed to him by Aphrodite Phorcys approached her at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and forced her to sing for him once again. Standing on one of his many tentacles Venus' song influenced the humans on the bridge to jump into the sea. Venus' teammates, the Agents of Atlas, saved them before attacking Phorcys head-on. Uranian (Bob Grayson) shot Phorcys with his ships' Meteor Smasher, Namora hit him in the mouth and M-11 cut off one his Phorcys' tentacles with an energy blast. Though he was unprepared against their first assault Phorcys quickly gained the upper hand (or tentacle) by ripping through Golden Gate Bridge and using Venus once again to sing for him.
(Incredible Hercules#138/2) - The Agents of Atlas were trapped in his tentacles and claws Phorcys, who was going to eat them because their attack on him had lifted his obligation to not attack them. Jimmy Woo managed to break Phorcys' control over Venus when he told her that she was a hero. With Phorcys control over her broken Venus controlled Phorcys to let her friends go. Surprised that his own creation no longer obeyed him Phorcys returned to the depths of the ocean noting that that the cosmos was changing and there would soon be no place for gods anymore.
(Chaos War: God Squad#1) - Venus summoned Phorcys to Takamagahara, the realm of the Kami, to fight the demons of Yomi, the Japanese underworld, who had been released by the Mikaboshi-influenced Amaterasu. He rose from the waters in the realm and feasted on the demons, who kept fighting him.
(Chaos War: God Squad#1 - BTS) - Phorcys was seemingly overcome by the demons while Venus and her allies the God Squad sealed the portal to Yomi once again to prevent more demons from escaping the Japanese underworld.
(Chaos War#5 - BTS) - Phorcys was among the beings returned to life by Hercules, when he had gained omnipotence.
(Incredible Hulks#622) - Phorcys attacked a ship headed for Mount Olympus, which now resided off the coast of Long Island. On the ship where She-Hulk, Skaar, Korg and Red She-Hulk, who were following Hulk, who had climbed Mount Olympus to fight the Olympian gods. Skaar ripped off one of Phorcys' tentacles, but Phorcys kept ripping apart the Hulks' ship. Hit down from Mount Olympus by Zeus himself Hulk aided his friends for a moment against Phorcys, but then returned to his fight with Zeus. Eventually Phorcys pulled the Hulk's friends into the ocean.
(Incredible Hulks#622 - BTS) - Hercules apparently saved Hulk's friends from being devoured by Phorcys, who let them go after losing a few more tentacles to them.
(Incredible Hulks#622) - Korg and Skaar were carrying tentacles of Phorcys when they, Hercules, Red She-Hulk and She-Hulk freed Hulk from Mount Olympus.
Comments: Created by Jeff Parker (writer) & Gabriel Hardman (artist).
Phorcys and Ceto both have that tentacle face thing going. I can see why they fell for each other!
In mythology Phorcys was the son of Gaea and Pontus and embodied the dangers of depths of the sea. In a famous mosaic Phorcys is depicted as a merman with forelegs in the shape of claws.
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Phorcys has no known connection to:
images (without ads)
Incredible Hercules#138/2, p2, pan4 (main image)
Assault of New Olympus Prologue#1/2, p2, pan1 (side view)
Chaos War: God Squad#1, p19 (Phorcys summoned to fight demons from Yomi)
Appearances:
Marvel Tarot#1 (2007) - David Sexton (writer/design), Doug Sexton (technical consultant), Jeff Christiansen (continuity consultant), Jeff Youngquist (editor)
X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas#2 (January, 2010) - Jeff Parker (writer), Gabriel Hardman (artist), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Assault of New Olympus Prologue#1 (January, 2010) - Jeff Parker (writer), Gabriel Hardman (artist), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Incredible Hercules#138 (January, 2010) - Jeff Parker (writer), Gabriel Hardman (artist), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Chaos War: God Squad#1 (February, 2011) - Marc Sumerak (writer), Dan Panosian (artist), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Incredible Hulks#622 (April, 2011) - Greg Pak (writer), Paul Pelletier (pencils), Danny Miki (inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)
First Posted: 08/11/2015
Last updated: 08/11/2015
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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