Hades

Hades (also sometimes Pluto or Hell) is a fictional character appearing in DC Comics publications and related media, commonly as an adversary and sometimes-ally of the superhero Wonder Woman. Based upon the eponymous Greek mythological figure, he is the Olympian god of the dead and ruler of the underworld. Publication history Hades first appeared under his Roman name Pluto in Wonder Woman #16 published in the summer of 1946, written by Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston. In this story, he kidnaps women from Earth, using them to decorate his castle on the planet Pluto, before being defeated by Wonder Woman and her allies. He would next encounter Wonder Woman in a 1962 Silver Age adventure in issue #131 of her monthly title, in which the hero ventures underground into Hades (referred to in-story as "the Underworld") at the behest of her mother Queen Hippolyta, battling Cerberus along the way and cannily avoiding a skirmish with Pluto's ghostly subjects. In 1978's Adventure Comics #460, Wonder Woman once again undertakes a journey to Pluto's realm (referred to both as "the Land of the Dead" and "Hell") to retrieve Steve Trevor's soul from the god's clutches. Here Pluto is depicted with Mephistophelian features, including devil horns and scarlet skin. Later in the Bronze Age, the character would be rechristened Hades (as part of writer Mindy Newell's move to standardize the use Greek names for DC's Olympian pantheon) in Wonder Woman's final pre-Crisis adventure in Wonder Woman #329. He would be re-introduced as a more benevolent character, again named Hades, in writer/artist George Pérez's post-Crisis reboot of the Wonder Woman mythos in 1987. Yet another version of the character would debut in 2011 as part of DC Comics’ New 52 publication event, which again revised Wonder Woman’s continuity. This incarnation, referred to primarily as Hell and sometimes as Hades, presents the character not as an adult man, but as a young boy in black and red armor, his head and face crowned with a dripping mass of melting candles. Fictional character biography As in classical mythology, Hades is a member of the Olympian gods, the immortal children of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. Along with his brothers Zeus and Poseidon, he ruled a significant portion of the ancient world. As the god of the Underworld, Hades had dominion over the spirits of the dead.