Father Set - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

Though Set has rarely appeared in the comics, it is credited with playing a pivotal role in the development of life on Earth in the Marvel Universe.

The serpent god Set was created approximately 3 billion years ago, when the being known as the Demiurge spread its substance over the Earth and "birthed" the Elder Gods, of which it was one. Set "birthed" several lesser snake demons itself, such as Damballah and Sligguth; but it hungered for power, and decided to obtain it by eating the weaker gods and absorbing their magical essence. The process worked, but it also devolved Set, turning it into a demon.

The other gods began to imitate Set, and soon, all but Oshtur (of the Vishanti) and Gaea, goddess of the earth, had become demons. Fearing they would hurt Earth's evolving life-forms, Gaea summoned and mated with Demiurge to conceive a son with the power to destroy the other gods: Atum, the sun god. Atum began to kill the demons and absorb their energies, which caused it to take on a demon-like form himself, that of the "Demogorge the God-Eater". He continued to destroy the demons, until the last ones left realized that they would only survive by banishing themselves into other dimensions. In Set's case, it created its own 'pocket dimension' to hide, but lacked the power to escape from it by itself. It would remain there for a billion years.

Eventually, about 65 million years ago, Set began to feed on the energies of the dinosaurs, possibly due to their reptilian nature. This gave it the power to manifest on Earth again. However, when Gaea decided to let dinosaurs die out and be replaced by mammals, Set took control of the dinosaurs and made them attack the mammals. Gaea responded by summoning Atum (who had been living in the Sun), and the deity reassumed his Demogorge form and battled Set. Demogorge ripped Set's head off, but the demon possessed the power to grow two replacements instantly. Still, Demogorge continued to rip off Set's heads.

Eventually, Set's power was exhausted, and it returned to its dimension, imprisoning itself again; by this time, it had seven heads. Demogorge changed back into Atum, and returned to the Sun. This titanic battle may have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs in the Marvel Universe. Set remained imprisoned for several million years more.

At some point, Set somehow created a new race, the Serpent Men, to serve it on Earth. They tried to influence mankind's pre-human ancestors, but failed, and were rejected by the Celestials for their empowering experiments. Still, Set would try to influence humanity (and strike at them) through the millennia. However, most of the Serpent Men were killed off by the forces of King Kull of Atlantis.

Just before the continent of Lemuria was sunk by the Celestials in the "Great Cataclysm", the Serpent Men and some human alchemists created the Serpent Crown, an object which mystically accessed the powers of Set in his pocket dimension. The Crown could grant great powers to its wearers, but it also left them open to the serpent god's influence and even its control. The purpose of the Crown was to allow Set to control all the humans of Earth.

After the cataclysm, the Crown was lost to the Serpent Men, whose numbers rapidly decreased during the "Hyborian Age" which followed. Other worshipers of Set emerged however, including the sorcerer Thoth-Amon, an enemy of Conan the Barbarian who at one point wielded the Cobra Crown a device similar to the Serpent Crown which also served as conduit for Set's power on Earth, though it was quickly destroyed.

The Serpent Crown itself was eventually found by a group of Homo mermanus (a race of aquatic humanoids), who had made their home in the sunken Lemurian continent. The Serpent Crown was used for centuries by their leader Naga who converted his people to the worship of Set and whose appearance came to resemble that of a serpent through his extended use of the Crown. Eventually, the Crown was stolen from Naga by a group of "Lemurian" dissidents who created their own society, which was later called the "Ancients" when it was discovered in the twentieth century. The Crown was kept hidden in Antarctica by these "Ancients" for centuries, until it was buried in the avalanche which destroyed their society. This event was ultimately engineered by Set, who used its influence through the Serpent Crown to manipulate the society's leader into causing the devastating avalanche.

The Crown (disguised as the "helmet of power") was later found by a psychic called Paul Destine ("Destiny"), who used it to attack the Homo mermanus of Atlantis, which led to Namor the Sub-Mariner suffering through a period of amnesia. Years later, in contemporary times (circa late 1960s Marvel Comics publications), the Serpent Crown finally re-emerged and once again Set's influence came to be manifested on Earth for a period.

Though Set itself rarely appeared in the comics, its presence was regularly evoked through the use of the Serpent Crown. In various stories either followers of Set (such as Ghaur), or individuals mind controlled by Set via the Crown (such as the Squadron Supreme), attempted to facilitate the serpent god's return to the Earth Dimension. These attempts were stopped through the intervention of various Marvel Super Heroes (see the Serpent Crown entry for the full details).

One exception to this came during Marvel's Atlantis Attacks crossover in 1989 when Set was briefly returned to Earth (West Coast Avengers Annual #4, Thor Annual#14). In this storyline the Deviant priest Ghaur and the Homo mermanus villainess Llyra managed to create a massive new Serpent Crown with which they intended to facilitate the return of Set. Their plan also involved kidnapping seven super-heroines whom they intended Set to mate with in order to spawn his offspring. The plan was defeated when Thor, taking control over the Demogorge, ripped off Set's heads and sent each to a different dimension; this caused Set's dimension to implode, destroying its body and apparently eliminating the threat of the serpent god for several centuries.