MEDUSA

Real Name: Medusa

Identity/Class: Olympian goddess
    Post-Hyborian era; 11th through 17th Centuries; World War I era; Post-World War II era

Occupation: Recluse, former priestess of Athena, photographer

Group Membership: The Gorgons (Stheno and Euryale), former member of the Olympian gods

Affiliations: Athena (formerly), Neptune (formerly)

Enemies: The Argonauts Athena, Perseus

Known Relatives: Phorcys (father), Ceto (mother), The Graiae (Deinos, Enyo, Pephredo, sisters), Stheno, Euryale (sisters, possibly deceased), Chrysaor (son), Pegasus (daughter, presumably), Orion (nephew), Callirhoe (daughter-in-law), Geryon (grandson, deceased), Echidna (granddaughter, deceased), Typhon (grandson-in-law), Cerberus (great-grandson), Ladon, Chimaera, Orthrus (great-grandsons, deceased), Hydra, Phaea, Sphinx (great-granddaughters, deceased)

Aliases: May Dusa

Base of Operations: A curio shop
    an castle dungeon in Europe;
    unnamed city in the 1920's;
    Ancient Libya (now part of modern Morocco), 14th century BC;
    possibly Medusa-Land

First Appearance: Adventures Into Terror#15 (January, 1953)

Powers/Abilities: Medusa possessed the conventional attributes of a deteriorated Olympian goddess. Stripped of much of her power, divine enchantments and godhood, she is nowhere near as powerful as when she was a full-pledged goddess. Her primary power left behind from her godhood was her ability to alter the appearance of other things, but only now confined to her gaze. One look from her can turn any living thing, including their clothing and weapons to stone. However, some individuals such as Hercules have been able to avoid being turned into stone merely by closing their eyes so perhaps there is a mystical connection connected through a quasi-mental link with her victims. It has been suggested, though, that by killing Medusa, this petrifying process can be undone even on victims of exceptional years old.
    --I thought you had to see Medusa to turn to stone--Snood.

There are some references that Medusa even before her curse might have been some sort of capable archer with a bow and arrow.

Physical Appearance: As goddesses, the Gorgons were supposedly revered as the most beautiful of the Olympian gods, originally possessing wings of gold as gods. Medusa and her sisters, however, were transformed into hideous hags with snakes for hair and wings of bronze. In additional to these mystical mutations, they attained brazen hands and long tongues, which lolled from their mouths between tusks like those of swine.

History: (Greek-Roman Myth) - Medusa is one of the Gorgons, daughters of the ancient sea-gods, Phorcys and Ceto, who were overthrown when the Olympian God Zeus conquered Olympus and overthrew the Titans. The Gorgons became attendants and priestesses of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, afterward and she took vows from them that they would remain virgins to honor her. It was a difficult promise for Medusa and her sisters to keep. All three of them were courted by the sea-god Poseidon. Euryale bore the giant Orion to Poseidon and Medusa bore him another son, the giant Chrysaor, but when Athena realized that the Gorgons had been having sexual relations within one of her temples, she stripped all three of them of their beauty and converted them to hideous hags with snakes for hair. They fled to earth in the region of Ancient Libya to live in isolation away from the eyes of mortals and immortals and transformed all who were foolish enough to find them into stone statues.

    In the Fourteenth Century BC, King Polydectes of Seriphos sent Perseus on a search for Medusa to kill her and return with her head as proof. In the young heir’s absence, Polydectes hoped to marry his mother, Danae, and through her gain control of Argos. Athena meanwhile guided Perseus in his adventure and had the Graiae provide him with several weapons required in confronting Medusa. Although he had to ransom the sacred eye of the Graiae to attain their cooperation, Perseus was eventually armed with winged sandals, a cap that made him invisible, a pouch that was immune to Medusa’s power and a sword to use against her before being sent into the area where he would hope to find Medusa and her sisters.

(Greek-Roman Myth/Journey Into Mystery I#96 (fb) - He finally located the Gorgons living isolated in the wilderness surrounded by the stone statues of their previous victims. Watching them through the shining reflective surface of his shield, he waited until they fell asleep and then crept among them and slew Medusa with one single blow, decapitating her in the process. Medusa’s sisters rose to fight their invisible invader, but could not find him to confront him. They instead returned to mourn and bury their sister. From her corpse, the winged horse Pegasus burst forth and fled off into the night. Her blood seeping into the Earth, however, turned into serpents. Athena saved some of the blood and gave it to King Erichthonius of Athens. One drop cured disease and another drop became a deadly poison.

(Adventures Into Terror#15 (fb)) - Medusa had secretly had a daughter, and when Medusa died, she spirited her daughter away to a subterranean world below Athens. There, in what would become Medusa-Land, her daughter, also known as Medusa, came to the rule city. Her descendents--each named Medusa and possessing similar powers to the original Medusa--each ruled the city after the deaths of their mothers.

(Greek-Roman Myth) - Perseus reached that night the Garden of the Hesperides where the daughters of the Titan Atlas treated him warmly as a guest. The Titaness Themis, however, had warned Atlas that a son of Zeus would one day rob the apples from the garden and treated him inhospitably. Wanting to take down some of the apples as a gift to his mother, Perseus tried to abscond with a few of them, but Atlas noticed him and screamed at him to stay away from them. Perseus then struck back by using Medusa’s head to turn him to stone; Atlas had managed to revert back to normal by the arrival of Hercules, the real threat of which Themis had warned him. Perseus also used Medusa’s head to turn King Polydectes to stone, but eventually realized the head was too dangerous for him to keep and he gave it to Athena for safe keeping. She emblazoned the surface of her aegis (breastplate) with its gruesome image.

    Mopsus, one of the Argonauts, was killed by one of the serpents born from Medusa’s blood in Libya as they struggled to return to Greece.

    Athena eventually saved a clipping from Medusa’s hair and concealed it in an urn to give to Hercules two generations later. He gave it to Sterope, a princess of Tegea and daughter of his good friend King Cepheus, and told her it could be used to ward off any army. She kept it hidden away as a weapon for Tegea as her father joined Hercules in a war against Sparta.

(Marvel Preview#10) <@ 1250-1225 BC> - King Kreon of Pylos sent Hercules and the Argonauts to retrieve the gold of Medusa hidden on the Isle of Fear. Kreon knew Medusa had no gold and hoped to be rid of them by sending them on the dangerous adventure. Reaching the island and encountering griffins en route, they encountered Medusa concealing her face behind a hood. She offered Jason a bite of a golden apple with the promise of immortality, but Hercules realized the truth and shot an arrow trying to kill her, but it instead knocked her hood off. Jason was turned to stone as a result as Medusa turned on Hercules, but the Old One shot an arrow and killed her to defend Hercules. With Medusa dead, Jason and all her prior victims returned back to normal as the Argonauts collected her golden apples for King Kreon and seized her winged horse.

(Greek-Roman Myth) - Sometime in the Seventh Century BC, Athena also took two ribs from Medusa’s corpse to create a flute, but she could never understand why Aphrodite and Hera broke out laughing when she tried to master playing it. She eventually saw a reflection of herself as she looked trying to blow through them and cast the flutes to earth as she cursed the person who found them. The satyr Marsyas discovered them and learned to play them excellently, but he got involved in a musical contest with the god Apollo that was judged by Midas, the king of Phrygia. Apollo won by playing his lyre upside down, but Marsyas lost his life after trying to do the same thing with the Medusa flute.

(Avengers I#4 (fb)) - Some years later, a group of Greek soldiers surprised an extraterrestrial alien from the planet D’Bari on Earth. He used a weapon to turn one of the soldiers to stone. Because of that feat and his weird appearance, they fled believing that he was Medusa returned back to life.

(Journey Into Mystery I#96 (fb)) - The extraterrestrial race known only as "Gorgons" were also mistaken for Medusa at various times. Like Medusa, they could transform people into stone with their countenance.

(Journey Into Mystery I#73 (fb) - BTS) -  Ages ago, Medusa was imprisoned in the dungeon of a castle in Europe, to protect humanity from her gaze. Centuries went by and the castle remained vacant, due to fear of the curse contained within it.

(Tales To Astonish I#32) - In the 1920's, Medusa adopted the identity of "May Dusa" and became a famous award-winning photographer, keeping her face concealed beneath a black hood. On one occasion, a man attempted to rob from her, and gained access to her apartment by claiming to want his picture taken. Curious to see if "May Dusa" was as beautiful under the hood as he believed, the criminal removed the hood and was instantly transformed into stone.

(Adventures Into Terror#15 - BTS) <1954> - Anthropologist Professor Lansing discovered the existence of Medusa-Land and led a group of criminals there to steal its wealth.

(Tales of Suspense I#10 (fb)) - Medusa came to be kept in the possession of a curio shop owner, who kept her locked behind a heavy iron door. On one occasion, a criminal robbed the store and, thinking that the iron door concealed the owner's most valuable treasures, forced him to open it. Upon gazing at Medusa, he was immediately turned into stone.

(Tales of Suspense I#10) - The shop owner placed the criminal's stone body in his shop. Some time later, a customer wanted to know the story behind the "statue", and the owner told him; the customer did not believe him, but when the owner challenged him to open the door himself, he fled in terror, convinced.

(Journey Into Mystery I#73) - Mr. and Mrs. Grey bought the European castle containing Medusa, ignoring the curse. They eventually came upon the locked cell of Medusa. Unaware of what was behind the door, Mrs. Grey went to fetch a crowbar, after which the door opened easily for Mr. Grey. Medusa mocked Grey as she revealed her face, but she was amazed when he did not turn to stone.Thinking that her own curse had worn off, she looked at herself in the mirror; instantly, she felt her own body begin to stiffen and petrify. As Medusa turned to stone, Mr. Grey revealed that he was blind.

(Moon Knight I#16/2 (fb) - BTS) - The head of Medusa was found in an archaeological dig in Greece by Mr. Collins. He held on to the head for many decades, until it was stolen from him by Mr. Karg.

(Moon Knight I#16/2) - Mr. Collins hired Marc Spector to recover the head of Medusa from Mr. Karg for him. Spector was followed by Collins' daughter, who wanted to keep her father from reclaiming it. They were both captured by Karg, who attempted to use the head of Medusa upon them, but Spector used a piece of broken glass to reflect Medusa's visage back upon Karg, turning him and the head into stone. Spector broke off Karg's right hand so that he could return the petrified head to Mr. Collins.

Comments: Adapted by an unnamed writer and Tony DiPreta.

Medusa allegedly appeared in USA Comics#6 (December 1942): "The Ghost's Gaze of Death ." If so, this would be her first appearance.
-Per Degaton