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Hera is a member of the Olympians a group of humanoid beings that hail from the pocket dimension; Olympus. She was worshipped by the Humans of Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. Married to Zeus she is Queen of Olympus, Goddess of marriage,[1] childbirth,[1] women,[citation needed] and fidelity.[citation needed]

History

Origin[]

Hera is the youngest daughter of Cronus and Rhea, beings known as Titans who once ruled Olympus. The Titans were the offspring of the sky god Ouranos and the primeval earth goddess Gaea. Cronus overthrew his father's rule by fatally wounding him. The dying Ouranos prophesied that Cronus would likewise be overthrown by one of his own children.
Cronus (Earth-616) from Incredible Hercules Vol 1 130 001
As a result, upon the birth of each of his own children, Cronus had the infant imprisoned in Tartarus, the most dismal section of the extra dimensional underworld known as Hades. The offspring he sent there were Hades, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, and Hera. Appalled at the mistreatment of their children, Cronus' wife Rhea concealed her sixth pregnancy from him and secretly gave birth to Zeus and hid him on Crete.[8]

Titanomachy[]

Zeus grew to adulthood and then set about taking revenge on Cronus. Zeus went down into Tartarus and freed his siblings. Hera and the others fought a ten year war with the Titans which ended with Zeus' victory. They imprisoned most of the male Titans in Tartarus.[9]

Age of the Olympians[]

Hera married Zeus and along with Poseidon, Demeter and Hestia, together with Zeus' children Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Venus, comprised the membership of the high council of the Olympian gods known as the Pantheon. Hestia later resigned her seat in the council in favor of Zeus' son Dionysus. Zeus' brother Hades was not a member of the Pantheon, preferring to spend virtually all of his time within Hades, which he ruled. She also found and fed the infant Hercules with her divine breast milk, however Hercules bit down on her nipple whilst suckling which harmed her due to his immense strength, so she flung him away.

Third Host[]

In 1000 AD, the Third Host of the Celestials occurred, during which the aliens informed they would return 1,000 years later to judge Earth's right to continue existing. While the pantheons prepared for war, Gaea planned a peaceful solution to the problem with many goddesses, among them Hera.

20th Century[]

In 1919, she and Frigga, wife of Odin, chieftain of the Asgardian Gods, discovered Mark Cadmon living on the streets of Chicago, Illinois and saw his true untapped potential. They placed him among a group of other young adults who became known as the Young Gods.[10]

By the late 1940s, Hera --assuming her Roman name of Juno-- had relocated with the other Olympians to the planet Venus and were briefly under the rule of Aphrodite who took on her Roman name as well. When Venus came to the aid of an office girl named Lucy whose boyfriend Frank Foster became obsessed with Juno, Venus decided to let him meet her face to face. The easily jealous Juno proved to too much for Frank to handle after the goddess got into a fight with a waitress. Later, when Juno crossed paths with Venus' lover Whitney Hammond. With her romance in jeopardy, Venus returned Juno back to Olympus.[11]

Modern Era[]

Fourth Host[]

When the Fourth Host of the Celestials occurred, Gaea produced the Young Gods to the Celestials as what the human race could attain if allowed to exist. The Celestials accepted the Young Gods as prime examples of humanity and departed Earth taking the Young Gods with them.[10]

Ruler of the Olympians[]

After Zeus' death at the hands of Mikaboshi, Hera inherited his thunderbolt and position as ruler of the Olympians, promising a new era to her race. However, Hera abused both of her powers as well as of her subordinates, indirectly killing Amadeus Cho's parents, making an uneasy alliance with Norman Osborn, bullying Poseidon into submission with Pluto's help, expelling Apollo and Artemis simply for not being her children, and extending her hatred over her own children like Ares, Hephaestus and Hebe for even the smallest disobedience. Ultimately, her ambition grew to the point that she tried to recreate the whole universe with the Continuum, but while resurrected as a child, Zeus convinced her to give up such insanity. Unfortunately, Typhon, temporarily controlled by Hera's mystical powers betrayed her, slaying both her and Zeus while protected by the Aegis breastplate. Their souls where promptly taken by Thanatos to the underworld.[12]

Chaos War[]

Their souls would not rest forever. Mikaboshi, now calling himself the Chaos King, conquered the relative spirit realms of the gods of earth and enslaved all the souls, included Zeus and Hera in Hades. Hercules resurrected both of them under his own power.[13]

Hulk[]

When Hulk tried to force Zeus to cure A-Bomb and Red She-Hulk, Hera sensed his true noble reasons and informed everyone present of them. She pitied the Hulk, but Zeus still refused to help, claiming that such altruism was the "wrong religion." Zeus quickly beat the Green Goliath into submission. Hera witnessed Hercules freeing Hulk from his torment, and when she asked Zeus why he allowed Hercules to do such thing, Zeus replied that the Hulk had brought his own punishment upon himself long ago.[4]

Dark Olympians[]

Following the massacre of the Olympians by the hand of the vengeful goddess Nyx,[14] Hera resurfaced as part of the reborn pantheon. However, the Olympians were revived as savage warmongers who razed planets and took tribute in blood and treasure, regularly rotating in and out of reality aboard the floating city of New Olympus.[6] The Guardians of the Galaxy clashed with the Olympians when they intercepted New Olympus in an attempt to stop the gods' rampage.[6] They succeeded, but Star-Lord was stranded in the other side of reality alongside the Olympians.[15]

During their encounter, Star-Lord had become entangled with the Olympians and their power was locked away in himself and his Element Gun. Star-Lord lived unaging in the other-dimensional world of Morinus for over a hundred years until enough uses of the Element Gun freed enough of the Olympians' power to enable their return. Star-Lord lured the Olympians away from Morinus, using the Gateway to return to his home dimension.[16] The Olympians pursued him to reclaim their full power,[17] and confronted him and the Guardians of the Galaxy on Daedalus 5.[18] During their final battle, Hera was crushed and killed by Groot.[7]

Attributes

Power Grid[22]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Multiple Types:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Virtually Indestructible:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Superhuman:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (800 lbs-25 ton):Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Learned

Powers

Olympian Physiology: Hera possesses the conventional superhuman physical attributes of an Olympian goddess.[8] However, some of these powers are more developed than those of the majority of her race.

  • Superhuman Strength: Hera possesses the average strength of an Olympian goddess, enabling her to lift about 25 tons.[19]
  • Superhuman Speed: Hera is capable of running and moving at speeds that are beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete.
  • Superhuman Stamina: Hera's superhuman musculature generates almost no fatigue toxins during physical activity, granting her nearly limitless superhuman stamina in all physical activities.
  • Superhumanly Dense Tissue: Hera's bodily tissues are about 3 times as dense as the tissue of a human being, which contributes somewhat to her superhuman strength and weight.
  • Superhuman Durability: Hera's body is considerably harder and more resistant to injury than the body of a human being, or most other Olympians for that matter. Hera can withstand high caliber bullets, falls from great heights, exposure to temperature and pressure extremes, and powerful energy blasts without sustaining physical injury. Among the Olympians, her durability is matched and exceeded only to Zeus, Hercules, Neptune, Pluto, Ares, and Athena.
  • Regenerative Healing Factor: Despite her high resistance to injury, Hera, like all Olympians, can be injured. However, her metabolism enables her to recover with superhuman levels of speed and efficiency. Most injuries can heal within a matter of hours. However, she cannot regenerate missing limbs or organs without outside magical assistance.
  • Immortality: Like all Olympians, Hera is functionally immortal in the sense that she is immune to the effects of aging and has not aged since reaching adulthood. Hera is also immune to all known Earthly diseases and infections.
  • Energy Manipulation: Apparently, Hera possesses the ability to manipulate vast amounts of energy. Among the Olympians, her extraordinary energy-wielding powers are surpassed only by those of Zeus, Pluto, and Neptune.[8] Hera can fire powerful force bolts from her hands, create powerful, nearly impenetrable force fields, and create interdimensional apertures.[8] She typically uses these abilities for simple feats common to the Olympians such as changing her shape or teleporting herself across great distances or dimensions. She can, presumably, channel energy for destructive purposes as well. When she inherited Zeus' Thunderbolt, her powers were greatly amplified, to potentially galactical point. After her death and resurrection, she returned to her normal level of power.
  • Telepathy: Hera is capable of reading minds by physically observing the thoughts of others, as shown when she read the Hulk's mind and realized his true intentions was to heal his family by the used of magic.[4]
  • Allspeak: Due to the Allspeak (also called All-Tongue), Hera can communicate in all languages, Earth's dialects, and various alien languages.

Abilities

Hera is a fair hand to hand combatant. Though she has had little experience and no formal training, her natural Olympian physical capabilities make her a formidable combatant against foes. She is also a cunning strategist and manipulator.

Weaknesses

Death by Unnatural Means: While she can't die of old age, Hera can still by unnatural means like being grievously injured enough like losing her head[3] and being crushed to death.[7]

Ambrosia Consumption: Despite her immortality, Hera still needs to consume Olympian Ambrosia to remain deathless and virtue otherwise she will start to age or even die by turning to dust.[20]

Paraphernalia

Transportation

Dimensional teleportation using her own powers.

See Also

Links and References

References

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