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| Delphyne Gorgon | |
|---|---|
 Delphyne Gorgon as depicted inThe Incredible Hercules #121 (September 2008). Artwork byClayton Henry. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | The Incredible Hercules #121 (Sept. 2008) |
| Created by | Greg Pak Fred Van Lente Clayton Henry |
| In-story information | |
| Full name | Delphyne Gorgon |
| Species | Human/Gorgon hybrid |
| Team affiliations | Amazons |
| Abilities |
|
Delphyne Gorgon is a fictional character appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. AGorgon member of theAmazon nation, she is a love interest ofAmadeus Cho. She first appeared inThe Incredible Hercules #121, and was created byGreg Pak,Fred Van Lente, andClayton Henry.
In the classical age, the Amazons were engaged as mercenaries to battle an army ofGorgons. They were victorious and took many Gorgons as prisoners, who interbred with humans, and their genetic line continued within the Amazon nation.[1] One human/Gorgon hybrid named Delphyne was assigned to serveHippolyta's daughter Artume at a young age. She became a highly respected general, fighting in the siege ofMount Olympus against the armies ofAmatsu-Mikaboshi.[2]
When Artume conceives a scheme to depose her mother, locate theOmphalos, and use it to remake the world in the Amazons' image, Delphyne joins her. They abductAmadeus Cho (who they believe to beHercules'seromenos) to convince him to help locate the Omphalos.[3] Delphyne warns Cho that Artume is deceiving him, but Cho initially ignores her advice.[1] Eventually, however, he sees reason, and the two kiss. This was witnessed by Artume. She attempts to murder Delphyne, but fails as a result of a lack of knowledge of Gorgon anatomy. Delphyne joins Cho, Hercules, andAthena in defeating Artume. After killing Artume, Delphyne succeeds her as queen of the Amazons and separates from Cho.[4][5]
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Now queen, Delphyne joinsHera's alliance of New Olympians with the goal of killing Hercules and Athena. This brings her face to face with Cho again, who is perplexed by her decision. Delphyne explains her desire to kill Athena in revenge for the original Gorgon curse, and warns him against trusting the goddess.[6] Later, when Hera attempts to kill her daughterHebe in retaliation for Hebe's helping Hercules, Delphyne draws a gun on Hera, demanding that she cease.[7] Seeking the aid ofHephaestus, Delphyne has Athena'sAegis shield reforged into a helmet. When theAvengers raid the headquarters of the Olympus Group, Delphyne attempts to confront Athena, despite Cho's entreaties to cease. She uses the helmet to turn Athena into stone, which frees her from the Gorgon curse and appalls Cho.[8] However, Delphyne balks at allowing Hephaestus to kill Cho and Hercules, and Athena is revived by Zeus' thunderbolt, conferring on Athena the leadership of the Pantheon, and returning Delphyne to her Gorgon appearance. For Delphyne's attempteddeicide, she is imprisoned at the bottom of the Olympus Group building.[9]
AfterVali Halfling obtains control of the Olympus Group headquarters, Delphyne escapes her imprisonment.[10] She finds Athena weakened by Halfling's capture of theambrosia of the gods, but is convinced not to kill Athena and instead works with her to repel the invaders. Delphyne defeats Pantheon memberAtalanta in combat and joins Cho in defeating Vali Halfling and rescuing Hercules. The two then kiss and officially became a couple.[11]
Delphyne is a skilled martial artist and combatant, capable of knocking over Hercules through effective application of technique, rather than through sheer strength. Unlike most Gorgons, she does not possess the ability to turn people to stone, which is only possessed by Medusa's lineage.[12][8] Delphyne's snake-like hair can inject victims with a deadly poison through their fangs, are strong enough to hold up all of her body weight without much effort and prehensile enough to manipulate the trigger of a firearm. Being cold-blooded, Delphyne does not register on infrared scans, giving her an advantage in the dark.[13]
An alternate universe version of Delphyne Gorgon from Earth-16191 appears inSecret Wars. This version is a student at the Victor von Doom Institute for Gifted Youths and a member of the Night Witches alongsideJubilee andPixie.[14]
For those of you who don't know, "eromenos" -- which straight up redirects to "Pederasty in Ancient Greece" on Wikipedia -- was an Ancient Greek term for a teenage boy taken as a lover by an older aristocratic man, and as Delphyne Gorgon says, it wasn't exactly uncommon. But outside of fan-fiction, it's not a role Cho fills for Hercules, and while his argument might not look very convincing, it was good enough to convince Delphyne.
"Love and War," the most recent arc of "Incredible Hercules," came to a close in issue #125 and saw Amadeus Cho find love in the form of the Amazon warrior known as Delphyne Gorgon. But Amadeus also experienced heartbreak, because Delphyne left him to become the new ruler of the Amazons.
At the same time, Amadeus' on-again/off-again-due-to-threats-of-violence girlfriend Delphyne Gorgon has broken out of her prison in the headquarters of the Olympus Group and is going Die Hard on the underlings of Vali who've taken over Amadeus' company.
Gorgons tend to get a bad rap just because they were cursed ages ago by the gods to have snakes for hair. Granted, there is a chance they could turn people to stone, but Delphyne can't do so without using a special golden helm. Besides, there's more to her aside from having living, hissing hair. She's also a trained combatant that's attempted to kill Athena, served as Queen of the Amazons, and had a fleeting romance with Amadeus Cho. All of that makes her snakey look like the least interesting aspect of her.
