In the classical age, the Amazons were engaged as mercenaries to battle an army of Gorgons. 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 serve Hippolyta's daughter Artume at a young age. She became a highly respected general, fighting in the siege of Mount Olympus against the armies of Amatsu-Mikaboshi.[2]
When Artume conceives a scheme to depose her mother, locate the Omphalos, and use it to remake the world in the Amazons' image, Delphyne joins her. They abduct Amadeus Cho (who they believe to be Hercules's eromenos) 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, and Athena in defeating Artume. After killing Artume, Delphyne succeeds her as queen of the Amazons and separates from Cho.[4][5]
Delphyne in her brief human form.
Now queen, Delphyne joins Hera'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 daughter Hebe in retaliation for Hebe's helping Hercules, Delphyne draws a gun on Hera, demanding that she cease.[7] Seeking the aid of Hephaestus, Delphyne has Athena's Aegis shield reforged into a helmet. When the Avengers 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 attempted deicide, she is imprisoned at the bottom of the Olympus Group building.[9]
After Vali Halfling obtains control of the Olympus Group headquarters, Delphyne escapes her imprisonment.[10] She finds Athena weakened by Halfling's capture of the ambrosia of the gods, but is convinced not to kill Athena and instead works with her to repel the invaders. Delphyne defeats Pantheon member Atalanta in combat and joins Cho in defeating Vali Halfling and rescuing Hercules. The two then kiss and officially became a couple.[11]
Powers and abilities
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]
Other versions
An alternate universe version of Delphyne Gorgon from Earth-16191 appears in Secret Wars. This version is a student at the Victor von Doom Institute for Gifted Youths and a member of the Night Witches alongside Jubilee and Pixie.[14]
↑Sims, Chris (May 13, 2010). "The 7 Most Brilliant Moments of Amadeus Cho". ComicsAlliance. Archived from the original on November 14, 2013. Retrieved March 29, 2025. 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.
↑The Incredible Hercules #124-125 (February - March 2009)
↑Richards, Dave (March 11, 2009). "Hell Hath No Fury: Van Lente on Incredible Hercules". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved March 29, 2025. "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.
↑The Incredible Hercules #140-141 (March - April 2010)
↑Murphy, Chris (August 29, 2010). "Sidekick to Hero to God: Prince of Power #4 [Review]". ComicsAlliance. Archived from the original on November 13, 2013. Retrieved March 29, 2025. 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.
↑Heroic Age: Prince of Power #1-4 (July - October 2010)
↑Brueheim, Jackson (November 19, 2020). "Marvel: 10 Characters With Prehensile Hair". CBR. Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved March 29, 2025. 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.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
