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Quote1 This world is a maze of money and power. In which human beings lose themselves. They live their lives in the labyrinth... and I am the Minotaur. Quote2
Dario Agger[src]

Dario Agger is a Greek entrepreneur, industrialist, media proprietor, and investor. He is best known as the CEO, and president of the multi-national energy company Roxxon Energy. He secretly sold his soul[3] to be a literal Minotaur.[5] He is also a lead member of the Dark Council who planned to conquer the Ten Realms of Asgard.[8]

History

Dario Agger was born in Greece to rich parents. He spent most of his life on an island in the Aegean Sea. When he was 9 years old his entire family was killed by pirates. He alone escaped, hid in a nearby cave, and prayed for help. When the pirates found him the next morning his prayers were answered and before a statue of a bull he was transformed into the Minotaur of legend. He decided to keep the pirates heads alive to torture them forever. He used his family fortune to gain the best education money could buy.[3] Dario became the CEO of Roxxon Energy Corp, the wealthiest and most powerful multi-corporation in the world. He strives to make as much as money as possible, regardless of the effects on the environment, and uses Roxxon's vast financial resources to pay for lobbyists and lawyers in order to exploit and pollute without consequence.

One of his most frequent critics was S.H.I.E.L.D. environmental agent Rosalind Solomon. Agent Solomon learned that Dario and Roxxon had mined ice from Europa, one of the moons of the planet Jupiter, and were planning to sell it for a lot of money. Solomon decided to teach them a lesson by convincing Thor, the god of thunder, to bring an even larger chunk of ice from the realm of Jotunheim and give it away for free. Dario brushed off Thor's interference at first.[7] However, Dario was forced to deal with Thor after Agent Solomon explained the Roxxon's negative effects on the environment to him. Thor's first act against Roxxon was to destroy some of its factories with a blast of lightning. Dario angrily asked his lawyers what they should do. When his lawyers didn't give a satisfactory answer, Dario fed some of them to bloodthirsty bears.[9]

While Thor was away helping the Avengers, Dario got back at him for destroying his factories by building a floating island full of factories above Broxton, OK, which heavily polluted the town. Dario knew this would infuriate Thor and waited for the god of thunder to appear on the floating island he built. When Thor arrived, Dario and his remaining lawyers slapped Thor with a lawsuit for destroy Roxxon's factories, and an injunction forbidding him from entering Broxton.[10] Thor was undeterred by the injunction and snuck into Broxton looking for a way to stop Dario. Thor eventually confronted Dario as he was ordering people out of a diner he planned to tear down. That was when Dario sprang his trap. Dario had made a secret deal with the leader of the Rock Trolls, Ulik, that allowed Ulik and a large group of Trolls to live beneath Broxton in exchange for attacking Thor. The Trolls attacked and killed Dario's remaining lawyers.[11]

Malekith (Earth-616) and Dario Agger (Earth-616) from Thor Vol 4 3 001

Dario told the Trolls they could do what they want to Broxton. Dario also revealed his true form as the Minotaur to Thor and explained his ultimate goal was to exploit all of Earth's natural resources before moving on to a new area. The Trolls were ultimately defeated by the combined forces of the Asgardians and S.H.I.E.L.D., but Ulik was able to flee and Broxton was left in ruins. Dario pleaded ignorance to the whole incident.[12] Through a media campaign, Dario was able to pin the Trolls' attack on Broxton on the Asgardians and their presence in the United States. After giving a speech that blasted the Asgardians, Agent Solomon confronted him and punched him in the face. Dario threatened legal action against Solomon, but Solomon reminded Dario that he had killed off all of his lawyers. Dario later met with Ulik and asked the Troll about the Nine Realms, as he would like to exploit them next.[13] At some later point, Agger was involved with popularizing "gracking," a new energy process utilizing gamma radiation. The event was disrupted by Deadpool and some protestors.[14]

Following Odinson's loss of his hammer, Agger came into possession of Laufey's skull and a fight ensued between him, Malekith - who seemed to recognize the source of Agger's power and was intrigued by it - and the Frost Giants, as well as the new Thor. After the Frost Giants' defeat, he forged a pact with Malekith the Accursed, giving Roxxon the mineral rights to all realms conquered by Malekith and his allies, in exchange for giving Malekith Laufey's skull. At the same time, he revealed his past and how he became the Minotaur. As a child, his family owned a small island, which was attacked by gunmen. Agger fled to a small cave in which he found a statue and prayed for revenge, unknowingly making a pact with what Malekith called a dark god.[3]

Dario was recruited on to the Dark Council. Their first act of war was the massacre of the Light Elves of Alfheim, an event Malekith surely expected would bring the attention of the new Thor. Because of this, they tasked one person that was seeking admittance in the council, Loki, with carrying out the murder of the Goddess of Thunder.[8] Sometime later he made a deal with Loki to secure an advantage against his fellow council members.[15] In exchange Dario was asked to build a church dedicated to Loki.[16]

Ten Realms from Thor Vol 4 7

As CEO of Roxxon, Dario represented the company at the Universal Bank where the world's richest people met to discuss matters. In the group's most recent meeting, the heads of various companies came from across the globe to discuss Dario and Roxxon's operations in the Ten Realms. The real reason for the meeting was revealed when The Silver Samurai attacked Dario. They were about to fight when Oubliette Midas, a.k.a. the Exterminatrix of the Midas Foundation arrived, knocked him out, and declared herself a new member of the group.[17] He was then abducted and tortured for information by Oubliette about the newly activated Agger Imperative which sent Roxxon Island hurtling towards New York City unless Dario was freed.[4] He later freed himself just as Obliette and Harada got onto the island. Dario survived, though Roxxon's stock took a heavy tumble despite the Agger imperative being averted.[18]

Dario decided to further diversify company assets by investigating Weirdworld. This work ran into problems when dangerous creatures threatened to break through.[19] As part of this work he authorized the creation of an Ur-Wendigo. When Weapon H intervened, Dario dedicated company resources to investigating the man.[20] Two weeks later he tracked down Eaglestar trainer hoping to determine the identity of Weapon H, Dario eventually killed him in "self defense."[21] He later tried to convince Weapon H to work for him.[19] In the run-up to the initial invasion, Dario drunk dialed Roz and confessed to everything that he had been doing as part of the Dark Council. When Rosalind came to get his statement he panicked and rescinded it claiming she made the entire thing up. He then went to a Dark Council meeting with Ulik.[22] Dario was present in his human form during the attack on New York,[23] He had used his company to take down the worlds computer networks in the Pearl Harbour of all global hacks.[24] After Broo hacked into the hackers and solved the communication problem, the Agents of Wakanda and their allies attacked Antarctica, with Jane Foster armed with Gungnir and Roz Solomon with vibranium bullets dealing grievous injuries to his Minotaur form just as the Roxxon stock price began to plummet.[6] He claimed that he was being coerced and was managed to avoid imprisonment by blaming Wakanda for manipulating footage that showed his guilt.[25]

Seeing that the consequence of Roxxon's betrayal of humanity was little more than manageable public backlash, Dagger decided to adopt his Minotaur form full time and openly as a testament to his untouchability.[1] Following Banner's destruction of a vital Roxxon server farm that caused Roxxon's media platforms to crash, the Minotaur decided to personally visit Banner's long-time nemesis Xemnu on Monster Isle and ask for his help in fighting Banner.[26] Xemnu agreed, and the Minotaur unleashed four monsters upon Phoenix, Arizona to lure the Hulk out. Hulk and his allies appeared and fought the monsters, but one of the monsters Hulk fought released large parasitic monsters that threatened the lives of innocent civilians. That was when Xemnu appeared and rescued the people, using the situation and his mind control to appear to be a hero and make the Hulk appear to be a villain.[27] The Minotaur continued to use Xemnu's mind control to not only make Hulk look like a villain but also to make Roxxon look like a noble company instead of a vile, greedy polluter. Dario also allowed Xemnu to feed on Roxxon staff.[28]

Dario Agger (Earth-616) from Immortal Hulk Vol 1 33 001

Mangled by Xemnu

Banner had been affected by Xemnu's mind control and rendered irrational and unable to transform into the Hulk. That didn't last, though, and Hulk and his allies attacked Roxxon's HQ, One Roxxon Plaza, to end Dario's and Xemnu's scheme. That was when the Minotaur discovered that Xemnu had transformed the people he fed on into deformed human-Xem hybrids under his command. When the Minotaur objected, Xemnu consumed him and turned him into a minion as well. The Hulk found Dario transformed into a deformed creature barely able to speak. The Hulk then defeated Xemnu. After Hulk left, the Minotaur was confronted by the Leader, who had Hulk's friend Rick Jones under his control, and warned him to leave Hulk to him from now on.[29]

Agger recovered enough to regain his mobility and speech, but he was left with a bare skull for a face. He aquired Marvel Comics so he could become the "skald" of Earth and control the truth.[30]

Attributes

Powers

Shapeshifting: Agger can shift between a human form and his Minotaur form. He has not revealed if he can transform into other forms.

Abilities

Expert Businessman: Under his leadership Roxxon regained it's independence from the Kronas Corporation.[7] Dario was able to put aside the attempt on his life [32] by Malekith and negotiate a business deal with the elf king.[33] This deal covered the exchange of Laufey's skull for full mineral rights to all the realms held by the Dark Council.[34]

He is equally willing to pursue legal means to expand Roxxon's reach.[19] Has had enough public success to be featured on the cover of several magazines.[3]

Weaknesses

Blood lust: While Agger has no apparent physical weaknesses, he does have a strong blood lust that is triggered by murder and mayhem that makes it difficult for him to maintain his human form.[9][12] It can also interfere with business deals.[17]

Human form: While physically fit, Dario can be influenced by drugs[4] and knocked out while human.[35]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

He has full access to Roxxon's considerable resources; for example he is able to access Nectar[31] and claims the company's weapons make it equal to any in the world.[15]

Weapons

See above

Transportation

Roxxon Island; Roxxon vehicles

Notes

  • Malekith noted that while Dario is not the original Minotaur, some of his power flowed through him.[2]
  • He is considered a literal Minotaur.[5]
  • He seems to be a reference to a Bull market phase in stock markets.[citation needed]

See Also

Links and References

References

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