History
Fighting the Philistines[]
At the time, the Philistines oppressed the people of Judah, the angel of the Lord came to Manoah and told him his wife was going to deliver a son consecrated to God, who shall never cut his hair.
Samson became a champion loved by the Israelites and feared by the Philistines. He also married a Philistine woman.
Looking for a way to be rid of him, the Philistines set a lion upon him, whom Samson killed. He was humiliated when his wife gave the Philistines the answer for a riddle he had asked to them. His wife then left. Samson seek vengeance and destroyed the Philistines' harvest, leading them to declare war on the people of Judah, sending a thousand soldiers against them. The men of Judah decided to turn Samson over to the Philistines to stop the war. Samson snapped his restraints and slew the thousand Philistines using the jawbone of an ox[1] or of an ass.[2]
He then loved Delilah, but she was a greedy woman and was offered eleven hundred pieces of silver by the leader of the Philistines to uncover the secret of Samson's strength. Samson ended up captured by the Philistines, who tortured, shaved, blinded and bound him, and had him work at the prison grind. The Philistines gathered to thank their god Dagon for their victory, but forgot about Samson's hair's growing back. After invoking the Lord's name, he purposely caused the Temple of Dagon to collapse, killing more people than he had in his life, along with him.[1]
Olympus[]
For unrevealed reasons, Samson was resurrected and was invited to live among the Olympians in the realm of Olympus. When Olympus was briefly moved to the planet Venus by Venus, Samson went along as well. Over the years his memories of his past became clouded and hard to remember.
In the year 1949, Venus had taken up a mortal guise and began romancing the mortal Whitney Hammond, publisher of Beauty Magazine. During a period in which Hammond was too engrossed in his work to pay attention to Venus, she brought Samson to Earth in order to make Whitney jealous. When this failed, Venus abandoned Samson, who was taken up by Beauty Magazine's secretary (and Venus' biggest rival) Della Mason who convinced Samson to get a shave and a haircut. Struggling to remember how this was familiar to him, Samson did what Della asked. However, Della soon became engrossed in her work as well and Samson instead turned his attention back to Venus, trying to force her to give up on Hammond in favor of him.
When Whitney caught Samson forcing himself on Venus he quickly became jealous and easily knocked out the weakened Samson with a single punch. Hammond returned to his work and Venus reminded Samson of his weakness before banishing him back to Olympus.[3]
Samson has not been seen since, his subsequent fate is unknown.Attributes
Powers
Weaknesses
Trivia
- Samson was a 10th century BC Hebrew leader. Ironically (given Samson joining the Olympians), the Philistines which he fought were of Greek origin.
- Leonard Samson is seemingly based in part on this character, sharing a name and having the same relation between their strength and their hair's length.
See Also
- 2 appearance(s) of Samson (Biblical) (Earth-616)
- 11 mention(s) of Samson (Biblical) (Earth-616)
- 1 image(s) of Samson (Biblical) (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Bible Tales for Young Folk #2 ; Samson!
- ↑ Ghost Rider (Vol. 6) #25
- ↑ Venus #4